Six years later:

"Tell the truth, Dr. Kuga…how much longer does she have?" The patient's father leaned forward in his chair, deep furrows in his brow.

"To be honest, it doesn't look good." Natsuki frowned in sympathy as she looked at the X-ray. "I would say about four weeks, and that's if she's lucky. I'm sorry."

He sighed. "Well, she's had a good life…but when it's time, it's time."

"Stop talking about me like I'm dying, you nerds." The patient herself seemed unconcerned, too busy texting on her phone with a single hand as her other arm was encased in a sling. "It's a broken arm, not a death sentence."

"In the old days, we would have left you behind to fend for yourself. You would be too much of a burden on our resources," the father decided.

The patient looked up and rolled her eyes, looking exactly like her sister when she did so. "Dad, you're literally the CEO of your own company. I don't think resources are an issue."

"The economy is so volatile. I don't know if Searrs Industries will make it this year," Alexander fretted.

"Oh, no, what a shame," Natsuki said monotonously.

He looked between his older and younger daughter. "Can't I convince one of you to take over? I'm not getting any younger, you know."

Natsuki took off her gloves and slingshotted them into the trash. "I already have a job. Get this one to do it," she said, jerking her chin toward her younger sister.

Alyssa stuck out her tongue and make a motion to cross her arms before realizing her predicament. "No way. I'm going to be a doctor like Natsuki."

Natsuki looked smugly at her dad, smirking at his obvious distress. "You're still a long way from retirement, old man. Plenty of time to find yourself another lovechild."

Ignoring his sputtered protests of I'm young! and ANOTHER lovechild? Do you think I'm some kind of hussy, Natsuki dusted off her hands and moved aside the privacy curtain separating Alyssa's hospital bed from all the others in the emergency room. "Alright, Alyssa's all set to go. Call the clinic to make a follow-up appointment in one week so we can check on how her arm's healing. Let me know if any issues come up."

"Okay, will do! Bye, Natsuki!" Alyssa gave her a one-armed hug before bouncing away, her grumbling father right behind her as he waved goodbye to his eldest child.

Natsuki watched her family go with a shake of her head. Never in a million years did she think she would get to know her father, much less get along with him. But hey, life was short, and she'd already learned the hard way that there was no point in spending time on pointless grudges.

"Dr. Kuga, your next patient is ready for you." One of the nurses held out the patient's chart, looking around before dropping his voice to a whisper. "She's a difficult one. Hasn't stopped complaining for the past hour and threatened to leave if she doesn't get seen soon. Her family is in the room with her and they've been trying to keep her calm, but I'm not sure how successful they've been."

Natsuki sighed and took the chart. "Thank you. I'll be right there."

She started walking toward the patient's bed while scanning the chart in her hands. 80 year old female, no significant past medical history, presenting to the ER with a sprained ankle—

Natsuki glanced at the patient's name and nearly tripped over her own feet, skidding to a stop so fast she could practically smell burning rubber from the soles of her shoes.

Oh shit. Oh fuck. Oh shit-shit-shit—

Graceburt, Maria

Natsuki broke out into a cold sweat. No way. There must be another Maria Graceburt in Japan, right?…Strong, traditional Japanese name like that…

She frantically flipped the pages to where a copy of the patient's driver's license was kept.

Oh God, it was her. Natsuki suddenly felt like she might pass out. This was it, this was her reckoning. Revenge was truly a dish served best cold. Visitors to the ER had to go through security checks to prove they weren't carrying any weapons, but patients bypassed that whole process. Who knew what kind of heat Maria was packing. The only thing that could possibly further upset the careful balance in her life that Natsuki worked so hard to maintain was—

"Natsuki?"

A chill ran down Natsuki's spine at hearing that familiar voice. Heart in her mouth, she turned around almost excruciatingly slowly, trying to give herself enough time to prepare herself.

It didn't work. Natsuki's breath whooshed out of her in the most embarrassing way at seeing her ex for the first time in years.

"Shizuru." Scratch that, she was definitely going to pass out.

There Shizuru stood, looking far better than anyone had a right to be under the harsh lights of the hospital. Little had changed physically, but there was something undeniably different about her. Something other than the angle of her jaw, sharper now than it was back then, or how her outfit screamed 'young professional.' It was in the way she carried herself, more self-assured and confident since Natsuki had last seen her, like she had found her place in the world.

