Dual Fates

Chapter 7: Apologies.

It was nighttime and the moon's rays beamed through the window of the hospital room that Haru stayed in, making a soft glow on Uviel's skin. The brunette in the bed was fast asleep and the cybernetic girl slumbered in a chair nearby with a blanket on her to keep her warm. Her parted lips breathed in and out as her chest softly rose and fell, however...there was something making her stir; a nightmare? Whatever it was, it certainly made her eyes shoot open.

Though not a single gasp left her when she woke up, instead, her head remained leaned back against the reclined seat and little to no emotion became evident in her blue hues. A straight, emotionless, robotic stare was present and many would believe she was an empty shell with how her eyes looked. A brightly lit ring around her eyes spun around her pupil for a moment and not once did she blink, nor stir. Standing up from her seat, the blanket fell into a messy pile and her feet sauntered to the door.

With such ease, her hand twisted and turned the knob without any care if she may have woken anyone up, despite being very quiet about her actions. When the redhead left, the door closed behind her, and Haru's eyelids twitched at the faint click of the door.

~~Elsewhere~~~

Down the lit hallways of the hospital, a pair of feet strode and passed many nurses who lingered behind their desks. "Enjoy your visit," a woman in the distance waved farewell as a boy with indigo hair made his way to Haru's room. Shinso, whose purple eyes stared with boredom, kept his hands in his pockets and passed many different doors.

Which room was it again...? he mentally questioned and aimlessly viewed each room number he'd pass by. I should at least see how she's doing... Saito never did explain how Yukimura got like that, she said she'd explain later but never did. he added and soon halted in his step, upon seeing the redhead from earlier making her way past him with a dead stare. "Saito, you never did explain the part of how she got like that in the first place... I decided to come back and get that cleared up," his voice reached through Uviel's one ear and out the other, which surprised him.

