A/N: Sorry about the huge wait, but school's started and it's been hell.
One of my AP classes ended up getting canceled, so now I'm some crappy
wannabe beginning art class with people who hate art. But at least I get
to draw during school hours and not get in trouble! Then my schedule got
turned upside down. You know how this goes. I'm already running around
like crazy for the Cartooning Club and meeting up with some friends I
hadn't seem all summer. I'm pulling my hair out since I should be do
research right now and I am going to! So I apologize now if updates don't
come often-not like I was great about updating anyway. Wish me luck this
year and I wish you all luck!
Disclaimer: If I owned Fruits Basket, I would demand them to make me huge life-size cutouts of Shigure, Kyou, and Ayame, and maybe even Hatori. But I don't own it. So no life-size cutouts. Not fair.
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~~Don't Let Hope Escape~~
So many weeks had passed and still Mari never opened her eyes. Shigure still sat by her side and Kyou still came everyday to stay with her. The others came to see her, talk to her. Uo-chan came by after school all the time, along with Kagura. Mikki Hakuu even came by once. Hiro and Kisa also got to see Mari for the first time in two years.
Kisa talked to the young girl about not letting what people say about you get in your way of trying to succeed, a lesson she had to learn the hard way. Hiro, on the other hand, talked about, well anything expect Mari's current state at the hospital or school. Kisa kept on holding Mari's small hand, as if to try to support her.
Momiji and Hatsuharu came by a few times as well. Momiji did most of the talking, while Haru just sat by her side and watched her breathe. One time Ayame came with them, only to get kicked out for harassing some of the hospital patients. So from then on, he was only allowed in for short periods of times.
Tohru would sometimes stop by after her work and just talk to Mari about how much she missed her help in the kitchen and how she was looking foreword to go on walks with her again. Yuki still came by, but only to still sit on the couch and never really get close to Mari.
Hatori stayed with Mari. He knew that he had to. Something about her never let him leave for long periods of time. Maybe it had to do with the fact that it was living proof of Shigure's failed marriage; one he could have had if Akito didn't broke it apart. Or maybe it had to do with Mari's simple innocence and unknowingness of her position in the family.
Kyou would spend his days there, just sitting Mari's side, or helping Shigure out one way or another. He felt as if he owed Shigure a lot since he had taken him in and let him stay with Mari all of the time. Kyou would sometimes stay at the front desk of the hospital and talk to Yoko Ohki, who would just let Kyou sit behind the desk to get away from all the stress he was feeling while sitting in Mari's hospital room.
Shigure stayed in Mari's hospital room most of the time, only getting out a few times whenever Hatori or Kyou forced him to get out. His editor Mii (is that her name? I can never remember it. Please tell me if it's not! I'll fix it!) had given up on trying to get manuscripts from him and would sometimes come and just see Mari. Shigure had grown thin and weak and wasn't ever getting enough sleep. He knew that if Mari died, he wouldn't have the spirit to live on and just die right there beside her.
One incident that did life everyone's mood temporally was when Mari turned into a cat one afternoon. Kyou was just reading his book when he heard the famous POOF and saw a white cloud where Mari had been sleeping. When the smoke cleared , he saw a small orange kitten with the life-support mask attached to it's face where Mari had been.
"Oh, shit," Kyou plainly stated and at that moment Shigure came into the room with Hatori.
"What seems to be the matter Kyou-kun?" Shigure asked Kyou after he saw him just staring with his mouth open. Shigure followed Kyou's eyes to see Mari in her animal form. "AHHHH!!! Shit!"
Hatori looked over Shigure's shoulder and pressed his lips into a fine line. "This isn't good."
"Well, no really! Of course this isn't good Ha-chan! The doctor is coming in twenty-five minutes to check Mari!" Shigure was now curled up into a little ball, crying.
"If we don't panic, everything will work out," Hatori plainly stated as he was checking over Mari's chart's information.
"I haven't seen her in her cat form before."
Shigure and Hatori looked up at Kyou who was now gently petting Mari.
"What did you expect Kyou-kun?! A donkey?!" Shigure whacked Kyou on the side of the head.
"What was that for?!"
"She's cat just like you! Of course she would turn into a small orange kitten!"
"Would you two please just shut up!" Hatori slammed his clipboard against the bed. "People will be running her to see what the commotion is if you keep this up!" Kyou and Shigure both clamped their mouths shut and looked straight at Hatori. "If the tension in this room does not come down, Mari will stay in her form longer." Shigure and Kyou both put their heads down and sat in silence.
