Author's Note: So...Its been awhile hasn't it? I'm very sorry I left you all hanging and on such a cliffhanger too! I had a lot of problems earlier this year. Depression over the lockdown, computer issues, financial ones. Things aren't exactly ideal now (and they won't really be until the virus is gone for good) but things are a lot more stable than they have been a few months ago. Anyway I hope this makes the wait worth it.
Kuroko passed out from her injuries shortly after the paramedics arrived. She still hadn't woken up after 2 days. Uiharu had sat faithfully by her bedside refusing to go home until she woke up.
She was trying her best to stay awake but the fight she had with Saten-san an hour ago about her own health had left her feeling pretty drained, her eyes slowly dimming before she realized what was happening. Eventually however she lost the fight and dozed off on the side of Kuroko's bed.
Eventually she found herself being stirred awake by the rustling of the bed, lifting her weary head she opened her eyes to see her wounded friend opening her eyes and staring intensely at her. "S-Shirai-san your awake! Thank goodness I-i thought you were-" Uiharu shouted, elated. Before being silenced by the surprising feeling of Kuroko's lips on hers. They were the most amazing thing she'd ever tasted, far more heavenly and sweet than any cake. She looked into Kuroko's passionate loving eyes making her feel like she was the only person who mattered.
And then she woke up gasping in shock. Back into the scentless, tasteless hospital room with her unmoving friend. What a bizarre dream, she thought, turning bright red. Shirai-san would never do something like that... well, not to me anyway.
Unbeknownst to Uiharu's confused and flustered mind, Kuroko's hands began twitching and flexing, soon followed by her arms and legs. Uiharu finally noticed the movements assuming cynically that this was yet another dream— yet one she desperately wanted to believe was real, so she did the only logical thing and pinched herself.
Kuroko's eyes opened at the sound of her pained yelp. "Uiharu...what are you doing?" She asked as she sat up, wincing as her injuries throbbed.
Uiharu leapt forward hugging the small teleporter,. "Is this still a dream? Are you really awake this time?" She asked, desperately hoping this was real.
Kuroko frowned, "What are you talking about? Of course I'm awake. You're acting like I was out for..." She paused. The only time since they were trainees when Uiharu had been this distressed was after her encounter with Awaki. The sudden realization hit her like a bullet. "Uiharu how long was I out?" She asked reluctantly, dreading the answer.
Her partner broke from the hug and then broke the news "T-two days." She stuttered miserably trying to stifle her growing waterworks. Kuroko's heart ached at seeing her best friend like this.
She awkwardly reached out and pulled her forward onto the bed, softly stroking her back with her uninjured arm, she desperately wished she could comfort her fully but she couldn't— not with her other arm wrapped in bandages still filled with a low throbbing ache. "It's okay Uiharu. I'm awake now. I'm sorry for making you worry." She said, softly smiling as she watched Uiharu's shaking stop.
Uiharu stopped quietly weeping as she felt Kuroko's warm hand spread across her back. She blinked, rubbing her wet eyes with her arm. Doubt started to seep out of her gut. Shirai-san hadn't been this tender with her in ages. Not since they were trainees before she had met...her.
She had to be sure, She crawled forward onto the bed sitting herself on top of Kuroko's lap. "Are you really? Shirai-san." She asked inching her face closer and grabbing Kuroko's hand feeling its pulse in hers, and her hot breath increasing as she stuttered.
If she was dreaming again it couldn't hurt to indulge right? Her face crept closer to a wary looking Kuroko before...
"Oh my! Am I interrupting something?" A familiar voice came out of a familiar level 0 grinning madly as she peeked through the ward's open doorway.
Uiharu immediately withdrew— practically leaping off the bed onto the floor. Kuroko scrambled for an excuse for their rather intimate position. "S-saten-san, wha-what a surprise! Uiharu was just...keeping me warm." She immediately clammed, realizing what she just said, covering herself with a pillow while Saten guffawed.
"Hahaha! I bet she was! Honestly Uiharu, couldn't you wait until Shirai-san was fully healed? Oh uh… welcome back by the way." Saten said, sauntering into the room and closing the door behind her.
The flustered redhead just mumbled something unintelligible though very angry sounding into her pillow.
Uiharu pulled herself up from the ground blushing fiercely. Saten-san had the worst timing sometimes. "Saten-san I- uh w-we weren't ...oh whatever." She gave in almost immediately, sighing with defeat.
Saten smiled good naturedly. "Ah its fine, its fine, can't blame you after all, we were all worried about you, Shirai-san, but Uiharu especially so, she waited at your side throughout everything ya know"
The pillow that had covered Kuroko's face finally fell. "She did?" Her face locked in a confusing mix of emotions. Looking to see her partner's face who promptly blushed and averted her eyes.
Saten nodded. "Sure did. Didn't leave you for a moment."
Kuroko's face stretched into a warm smile. "Thanks, Uiharu." Said girl's face gave off a joyful look in return. "Hey where's onee-sama?" Then her joyous expression abruptly deflated.
