Chapter 2: Your Lie in April#1

Kaori Miyazono opens her eyes and returns to the land of the living. There is a steady beeping sound coming from the health monitor and she assumes someone had brought her all the way back to the nursing center of the university. Not for the first time she is gripped by a sense of helplessness.

She had lost consciousness, having lost all her senses, and collapsed, the whole world turning black in an instant and there was nothing she could do about it except come to terms with her illness. It was a difficult thing to grasp, coming face to face with your own mortality at such a young age. There were many things in life she had been looking forward to do and from the way things are she might not be able to accomplish even half of them.

There might also come a time when she can no longer play her violin -

Her violin!

Despite how much it hurt to move her limbs she somehow got up into a makeshift sitting position, balancing on her wobbly elbows, her blonde hair swaying here and there as she looked around like a mad person, searching in vain for her violin.

No, this couldn't happen, she thought, I can't lose my violin, I would rather die –

"Looking for this."

Kaori Miyazono turned to look down the foot of the infirmary bed and there was a stranger sitting on a chair holding onto her prized position. She tried to crawl her way to him, but visibly winced with each hapless effort and that made him rise from his seat rather quickly and come to her aid.

"Hey stop moving around. I don't want you to fall down and break your neck."

"I can barely move. I'm not going to fall down." Kaori complained, and then pleaded. "Please, give me back my violin."

The stranger looked pained and uncertain, having to make such an unfair decision. She could see in his eyes which were rather scary how he was appraising her, figuring out whether to take into consideration the pleadings of a woman who looked half way mad with her disheveled hair and crumpled clothes, covered in dirt and fallen leaves, begging for a violin which didn't suit her current hospitalized ensemble.

She had obviously made a bad first impression, she thought, but that was no reason to keep her away from her violin.

"I don't want a complete stranger touching my violin."

"Tch. Says the woman you almost broke this thing in half by falling on it."

"I did what!"

Now she felt alarmed. This was bad. She always took her violin everywhere she went and when she started attending this prestigious university that didn't change. But instead of practicing in the auditorium like most musicians, she chose to play outdoors as it suited her playing style more.

But now because of her deteriorating medical condition she had actually come close to damaging her musical instrument, something that had never happened before.

Within seconds she felt close to tears, but she couldn't cry because if she started crying now, she would never stop and then her life might as well end. But no, this is not how she wanted things to end. She still had time, she still had her violin.

"Look, stop crying. Here," He placed the violin somewhere on the bed, within her reach and she couldn't feel happier in that second.

"Thank you."

"Whatever."

Now that she got a proper look at him, she could say for sure that he wasn't really all that scary. Sure there was something up with those rotten looking eyes, but his face was kinda handsome. Though, something could be said about his overall personality. People are usually nicer to those who still lay in there hospital beds.

But he had taken good care of her violin while she was passed out, so she will give his rudeness a slide. Plus, she wasn't feeling all that great, so she didn't knew whether she could throw a punch at his stupid head.

"What happened to my violin case?"

"Tch, musicians," he grumbled a bit out loud.

"What was that?"

"Nothing! It's cute. Your violin case, I mean. Pink with those cat stickers." He coughed, turning a bit red in the face with embarrassment.

She didn't know what he was trying to do, but she took the compliment for what it was, nothing really all that special. He probably hadn't heard her play, then he would have tons of things to compliment her about. Not that she wanted him to compliment her. It was not like he was flirting with her, was he – of course not.

She didn't even know his name.

"Hey what's your name?"

"Hachiman Hikigaya."

"So," Well this was awkward. Her mind felt kinda fuzzy. She never had difficulty talking with people, but this was proving to be rather difficult. So, she talked about the first thing that came to her mind. It was really not that hard when she thought about it. "Do you play any musical instruments, Hikigaya-kun?"

Hachiman Hikigaya looked at her with those discerning eyes. It was like he was trying to decide whether to tell her something or not. She didn't quite understand him. From the looks of it he was a student here at the university and now that she thought about it, he had carried her unconscious body all the way back to the nursing center while also carrying her violin and violin case separately.

Either he was really strong or she had grown as frail as a fallen leaf. She didn't want to think about it.

"-iola"

She blinked at the noise she heard. Was she now losing her hearing abilities as well – no, she had been paying attention. He had barely moved his lips, just mumbled something. His face was also turning a bit red, again from embarrassment. She didn't know what that was all about.

"I'm sorry, but could you speak a bit louder."

This time he looked at her with an expressionless face and replied,

"I played the viola."

The effects of those words were instantaneous. Kaori could feel something bubble up from her throat and it reached her mouth and came out from her lips, despite her half hearted efforts to stop it. No, it wasn't a laugh, you couldn't make her admit it was something even remotely close to laughter. It was just a sound like,

"Pfft."

"Miyazono-san, I forgot to remind you, that the nurse said that it would be ill-advised to laugh at your present medical condition."

"She said no such thing, you are lying!" Now she was feeling better, back to her cheerful self. Guess it was really true, laughter is the best medicine. She then wondered whether he was doing this on purpose.

Then something popped into her mind and she had to ask,

"Hey Hikigaya-kun," she said in a sing song voice. "What is the range of a viola?"

"…However far you can kick it -"

She burst into loud laughter and it droned out his voice, but she could still make out some of the words he said.

"- yes, I know all the bad jokes. You can laugh now, no need to worry. Like I said, I used to play the viola. These jokes don't have an effect on me."

He was smiling a little too. On the other hand, she couldn't control her laughter, no matter how much she tried. It didn't hurt no more, she realized a second later when she found him staring at her with something close to knowledge of her present condition.

"Glad to see someone can find joy from my childhood miseries."

"Hey, I'm not the one who bought you a viola."

"No it was my father. Our relationship hasn't been the same since."

Kaori chuckled a bit and wondered secretly whether he was some kind of comedian. Granted his jokes weren't that funny, but it did make her laugh when she was feeling miserable and that had to count for something. With the way things were she found it alright to continue listening to him, even when he went onto give a small rant at the unfairness of violas being the butt of all orchestral jokes.

"It's like baking a cake. We need sugar, yeast, flour and eggs. Now violin is the sugar-"

"Are you calling me sugar?" She asked, feeling herself getting embarrassed.

"No, of course not. The violin is the sugar. It's sweet, warm tone gets a lot of attention, sometimes too much and that leads to heart disease and weight gain. Oh, I'm not talking about you. I'm sure you are great." He quickly moved on to save his life. He would never know the danger he had been at that moment. "Then we have the cello, the yeast. It makes the cake rise, but add too much and it will look like the fallout from a nuclear explosion. Then we have the flour, the bass, because we need something to hold everything together. Finally we have the eggs. Now by themselves they taste awful, nothing at all like the sweet taste of cake. But, it adds texture to the whole thing and I think it is important."

He finished a bit haphazardly and then turned to her. "What do you think, Miyazono-san?"

"I think I want a slice of cake for lunch." Kaori Miyazono said, unashamedly.

She licked her lips in anticipation while she thought of a way she could make him come along with her all the way to the bakery. She still had time and that was important.

For the rest, she would think up something.

A/N: Thank you "Clipsus" for suggesting Kaori Miyazono. I had real fun writing this chapter. I hope I did that character justice. Let me know what you think.