chapter 12
It had been three days since the fight with Tsui and Sasame still hadn't woke up. Takako had barely left his side since the knights brought him back to Leafenia to rest.
Once Himeno had told Natsue what happened to Sasame, Natsue (being a hopeless romantic at heart) was more than willing to let Takako take off as much time from work as she needed to stay in Leafenia.
"Takako, it's getting late. You should rest for awhile," Hayate said gently. "One of us can watch over Sasame tonight."
"Thanks, but I should be with him tonight, his fever is worse than it has been in the past few days. It's the least I can do for him," Takako responded as she gently brushed Sasame's bangs out of his face and placed a cool cloth on his forehead.
Hayate nodded and headed out of the room and into the living room. The younger knights were fast asleep, but Kei and Go were sitting on the couch.
"Takako wants to watch over Sasame tonight," Hayate said.
"There's no sense in arguing with her," Go said knowingly (he had tried that earlier to no avail).
Hayate and Kei nodded in response.
"So how is Sasame?" Go asked.
"His fever has returned," Hayate said frowning.
"Hopefully, Sasame is fighting off the last of the poison in his system," Kei said.
"Yeah," Go replied.
"If not… Sasame may not last much longer," Hayate said solemnly.
- o o o
The next morning, Kei and Hayate went to work and Go took the younger knights out on a nature hike, leaving Takako to watch over Sasame in the morning, assuming she would want to since she had insisted on doing it the past three days.
Takako had worn herself a bit thin since she had been watching over Sasame a lot and was too stubborn to let the other knights help her much. So she ended up falling asleep half way through the night, half sitting in her chair and half lying on Sasame's bed. After awhile, Takako started to dream.
(in Takako's dream)
Everything was dark and quiet. Takako tried looking around and couldn't even see her hand in front of her. After a minute of wandering in the empty darkness, a bright light began to shine. Takako saw Sasame standing in front of her.
"Takako," Sasame said.
Takako was so happy to see Sasame awake, that she was speechless.
"Takako," Sasame said again.
Takako walked up to Sasame and tightly embraced him, but he did not hug her back.
"I'm going now…" Sasame said as his voice drifted off.
'What?' Takako thought. 'You can't go. Please, don't leave me Sasame.'
Takako held Sasame tighter and tighter, squinting her eyes as she concentrated on holding him so close he could never leave.
"Good bye," Sasame said.
Takako suddenly felt alone. She stopped squinting, and watched as Sasame faded away before her eyes.
(end of the dream)
Takako sat up in her chair with a frightened jolt and quickly opened her eyes.
Takako took a sharp breath in, horrified. To Takako's surprise, Sasame was no longer lying in bed and the house was silent.
'No… Sasame. He couldn't have. Did he… fade away… while I slept?' Takako thought fearfully, remembering her dreams.
Takako stood up and looked around. Seeing no one, a flood of emotions swept over her... sadness, loneliness, guilt, anger. She felt weak and her head felt like it was spinning. Within a few seconds, Takako fainted, falling to the bedroom floor.
- o o o
Takako sluggishly started to come to. She felt a mattress beneath her, and she was tucked in under the covers. 'One of the knights must have found me and put me here.' She could hear a buzz of voices in one of the other rooms. Opening her eyes, Takako saw that it was dark in the room and she was alone. It was then when she remembered her dream. Takako softly moaned and shuddered, grabbing a handful of sheets and pulling them close to her body.
A few moments later, Takako heard footsteps coming toward the door of the room she was in. The footsteps stopped at the door, and the door opened. A silhouette stood in the doorway for a second and then walked towards her.
It was still pretty dark in the room and Takako's eyes were adjusting slowly, making hard to tell who had come in to check on her.
The figure walked over to a lamp that was on a night dresser next to the bed and turned it on.
Takako looked at the face that was illumined. It was Sasame.
"My powers have finally been coming back. I heard you stirring," Sasame said gently. "Are you all right?"
Takako reached her hand towards Sasame to touch him, making sure he was real.
Takako softly ran her hand down the side of Sasame's face and smiled.
"I couldn't be better," she said with joy.
Hello to my few, but faithful fans! Thanks for reading! Sorry this took a little bit longer than I would have liked. Let me know if it was worth the wait: )