Saten chuckled nervously, unsure of how to break the news. "Ah well you see... she's kind of been… um… missing for a while."
Kuroko's eyes glared holes into Saten's face. "Define 'awhile.'"
"Since you got carted off to hospital," Saten said hesitantly.
Misaka lay in bed staring dead-eyed up at the celling, trying not to think about what had occurred two days ago and failing miserably. Standing outside in the bitter cold weather of winter staring hatefully at the ice rink, her chest tightening as the ambulances arrived, knowing deep down it meant more than one person was badly hurt.
The tight feeling becoming so bad she barely was able to breath as she caught glimpse of a familiar shade of red hair in between paramedics being wheeled onto the ambulance. Then she ran, ran as far and fast as she could away from that place until she came to one of the bad parts of town where she took her frustrations out on some thugs.
Since then she had shut herself off from the rest of the world. Refused to leave school for any reason, spent most of her time locked in their dorm. Didn't answer her cell despite its frequent ringing. Eventually she worked the courage to turn over and answer it, then she saw Uiharu's caller ID and automatically cooked the phone's batteries off with an electronic discharge— causing her precious Gekota merch to explode in her hand. Lucky she had some bandages and other medical supplies stored away in case Ku-in case she got hurt.
She cried for a while, that made her feel a bit better, only for about a few minutes though. About the phone of course, definitely nothing else.
She didn't even know why she was even worried, that idiot was like a human cockroach. And if it was serious the school would have told her so.
How had things gotten out of control so quickly? Just a week ago everything was perfectly normal, Kuroko was following her around like some lovesick puppy. Then it was like someone flipped a switch and Kuroko suddenly changed overnight. And then it was like they were never even friends.
Why? Why was all this happening? "Ugh this is worse than the ...festival." Misaka trailed off feeling her brain surging forth. ...Misaki. It could only be her. She'd done something like this before after all, wiped out everybody's memories of her.
"Damn bitch! She's messing with me again!" Misaka sat up feeling a dangerous sort of clarity, suddenly everything made sense, Kuroko and Uiharu weren't really in love, Kuroko was still her friend, it was all just one of queen bimbo's stupid little tricks.
Simultaneously relieved and substantially more furious, she got up and began making her way to the queen's dorm.
"More tea Queen-sama?." Junko Hokaze asked, holding out a tea pot expectantly.
The queen in question sat languidly at her kitchen table. Staring in concern at the latest report she recently retrieved from that lab. Honestly does this city never stop exploiting people? I'd normally call on muscle head for this but she seems preoccupied with... something. Misaki blinked and turned to her cute kohai, smiling fondly. "Well... okay, sure, if you insist Junko-chan." How lucky she was to have such a loyal friend.
And then her balcony window exploded. Mixed among the sound of shattering glass and Junko's surprised cries was the distinct sound of electricity crackling.
Misaki's body instantly tensed up as she retrieved her remote from her pocket aiming at the intruder, while Junko took on a fighting stance, thrumming with her own electricity, after gingerly placing the tea pot down.
"Oh put that stupid thing down, you know it can't affect me." Misaka said gruffly as she walked out of the smoke.
Junko instantly smiled and relaxed. "Oh Misaka-san what a nice surprise." Misaki rolled her star shaped eyes at her kouhai's placid nature. She matched Misaka's death glare as she stumbled to her feet inching away from the glass shards. "Was that really necessary?"
"I don't know, was screwing with my friends' heads necessary?" Misaka roared, her face a mask of unrestrained fury.
If the queen was afraid she didn't show it, simply remarking, "You're not still mad about that incident at the festival are you? Honestly I didn't know you were so good at holding grudges, that was so long ago!"
Misaka fumed at her nonchalant attitude. Typical queen bitch always hand-waving violations of vast swaths of people like it was nothing. "No, you moron, I'm mad about you doing this shit again, for the third time!"
Misaki stared blankly ahead looking quite innocent. "Third time?"
The enraged electromaster stomped down petulantly. "Yes, you've obviously been screwing around with my friends, why else would Kuroko suddenly start chasing after Uiharu?" — And completely forgetting about me in the process.
The queen abruptly started laughing, causing certain parts of her to jiggle only making Misaka's bad mood worse. "Goodness is that what this is all about Misa-chan?" She sighed fanning herself and fixed Misaka with a smug look. "Please, I've had nothing to do with it. I've been preoccupied with other more important matters. Although I must give your little kouhai some props, it's nice that she's finally developed some good taste in women." Tittering at the aghast look that dawned on Misaka's face.
Misaka could barely breath with the white hot rage she was feeling, her body about to go off like a powder keg of electricity. She closed her eyes and took a few deep breaths to calm herself. Breathe Misaka, don't let her get to you. She knew there was some good in her even if it was hard to see it sometimes. "Look, Shokuhou, this isn't funny, Kuroko got badly hurt because she didn't ask for my help. You need to stop this."
The Queen stopped giggling in response, her star crossed eyes taking on a serious look. "Look, Misaka-san I'm sorry about Shirai-san, I really am, but I honestly have nothing to do with this. She was never going to put up with the rejections forever."