Saito simply turned a corner, left through the double glass doors of the hospital, leaving him to ponder and rub the back of his head. "Hm..." a simple hum came from his closed lips before he chose to continue to Haru's room. Opening the door, his feet patted across the floor and stood there a couple of feet away from her bedside, taking a mental note of all the bandages that littered her skin.

~~~Elsewhere~~~

Racing down the street with her dead stare, the redhead ran past Kirishima who seemed to live not too far from the hospital, and caught his attention. Red, shocked eyes followed the girl after he was about to turn a corner to get home and froze at her sudden sprint. "W- What? Where is she going at this hour? Was she training hard like I was?" Curiously blinking, a grin formed and he chose to give chase. The boy wanted to root for her effort, which he assumed, was being put forth for the sports festival, and laughed to himself.

Excited, eager to chat with the redhead as faint pink dusted his cheeks and his school bag bounced over his shoulder with each step. Though she hadn't stopped, she kept running for a good thirty minutes until he decided to run beside her. There, he took notice, of her only visible eye that seemed to glow far brighter than normal and her dead-stare, which only made his grin drop. "Saito?" he tried but there was no getting through to her and when he saw a car rushing in her direction he gasped. From the side he tackled her, making them both roll off the street that seemed to lead to a nearby convenience store.

After they rolled, they both laid there with the boy on top of her, and very slowly did he push up with his hands; when he did, they were on either side of the girl's head. His red eyes stared into emotionless, glowing, blue ones in confusion for a good five minutes...until recognition hit him and a deep crimson spread across his cheeks. "AH! Sorry, I didn't mean to-" beyond flustered at realizing what position he was in, his face returned to normal after watching her eyes revert back to their normal illuminating blue, and sat on his knees.

However, when he frowned and gazed upon her, not a few seconds later did her eyes close. "Uh..." his confused sound left his lips when he concluded that she fell back asleep and it caused him to scratch at his head. "That's strange...why was she running at this hour? She didn't even react to me tackling her," mumbling those words, he rose up and stepped aside to lift her into his arms. "Great, I don't know where you live. Yukimura has to be asleep at this hour, so..." faintly blushing at his hidden thoughts, his attention moved down to view the slumbering cybernetic girl whose face was slightly buried into his shirt.

Not too much longer did it show him wandering down the street, the boy's been walking for ten to twenty minutes and his red eyes not once left the view before him. The sweet sound of crickets sang their songs as the moon shone its bright rays down upon the two, casting a soft glow to the cybernetic girl's skin.

His once focused gaze widened upon the feel of the girl's movement and his attention moved down, watching her squirm slightly. Very slowly her eyes opened, revealing those blue hues that always seemed to catch him by surprise. Once their eyes met, his feet paused in his step and silence filled the air aside from the chorus of crickets.

Eventually, red tinted both of their cheeks and Uviel began to freak out about her position. Her feet kicked, a whimper of surprise left her lips during that moment, and without hesitation, he sat her down, albeit rather embarrassed. "S- Sorry! I didn't know when you were going to wake up!" With both of his hands risen and shaking in his defense, he hoped she wouldn't take the situation the wrong way.

"Where...am I...?" those confused words left her lips after she took notice of the strange surroundings and her frantic embarrassment died down a bit. Her attention viewed everything except for him, which made the boy frown confusedly and lower his arms.

"You...don't know?" once Eijiro asked, he saw the brighter redhead turn her now widened gaze to him and saw her mouth gape. With a simple shake of her head, the boy put a finger to his chin and pondered on the situation. "You were running down the street for a good thirty minutes, weren't you training for the sports festival?" when he questioned her, he saw how Uviel began to show disbelief on her face and shake her head once more.

"N- No...! I was at the hospital with Haru, Shinso and I helped her there afterward... Well, it's...personal... Anyway, which way is it?" the girl hesitatingly replied and felt a faint rush of warmth dust her cheeks, embarrassment was an understatement at this point. "W- Why were you carrying me, anyway?!" a stuttering breath left her as she took a step back and did the best she could to hide her red face.

"You passed out after I tackled you! You were about to get run over by a car if I hadn't... What were you doing, if you weren't training?" Blinking, Kirishima watched her shrug and avert her attention, which only made him hum in question. "Well, we can't just stand here all night, I'll help you back to the hospital!" Enthusiasm radiated from him once he grinned and clamped his hands on his hips.

"Y- Yeah..." Uviel's answered and the energy that came from the boy made her grin slightly. Some time passed during their walk back to the hospital and eventually they reached it before sunrise.

However, she didn't expect Shinso to meet her in front of the glass double doors and eye her suspiciously. As she stood before him confusedly, a brow rose and Kirishima was seen chuckling nervously behind her. "Hey, I'll see you later ok Saito? I gotta head home!" A simple wave of his hand was all she received, aside from a toothy grin on his lips, before he ran off knowing that she was safe.

Uviel nodded at him when he sprinted away and her attention went back to the indigo-haired boy, who only seemed to questioningly stare into her blue eyes. "Why are you here again?" the redhead asked until she saw the said boy fold his arms, causing confusion to make her brows knit together.

"You never explained to me before how she got like that in the first place... Plus, earlier you sort of just ran and ignored me when I came back in to ask you." Not once did he avert his gaze from hers, he was adamant about finding out about the situation at hand.

With a sigh, the girl explained what happened to her, about how she didn't know what she was doing during that time, and soon she told him about Haru's situation. Getting beat up by that man who Haru claimed to be her father and how Yukimura didn't want to cause anyone trouble. "Please, just don't confront her about this..." aggravation made the girl groan and her hand to rub the back of her neck, she wasn't in the mood for this. "This is personal and I'll try to figure something out..." adding to her words, Uviel's gaze glanced over to the boy who continued to stare back with suspicion.

"Fine..." with that, he left after putting his hands into his pockets and made his way back to his home. It was still really early in the morning and Uviel could already feel the exhaustion and the lack of sleep affecting her.

Later, after the cybernetic girl entered the room Haru resided in, she spotted the brunette sitting up in bed and eating breakfast. The sun just barely peeked over the horizon and beamed through the window, providing faint morning light to brighten the room slightly. "Hey, where were you?" Yukimura's hazed hues not once moved to the redhead as she continued to eat her food and concern was obvious on her features.

"Sorry, Har-Har... I had to...go out, I wanted to get food since the hospital's food sucks ass," From behind her, Uviel lifted up a bag of take-out that she grabbed before heading into the hospital and dangled it lightly in the air. Her words made the brunette giggle in small bursts and stuff a piece of toast in her mouth, crunching on it lightly. "What? Take-out's better than hospital food, everyone should know that by now. Besides, I had to walk like...ten minutes at best, to go get it... Here, I even got you something," Saito explained and grinned before digging into the fast-food bag.

A soft toss of a neatly wrapped sandwich flew over to the brunette who easily caught it from the side, without so much as a peek at the incoming grub and sniffed the air. Her nose began twitching, smelling the delicious scent of a cheeseburger from the wrapper and it caused a bright grin to form on her lips. "Hahaa! You know how to cheer me up! I love cheeseburgers!" Energy seemed to have returned the moment she recognized the delicious grub in her hand and kept that beaming grin.

Without hesitation, the wrapper was yanked off and the redhead watched as her best friend chowed down on the fatty sandwich. "Hey, if you're feeling any better, we can head to my place and we can start training. I mean...not that I'd want to, personally...but if I know you right, you'll push me to do it regardless of what I'd have to say..." a sweatdrop fell down the girl's head and her words only made her friend laugh hard, which almost made her drop the burger.

"Hahahaha, yeah! That definitely sounds like me! Sure we can! The nurse that brought me my breakfast, said that I could leave any time I wanted. Even with these wounds, I can still move pretty easily, but she recommended me to to do a lot since I'm still healing... Also, we have school, you dork.~ We should be heading there instead, let's go visit the nurse before we jump to homeroom," said the brunette as her blind gaze closed at the mention of her wounds and the burger hovered just before her lips. "Anyway, let's get to training as soon as possible! I want to catch up with everyone else!" Raw enthusiasm radiated off of her frame and a fist pumped into the air, once a toothy grin exposed those snake fangs of hers.

"Sure...whatever..." the redhead agreed and nodded. "Just...don't overdo it, I know how you can get during training," Despite hating the idea, Uviel just wanted her best friend, who felt more like a big, doting sister, to feel better and be her usual self again. However, flashes of her father's snake-like face ran through her mind and the memory of last night when she escorted her home. The very thought caused a frown to form, with that, the girl's hands were shoved into her hoodie's pockets and were about to sit in the chair next to the bed when her friend stopped her.

"Yup, I know too, and we're heading out as soon as I'm done eating! Which is in just a couple more bites! We have two weeks before the festival, so that's two weeks of catching up with everyone else! Let's not waste any more time!" Haru cheered and ate the last bite of her sandwich, which only made the redhead chuckle lightly at her words.

