Kaneki couldn't believe his eyes. Tweetie, no, Anni-chan had completely changed since he last saw her. It wasn't just the tubes and wires attached to her, or the pale hue that had taken over her skin. It was the distant look in her eye, and the weak, forced smile.
"It's good to see again, Maya. Glad to see you too, Kaneki-san" she greeted warmly. You haven't called me by my name once since we've met, what are you thinking?
"Anni! You're already looking better. Have you been sleeping well?" Maya chattered, skipping up to sit on the bedside. Kaneki sauntered up slowly, watching instead.
"Yup, I've been getting lots and lots of sleep. The doctors keep telling me how important rest is, after all" Anni answered.
"Any dreams to report then? You always have such interesting stories to tell" Maya prodded. She was in full gossip mode, it seemed.
"Ah, not really" the little blonde started, averting her eyes to the window. "Thanks to all the drugs and stuff, most of my sleep has been dreamless." Lies Kaneki realized. What dreams would she want to keep from her best friend? Or it is just because I'm here?
"It's ok Tweetie, I'm not going to judge you on your dreams. I want to hear one of these epic tales myself for once. Maya keeps bragging about them, and all" he offered cheerily. His girlfriend shot him a discreet glare from where she sat.
"No, it's not that, I just haven't had any worth telling, really" Anni asserted. She slapped another disarming smirk on her face for him. How did Maya not see this?
"Ignore him for now. Anyway, have you been keeping busy? I know how boring it can get, wired into a bed like this."
"Kinda. I've been spending a lot of time either sleeping or kinda drugged into not caring, so it's alright" Anni reassured.
"Have you been getting enough to eat? It almost looks like you've lost weight" Kaneki pursued. Maya's glare was no longer discreet.
"Some of the meds I'm on make me kinda nauseous, so I can only hold down so much. It's ok though, the IV here compensates for it, a bit" she returned, still smiling at him. Kaneki took a step forward. Why in the world does she think she can get away with this? Drop the damn act al-
Before he could complete that thought, or take another step, Maya had him by the arm and was dragging him out the door. He kept his mouth shut and didn't resist until she came to a stop in a hallway a little ways away. "What the hell do you think you're doing?!" she demanded in a forceful whisper.
"What am I doing? Why are you letting her get away with those bullshit lies!?"
"Because she needs someone around to support her while she deals with what happened, not someone to attack her for being depressed!" Maya spat.
"I'm not attacking her, I just want her to be honest with me. Wouldn't she be better off if she wasn't wasting her energy trying to keep of that pathetic facade?" he refuted.
"That's not for you to decide, or demand from her! We're here to HELP her, not add more stress onto her plate" she growled back.
"And making her pretend like that, when she obviously doesn't have the energy to even half-ass it, is helpful?"
"It's certainly more helpful than leaving her to rot, alone" came Maya's final point. From there it was a staredown, which Kaneki ended up losing.
"Fine. I won't force anything from her. Don't expect me to treat her the same way you do, though" he relented. Maya only nodded at him and started heading back.
"We're back" she sang as she opened the door. For a moment, Kaneki got a glimpse of the truth before Anni slipped back into her make-shift mask. A despondent, lost little blonde didn't notice them coming back quite quick enough.
"Welcome back" she cheered. Kaneki didn't need any other confirmation. He strolled past his girlfriend and to the bedside. Every step seemed to unsettle Anni's smile more, until she was only staring at him in uneasy confusion. At least that was genuine.
"What, exactly, is a Skink?" he asked firmly.
"Kaneki" Maya hissed from behind him.
"Ask your dad" Anni deflected softly. She turned her face back towards the window.
"I expect a proper answer" he pushed, resting a hand on her shoulder. Before either of the girls could react, he backed up and continued, "But not now of course! It would be cruel to the nurses to make them listen to a description of the horrible thing you think I am! It'll just have to wait until you're out of this place, won't it?"
It may have just been him seeing what he wanted to see, but a real smirk pulled at one corner of her mouth.
