Unexpectedly
Disclaimer: I do not own Death Note and I don't make profit from this fiction.
Mello parked his motorbike and rushed into the hospital as fast as he could. He hurried to press the button of the lift, but the floor number on the display never showed the trend of dropping to one. He had to go for the stairs.
"Halle!"
"So you've come!" Halle said as she turned back. She sat on the hospital bed with a thick pillow under her right foot, hugging her laptop.
Mello strode in and tried to keep his breath steady. He eyed Halle carefully from her head to her swollen ankle, betraying his worry he tried to hide.
"How are you feeling?" Mello sat carefully next to Halle as he looked the band-aid on Halle's face and the neck brace on her neck.
"I feel better now." Halle mumbled.
"How did you fall down the stairs? How careless!" Mello stared at Halle with his sharp blue eyes, frowning.
"I sprained my ankle when I was about to walk down the stairs." Halle said, amused at Mello's serious expression.
Mello subconsciously turned his eyes away, kicking himself mentally for gaffes he had just made . "What did your doctor say?"
"Ankle sprain. He has put a dressing on my ankle." Halle stated.
"How about your face? Your colleague told me you were feeling dizzy on the phone."
Halle touched the band-aid on her face. "It's just a scrape on my face. He examined me, and I just have a mild concussion." Halle said softly. She put the computer on the other side and then took Mello's hands. "Don't worry. The doctor's holding me overnight for observation. I'll be able to go home tomorrow unless something unexpected happened." She glanced at the bun on the bedside table. "Have you had your dinner? I haven't finished the hospital food. Do you wanna eat some?"
"I'm not hungry." Mello let Halle squeeze his hands, and his eyes swept around the room. "Didn't the nurse give an ice pack for you?"
Halle blinked in surprise. "No. What's wrong? Mello, where are you going?"
Mello withdrew his hands from Halle's grasp and walked out. He came back with an ice pack a short time later. He cautiously put the ice pack on the back of Halle's right foot as she gasped in pain.
"Wear high heels as few as possible later, at least in the field." Mello said abruptly.
"Why? Even when my foot heals?" Halle asked, wondering.
"You wouldn't be here if you hadn't wear that slim-heeled shoes."
"Come on, Mello. It was an accident."
"You don't know your feet are deformed from wearing high…"
At that moment, Halle's cell phone rang, and she grabbed it. "Hello, yeah, this is Lidner. I'm better now. I'll send you the materials I just put together for tomorrow's meeting…Okay. Bye." Halle hung up the phone and saw the look in Mello's face hardening.
"Are you still going to work tomorrow after all this?"
"The doctor will allow me to go out of hospital tomorrow. Hey! What are you doing?" Halle sniffed. Mello shut down Halle's laptop and had it under his arm.
"Don't think about work until you're out of the hospital." Mello snapped.
"Don't be so bossy Mello. Give it back." Halle stretched her arms, trying to get her laptop.
"Shall I call Near? You're not the only subordinate he has. Can't the work be scheduled for someone else?" Mello said, pulling out his cellphone.
Rat-tat.
They stopped arguing at the same time and saw a slightly chubby nurse standing in the doorway with her arms crossed.
"The patient needs rest. You will disturb her and other patients' rest if you keep making noise." The nurse snapped, glaring at Mello.
Mello was just about to speak himself, and then felt that this nurse looked a little familiar.
"It's you who took the ice pack just now?" The nurse gave Mello a disgusted look. "Are you really here to visit a patient? " The she cast her eyes out the door to give a glimpse at the anxious-eyed people in the hallway with flowers in their hands. "I think you're here to make a mess."
Mello rode his motorcycle on the road as the words the nurse said echoed in her mind and the scene that visitors held flowers at the hospital rose before his eyes. He stalled at the traffic lights and shook his head to put the picture from his mind, but Halle's face came to his mind. "Flowers?" Mello looked up at the moon hanging in the night sky, muttering.