She knew that of course she always knew that, she just hoped they could be friends for a little longer.
Looking at Misaki's eyes, Misaka knew she was for once telling the truth. "I, uh, gotta go."
"Oneeeeeeee-saaaama!" Kuroko's shrill panicked yell echoed throughout the hospital as she tried to thrash her way out of bed, in spite of Uiharu's best attempts to hold her down. "Onee-sama needs me! She's in trouble, the robbery must've been a diversion! Oneeeee-saaama I'm coming!"
Uiharu's weak little arms strained as she tried to stop her crazed friend from running off, the only thing aiding her was Kuroko's inability to teleport through her pain. She couldn't let Shirai-san just run off, she was still too injured, her wounds might open up again.
Her fears were realized as she heard Kuroko's lips utter a brief pained whimper followed by blood spreading through one of her bandages. She turned to Saten who was just watching blank faced. "Saten-san, don't just stand there, help me out!" Which successfully jolted her out of her stupor, joining in to help hold down the hysterical redhead.
"Grrrrah! You two are the worst. Why won't you let me save onee-sama? Uiharu, I thought I could trust you." Kuroko spat out as she writhed on the bed, eyes brimming with tears at this betrayal.
The harsh accusation from her best friend finally got Uiharu crying too. "S-shirai-san I just don't want to see you get hurt anymore!" She cried out, her tearful display sapping most of Kuroko's willpower to continue resisting.
She felt something stabbing at her and it wasn't the pain from her wounds. "Uiharu, wait, I-I'm sorry," her face flushing red as she tripped over her words. "I don't want to see you hurt either." Her panicked breathing slowly stalled. "I'll stay put okay? Until I'm healed that is." As soon as she was finished speaking Uiharu swept her arms around into a warm hug. Kuroko stroked her hair in a awkward gesture of comfort.
"Ahem… Saten-san, could you give us some privacy?" Kuroko said, muffled by Uiharu's sleeve.
Saten after a brief glance at Uiharu to make sure she could handle her on her own, winked in response. "Sure, no problem." As she closed the door behind her, Uiharu let out a long sigh of relief.
She wasted no time in tending to Kuroko's shoulder wound. Taking out a fresh batch of bandages from a medkit she kept nearby for just such an occasion and softly redressing the wrappings. Kuroko's breath hitched as she felt the gentle touch of her hands, "There, all better." Uiharu said with a happy smile.
Her patient offered a weary smile in return. "Thank you Uiharu, but I could have waited for the nurse."
Uiharu shook her head firmly. "Nope, that would have taken too long, I'm right here aren't I?"
Her friend nodded, at least someone is she thought bitterly. Onee-sama had to be in trouble otherwise she'd be at her side along with Uiharu right? None of this made any sense.
All this stress over onee-sama was weakening her already exhausted mind. "Uiharu, I'm starting to feel a little faint, I think it was that blood loss from earlier. I'm just going to rest for a bit."
Uiharu frowned, that didn't sound good. "Do you want me to call the doctor?"
"No I'm pretty sure I'm okay, just need a little more— ah— bed rest." Kuroko let out a little yawn as her eyes began to close and she fell sideways, nuzzling Uiharu's shoulder, causing said girl to utter a surprised squeak. "Hmm, so warm." Kuroko mumbled as she used the blushing girl as a makeshift pillow.
Uiharu was about to protest or shake herself free, but looking at Kuroko's serene and content face framed by her pretty red hair, she found herself unable to.
Well she supposed it couldn't hurt. She was pretty exhausted herself having barely been able to sleep from worry lately. "Saten-san's going to love this." She whispered quietly before slowly letting sleep overtake her.
"It was not my fault, it was not my fault, it was definitely not my fault." Misaka had been repeating this over and over for the past 30 minutes as she paced anxiously in front of the hospital. It was proving to be something of a coping mechanism, keeping her vocal cords busy so they wouldn't scream in fear and cause a massive scene.
Though while she wasn't causing a massive scene, she was causing a smaller one. Over the course of the past half hour more onlookers had taken notice of the tense fearful little girl. A small amount of good Samaritans had even come up to ask her if she was okay but a short and sharp growl mixed with the crackling of electricity quickly sent them scurrying away.
Not that she wasn't used to crowds gaping at her. The endless amount of infuriating sycophants that choked Tokiwadai's living quarters out only to increase their reputation by attaching themselves to her like filthy blood sucking leeches. That is until she met Kuroko and... damn it, she just remembered what was so terrifying.
Her best friend was lying somewhere in that building severely wounded. At worst she was slowly dying, at best she was swiftly recovering and only hated her Onee-sama with every fibre of her being for abandoning her.
No, no, she was clearly being irrational, Kuroko was way harder to kill than that, and she could never hate her. And so the pendulum in her mind began to swing back the other way and the cycle started over again.
Her thoughts had been trapped in this endless loop for a while now ever since she left Misaki and Junko. Periods of complete denial became quickly followed by periods of complete panic and dread.