-!DRRR!-
Anni was not alone much. Her visitors were dedicated. Maya and the Skink were regulars, sometimes the Skink even came on his own. Shizuo actually visited daily himself, bringing flowers from Celty on the first day, though he never stayed too long. Her boss dropped by one day, with Riku and another of her coworkers in tow. When her visitors weren't sitting at her bedside, there was usually a nurse nearby to chatter cheerily. It didn't take her long to figure out why. It was how she acted. Everyone who entered her room was greeted with a tight lipped smile. Questions were answered, with some level of truth. While Anni never told anyone about her mental state, her avoidance of the subject was probably more telling. Everyone had her on suicide watch, not that she blamed them.
Her eyes were glued to the glass of her window in one of her few moments alone. None of this surprised her. The days came and went, and she got her rest, and slowly healed her body. It escaped her memory now just how many days it had been since she woke up. Did it matter anymore? Her door opened, admitting a set of footsteps. They were wearing different shoes from the nurses. Smile. Welcome them. Don't be cruel to those who love you so ran her usual mantra. Her face turned towards her guest, as she forced a smile. With closed eyes to hide how the quirk of her lips didn't reach them, she didn't know who had come to see her until they spoke.
"Congratulations. I don't think I've ever seen a more pathetic excuse for a fake smile" the voice jeered.
Anni's eyes snapped open, and her excuse for a smile fell away. "Why?" she asked the voice.
"Why? Shouldn't I be asking you that? You were the one wearing that horrible smirk" Izaya explained. He was without his jacket today, but his standard knowing look made up for it.
"Why are you here?" Anni clarified as he sat on the edge of her bed. "Ah, no" she interrupted before he could answer. "If I have to ask, I've already answered my own question, haven't I?"
Izaya laughed at her. "And what's that supposed to mean? Either way, I came to repay a favor."
"Favor?" the little blonde asked guardedly.
"You were kind enough to remember my birthday, even if it was a day late" he informed her with a light, forgiving tone.
Don't act so touched, I only did something strange enough to catch your attention she wanted to say, but the sudden sputtering laughter wouldn't let her. The strain on her abdomen hurt like hell, and it made her feel sick, but stopping was still a chore. "I brought this on myself then" Anni said instead, still working to catch her breath. "I haven't had any shortage of visitors though. In fact, my boyfriend has been coming by every day. You might know him" she mused absently. This whole thing was taking far too much energy.
"Hasn't he already come by today though?" the informant asked her, cocking his head slightly. It wasn't a question at all. Just making it through the day was exhausting. Why did she have to deal with Izaya now, of all people, when she only wanted to sleep?
"You suck" was all she could manage. It was pathetic at best, and she knew it.
"Is that all you have to say to me?" he returned. His friendly tone didn't change, but his pleasant smile turned into a challenge. "The very universe struck you down, and when someone you despise comes to kick you while you're down, all you can say is 'you suck'?" Tension hung heavy in the air as she glared at him. Her pulse pounded in her ears, begging to shut him up. "Oh well. I guess I shouldn't have expected much more. I'll leave you to your misery then." he relented, standing and turning his back on her.
"Fuck you, little flea shit" Anni growled, making him stop in place.
"Oh?"
"Screw you and everything you stand for. I'm done. You wanted me to tell you what I think? Fine. I'm done playing by the rules of a game that's fucking stacked against me. I'm sick of trying to play nice and getting screwed."
"And what are you going to do about it?" her adversary taunted.
Anni was quiet for a moment as she decided. Sitting here for days had left her wallowing in her own past and self pity, not thinking about where to go from here. No answer based on something so petty would be good enough. "I'm going to use the only thing I have then. If the rules are stacked against me, I'll change them. Screw this universe. I'm going to play things my way" came her verdict, measured and even. Her eyes stayed fixed on the foot of her bed as fingers curled into her bed sheet. She wasn't tired or lost now. She was pissed.
"So that's your answer? Things aren't going your way, so you're not going to follow the rules anymore? That sounds like something a child would say" Izaya chided.
"So says the man who won't fight anything under anyone else's rules but his own" Anni retorted, sending him a glare. "Isn't it only childish if you don't have the power to back up your claim?"
Izaya chuckled at her. "Good job. I look forward to seeing what you do with your power, Little Anni." With that much, he left, disappearing down the hallway.
-!DRRR!-
Staying asleep that night had been far harder than Anni thought it would be. For the life of her, she could not relax enough to drift off. Her thoughts kept being drawn back to the things she would like to change, and how she should go about avoiding them, so as to impact the rest of the story as little as possible. It was like the subject was magnetic. It had been almost second nature to sleep way too much these past few days, however many they had been, but now dreams were hard to come by.
