Chapter Three
He started recovering, but it seemed to take forever.
"So, how am I doing?" he asked me one day as I brought him supper.
"I don't know," I replied, somewhat irritated. Not as much at him as all the annoying customers that had stopped in, but none the less irritated.
"Sorry," he mumbles.
"It's not you," I sigh, a bit of guilt bothering me. "I've just had one of those days."
"So have I," he says cheerfully. He meets my eyes and laughs. "Seriously, how am I doing? When will I be up and walking?"
"From the looks of things you'd think you fell off a mountain," I frowned. "You're recovering at about an average rate."
"Try a cliff," he muttered, eyes looking sort of upset for a moment before regaining their typical sparkle. "I'm glad I'm recovering but I'm ready to get up and walk, at the very least now!"
"Laguna," I tried not to laugh, "I don't know what happened to you, but you obviously were hurt pretty bad and close to death. It's only been a week or so--"
"A month," he interrupted me. "It's been a month."
I glanced at my calendar, and sure enough, it had been a month. It'd been surprising how he'd managed to make my life go a lot quicker and easier. He kept Ellone occupied while I worked, and I realized both of us had enjoyed his company.
"You want to try walking? Without crutches, even?" I questioned carefully, staring at him. Was he really up to this?
"Yeah!" He grinned, slowly standing up. He winced, but didn't sit down quite yet. He was having trouble masking the pain in his eyes, however.'
"Laguna, I don't think you're ready for this..."
"I think I am," he said in a determined voice through gritted teeth as he forced himself to take a step. He winced, instantly sinking back down onto the bed.
"...Laguna?"
"I wasn't ready for that, you're right," he tried to force a laugh that sounded more like a choke or a strangled cry.
"Laguna..." I wasn't really sure what do to to help him as he reached for the bottle of aspirin.
"I'm all right," he forced a grin.
"I'll...go check on Ellone," I said, starting to walk out.
"Good idea," Laguna nodded.
I walked out and walked into Ellone's room.
"Hiya, Raine!" she ran over and hugged me. "How was your day at work?"
"Pretty good," I answered my automatic result. "How was your day?"
"Well earlier I went over and talked to Laguna and we colored pictures and he told me stories about a little boy who always got in trouble as a kid for doing things in school that I should never ever do," she grinned. "Can I go talk to him again?"
"I don't think he feels good right now, Elle."
"Well, when's he gonna get better? He's been sick for a long, long time! I want him to get better so he can come play outside with me!" Ellone put her hands on her hips.
I considered that, but only for a moment. What would happen when Laguna recovered? I knew he was a Galbadian Soldier, but I had no idea where he would go after he recovered. Nor did anyone have any idea how he got to Winhill. He was quite an enigma.
"We'll see," I answered slowly, not wanting to make any promises. "We'll see."
~//~
We found, a week or two later, that crutches helped him out a lot. Pretty soon he'd explored most of the upstairs rooms, and was even trying to figure out a way to challenge Ellone to races. He'd stand at the top of the stairs quite often and talk to me. Though at times he was a bit annoying, (I think all Galbadian soldiers are at one time or another), I did enjoy his company. It'd been quite awhile since I'd had someone my age around to talk to whom of which I could actually deal with. It was a nice change.
Ellone and I sat downstairs, enjoying dinner. I hadn't taken Laguna's up to him yet, because earlier I'd checked in on him and he'd been sleeping. I figured I'd wait until Elle and I were done, and then I'd take it to him.
"We had races today across the hall," Elle was giggling. "I won most of them! He's pretty slow on crutches."
Thud, thud, thud....
"Do you hear that, Elle?" I whispered, listening intently for the source of the sound. What was that?
"Mm-hmm!" Elle whispered, looking around.
Thud-thud, thud, thud... After the third or fourth 'thud', I slowly stood up, wondering if I had any weapons laying around.
"Raine..." Elle whispered again, looking slightly afraid.
Another thud, this one a bit louder and closer to us. And then a yell that pierced through the silence like an arrow.
"I did it! Hey, look! I did it!" he cried happily, rushing as fast as he could on crutches over to us. "Look! I did it!"
"Yay!" Elle cheered, jumping up and throwing her arms around his knees. "Yay, Uncle Laguna, you did it!"
Uncle Laguna? I looked over to Laguna with a look that obviously said 'did you tell her to do this?' on my face, but it was only returned with the same look.
"I almost fell down them," he grinned sheepishly. "But I did it!"
"We're all happy for you. And since you're down here, take a seat and you can just eat with the rest of us," I nodded, taking his plate off the counter and sitting it down in front of him.
"Y'know, I think maybe a week or so and I'll be completely recovered," Laguna beamed. "Or at least enough so that I'll be able to get out of your hair and quit bothering you."
"You're not bothering me, Uncle Laguna!" Elle grinned. "I think you're fun!"
"Gee, thanks," Laguna smiled, quickly eating. He'd mastered using a fork, I noticed, but of course the awkward bandages were finally off his hands now too.
A sudden knock at the door interrupted the momentary peaceful silence.
"What part of 'I'm closed now' can't these people understand?" I sighed, scooting my chair back to stand.