"Ah, Kyou. You said this was the first time you've seen her transform?"
"Yeah. Why does it matter?"
"That means she hasn't transformed for a few months?" Hatori's voice was starting to shake.
"Hai."
"Oh crap."
"What do you mean 'oh crap'?!"
"Don't you remember what I told you when you were little Kyou about transforming often?"
Kyou scrunched his eyebrows together and put a frown on his face. "No."
"Think boy, think!" Shigure had apparently caught on to what Hatori was saying and was now shaking Kyou back and forth. "Think! Think back to when you came back from the long training with your master!"
Kyou still didn't get it. "What are you talking about?"
"How if the longer you go without transforming, the longer it can take you to transform back?!"
"Oh yeah. I remember now."
Shigure threw his hands up, as if to surrender. "I give up on this kid. He won't ever amount to anything!"
"Don't talk about me like that! Hell, I'm still in the room! At least have the manners to talk crap about me when I'm not present!" Kyou was now lunging for Shigure, but Hatori was holding him back with an "I give up" look on his face. Shigure wasn't helping; he was too busy making faces at Kyou.
"You know, neither of you are helping this situation." No one listened. Hatori shut his mouth and just sat on the couch.
Fifteen minutes passed. Kyou and Hatori just kept on getting on the other's nerves. Hatori just watched them go back and forth.
Five minutes later, Hatori noticed that there was another POOF and say Mari lying on the bed. He saw that Shigure and Kyou were still going at it, so he got up himself and dressed Mari and fixed her so it looked as if she hadn't moved at all. When the doctor came through the door, Shigure and Kyou stopped in their tracks, not realizing that Mari had transformed back. The doctor checked over Mari and smiled. "She's okay. Nothing unusual going on." Then she turned and left.
Shigure ran over to Hatori and put his arms around him. "Thank you Ha- chan! You saved us! You're my hero!"
"Yeah Hatori. Arigato."
"It was nothing. Just don't fight anymore."
"We promise! Don't we Kyou-kun?"
"Sure."
A few hours later, the doctor came in and motioned for Shigure to come out side the room with her.
"Sohma-san, I-"
"Please, Shigure."
"Shigure. I have some news to tell you about the current condition of your daughter."
"You said she was okay and that nothing unusual was going on."
"That's true."
"So then what's the problem?"
"Her condition barely moves. And when it does, it goes down."
"She's so small. Her body isn't used to taking on such an illness. Her immune system is just weak."
"We know. And we've done everything we can to try to help her. But nothing is working."
"What are you getting at?"
"If her conditions don't improve in a few weeks, they're be no point of keeping her on life-support."
"Just like that? You're going to let her die?"
"We're not giving up on her now. It's just that her body is too young and fragile to really do much more."
"She's the only reason I'm living right now. Do you know that? If she dies, I die. You'll be the cause of two deaths."
"You make it sound like we want to kill her."
"Don't you? The faster you get rid of her that faster you can get a patient you think you can save."
"Shigure! I'm trying to help your daughter! I want to see her life as much as you do, as much her family. I won't give up until the very end."
Shigure sat on the bench by the door and buried his face in his hands. The doctor just stood beside him.
"I know what you're feeling right now Shigure. I lost my own daughter when she was five. They couldn't save her. Her lungs refused to take in the oxygen they were giving her." The doctor sat down beside Shigure. "I thought that they wanted to wanted her die, just so they could stop worrying about her. But they really tried to save her." She put her hand on Shigure's knee. "I'm going to do everything I can to try to save her. I can promise you that." And then she got up and left.
Shigure got up and walked back into the room. He sat beside Mari's bedside before crying.
"Please Mari. Please baby. Come back to us. Don't make me try to go on without you."
~~Later that Week~~
It was mid-morning and Shigure was sitting beside Mari, reading the paper. Hatori was on the couch, filling out paperwork. Through the open window in the room, a slight breeze came through, lifting everyone's spirits. Still playing in Shigure's mind was words that the doctor had said earlier about taking Mari off life-support. He still hadn't told anyone about it. "There's still hope," Shigure thought. "No need to get everyone worried for no reason." He looked over at his daughter, who was still sleeping. He brushed her hair away from her shoulder onto the pillow and gently kissed her forehead. He let his finger draw across her cheek and stop by the bottom of the mask. He frowned at it, tapping it once before going back to his reading. He hated the mask; it made her seem so much weaker than she really was, but he knew it was saving her, it was giving her a bit of hope.