She looked at the hospital entrance teeming with people exiting and entering the automatic doors. Some happy to have received a full bill of health, some grieving for injured loved ones. So if she was being irrational, why not enter?
Misaka took a single hesitant step forward and her blood froze as her brain conjured up a single horrifying thought. What if she'd be one of those grieving people after 15 minutes or so. What if she had died on the way over? What if everyone hated her because of what she did?
Remembering that terrified begging look she gave her before she left, even sweet little Saten-san probably feared her now just as much as all the other high-levelled brutes. Was knowing the truth really worth all the inevitable heartbreak that would follow?
At that moment she desperately wished to be anywhere else, her stomach recoiling every second she spent out here, arms and legs trembling, from the cold obviously it wasn't anything else. It definitely wasn't.
I really really don't want to do this, please just let there be something, anything. Suddenly the wail of sirens sliced through the still winter night. But not ambulance sirens, the dimmer tone clearly indicated those of Anti-Skills.
She quickly turned in the direction of the shrill noise to see a Anti-Skill truck barrelling down the street. "That means trouble." She absent-mindedly said. "...Maybe trouble I could get involved in." The worried frown she'd been wearing for most the night melted away replaced with an eager hot blooded grin.
This was perfect, she could take her mind off of what was going on, and do Kuroko's job for her while she recovering (because she was definitely recovering dammit.) And plus she had to admit beating on some thugs who actually deserved it would be pretty therapeutic.
Uiharu was smiling, her face having a look of sheer comfort as her body slowly woke up in bed. Part of it may have been the soft warm thing she was cuddled up close to, her mind assumed it to be a cute medium sized teddy bear, though parts of it seemed a bit hard and not as soft as the rest of it.
Hmm well perhaps it was some old beat up bear like the one Misaka-san had in her dorm, yeah that made sense. Assured by her mind that the situation was perfectly normal she decided to try and go back to sleep since she was already so comfortable.
"Hmm Onee-sama, not so rough." Uiharu's eyes snapped open to see Shirai-san's sleeping content face a mere inch away from hers. Her expression froze in horror. W-why was she in bed with her best friend? She hurriedly checked to assure that to her relief they were both still clothed before she remembered last night.
Slightly relieved but still worried about the compromising position she was locked into, with Shirai's arm wrapped firmly around her torso and her left leg trapped between the redhead's. How do I get out of this without waking her up? Shirai-san's grip is way too strong... wait was she always this pretty? Don't get distracted!
The flustered flower girl weakly struggled to get out of her entanglement without waking up her injured partner. She slowly tried to writhe her leg out from between Shirai's but she just clenched her legs tighter in response. No! You can't! I need to get away, oh wow were her thighs always this sof-Aaaah bad thoughts bad thoughts go away, I'm not a degenerate like her!. She thought erratically trying desperately to get out of her grip.
"Ah come on stop playing hard to get, you know you want it." Kuroko mumbled in a sing song voice, pursing her lips and leaning forward. Uiharu recoiled as far as her head would allow, feeling conflicted about what to do. "N-no, my first, not now." She whispered, before jerking herself backward finally freeing herself from her grip and falling out of bed in the process.
The cacophony of noise finally woke her partner up. Sitting and up and rubbing her eyes with a disgruntled look clearly upset that she had woken up from a nice dream prematurely. She peeked over the left side of the bed to find the source of the noise, frowning as she saw Uiharu groaning on the floor with a good chunk of the bed sheet covering her.
"Uiharu what are you doing down there?"
Relieved to have an out she replied with a sheepish giggle. "Ah, well, I tripped on the way in, sorry to disturb you Shirai-san."
Kuroko stared her down for a moment before shrugging her shoulders with a sigh. "No, no, it's fine, it'd never come true anyway. Anyway, you okay?"
Uiharu got to her feet giving the cold patient back her blankets. "Oh I'm fine… what were you dreaming about?"
Kuroko went red, suddenly very interested in the ceiling tiles. "N-none of your business, shouldn't you be at the branch?"
"Well I came to check on you."
"As you can see I'm fine, now go on, even Konori-senpai can't do everything on her own so go help her." Kuroko shifted instantly into a commanding sort of aura.
Uiharu was hesitant though, wanting to spend more time with her, on the other hand things had been awkward since this whole scheme had started. Maybe she should go to work, it might clear her head a bit. "Alright, if you're sure. I'll come and see you as soon as I can, okay, Shirai-san?"
Kuroko nodded looking at her oddly. "Yeah, yeah, I'm fine, just go already."
Uiharu had just reluctantly left Shirai's hospital room to go to work when she bumped into a kindly old doctor with a frog-like face. "Oh sorry Doctor-san.!" She said as she backed away and bowed respectfully.
He waved her off, "It's quite alright, oh, by the way, Uiharu was it? Are you in a hurry?"
"Um, kind of, depends on what you want? Is this about Shirai-san?"
He nodded. "Yes, your accident prone partner."
She interrupted. "Is she going to be okay?" — fearing the worst.