~~~~Time le skip!~~~

As time passed, Haru was fully recovered thanks to Recover girl's help at school and it took them most of the morning being absent for class. However, now that she was healed, both of the girls did nothing but train throughout the next two weeks and mind you it was quite difficult. Haru trained secretly behind her best friend's back and even helped Uviel a bit with hand to hand combat, which was difficult for her to pick up on right away. So, with that, Uviel managed to figure out how to swing the staff properly but still couldn't get the hang of actually activating the Tremor's manipulation.

Now that the girls trained long and hard during their two weeks, Haru pushed her friend to help them find costumes then spice them up a bit. What they didn't know was that they were thinking too far ahead of themselves... The brunette was too excited for her own good and didn't think that their costumes couldn't be worn in the festival.

The girls were at school wandering down the hall until they ran into Hatsume... "I'm so sorry for punching you!" Yukimura's voice rang loudly through the hall that led to the pink-haired girl's workplace and bowed deeply to try to seem promising.

Hatsume's yellow hues blinked as her mouth fell agape and stood there before her door, when she about to leave for lunch. "Hey, it's cool! We all have our bad days!" the girl cheered and patted the brunette's shoulder, who remained bowed.

Her words, the pat she received, caused a faint gasp to leave her lips and for shock to wash over her hidden face. "Go eat lunch, I can't wait to see Tremor in action at the festival! Oh, and I made you a little something while you were away this morning! The teacher said you were in the hospital last night and was with Recovery Girl, so I wanted to make you something as an apology!" Mei chimed and pulled a small sheathe out from behind her, presenting it to the snake-girl.

"I... I can't see, what is it?" Yukimura questioned and sniffed the air, listened for any kind of sound or felt around for any vibrations with her feet or hands to help her indicate what it was.

"It's a dagger, Har-Har," Uviel who stood behind the brunette, shoved her hands into her pockets and stepped up to her side. Her hood remained off of her head, so it was easy to assume that she wasn't afraid of showing her face anymore...