In Mari's mind, she was losing the battle.
"Give up. There's no point of trying to go on," one voice kept on muttering, laughing. "No one cares about you and all you cause is pain."
"No! You're wrong!" A seemingly lost version of her was floating in darkness, trying to find the voice. "They care about me and not everything is my fault!"
"You're the one who's wrong. They really don't care about you. The only reason they come to see you is to pay respect. They're already planning your funeral." Laughter.
"Iie." She was getting scared. What if the voice was right? "Iie. Iie." But now she didn't even believe what she was saying. The voice seemed to notice.
"Just let yourself fall into internal sleep. It's better for you. It's better for everyone." A light seemed to appear, beckoning her to come towards it.
And she did.
On the outside, Mari's numbers were slowly dropping. Slowly enough that no alarm was caused. But still falling, her breathing slowing down.
She was closer to the light, but she stopped. She was crying. "If this is what is right, why does it hurt so much?" She whispered. Still, she started to go on again.
Now there were memories. Memories came flooding back again. Swimming around her were images, images of everyone she loved, everyone she hated. Her mother, her father, her family. She reached out towards them, only to find her hand seep right through.
"You're not part of that world anymore," the voice stated. "You're no longer part of them."
"But I want to be! I don't want to leave yet!" She started crying again. She started running the other way, away from death.
But it kept following her.
Then Mari tripped and hurled towards the floor.
Death was now upon her.
Trapped, with no way out, she screamed.
Screamed as her body slowly started dissolving into the black.
Screamed as the light blinded her.
Screamed since she had no way to escape.
~~Afterwards~~
Shigure suddenly felt a shiver sent up his spine. He looked up from his reading over at Mari. He checked her machine; everything seemed to be normal. Shigure watched Mari breathing for a while; just to make sure that everything was fine. He looked over at Hatori, who wore a questioning look on his face.
"What's wrong Shigure?"
"Nothing. Nothing. I just felt a like someone ran ice down my back. Call me crazy."
"You checked Mari's machines."
"I did."
"You don't have to worry. If anything happens, it'll notify us right away."
"I know. It's just-" Shigure paused. "I'm so worried for her. I just want everything to work out for the both of us."
"I know Shigure. I know."
Hatori smiled at Shigure, who smiled back weakly. Hatori got up to delver his paper work.
Just moments after Hatori left and Shigure got lost in his own thoughts, it happened.
Mari's eyes opened.
She blinked, trying to focus, only to be greeted by a white room.
Suddenly, she was frightened.
"Did I die?" She searched her thoughts. "Hospital? Blood? Blackness?" Her eyes were starting to adjust. A table formed in the corner of the room. She felt the mask placed on her face. Weakly she smiled to herself. "I'm fine. I'm not gone." Then, with all of the energy left in her, she turned her head to the side, to she her father reading the paper, with his hair falling in front of his eyes and a slight smile of amusement on his face. "He stayed with me. Just like he promised." Small tears started forming in her eyes. She had no energy to lift up her hand to wipe them away, so she just let them fall. Her miniature crystal like tears made a noise that no one could hear.
A noise that no one could hear unless they were listening for it.
Shigure lowered his hand from his chin, with a slight confused look on his face. He ran his tongue over his lips before shaking his head and going back to his reading. He couldn't concentrate. He looked ahead, his eyebrows scrunched together. He shook his head again. He lowered his eyes to go back to reading, but stopped midway. He shifted his gaze gradually to face her, only to find to his surprise her deep blue eyes staring right back at him.
"Mari?" he whispered.
She smiled for her father and did her best to find her voice. "Dad~dy." She wanted to lift herself up to see him better, but she couldn't muster the strength to do it.
"Don't push yourself baby." Shigure wiped some of her tears from her face before letting his own fall. "All that matters now is that you're wake." He kissed her on the forehead. "I bet you're confused about what happened huh?"
Mari's head nodded slightly.
"You've been asleep for weeks baby. We were worried you might decide to never get up. The next time you feel sick, tell me okay? You don't have to keep all inside and this doesn't have to happen again." His voice was quivering and his hand was slightly trembling as he touched her cheek. "I love you much, you know that? I don't know what I would have done if you were gone."