He chuckled. "Don't worry, she's going to be fine. The blood rewarming worked quite well with her system. We'll have to keep her under observation for a few days just in case of any complications, but she'll be fine thanks to me and, I think, you as well," resting a hand on her shoulder as her eyes bugged out.
"B-but sir, I didn't do anything, I just tried to keep her warm until the ambulance arrived." She had never felt as powerless as she had before with her best friend losing consciousness in her arms.
"Oh I think you did, and what you did was in fact quite crucial, given the temperature rate of Sakaki's powers, and the speed of the ambulance, Shirai-san should have died on the way to the hospital." The doctor stated matter-of-factly.
Uiharu's blood ran cold at the thought. "S-she could have died?" In a quiet horrified whisper.
The doctor nodded. "If it wasn't for you yes, your thermal hand power appeared to warm her and slow the rate of the freezing enough till the paramedics arrived. I'm capable of a lot, Uiharu-san, but I can't bring people back to life. "
Uiharu looked down at her hands. She wasn't even aware she was doing anything at the time, just desperately trying to share her body heat with the injured girl.
Heaven Cancellor, plainly seeing the girl needed time on her own to take in what he just told her, gave her an out. "Well anyway you should be off to work, shouldn't you? But perhaps once you're done you can visit back here. I'm sure Shirai-san will recover fine on her own but I believe you may be able to speed up the process."
The tiny girl blinked and then bowed. "Um, thank you for everything you've done sir, I'll definitely help her however I can." Running off to work as her mind raced.
Uiharu frowned, pausing briefly to wipe the sweat off her brow before switching her focus back to her workstation, flicking through the local sector's camera's trying to track the vandalizing suspect. Unfortunately said suspect either had a cloaking device or some kind of sight related ability, normally even that wouldn't stop the dedicated goalkeeper but she was a little distracted today by thoughts of a certain girl.
For some reason she kept conjuring up images of Shirai-san either from that weird dream or that embarrassing incident from this morning. Ending up lost in thought staring blankly into the computer screen until she lost complete track of the target. She eventually managed to regain sight of them but then it just happened again. What was so entrancing about her partners face? Ugh, this was so maddening!
Sure she wasn't always at her best when Shirai-san was injured, She remembered taking frequent breaks at work or school to call her at hospital just after the fight with that awful Move Point girl but she managed to hold it together, a lot of support from Saten-san helped.
Shirai-san wasn't even as badly hurt this time. She was expected to recover in 2 to 3 days and she wouldn't even need a wheelchair to get around. So why was she so distracted about her?
The little hackers blood boiled at the unfairness of it all, her only plus point was her brain and now it wasn't even working properly. And she lost the suspect again!
Her head thudded onto the keyboard punctuated by a groan of despair, drawing attention from her concerned sempai. She gave Uiharu's head a little poke.
"You know Uiharu, Judgement does allow compassionate leave." She stated matter-of-factly.
"Hwah?" The goalkeeper's head rolled to allow her to slur out a response.
"Your girlfriend is in the hospital, so it's not necessarily against protocol to let you off early." Konori smiled warmly.
Uiharu, wrapped in a fugue of self-defeat, took a while to process that (particularly the girlfriend comment). "Oh, um, thank you, Konori-senpai, but no, I'm fine really. Besides, Shirai-san would be so disappointed if we let this one get away."
Konori shook her head, unwilling to put the clearly strained girl through anything more. "Not to dismiss your contributions, Uiharu-san, but I have been with Judgement for quite a while. I'm sure with a little back up from the other branches I can track this perp down, you don't need to do this."
It was a tempting offer, she really did want to be with Shirai-san right now for some weird reason, something odd driving her to her side, but then she thought of how disappointed, or more accurately furious, she'd be with her if she found out she flaked out on work for her sake.
"...Maybe I'm a little distracted at the moment but please, Konori-senpai, I can help with this! Just give me a little more time." She pleaded earnestly, putting her big innocent eyes to good use.
Konori tried to stay firm but the sight of her cute junior was too much for her. "Okay, okay, you got 20 more minutes and then I'm ordering you to at least take a break. Got it, young lady?"
Uiharu lips broke into a determined if slightly sinister smile. "I'll only need ten." She said flexing her fingers and going back to work with renewed vigour. She was not going to give up yet.
After all, she had a promise to keep.
Kuroko had always hated hospitals. Lots of people did of course, they were cold, clinical, and reminded them of death. But while Kuroko could see the reasoning behind those, her contempt for them was simply because they made her bitterly aware of her own failings.
She was supposed to be strong and tough, what a level 4 teleporter and Judgement officer should be. Yet despite her high level and training she so often ended up in a hospital bed like this one, weak and useless.
And she knew that wasn't what her onee-sama wanted, she wanted somebody that could be her equal, why else was she spending so much time with certain other people lately instead of her? She guessed that was why she hadn't visited yet, she simply didn't deserve it.
She sighed, sinking limply into the bed. At least Uiharu was going to visit, thinking of her made her feel a little better, her dedication to Judgement, her focused look as she expertly hacked her way into anything. Her dorky little smile.