"EXACTLY! I wanted you to try this out, Yukimura! For the Sports Festival! It's a porous dagger that you can put your own snake venom into!" Mei beamed and clapped her hands together with so much enthusiasm pouring off of her frame. Quickly, the brunette's hand was taken and guided across the dagger by the pinky, who began to explain what each part does. "See, these two holes in this thick container is for you to puncture your fangs in, to extract your own venom into! The container will fill up this smaller one that's attached to it and will leak out venom onto the blade, of course, if you press this button here to release it! That way, each time you cut or stab someone with it, the poison will also seep into the wounds you make! I wouldn't recommend using your venom during the festival but it'll come in handy at a later time!" explained the girl who seemed too excited about the idea of her using it and watched Haru's face become awestruck.

"OH, I don't want to forget about its venom dispersion!" she beamed once more and turned the dagger sideways, with a quick guide of the brunette's hand rubbing across an odd screen. "See, this screen is made of special glass that will vibrate certain wavelengths and it'll help you know when it's reached five percent venom left, in the container! See, when it hits five percent, it'll disperse the poison in a very small radius and whoever is in its way will suffer from your airborne poison!" Beaming with joy and letting go of the girl's hand, Har-Har's expression seemed so amazed at how unique the dagger was.

"T- Thank you! Still, I'm so, so sorry for punching you!" Haru was almost to tears at that point and repetitively, almost hysterically bowed to the pinky who only stood with her hands on her hips.

"Hey, I said don't worry about it.~ I went too far and I'm the one who should be apologizing!" Upon hearing Mei's words, the brunette guessed that Hatsume was being genuine considering how honest her reply sounded. Haru sensed the girl make her way past her a bit and stopped just before her younger best friend, who only confusedly blinked. "I'm very sorry! I went too far and I didn't mean to blurt that out!" Now this time, it was Mei's turn to bow.

Uviel was beyond surprised at this point, her blue hues widened at the sight, and stepped back slightly. "I-... It's fi-" before she got to finish her sentence, the pinky grabbed her hands and held them tightly after they were pulled out from her hoodie.

"No, it's not fine! I'm going to make you something that'll show you how sorry I am! Give me a couple of days and I'll show you how great and useful it'll be!" A huge smile broadened after she bore her yellow eyes into blue ones.

"S- Sure...I guess..." the cybernetic girl averted her eyes and blushed faintly at the close proximity of their faces, mostly from embarrassment.

"Hahaaaa, great! I can't wait to see what you think!" Excitement, eagerness, Mei was full of energy all of a sudden before she dashed down the hall past the girls and left them there.

A simple sigh escaped both of them during that moment and soon, UV-Ray moved her attention to her best friend who was smiling like an idiot. "Dude..." she mumbled and allowed a sigh to escape. "Never mind, let's just head to lunch..." Right when Uviel was about to walk away after her hands were put back into her pockets, she felt Haru's hand grasp her shoulder.

"Nah, I know that weird sense of heat on your face from anywhere! You're embarrassed! Was it because of Hastume?" Har-Har questioned after her sheathed dagger was hooked to her uniform's skirt lip and lowered her grasping hand. The girl was grinning and chuckling mischievously to herself until a grumble was heard from the redhead.

"You know that I hate loud people, you're an exception though...but Hatsume... She apologized and that kind of proximity with her apologizing was a bit embarrassing, is all... Besides, I...was wanting to know..." Uviel started playing with the hem of her hoodie's sleeves and her blue hues viewed her own feet. Pink dusted her cheeks and frowning lips wavered slightly, she was trying not to smile at a thought that came to mind. "If...we could...go eat with Kirishima...?" those words made Yukimura's eyes widen and her mouth form a line.

The nervous movement could be felt on the floor, the embarrassment on her cheeks sent faint waves of heat, and the sound of her voice told the brunette that she was being very shy. "What have you done to my Uviel...?" disbelief laced her voice as she blinked her blind eyes and frowned. Soon, that frown turned into a bright smile the moment she started giggling at how adorable her best friend was acting. "You're so cute when you're shy! Hahahahaha! Okay, come on! It's about time you wanted to hang with others!" Energetic, the brunette cheered with a risen fist and pulled on the redhead's arm, dragging her down the hall.