"I'll answer it, if you want me to!" Laguna jumped up, or at least it looked like a jump. It probably would have been, had he not been on crutches.
He somewhat reminded me of a hyper young child.
"Just be polite," I warned him with an exasperated sigh.
"Allright," Laguna nodded, opening the door. A Galbadian Soldier stood there, but he didn't seem like most of the goofballs that hang around Winhill. There was just something...official about him.
"Are you the unknown soldier that washed up here about a month or so ago?" the soldier asked.
"Um, yeah," Laguna absent-mindedly ran a hand through his hair. "That's me."
I stopped eating, focusing on overhearing their conversation.
"Would you be Loire, Laguna then?"
"Um, yeah. That's me," Laguna said again. "...should I know you?"
The soldier shook his head no.
"I'm a General, but I'm not quite in your division. I was sent to check on your physical status."
Laguna awkwardly saluted him.
"I'm recovering quite well, sir," he said officially, standing in attention the best he could. I couldn't ever remember seeing him this serious.
"Well that's definitely good," the general nodded.
"Um, permission to ask a question, sir?"
"Permission granted."
"Am I about to be sent on a mission, sir?" Laguna asked meekly.
"Of course not," the general shook his head. "We couldn't send someone in your condition out. Well, we could, but we're not fighting anywhere where you're that desperately needed. I was just checking to find your address so that the Army can send you your belongings."
"Oh!" Laguna's face brightened. "That'd be great! I'll probably be around here for a week or two, and then I'll probably rent a place in the vicinity. Um, sir. So that'd be great. Sir."
"Allright. Anything else?"
"Um...sir...seeking information on soldiers Kiros Seagill and Ward Zabak, if you would, sir..."
"The two that were on the mission with you?"
Laguna nodded hopefully.
"No reports. Anything else?"
"No, sir," Laguna sighed dejectedly.
"Allright. Your items will be mailed shortly."
"Thank you, sir," Laguna saluted him again as he walked out the door before 'crutching' back over to the staircase.
"Don't you want the rest of your dinner, Laguna?" I asked.
"I'm not hungry," he shrugged. "Thanks anyway, Raine."
With that he 'thudded' upstairs.
"What's wrong with Uncle Laguna, Raine?" Elle looked up to me with worried eyes.
"I think he's worried about his friends, Elle," I answered.
"What's wrong with his friends?"
"I don't know," I sighed.
"You should ask," Elle informed me.
I smiled.
"Now should I?"
"Yes," Elle nodded.
"OKay," I replied, walking upstairs and knocking on Laguna's door.
For a moment there wasn't a reply, then a muffled 'come in'. I opened the door to see Laguna sitting on the side of his bed with a pen and a piece of notebook paper filled with illegible scratches on it.
"Um..." Now that I was here, I was lost for words. Why doesn't that somewhat figure? "What's that?"
"Paper," he said. "I just gotta get my thoughts in words sometimes...this is the easiest way."
From the looks of the paper he'd carried it with him everywhere he went. Upon closer inspection I noticed that the tiny scribbles were actually neatly printed sentences. They were just so small and there were just so many that I had trouble telling they were words.
"You like writing?"'
"I wanna be a journalist," Laguna looked out the window to the stars, a slight glimmer of hope in his eyes. "I wanna drop out of the army, Raine...I can't take much more..." he sighed.
"Laguna?"
"...We were gonna die either way. Did I make a wrong choice?" he seemed to be talking more to himself than to anyone else. I looked into his unfocused eyes, grey and confused. A strange feeling came over me, but I tried to ignore it. There was just something about his eyes... "Is it my fault?"
"Laguna..."
"But there wasn't any news. And no news is good news, right?" he finally turned to me, his grey eyes locking into my brown ones, praying for hope.
"Right," I answered, even though I wasn't really sure what exactly he was getting at.
"Okay," he nodded. He paused, staring at the ground for a moment, then looked back up at me. "I'm sorry I've been such a bother. I know I've gotten on your nerves."
And so he had. There were times I regretted being the person they brought Laguna to. There were times I wanted to scream and pull my hair out and throw temper tantrums like Elle sometimes did. But I never did. Apparently he could sense my frustration.
"And I've probably been a waste of your money and all that--"
"--Laguna--"
"--So I'm sorry. I...I dunno what to say anymore," he sighed. "I'm sorry."
I wasn't sure what to say to make him feel better, but I decided that maybe he needed some alone time for awhile. I quietly shut the door behind him to see that Ellone had been standing out there the entire time.
"Raine?"
"Shh," I whispered. "Let's just go to bed."
~//~
A/N: Is it allrighty so far? Sorry it took me so long to get chapter three up! I actually wrote chapters one and two maybe in January so it was strange coming back to this story after so long! Well, if anyone likes it I'll keep going. Also I wasn't exactly sure on Kiros and Ward's last name…I seem to remember hearing that somewhere…if it's wrong, well, correct me and I promise I'll never do it again! Thanks to everyone who's reviewed it and to Sefie Lynne because I've decided I'm just going to steal a lot of ideas from our purple notebook. And when that point comes, I'll credit you more. So…um…yeah…g'night, everyone…hope you liked it! ~*Xifa*~