She hoped she wasn't too distracted by her injuries, she always got a little off whenever she got hurt.
A knock on the door distracted her from her musings, "Shirai-san are you decent?" Uiharu meekly called out.
"Sure, come in." She called back. "Though I'm not sure why that matters." She mumbled to herself. They often used to share showers at the academy and she'd helped patch up her wounds in the past so Kuroko wasn't sure why she was acting so courteous now.
Uiharu stepped in and closed the door panting hard and blushing. "Oh... you look out of breath. Were you lightly jogging for more than 10 seconds?" Kuroko teased with a smirk.
Uiharu frowned at the bedridden girl. "Hmph I didn't come here to be insulted, Shirai-san, if you don't want me here just say so."
Fear gripped Kuroko's heart as Uiharu turned back to the exit. "Wait. don't go! It's... um, way too boring here."
Her partner chuckled in response "Oh well, if you insist." She said as she flopped onto the bed, right into Kuroko's lap. Kuroko frowned but let her rest there. She was too tired and upset to argue. Besides it was kind of nice, Uiharu always felt a little warmer than the average person whether that was just a genetic thing or a side effect of her ability she wasn't aware. "Comfy?"
"Hmm, very." Though it wasn't as comfortable as befo- no Uiharu, bad thoughts bad thoughts.
Kuroko peered down at her looking judgemental. "You got out early, didn't sneak off, did you?"
"You wound me so Shirai-san, I just got let out early by Konori-senpai for working so well." Putting on a faux ojou-sama accent while not avoiding eye contact from Kuroko for even a second.
Well she didn't seem to be lying. "Hmm well, alright then." She sat there unsure of how to proceed with Uiharu's head in her lap. Her thoughts inevitably as they often did drifted to onee-sama.
"I have to ask, have you heard from onee-sama at all?" She asked her nervously. Worried at what she might hear.
Uiharu sat up with her back turned to her, visibly tensing up. "Well, no, Shirai-san, I tried to call her yesterday but there was no answer, sorry." Just thinking about Misaka-san got her heated these days, why was she being so elusive? What could possibly be more important than being by Shirai-san's side when she was hurt?
"I know she'll turn up eventually." Kuroko said confidently, placing a reassuring hand on Uiharu's shoulder.
She hissed through her teeth, feeling the frustration rising but keeping it bolted down placing her hand on Kuroko's. "How can you can be so sure?"
"When you love someone you have to be sure." She said quietly.
From Uiharu's side of things she didn't sound sure. Maybe she should just change the subject, though she couldn't help but be curious about what Shirai-san just said for some reason.
"Hmm I see, well anyway Shirai-san, how's your arm?" Turning round and offering a gentle smile.
Kuroko felt her heart rate pick up looking at her. The heck is wrong with me? Maybe I should call a nurse? She rubbed her cold arm gently, jostling her sling. "I-it's fine, should be okay to take this damn thing off in two days, it's still a bit cold though."
Uiharu looked down shyly awkwardly playing with her bangs. "I could perhaps warm it up if you wanted?"
Her redheaded partner frowned. It was a tempting offer but…"Uh, it's okay, I don't want you to strain yourself just for me."
She shook her head fervently in response. "No, no, it's no trouble at all, I know I've had difficulties activating it in the past but well I don't know how to explain it but it's easier when it's you."
Kuroko's brow furrowed, why would that be the case?, "Well if you're sure, go ahead and try, I guess."
Uiharu crawled over and sat beside her and gently placed her hands on Kuroko's arm, focusing all her mental energy on activating her weak power, and not on the fact that Kuroko's gown was rather thin.
Kuroko sighed in relief as the warmth flowed into her body. Her posture visibly relaxing, as a subtle smile grew on her face. "Ah, so much better. Thanks, Uiharu."
Uiharu smiled back, reluctantly taking her hands away. "It's no problem." Her breathing hiking up when she saw Shirai's smile. What's wrong with me?
"Hey, Shirai-san, remember when we were trainees?" She prompted her trying to think of happier, simpler times.
Kuroko rubbed her forehead and groaned. "I try my best to forget, was such a dope back then."
Her partner let out a mirthful giggle in response. "Heheh yeah, you always did that ridiculous ninja run everywhere."
Feeling called out, Kuroko replied stuttering intensely. "W-well at least I grew out of my silly childhood obsessions, you on the other hand still wear that stupid thing on your head." Glaring at Uiharu's constantly present flower crown.
"Hmph your still bothered by this, You really don't think it helps me look more feminine ." Uiharu said touching the crown in concern. She remembered Kuroko being seriously angered by it back when she started wearing it. To the point of trying to destroy it.
"Pfft you don't still believe that nonsense do you? I'll tell you what I told you back then, you look perfectly fine without it." Kuroko pouted getting really steamed up. Doesn't that idiot know how pretty she is?
The flower haired girl fumbled with said crown awkwardly, not knowing how to respond. "Does uh does fine mean good? I mean I know I don't look anywhere near as pretty as Saten-san or Misaka-san or ...other girls." Looking away from her friend with a blush as she trailed off.