"Me. Too." Mari's mask didn't let her talk easily and she knew better than try to pull it off. She tried to lift her hand towards her father, but he stopped it.
"You rest. You need to get your strength back." He smiled, truly smiled for his daughter. He looked into her eyes and saw what she wanted. He lifted her gently and held her against him.
For the first time in weeks, Mari felt safe. Nothing could reach her now. She felt her father's strength holding her safe and protecting her, yet felt the gentleness of his heart at the same time. She felt the tears sliding down her face. She was suppose to live. She was suppose to go on and stay with her father forever.
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A/N: Mari finally woke up. I don't think you understand how happy I am right now. I even cried while I wrote this. I wasn't sure I was ever going to have her wake up. Scary huh? Oh, before I forget, I want to thank Spoon (you know who you are), my pal who knows not much about anime (well, expect for Excel Saga, Cowboy Bebop, and Dragon Half and a few other random titles we made her watch with us) for helping me write some of the parts where Mari was waking up. She has such a way with words and helped me put what I wanted to happen in a way that you could understand. Thanks a million Spoon! Good luck on your story! You all better read her story, an original fic, when she posts it. Don't worry, I'll tell you when so you all must read it! MUHAHAHA!!! I kinda know where I want this story to go, and I hope it all works out fine! I really want to play with the idea of Yuki/Kagura a bit just cuz it would add some flavor and humor. What do you guys think? Ohhh! I can't wait to write about Kyou seeing Mari now that she's awake! I'll try to write it as soon as possible. Evanescence fans: my sister has officially killed "Bring Me to Life" forever. Now, instead of crying when I hear the song, I laugh hysterically. What happened was that I always listen to the cd when I do artwork, so one night she comes into my room and asks me to lend her the cd for a few minutes. I agree and ten minutes later she comes back to my room in bright colored clothing and asks me to play the cd. I do. She belts out the song, using the Swifter broom she was suppose to be cleaning her room with as a mic-stand. So she's imitating some parts of the dance from our studio (she went there too) and just rolling down our hallway with the Swifter. She gets all into it and even does these fancy tricks. Then she dared me to do "Dirrty" and I did. I admit it. I was dancing along with the Swifter. That is, until, we heard someone coming up the stairs. Then everything went back to normal. So now whenever I hear "Bring Me to Life", I crack up. Thanks for sticking with me and this crazy story. I don't deserve fans like you! (tear) If I don't drive myself crazy and update, until then, D-Yai.
Disclaimer: If I owned Fruits Basket, I would demand them to make me huge life-size cutouts of Shigure, Kyou, and Ayame, and maybe even Hatori. But I don't own it. So no life-size cutouts. Not fair.
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~~Don't Let Hope Escape~~
So many weeks had passed and still Mari never opened her eyes. Shigure still sat by her side and Kyou still came everyday to stay with her. The others came to see her, talk to her. Uo-chan came by after school all the time, along with Kagura. Mikki Hakuu even came by once. Hiro and Kisa also got to see Mari for the first time in two years.
Kisa talked to the young girl about not letting what people say about you get in your way of trying to succeed, a lesson she had to learn the hard way. Hiro, on the other hand, talked about, well anything expect Mari's current state at the hospital or school. Kisa kept on holding Mari's small hand, as if to try to support her.
Momiji and Hatsuharu came by a few times as well. Momiji did most of the talking, while Haru just sat by her side and watched her breathe. One time Ayame came with them, only to get kicked out for harassing some of the hospital patients. So from then on, he was only allowed in for short periods of times.
Tohru would sometimes stop by after her work and just talk to Mari about how much she missed her help in the kitchen and how she was looking foreword to go on walks with her again. Yuki still came by, but only to still sit on the couch and never really get close to Mari.
Hatori stayed with Mari. He knew that he had to. Something about her never let him leave for long periods of time. Maybe it had to do with the fact that it was living proof of Shigure's failed marriage; one he could have had if Akito didn't broke it apart. Or maybe it had to do with Mari's simple innocence and unknowingness of her position in the family.
Kyou would spend his days there, just sitting Mari's side, or helping Shigure out one way or another. He felt as if he owed Shigure a lot since he had taken him in and let him stay with Mari all of the time. Kyou would sometimes stay at the front desk of the hospital and talk to Yoko Ohki, who would just let Kyou sit behind the desk to get away from all the stress he was feeling while sitting in Mari's hospital room.