This shortage had her drifting off a little when the day did roll around, right around lunch time. The overly full stomach probably didn't help. Apparently, eating barely enough to get by for days left you hungry. The nurses left her alone more though, so she was allowed to drift and entertain a nap. In her daze, she started having a few choice auditory hallucinations. It would be nice to see her precious guardian, so calling to mind the rather heavy footfalls she'd trained herself to recognize was not hard. The slight creak of her door was incredibly life-like, compared to her usual results when doing things like this. Anni was quietly proud of herself for being able to call forth such vivid details at will, until her hallucinations started to disobey her. Instead of the door closing swiftly and the footsteps getting closer, the door was slow to make noise again. No, I don't want to lose control and drop off just yet! she begged, but her mind wasn't having it. The door closed, and the footsteps started again, only to be just as muted as before, and growing softer.
"Damn it" she muttered aloud, opening her eyes in her frustration. The whole thing was lost now. Or was it? Was she imagining things still, or were those still the same retreating heavy footfalls? "Shizuo?!" Anni called out, sitting up far too quickly. The pain doubled her over for a moment, and disoriented her enough that she lost track of the sound she had been listening so hard for. This is absurd. Or so she thought, up until her door opened again, and a curious blond poked his head in.
"Are you awake then?" the bodyguard asked as he let himself in.
"So I'm not just losing my mind! What were you doing? Just going to poke your head in then leave me?" she demanded heartily.
Shizuo looked startled by her sudden attack, but was wearing a smile by the time he took his seat at her bedside. "You're sounding a lot better" he commented.
"Answer my question" Anni commanded, crossing her arms. Somehow, even acting like a petty child felt good.
"You looked like you were asleep, I just didn't want to wake you" he explained, still smiling at her.
"So you were going to leave me here?"
"I was just going to come back later, don't give me that look!" came his defense. Instead of continuing the argument, Anni started giggling. It was silly. The whole exchange was just silly.
"Later isn't good enough!" she proclaimed, reaching out towards Shizuo with both hands. He somehow figured out what she wanted, and offered his hand so she could clasp it between both of hers. "I want to have you around right now."
"You're finally feeling better…" was all he said.
"I think so… A little bit, at least…" the little blonde muttered. "Shizuo, I've made up my mind to do something rather stupid. No, not just rather stupid… really really stupid."
"Alright. What can I do?" Shizuo offered.
"You're not even going to ask what I'm doing?" Anni giggled. "I plan on taking what I know and changing the things that are going to happen, or at least the things I don't like. I'll need your help for some of it, I'm sure. I just don't know how I'm going to do it yet."
"That's fine. Just let me know when you can then."
-!DRRR!-
"You want me to what?" Maya asked her cell, adjusting her purse strap on her shoulder.
"Look, if I'm going to do this, I'll going to need help planning so I don't miss something stupid. Just binge through it, you can manage both seasons in two weeks right?" Anni suggested.
"I can do it in one, but I won't sleep much. I still can't believe you're seriously letting me watch the whole of Durarara."
"I've already said to hell with the rules. Just be glad I have the sense to have you help me with this instead of Shizuo-" Anni was cut off as Maya started laughing at her.
"There's no way that would have ended well. Fine, if it's either me or him, I'll save you the trouble. I'm looking forward to finally seeing this thing you're so obsessed with. Just don't pretend you're not using this as an excuse to gush over your favorite anime with someone, and I'll keep my mouth shut about what I see" she teased easily.
"What, you're threatening me now? Look, I already told Shizuo what's going on, so he should give you my phone with no issues. You will have to take up keeping my brother in the loop though, think you can handle that?" Anni sighed.
"I can handle it if you don't blow off my threats so easy."
"Maya…"
"I get it, I get it. It'll be just 'Neki bugging you for about a week while I work on my mission, so don't kill him, ok?" Maya relented.
"I couldn't if I tried, with the state I'm in… Speaking of which, I need to head back to my room. My favorite nurse is waving angrily at me. Talk to you later, best of luck-" Anni said, only to be abruptly cut off. Maya tucked her phone back into her purse with a sense of finality. She was finally going to get her chance, and she didn't even have to sneak in and steal her best friend's phone. It was perfect.