Kuroko rolled her eyes, "Fishing for compliments are we? Ugh, fine, if you really must know, you're quite cute actually, got a subtle beauty of sorts." She finished awkwardly averting Uiharu's eyes.
"Y-you really mean that? You're not just saying that to cheer me up right?" Uiharu exclaimed as she climbed onto the bed with an excited look. Her heart racing and a subtle strange warmth growing inside her.
She waved her off irritably. "Yes, yes, of course I mean it." She's like some kind of annoying puppy when she's like this, still kind of cute though.
After coming to her senses Uiharu got off the bed and paced around for a minute or two before she spoke up again. "Um Shirai-san, you don't have to answer this if you don't want to, given recent circumstances but I've just been curious lately, what's it like?"
"What's what like?" Kuroko interrupted.
"...Being in love." Uiharu finished hesitantly.
Kuroko went quiet for a worrying amount of time. Uiharu was about to shyly excuse herself from the room worried she brought up bad memories before Kuroko interrupted her. "Hmm well I guess when I'm with my onee-sama, I feel like I'm home, or at least what I assume home is like. You, uh, you know how my parents are. I feel completely comfortable with her, I can just be myself without being judged and feel this indescribable warmth inside spreading."
Uiharu increasingly enraptured by Shirai's explanation worriedly shoved her hands in her pockets before butting it. "Oh, and your hands get all sweaty and gross right?"
"Don't interrupt! ...Wait how do you know that?" A blushing Shirai asked her gazing at her intensely.
"Umm I read it in one of Konori-senpai's romance novels, you know, the ones she's always reading when she's off duty." Uiharu caught off guard hurriedly offered an explanation. Which Kuroko seemed to accept. Resuming her rant/explanation.
"I see, well, anyway as I was saying, Onee-sama just has this radiant warmth that spreads all over me building up to a boil sometimes even right down to my nethe-"
Uiharu flew up to her feet blushing beet red waving her hands to stop her. "Aha um thank you Shirai-san I think I've heard enough, you really don't need to go on." Well I know I've not felt that at least especially not to her.
Still a lot of what she was feeling was concerning similar, it could all just be a coincidence after all she was a esper whose power involved temperature so it could plausibly just be Thermal Hand behaving strangely, either way she had to be sure, time to do some research.
"Um Shirai-san I just remembered I had something urgent to do at home, will you be okay alone?" It hurts to even ask her this now, she could tell from the girl's body language when she arrived that she'd been terribly lonely.
As she expected Shirai's face faintly fell from her curious grin and mischievous eyes to a more haunted look. Before she shifted into a more neutral look. "Oh sure, go ahead, I'll be fine." She said, avoiding looking at her, staring down at the nearby wall.
Uiharu's chest clenched tightly. "I'll be back as soon as I can, okay?" She stated reassuringly. Before she hurriedly ran off.
The small flower crown wearing girl darted forward, her shoes clacking loudly on the pavement dodging passersby as she rushed home. Already she was huffing and wheezing from exhaustion and cursing her weak low stamina body.
"Should have brought the laptop, should have brought the laptop." She muttered in between tired pants. If she had she could have researched this thing back in hospital once Shirai had fallen asleep. And she could have kept her company and not flake out on her, unlike some people that shall remain nameless.
She arrived at her dorm bent over hands on her knees panting from exertion. Her little legs trembling as she walked up the steps.
Entering the dorm she went straight for her laptop and booted it up pacing around the room anxiously as it started. Cursing the slow machine until she could use it, quickly typing her way to the search engine she paused. Now what? ...Well she remembered one time Shirai forgot to delete her history on the branch's computer. Maybe she could start there.
After blushing up a storm from the results the word 'yuri' gave her, she decided a more clinical term may work better, "Let's see… 'same sex relationships.' What does that give me?" She asked nervously biting her lip at the thought of the rather graphic imagery she just saw.
As it turned out not much, if anything it was a bit too clinical, having Shirai-san as a friend and co-worker. It's not like she wasn't aware of the fact that girls could love girls and what not.
Perhaps I need to be much more specific. She entered falling in love with your best friend into the search bar. A result caught her eye by the name of 17 signs you're falling for your best friend and how to deal with it. Hmm, well, I probably won't hit more than one or two, if even that, so then I'll know for sure I've just been getting a little confused.
"You find yourself daydreaming about doing couple-like things with them, like... going on dates and snuggling." Uiharu clenched her teeth, that well that was technically true she supposed, but that was only because Shirai-san embroiled her into that ridiculous scheme of hers. She was simply doing her part so there was a perfectly reasonable explanation for that.
"You get shy around them." She read aloud. She supposed she had been a little nervous around her from time to time though that was again cause of the plan, it was clearly all the plan and not her.
"Number 3, you withhold information about people you think are attractive around them." Well that was just because Shirai-san was always talking about Misaka-san, how pretty and special and cool she was. Hmph! stupid stuck up bug zapper, what the heck was so great about her anyway?. Uiharu silently fumed before reading the next part.