Ah, fuck. Natsuki could feel the fissures in her heart crack open and slowly begin to bleed. She curb-stomped her emotions into submission and tried to smile, though it probably came out more like a grimace. "You look good."

Her ears heated up as Shizuru gave her a slow once-over, expression giving away nothing as she did so. Natsuki became acutely aware of the dark circles under her eyes and the questionable stains on her white coat. She'd always known karma was a bitch, but this was just ridiculous.

"So do you," Shizuru replied. "You finally became a doctor, I assume?"

"Finally," Natsuki agreed, awkwardness making her tongue heavy. "I'm actually about to see your grandmother."

Shizuru made a vague sound of amusement in her throat. "Good luck."

Well, that was in no way reassuring. Natsuki ran a nervous hand through her hair. "What happened to her ankle? Did she fall or something?"

"Or something. She twisted it while paragliding."

Natsuki squinted at her to see if she was joking, but Shizuru's face remained impassive. She cleared her throat. "And you?…How are you doing?"

"Oh, fine. Graduated university in the States, moved back to Japan, got accepted into a doctoral program," Shizuru said offhandedly. "Something about being abandoned by someone you loved without so much as a goodbye really motivates you to succeed, you know?"

Natsuki physically had to take a step back at the hard truth. Talk about sucker punch. "I…Shizuru, I'm sorry. You deserved better."

Shizuru crossed her arms, looking unimpressed. "Do you know how angry I was, waking up one morning and seeing you had completely disappeared?"

"I can't even imagine," Natsuki said, her voice raw. "I thought I was doing what was best for you."

"I know why you did it, but there were better ways to go about it. Not running away from the issue, for one."

"The issue should never have happened in the first place. You were only in high school."

Shizuru raised an eyebrow. "And now that I'm not?"

Natsuki paused. This was supposed to be the point in the conversation where Shizuru agreed with her, slapped her in the face, and then walked out of her life forever. The borderline flirtatious response threw her off completely, like she'd been drop-kicked off Tokyo Tower. There was no way Shizuru could be flirting with her. She should politely ignore it and chalk it up to Shizuru's personality, bid her adieu, and go on with her day.

Instead, she very intelligently asked, "What?"

"Now that I'm not in high school anymore…" Shizuru repeated, trailing off with a smirk at Natsuki's expression. "What are you going to do about it?"

"Should I be doing something about it?" Natsuki asked incredulously.

Shizuru gave her a blasé shrug. "Don't get me wrong, there's so much left to discuss. But since we're both adults now, I deserve a more adult apology, wouldn't you agree?"

Natsuki's jaw dropped. What the high holy hell did that mean, and why did she absolutely agree 100%? Despite herself, she felt a spark of hope lighting up the recesses of her heart.

Shizuru cocked her head, the very picture of innocence. "And by that I mean alcohol, of course."

"Of course," Natsuki echoed.

"When does your shift end?"

"Couple more hours."

"I'll meet you out front when you're done. Don't be late."

"You got it."

"You're buying."

"Okay."

Shizuru looked amused at her dazed responses before starting to walk away. She looked over her shoulder when Natsuki only stared after her with wide eyes. "Well? Are you coming?"

Natsuki immediately got her ass into gear, blindly following right behind Shizuru as she pushed aside one of the privacy curtains and—

"YOU!" Maria pointed directly at Natsuki like a vengeful spirit, the fire of a thousand suns burning in her eyes.

"Oh, fuck me," Natsuki blurted out. Maria gasped and tightened her grip around her cane, looking as if she were deciding where to stab Natsuki with it. Behind her, Shizuru was visibly trying not to laugh.

Natsuki couldn't help but smile, even as she tried valiantly to avoid Maria's cane. She looked to Shizuru after ducking one particularly vicious swipe and felt a quiet thrill in her heart when Shizuru gave her a small smile back.

Things were looking up.

So...yeah...I didn't have any motivation or desire to finish this, but I figured a few of you have been waiting for closure. Truthfully, I started writing this when I was 15 years old and saw no problem with the age gap between Shizuru & Natsuki. However, now that I'm a 25 year old fool who knows better, I regret placing Shizuru in high school. I'm not super comfortable with leaving Sucker Punch up since she's underage in the story, but I'm also hesitant to delete it completely since it's been 10 years in the making. If you have any strong opinions one way or another, please let me know. Thanks as always for reading.