In an all too quiet room, tired eyes gazed at the blur of white that encased his entire space. It was like being wrapped in a spider's web, smothering him with its dull nothingness. Along with the smell that penetrated his nostrils, he could not see the environment doing anything for the headache he was starting to come down with.
Lupin hated being alone in his state. Goemon had been there, but when Lupin awoke, Goemon would be too flustered to speak and would leave.
He might have had fun teasing the samurai had he not known Goemon was taking things pretty hard.
Jigen, he supposed, was pretty pissed off, not having visited him at all. Usually, Lupin knew that after a few days, they would be able to laugh it off and hang out like always. But it hadn't been that way in a while, had it? Lupin closed his eyes, wondering if he had truly torn apart his friendship so badly.
He didn't like thinking about his mess of a marriage. She had paid a short visit once, but had seemed reluctant to talk to him at all.
'What have I done?' he thought, eyes slipping closed. The pounding in his head was stronger, each thought only egging it on. He didn't move for a while, on the verge of sleep yet having had too much to do so. Lupin forced himself not to open his eyes when someone came in. It was best not to scare away another nurse.
Goemon wrung his hands. He wondered if he would be able to pass out for a while after visiting his friend. He had done this a few times, as if to reassure himself. Of what, he wasn't sure. He felt a calm when he did, though. Goemon knew it was ridiculous and against his ways to hold one man to such importance, but maybe it was because he could hardly remember a time without Lupin around. Maybe it was because he hardly had a life at all before Lupin came. Would depression become his only constant? Goemon's guilt deepened, knowing he shouldn't be so selfish. He hadn't even talked to anyone since finding out what had happened. Goemon clenched his hands more tightly. He would just have to meditate for a while, that was all.
On the other side of the door, Susanne mirrored his father's actions. He was going to go, he told himself, at least so that the man he called his uncle would know he was there. But what was one to say to someone they knew so little about?
"What are you doing?" a curious voice said, breaking him from his thoughts.
"Uh." Susanne raised his eyes to meet those of his sister. He considered lying in case she came along and screwed something up somehow, but decided against it. "I was going to visit Uncle Lupin."
"Oh." Baffi sounded disappointed.
Susanne nodded, not sure what else he should say. "Maybe I should bring a gift. Don't people usually bring food?" he murmured under his breath. This brought a jolt of fear when his sister's face lit up.
"I can make something!" came her gleeful proclamation, a sure way to make Lupin sicker.
"No, no," Susanne said, holding up his hands. "Fruit will be enough." He continued after her defeated look, "He probably won't eat it anyway."
Baffi crossed her arms before walking away, her face scrunched up in annoyance.
Feeling proud that he had avoided catastrophe, Susanne reached out a hand for the doorknob. It opened before he could reach it, however.
"Dad?" Susanne blinked. He hadn't even known his father was out.
"Susanne…" Goemon stepped forward, the two awkwardly working their way around eachother to the other side. Goemon watched his son for a moment, the door shutting as Susanne bid him goodbye.
Susanne took a cab, indeed picking up a piece of fruit along the way. Sadly, he didn't even know which ones the man he was visiting would like, so he just picked one at random. He doubted Lupin would get angry at him for getting crappy fruit anyway. Keeping his eyes on the bagged grapes that sat in his lap, Susanne tried to go over how he would introduce himself once again. Would a casual conversation starter be best? Should he seem concerned? Should he have asked his father to come along to give him more of a reason for being there? Lifting the bag up to his face, Susanne thought it pointless. Especially if he got too freaked out and his plans went out the window. Worst of all, he thought with a rising wave of panic, what would he do if Eva was there? She hadn't been at school since Lupin's… whatever happened. Taking a nervous glance out of the window, he noticed that they were at a stand-still. In fact, they were at the destination and the driver hadn't said a thing.
The driver seemed to take notice. "We're here, kid."
"Thanks…" Susanne handed the man his money, taking his sweet time in leaving the car. He took unhurried steps into the building, tightening his grip on the small bag. One of the women working there directed him to the right room. Susanne stood in front of the door, staring at his feet. After a few minutes of stalling, he decided to man up and took a brave step forward, pulling the door open. He shut it three seconds later. His gaze sunk, cheeks reddened. A hand was draped over his face as he groaned over his horrible timing and scuffled away.
"I'm sorry." Fujiko dabbed at her cheeks with her wrist, taking a hand in hers. It was ridiculous, she had hardly been in the room with him for more than a few minutes and she had started a fight. She couldn't stand how on edge she had been, thankful nobody had tried to comfort her in knowing she would have only snapped at them, letting off her anger towards her husband. She wanted to do it, too. She would have relished the way the words slipped off her tongue, the biting words that reflected her true thoughts. But if there was one thing that Fujiko knew well, it was that Lupin couldn't handle them just then. "Do you love me, Lupin?"