What followed was the sound of a skull slamming against her wooden desk. On the screen in bold text were the words you get upset when they talk about people they like. The embarrassed girl groaned, she couldn't believe she walked right into that one. Rubbing her sore achy forehead she tried to figure this out.
It was admittedly true her thoughts and feelings on Misaka-san had become complicated. In the beginning she had been the one idolising her, been the one that begged Shirai-san into arranging a meeting for them. And Misaka-san definitely didn't disappoint. She was expecting such a high class and affluent young lady to regard her with disdain but she was actually rather down to earth and approachable.
And surprisingly heroic too, using her powers for good, unlike unfortunately a lot of other level 5's. But then suddenly one week in August she became weirdly distant to everyone, either really quiet or easily irritated the few times she went out on town with the group. All of us took it hard but Shirai was effected the worst by it.
She became clearly down herself, rather sullen and withdrawn. She confessed rather shakily that Misaka-san kept disappearing in the middle of the night and making her fear for her safety. It wasn't wise to be out at night with that terrorist bombing spree going on.
One day she even found Shirai crying. Sobbing quietly in the girls bathroom of a restaurant they were at. She hurriedly denied it and teleported away once Uiharu found her but she knew what she saw. And it was worrying, Shirai was so strong and tough and brave and well— pretty much everything she wasn't.
The last time she had seen her in such a state was last year when her parents didn't show up to her Judgement graduation ceremony. So she knew it was deeply affecting her.
Shirai-san vehemently denied what she saw of course, when she later tentatively brought it up, as usual wanting to be seen as more mature as she was. Uiharu didn't want to worsen things for her so she didn't broach the topic again. She did, however, make the effort to keep her company more while outside work.
It did seem to slightly lift her spirits but she could still tell Shirai was barely keeping herself together.
Then as quickly as it started, it ended. Misaka-san began hanging out with them again without a single explanation why she was so distant. No problems with her family or any kind of excuse like that were made.
Shirai and Saten-san didn't mind. They were just glad things were back to normal. She… well, she was happy that Shirai wasn't depressed any more, but the whole situation didn't sit right with her. For Misaka to just run off like that and make the rest of them worry after everything they'd been through together without even giving a reason for it just seemed... wrong. Something just gnawed at her insides whenever she thought about it.
When Uiharu tried to express her worries to Shirai she just fobbed her off with some nonsense about mature girls having their own secrets or something to that effect. Uiharu reluctantly accepted that explanation at the time but now it just seemed so stupid. What was so mature about running off when your best friend was injured and needed your support?
She took a few deep breaths and closed her eyes to try and calm herself down, thinking of Misaka-san these days just made her so frustrated. Turning back to her computer screen she read the next part. "You imagine kissing them, ...well technically I suppose I dreamed that soooo it's not really the same." Okay she had to admit even that felt like a paper-thin defence.
She shook her head trying to get the taste and feel of Kuroko's lips out of her head. J-just focus on the next part, stay cool and focused, don't think about her. "You have to try not to think about the—Oh come on!"
Rubbing her temples as her frustration built up. At this point it feels like the site is taunting me, bah, maybe Saten-san made it.
"Okay, okay, last one, you realize your feelings about them have changed. When you just feel like your emotions toward them are different than they used to be it could be a sign that your falling for her, sometimes you just know." A tense silence settled over the small dorm as Uiharu reread the article trying to avoid the truth she knew was there.
Was she just in denial? Was she really in love with that perverted idiot? Well what were her feelings on Shirai-san exactly? And how have they changed?.
Originally she saw Shirai as a kind of heroic ideal to strive for, the way she tried to selflessly protect her back at that bank robbery and was so far ahead in Judgement training compared to her. Over time as she grew to know her better, she saw she wasn't exactly perfect. She could be tough to deal with at times, very guarded with her feelings and somewhat stuck up. But sometimes she let her guard down around her and Uiharu got to see just how insecure she really was about her parents and short stature and worth as a judgement agent. All this she found quite endearing that she wasn't alone in feeling such things.
They got along well and she found the young ojou-sama fun to be around, sometimes they argued over a case or something menial but they always made up in the end. Since this dating scheme happened though. She found herself feeling different about her. Uiharu felt this strange feeling of comfort when around Shirai-san now, a warm tenderness when she thought about her expressions or voice or pretty long hair. And whenever she wasn't around her she felt this gaping hole in herself widening, begging her to go back to her. Just this brief spell away from the hospital was hurting her.
"I-I'm in love with Shirai Kuroko." She confessed at last. Saying it as quietly as she could as if afraid someone would hear. A sense of relief flooded her but just as quickly as it came it vanished, replaced with unease.
Yes, she was in love, but with someone head over heels for somebody else. How could a tiny weak unattractive thing like her compete with the ace of Tokiwadai?
The deeper question really was— what now?
Author's Note: Hope you all enjoyed this, as always reviews are very much appreciated. I can't promise when the next chapter will be ready but I can promise that it will be nowhere near as long a wait as this was.