Mello finally walked in the florist after hovering in the doorway. The tastefully-decorated florist was filled with the rich scent of flowers. Biting a bit of chocolate, Mello was overwhelmed in front of the huge variety of flowers. He suddenly felt that the other people peeped him. He knew his appearance made him out of place in the ambiance of the florist and was used to being looked at weirdly. A young saleswoman approached him when he was about to leave.
"Sir, can I help you?" The girl asked in sweet voice.
"Uh ... I'll get some flowers." Mello stammered.
"For a lady?"
"Yeah." Mello nodded slightly. He pondered for two seconds and added hastily. "She's in hospital."
"I see." The girl pulled a few pink carnations out of the vase and looked back at him. "May I know, what is it between you and her?"
"... She ...she's... a friend." Mello faltered. "She's my friend."
The clerk smiled at him, taking Mello's performance in stride. "Well, I'll choose a few other flowers for you. Are you okay with that?"
Mello returned to the hospital with the bouquet in his arms as he thought what Halle would say when she got the flowers and how he would explained his reason for buying flowers. He entered the ward with mixed feelings, but found Halle was already asleep. Her long eyelashes fluttered like butterfly wings as she breathed evenly, and her neatly trimmed bangs softly plastered to her forehead. Her serene sleeping face was lovely and sweet. He sat on the stool near the bed, as memories of past occurred to him. He had broken into her life one day, and she had sat by the side of the bed looking at wounded him as he did now. Mello couldn't help reaching out and tried to touch Halle's face. She suddenly moved her head slightly, and Mello immediately withdrew his hand. He swallowed the saliva, then he put the bouquet on the bedside table without dropping it and prepared to leave. He imagined Halle's expression when she woke up and saw the flowers by the bedside, completely unware of the sound of pressing plastic paper wrapping around the flowers waking Halle up as he fiddled with flowers.
"Mello ... " Halle stared blankly at Mello. Her eyes widened as she saw the flowers in Mello's arms. "I thought you went home."
Mello looked at Halle's curious eyes and then looked down at the flowers in his hand. Thousands of thoughts instantly passed through his mind. He began to regret that he had been nosy and made a noise, and that he had done something as out of his style as buying flowers. The awkward in the room made his face heat up. "I shouldn't have woken you up." He apologized.
Halle sat up and asked gently. "It doesn't matter. You'll give the flowers to me?"
Mello realized he couldn't easily tell the reason he thought on the way at all, and handed the flowers to Halle. "Of course, they're for you ..."
Halle took the bouquet with delight, leaning close to flowers. "Thank you!" She said smiling and stroked the petals happily like a child getting a new toy.
Mello gazed at Halle with corners of his mouth upward. He admired pink carnations, perfume lilies and purple balloon flowers collocation of flowers, and it was obvious that Halle liked the bouquet, too.
"Did you pick all these flowers?" Halle said abruptly.
"…Recommended by the clerk." Murmured Mello.
"I guess so." Halle cooed.
"Is there anything wrong?" Noticing the change of her tone, Mello asked hurriedly.
"No." Halle slightly shook her head, putting the bouquet on the table. "They're beautiful. But it's not merely a collocation of flowers for patient in the hospital, it has another meaning of a desire to embrace your beloved."
Mello opened his mouth in surprise and felt his heart pounding, regretting that he didn't figure out floral language before buying flowers. "I don't know much about flowers, Halle." He sheepishly admitted.
"I knew it. Ordinarily you didn't even bother to take a second look at flowers I brought to home." Halle leaned to hug Mello unexpectedly and let go of him soon. "I appreciate your kindness. Thank you for spending time in buying flowers and coming again." She smiled, facing Mello's strange look.
Mello looked away, as if he was not used to exposing this kind of genuine eyes "I just passed by the florist on my way home.". On reflection, he smirked back. "I can't let you be the only one without flower by the bedside in the hospital, anyway."