Shigure stayed in Mari's hospital room most of the time, only getting out a few times whenever Hatori or Kyou forced him to get out. His editor Mii (is that her name? I can never remember it. Please tell me if it's not! I'll fix it!) had given up on trying to get manuscripts from him and would sometimes come and just see Mari. Shigure had grown thin and weak and wasn't ever getting enough sleep. He knew that if Mari died, he wouldn't have the spirit to live on and just die right there beside her.
One incident that did life everyone's mood temporally was when Mari turned into a cat one afternoon. Kyou was just reading his book when he heard the famous POOF and saw a white cloud where Mari had been sleeping. When the smoke cleared , he saw a small orange kitten with the life-support mask attached to it's face where Mari had been.
"Oh, shit," Kyou plainly stated and at that moment Shigure came into the room with Hatori.
"What seems to be the matter Kyou-kun?" Shigure asked Kyou after he saw him just staring with his mouth open. Shigure followed Kyou's eyes to see Mari in her animal form. "AHHHH!!! Shit!"
Hatori looked over Shigure's shoulder and pressed his lips into a fine line. "This isn't good."
"Well, no really! Of course this isn't good Ha-chan! The doctor is coming in twenty-five minutes to check Mari!" Shigure was now curled up into a little ball, crying.
"If we don't panic, everything will work out," Hatori plainly stated as he was checking over Mari's chart's information.
"I haven't seen her in her cat form before."
Shigure and Hatori looked up at Kyou who was now gently petting Mari.
"What did you expect Kyou-kun?! A donkey?!" Shigure whacked Kyou on the side of the head.
"What was that for?!"
"She's cat just like you! Of course she would turn into a small orange kitten!"
"Would you two please just shut up!" Hatori slammed his clipboard against the bed. "People will be running her to see what the commotion is if you keep this up!" Kyou and Shigure both clamped their mouths shut and looked straight at Hatori. "If the tension in this room does not come down, Mari will stay in her form longer." Shigure and Kyou both put their heads down and sat in silence.
"Ah, Kyou. You said this was the first time you've seen her transform?"
"Yeah. Why does it matter?"
"That means she hasn't transformed for a few months?" Hatori's voice was starting to shake.
"Hai."
"Oh crap."
"What do you mean 'oh crap'?!"
"Don't you remember what I told you when you were little Kyou about transforming often?"
Kyou scrunched his eyebrows together and put a frown on his face. "No."
"Think boy, think!" Shigure had apparently caught on to what Hatori was saying and was now shaking Kyou back and forth. "Think! Think back to when you came back from the long training with your master!"
Kyou still didn't get it. "What are you talking about?"
"How if the longer you go without transforming, the longer it can take you to transform back?!"
"Oh yeah. I remember now."
Shigure threw his hands up, as if to surrender. "I give up on this kid. He won't ever amount to anything!"
"Don't talk about me like that! Hell, I'm still in the room! At least have the manners to talk crap about me when I'm not present!" Kyou was now lunging for Shigure, but Hatori was holding him back with an "I give up" look on his face. Shigure wasn't helping; he was too busy making faces at Kyou.
"You know, neither of you are helping this situation." No one listened. Hatori shut his mouth and just sat on the couch.
Fifteen minutes passed. Kyou and Hatori just kept on getting on the other's nerves. Hatori just watched them go back and forth.
Five minutes later, Hatori noticed that there was another POOF and say Mari lying on the bed. He saw that Shigure and Kyou were still going at it, so he got up himself and dressed Mari and fixed her so it looked as if she hadn't moved at all. When the doctor came through the door, Shigure and Kyou stopped in their tracks, not realizing that Mari had transformed back. The doctor checked over Mari and smiled. "She's okay. Nothing unusual going on." Then she turned and left.
Shigure ran over to Hatori and put his arms around him. "Thank you Ha- chan! You saved us! You're my hero!"
"Yeah Hatori. Arigato."
"It was nothing. Just don't fight anymore."
"We promise! Don't we Kyou-kun?"
"Sure."
A few hours later, the doctor came in and motioned for Shigure to come out side the room with her.
"Sohma-san, I-"
"Please, Shigure."
"Shigure. I have some news to tell you about the current condition of your daughter."
"You said she was okay and that nothing unusual was going on."
"That's true."
"So then what's the problem?"
"Her condition barely moves. And when it does, it goes down."
