Yoshiro didn't even flinch when Nika lowered her sword down with a clank as it hit the tiled floor.
"Do you really regret what you did to me?" Nika asked as her hair fell forward shielding her face from his view.
"Everyday I live." Yoshiro answered truthfully.
"Did you really mean what you said to my father?"
"Every word."
"Do you really want me to punish you?"
"Yes, it would be the honorable thing to do." Yoshiro answered.
"Then your punishment is to live with your guilt and the knowledge that you hurt someone you didn't even know." Nika said in all seriousness as she looked him in the eye without pity or sympathy.
"…Why?" Yoshiro began to ask only to be cut off my Nika's answer.
"You said you wanted me to forgive Kyouya even though he did nothing wrong, that his heart is still warm. But forgiveness cant live in a cold heart. Plus I know how it feels to loose a father and I wouldn't wish that on anyone."
Yoshiro looked up at Nika in awe as she gave him a weak smile.
"I'm glad to see my son has met someone like you, you're wise beyond your years." Yoshiro chuckled as she shook his head and stood up dusting himself off.
"I would like to think I'm the lucky one. Kyouya helped me face my demons, no offence."
Yoshiro just shrugged and smirked as he folded up the white linen and reached out to take the sword from Nika only to have her move it out of his grasp leaving him puzzled.
"I want to keep it, just to remember you by…in a good way." Nika said softly.
Yoshiro just chuckled again and bowed to Nika before he left her room.
"..in a good way huh?" Yoshiro chuckled yet again completely unaware of the panic attack the teenage girl was having in her hospital room.
"Oh my god I could have killed him! your punishment is to live with your guilt? Where the heck did I get that from..Oh yeah that was on a fortune cookie, But still..i have a Kitana!" Nika rambled on jumping up and down elated at how cool she came across as only to be stopped by a low guttural growl from her stomach.
"Oh yeah I haven't eaten at all today…probably another reason I'm here." Nika said as she patted her stomach.
"Tell me where Nika Cho is now!" Kyouya ordered sternly from the head nurse once he entered the hospital.
"Are you a relative?" The nurse asked with a raised eyebrow.
"Miss, do you know who I am?" Kyouya asked pushing his glasses up in annoyance.
"Sir, should I care?"
Kyouya was about to tear her a new one in his agitation when he was stopped by a familiar hand on his shoulder.
"I'll take this from here; he is my little brother after all." Came the smirking voice of Kyouya's older brother who was head physician at the hospital.
"Onisan?" Kyouya asked surprised that his brother seemed to know he was coming.
Kyouya's brother merely smiled as he handed Kyouya a picture from his pocket and proceeded to walk him in the observation wing.
"When that common young lady came in I could tell she wasn't here by accident, and then to find a picture of my little brother and her in the fold of her Yukata I thought you might come to check on her." He chuckled.
"She is anything but common I assure you. Can you tell me what happened?" Kyouya asked scaring his brother by actually showing concern on his face and voice.
"Wow if I didn't know any better I would think you're a different person. She must be something if she turned my cold and calculating little brother into a concerned and caring man!"
"Though I am thankful that she is in the best of care in your hands, I will not tolerate you belittling me in public even if you are my brother." Kyouya said in his usual threatening tone.
"Guess she didn't change you that much." Kyouya's brother mumbled to himself as she stopped at the nurses station in the observation ward and asked for Nika's info.
"It seems she was brought in by an Officer Taka who is a friend of the family. She seemed to have fainted from a sudden increase of blood pressure, exhaustion, dehydration, mild starvation, and extreme stress. Exactly what happened?"
Kyouya merely looked away and his brother knew he would not get an answer so he merely sighed and led Kyouya to room 205.
"She's in observation because most people with these symptoms at her age are usually suicidal from so much stress and pressure. She'll be free to go in an hour and I think a visit from her boyfriend might cheer her up." Kyouya's brother joked.
"How did you know?" Kyouya asked.
"While she was unconscious she said your name, plus you're never up this late for anyone unless they mean a great deal to you."
Kyouya could only nod in agreement as he remembered the many times his older brothers and sister would play "suicide" which basically was just one of them trying to wake him up and live to tell about it.
"You have 20 minutes, after that she'll probably need some sleep." Kyouya was informed as his brother was called away for another patient.
Kyouya took a deep breath before he quietly opened the door in fear of waking her if she was sleeping, while his brother's words went through his head.
"Most girls her age are usually suicidal from so much stress and pressure."
But what Kyouya saw made his heart almost stop beating.
Sitting on the bed with her back turned to him Nika had a Kitana in her hand to the side that she raised up and wrapped both hands around in front of her. Without thinking Kyouya jumped forward and grabbed Nika's hands from behind obviously scaring her by how she stiffened when he touched her.
"Please don't do it, I would never forgive you." Kyouya breathed behind her as he let his head fall on her back in fear.
"Kyouya?"
"I know this week has been awful to you, but we can make it through. I don't want the only person who has ever made me laugh, or smile genuinely to do this. Otherwise my heart would break and I would end up like my father." Kyouya confessed surprising himself as the words seemed to tumble out.
"Um..Kyouya if I knew you felt so badly about steak I would have gotten the chicken." Nika said plainly.
Kyouya blinked and raised his head forward to look over her and indeed the Kitana was poised over a plate of steak on a tray in front of her.
"What exactly were you doing?" Kyouya asked with a hint of irritation in his voice for making himself seem like some lovesick idiot over steak.
"The steak was too tough and they wouldn't give me a real knife for some strange reason so I decided I would use my handy dandy Kitana." Nika smiled as she looked up at him.
Kyouya blinked a few times and let go of her hands turning his back to her as he fixed his glasses and didn't want her to see him blush at his own stupidity.
"Don't worry; I feel the same way about you." Nika said as she wrapped her arms around him from behind and rubbed her face into his back.
"I don't remember saying I felt anything." Kyouya tried to clear up only to earn a grin from Nika.
"I know this week has been awful to you, but we can make it through. I don't want the only person who has ever made me laugh, or smile genuinely to do this. Otherwise my heart would break. I love you Nika you're my world, my sea, and my stars!" Nika dramatized as she mimicked Kyouya by having her arms crossed over her chest looking very unthreatening in her medical gown.
"I don't remember saying all that."
"Well that's what I heard." Nika mumbled.
"Then I should inform the nurses to check your hearing while you're here." Kyouya said sarcastically.
"No, no , no , no! We're not getting into a little fight after you confessed your feelings for me. This is a precious moment I want to remember always." Nika teased as she stuck her tongue out at Kyouya.
"I thought you were here for exhaustion, why don't you lay down for a bit." Kyouya said irritably as he threw an extra pillow at Nika's face.
Nika caught it with a smirk and sat down on her hospital bed and patted the sheet for Kyouya to sit down.
"My father wrote me something before he…well did what you thought I was going to do. I think you should read it." Nika said as she passed Kyouya an envelope.
Kyouya opened the envelope as Nika watched the emotions wash over his face intently.
(a/n: ohh what does the letter say? It had the power to make Nika faint, what will it do to Kyouya? I don't even know yet to tell you the truth but I have an idea lol. Also it's official this story will end before we hit chapter 60 unless I put in a bonus story or bloopers or something lol. right now im planning on only 3-5 chapters left.) zell-chan