Lupin squeezed her hand, grateful for it after years of lacking affectionate physical contact. "Of course I do." He frowed despite his happiness. "Don't you love me?" he asked, made nervous by her question. Had he ever given her reason to doubt it?
Fujiko grew nauseous. Whether it was the straight, sincere answer, the question in return, or the way she was about to answer it, she had no clue. "Yes." She wrapped her free hand around his. "Yes, darling. But if you love me, get help."
"Anything for you, Fujiko." Lupin leaned in for a taste of her lips and, for the first time in a long time, she didn't pull away.
Because as Jigen always said, she was good at manipulating people to get what she wanted.
'This is the worst idea,' Susanne thought, continuing to walk in the direction of his brother's flower shop. It was only to be fair, he kept trying to convince himself. Did Frolic even know? Shaking his head, Susanne stopped at the one place that stood out on that street, the one bursting with an absurd variety of color. "Here goes," he said to himself, noticing that the door had a new jingle to it. That made it too late to run.
"Hi, welcome to Frolic'th Flowerth… Thuthanne!"
Susanne pushed back the urge to slam his head into the wall. "Hiii, Cecil. Is Frolic here?"
"I don't think you want to thee him," Cecil was quick to say, Susanne only then noticing the way Cecil look a tad worn out.
"Why…" He was starting to think he didn't want to know.
"Nothing." Cecil dragged out a cloth and began to wipe at the counter, his hand more thorough than necessary. "I mean, it'th jutht that…" How was he to explain what he could not understand? Frolic had been acting strangely all day. Upon entering his place of work, Cecil had received a kiss on the mouth, along with a weird giggle while Frolic twirled into another room. Then there was the fact that Frolic seemed to be arguing with a flower of some sort, or at least that was what Cecil had been able to gather from it, Frolic seeming more confused than anything.
"Okay…" Susanne thought it best to take Cecil's advice. Before he could take a step back though, a plate smashed into the wall, narrowly missing his head. The two looked, but neither could spot a culprit.
Cecil was sweating bullets, from both the plate and Susanne's presence. "Er, It'th about time for my break, wanna go. Uh. Talk or thomething?" His heart pounding, he reminded himself that Susanne was a guy. It didn't help.
"M-hm, sure." Susanne removed his eyes from the shards of plate, depressed at just how screwed up Frolic was. 'Wait, what?' Why had he agreed to talk to the guy? Maybe it was his way of saying thanks and then he would never have to talk to Cecil again, that was it. "Want some grapes?" he offered, a slight grimace on his face as he tried not to look directly at the grin on the other's.
Cecil reached into the bag and took one with a bright, eager face. He felt like a prince, with his beautiful goddess giving him fruit. "Thankth!" He popped the purple parcel into his mouth, rolling it around with his tongue.
Susanne looked away. "Mhm…" He tied up the bag, holding it behind his back in hopes that Cecil wouldn't ask for another. Susanne nevertheless followed Cecil out the door.
"You want a ride?" Cecil offered, still chewing on that grape.
Susanne dreaded the thought of owing Cecil anything further. "No thanks. Don't want to trouble you." He bit his lip, annoyed at himself for saying something that begged Cecil to offer again. "I'll probably visit my friend around here anyway."
Cecil seemed to accept this. "Oh, okay." With a sweet smile, Cecil strolled down the sidewalk, the golden sunlight raining on Susanne's marvelous hair and streaming down his body—one which Cecil had to keep himself from staring at too much. Giggling to himself at the thought, he smiled wider at Susanne's perplexed gaze… until he saw a terrible sight. "Oh, no!" He ran up to his fallen friend, lifting it from the cursed ground. There were a few things having his own dependant had taught him, the kind of compassion few had for plants.
Susanne stared down at said friend. "What's wrong?"
Cecil turned his head so that Susanne would not see his tears. "It'th… too late to thave it."
Susanne kneeled down, taking the plant into his own hand. "No it isn't." Shooing away Cecil's hand, he found a wooden block and stuck that in front of the drooping plant so that it wouldn't look so bad. Then, he took a water bottle from the bag around his grape bag and sprinkled the flower with it. "This is all it really needs. It just needs to be cared for regularly."
Cecil gaped with wonder. "That'th amazing, Thuthanne!" The way the simple boy, not even one who worked with plants, was able to respond so calmly in an emergency situation, it captured his breath.
"Hero."
Cecil nodded, not having heard a thing. "I'm thtill learning how to take care of flowerth, but you're really good at that!" Little did Cecil know, Susanne couldn't raise a flower if his manliness depended on it and the only ones that had grown successfully had actually been ones taken care of by Frolic, but even Susanne didn't know that.
Susanne, not used to being complimented that way, had just the slightest inkling of a smile on his face. "You know, Cecil, you're not such a bad guy."
Cecil made an inaudible gasp as he stood and admired Susanne's work.
Now horrified, Susanne wondered why he had to voice every thought that was best left to himself.