"She's so small. Her body isn't used to taking on such an illness. Her immune system is just weak."
"We know. And we've done everything we can to try to help her. But nothing is working."
"What are you getting at?"
"If her conditions don't improve in a few weeks, they're be no point of keeping her on life-support."
"Just like that? You're going to let her die?"
"We're not giving up on her now. It's just that her body is too young and fragile to really do much more."
"She's the only reason I'm living right now. Do you know that? If she dies, I die. You'll be the cause of two deaths."
"You make it sound like we want to kill her."
"Don't you? The faster you get rid of her that faster you can get a patient you think you can save."
"Shigure! I'm trying to help your daughter! I want to see her life as much as you do, as much her family. I won't give up until the very end."
Shigure sat on the bench by the door and buried his face in his hands. The doctor just stood beside him.
"I know what you're feeling right now Shigure. I lost my own daughter when she was five. They couldn't save her. Her lungs refused to take in the oxygen they were giving her." The doctor sat down beside Shigure. "I thought that they wanted to wanted her die, just so they could stop worrying about her. But they really tried to save her." She put her hand on Shigure's knee. "I'm going to do everything I can to try to save her. I can promise you that." And then she got up and left.
Shigure got up and walked back into the room. He sat beside Mari's bedside before crying.
"Please Mari. Please baby. Come back to us. Don't make me try to go on without you."
~~Later that Week~~
It was mid-morning and Shigure was sitting beside Mari, reading the paper. Hatori was on the couch, filling out paperwork. Through the open window in the room, a slight breeze came through, lifting everyone's spirits. Still playing in Shigure's mind was words that the doctor had said earlier about taking Mari off life-support. He still hadn't told anyone about it. "There's still hope," Shigure thought. "No need to get everyone worried for no reason." He looked over at his daughter, who was still sleeping. He brushed her hair away from her shoulder onto the pillow and gently kissed her forehead. He let his finger draw across her cheek and stop by the bottom of the mask. He frowned at it, tapping it once before going back to his reading. He hated the mask; it made her seem so much weaker than she really was, but he knew it was saving her, it was giving her a bit of hope.
In Mari's mind, she was losing the battle.
"Give up. There's no point of trying to go on," one voice kept on muttering, laughing. "No one cares about you and all you cause is pain."
"No! You're wrong!" A seemingly lost version of her was floating in darkness, trying to find the voice. "They care about me and not everything is my fault!"
"You're the one who's wrong. They really don't care about you. The only reason they come to see you is to pay respect. They're already planning your funeral." Laughter.
"Iie." She was getting scared. What if the voice was right? "Iie. Iie." But now she didn't even believe what she was saying. The voice seemed to notice.
"Just let yourself fall into internal sleep. It's better for you. It's better for everyone." A light seemed to appear, beckoning her to come towards it.
And she did.
On the outside, Mari's numbers were slowly dropping. Slowly enough that no alarm was caused. But still falling, her breathing slowing down.
She was closer to the light, but she stopped. She was crying. "If this is what is right, why does it hurt so much?" She whispered. Still, she started to go on again.
Now there were memories. Memories came flooding back again. Swimming around her were images, images of everyone she loved, everyone she hated. Her mother, her father, her family. She reached out towards them, only to find her hand seep right through.
"You're not part of that world anymore," the voice stated. "You're no longer part of them."
"But I want to be! I don't want to leave yet!" She started crying again. She started running the other way, away from death.
But it kept following her.
Then Mari tripped and hurled towards the floor.
Death was now upon her.
Trapped, with no way out, she screamed.
Screamed as her body slowly started dissolving into the black.
Screamed as the light blinded her.
Screamed since she had no way to escape.
~~Afterwards~~
Shigure suddenly felt a shiver sent up his spine. He looked up from his reading over at Mari. He checked her machine; everything seemed to be normal. Shigure watched Mari breathing for a while; just to make sure that everything was fine. He looked over at Hatori, who wore a questioning look on his face.
"What's wrong Shigure?"
"Nothing. Nothing. I just felt a like someone ran ice down my back. Call me crazy."
"You checked Mari's machines."
"I did."
"You don't have to worry. If anything happens, it'll notify us right away."
"I know. It's just-" Shigure paused. "I'm so worried for her. I just want everything to work out for the both of us."
"I know Shigure. I know."
Hatori smiled at Shigure, who smiled back weakly. Hatori got up to delver his paper work.
Just moments after Hatori left and Shigure got lost in his own thoughts, it happened.
Mari's eyes opened.
She blinked, trying to focus, only to be greeted by a white room.
Suddenly, she was frightened.
"Did I die?" She searched her thoughts. "Hospital? Blood? Blackness?" Her eyes were starting to adjust. A table formed in the corner of the room. She felt the mask placed on her face. Weakly she smiled to herself. "I'm fine. I'm not gone." Then, with all of the energy left in her, she turned her head to the side, to she her father reading the paper, with his hair falling in front of his eyes and a slight smile of amusement on his face. "He stayed with me. Just like he promised." Small tears started forming in her eyes. She had no energy to lift up her hand to wipe them away, so she just let them fall. Her miniature crystal like tears made a noise that no one could hear.
A noise that no one could hear unless they were listening for it.
Shigure lowered his hand from his chin, with a slight confused look on his face. He ran his tongue over his lips before shaking his head and going back to his reading. He couldn't concentrate. He looked ahead, his eyebrows scrunched together. He shook his head again. He lowered his eyes to go back to reading, but stopped midway. He shifted his gaze gradually to face her, only to find to his surprise her deep blue eyes staring right back at him.
"Mari?" he whispered.
She smiled for her father and did her best to find her voice. "Dad~dy." She wanted to lift herself up to see him better, but she couldn't muster the strength to do it.
"Don't push yourself baby." Shigure wiped some of her tears from her face before letting his own fall. "All that matters now is that you're wake." He kissed her on the forehead. "I bet you're confused about what happened huh?"
Mari's head nodded slightly.
"You've been asleep for weeks baby. We were worried you might decide to never get up. The next time you feel sick, tell me okay? You don't have to keep all inside and this doesn't have to happen again." His voice was quivering and his hand was slightly trembling as he touched her cheek. "I love you much, you know that? I don't know what I would have done if you were gone."
"Me. Too." Mari's mask didn't let her talk easily and she knew better than try to pull it off. She tried to lift her hand towards her father, but he stopped it.
"You rest. You need to get your strength back." He smiled, truly smiled for his daughter. He looked into her eyes and saw what she wanted. He lifted her gently and held her against him.
For the first time in weeks, Mari felt safe. Nothing could reach her now. She felt her father's strength holding her safe and protecting her, yet felt the gentleness of his heart at the same time. She felt the tears sliding down her face. She was suppose to live. She was suppose to go on and stay with her father forever.
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A/N: Mari finally woke up. I don't think you understand how happy I am right now. I even cried while I wrote this. I wasn't sure I was ever going to have her wake up. Scary huh? Oh, before I forget, I want to thank Spoon (you know who you are), my pal who knows not much about anime (well, expect for Excel Saga, Cowboy Bebop, and Dragon Half and a few other random titles we made her watch with us) for helping me write some of the parts where Mari was waking up. She has such a way with words and helped me put what I wanted to happen in a way that you could understand. Thanks a million Spoon! Good luck on your story! You all better read her story, an original fic, when she posts it. Don't worry, I'll tell you when so you all must read it! MUHAHAHA!!! I kinda know where I want this story to go, and I hope it all works out fine! I really want to play with the idea of Yuki/Kagura a bit just cuz it would add some flavor and humor. What do you guys think? Ohhh! I can't wait to write about Kyou seeing Mari now that she's awake! I'll try to write it as soon as possible. Evanescence fans: my sister has officially killed "Bring Me to Life" forever. Now, instead of crying when I hear the song, I laugh hysterically. What happened was that I always listen to the cd when I do artwork, so one night she comes into my room and asks me to lend her the cd for a few minutes. I agree and ten minutes later she comes back to my room in bright colored clothing and asks me to play the cd. I do. She belts out the song, using the Swifter broom she was suppose to be cleaning her room with as a mic-stand. So she's imitating some parts of the dance from our studio (she went there too) and just rolling down our hallway with the Swifter. She gets all into it and even does these fancy tricks. Then she dared me to do "Dirrty" and I did. I admit it. I was dancing along with the Swifter. That is, until, we heard someone coming up the stairs. Then everything went back to normal. So now whenever I hear "Bring Me to Life", I crack up. Thanks for sticking with me and this crazy story. I don't deserve fans like you! (tear) If I don't drive myself crazy and update, until then, D-Yai.