Back to Ami. As you can tell, this part will be going back and forth over about 7 chapters. Hope you like. I don't own Sailor Moon
It had been four days since she first saw him and three since he woke up. Nanba Keiichi was his name but Ami thought of him as Zoisite…her soul mate and one true love.
At least that was what she thought at first. That night when she first saw him lying in a coma on that hospital bed, her heart stopped so suddenly in recognition that she almost fainted.
Zoisite! It has to be Zoisite!
It was impossible for another man to look exactly like him and not be him. But she found out that it was possible. The attending nurse told her that his name was Keiichi and that he saved that girl from getting hit by a car. Instead, it was him who got involved in that accident.
He's been asleep for almost a full day, the nurse had said, and there's a swelling of the brain and might not wake up.
Perhaps she was still in shock and couldn't/wouldn't believe that the man was not Zoisite…wishing that it was really him. Or maybe she was just too much of a softie that she couldn't stand anyone suffering, Zoisite or no Zoisite. But the thing was she spent most of that night and early the next morning praying for him to wake up with no brain damage whatsoever.
The girls noticed the change in her when she met them at the school for Grad night, but she couldn't tell them what had happened…whom she saw. She couldn't tell her best friends because she was too scared that he might not really be the person she wanted him to be.
And he wasn't. All the people around her told her so. Nanba Keiichi. That was his name. The doctor told her. The nurses told her. Little Mira told her. Even that woman who was the girl's keeper told her.
He was not Zoisite but still she couldn't believe.
The hair…
The height…
The build…
Especially the face…
They were all the same. It has to be him!
So she told herself she would not give up hoping. Not until he woke up. Not until she saw his eyes. Not until she heard him say her name. Surely she would know by then.
And when he woke up she was shocked anew. His eyes were the same as Zoisite's. They had the same intense glint that sent a memorable shiver down her spine. When he looked at her, stared at her, she was overcome by an overwhelming sense of familiarity. This was how Zoisite always looked at me, she had thought back then.
But then his eyes glazed over with confusion and then lack of recognition. Her heart dropped to her stomach from disappointment and she tried very hard not to cry there and then. He did not recognize her!
Perhaps there was nothing to recognize. Perhaps he really wasn't Zoisite at all and that to him I'm just a stranger. She couldn't take the thought. As soon as he passed out again she bolted out of the room and locked herself in a cubicle in the nearest restroom. There she cried. She let out all of the pent up emotions that she hid in her small frame for the past two years.
Was this her fate? To be tortured in reminder that she couldn't have what she wanted the most? What wrong had she done to be punished in such a way?
She tried to stay away. She spent the rest of the afternoon wandering from one point of the city to another. Yes, she tried very hard but her confusion and uncertainty led her back to him. It took her a few minutes to calm her nerves before she could push the door open.
Once she did, she was greeted exuberantly by Mira who jumped off Keiichi's bed. She opened her arms to her, glad of the distraction. She tried to stay in the embrace as long as she could but the girl wouldn't let her. She wiggled out of her grasp after a while and led her to the bed to meet her big brother.
The inevitable came. She stared at the man on the bed and saw that his eyes still held the confusion but was accompanied this time by curiosity. Maybe it was that curious glint or maybe it was because she was getting used to the idea that this man may not really be Zoisite. The ache in her heart lessened but it still gave her an uncomfortable feeling.
She introduced herself, not at all surprised that he did not recognize her name. If he did then he was pretty good at hiding his recognition. Zoisite was also good at that…hiding his emotions and being impassive. And just like Zoisite, Keiichi was not talkative, letting her and Mira manipulate the conversation. He barely uttered a word the rest of her stay that day, preferring to watch them, particularly Ami (much to her discomfort).
And like the sucker for punishment that she was, she came back to visit him the next day…and the next…and the next. She told herself many times that Keiichi and Zoisite were not the same man. But still there was that shard of hope that he hadn't said her name yet. She was confident that she would know for sure once she heard him call her by her name. And it has yet to happen for if he did try to get her attention he would always call her 'Miss'. Even now, after three days of being acquainted, he still called her as such.
They were staying in the hospital gardens where Ami wheeled him with a little hardship. After all, she may have grown several inches but Keiichi (having the same build as Zoisite) was still tall and heavy. He was sitting on his wheelchair, soaking in the much needed vitamin D while she sat on a bench beside him. Mira, also a daily visitor, was running around picking flowers.
They spent the next few minutes in silence, having exhausted the 'nice weather we're having' conversation. She would once in a while glance at his silent form, unaware that he would also look at her once her head was turned. When her neck was starting to get a crick from all of the sneak peeks, she decided to start up another conversation, hoping that this time it wouldn't be short-lived.
"Keiichi, could you tell me something about yourself?" Her question was followed by a long silence. Thinking that he minded, she looked at him and was surprised to see him staring at her.
"What do you want to know?"
"Anything," she answered back breathlessly. The way he was looking at her was causing her insides to tingle. "What about your family? How come they haven't visited you yet?"
"My real parents died when I was little. Big brother and I were adopted when I was six and he was ten. My adoptive parents are retired now and are on a trek somewhere in the Himalayas. My brother, on the other hand, is on some tropical island. The hospital couldn't reach my parents since even I don't know where they are whereas they just got hold of my brother yesterday. I suppose he will be here today or tomorrow."
Her mind registered the mention of having an older brother but shoved it somewhere in the deep recesses of her brain since she did not want to build on false hope. After all, there was no such thing as too much coincidences. One or two coincidences were possible but not a whole bunch. That was too much to take.
"What about you?"
"Eh?" She was too caught up with her thoughts that she didn't understand his question.
"Tell me something about yourself like how come you keep on visiting me when I'm no more than a stranger to you."
Ami had to blush at that. How could she respond to that without embarrassing herself and sounding like a total lunatic.
Because you look like my one true love whom I lost in a battle for the Earth!
Not likely! That would scare him away, no doubt. If not because of the 'battle for the Earth' part, the 'I'm after you because you look like him' part would surely do him in.
"I don't think it's such a hard question," he said after a minute of silence.
"No, it's not. It's just that…it's silly. When I first saw you…you reminded me of someone."
"This someone…he's special?"
She nodded her head, bangs hiding her reddening cheeks. He moved on his chair, giving her the impression that something made him uncomfortable. His face, she saw, held a curiously blank expression. Much blanker than usual, as though he was forcing it as such.
"Does he look like me?"
"Very much so." This time she did not move her gaze from him. Her answer caused an involuntary twitch of some muscle under his cheek. But still there was that blank expression.
"What's his name?"
"I don't really think it's a good idea to…"
"Please," he interrupted. "Please, I want to know."
"Zoisite." There was something in his voice and eyes that compelled her to say the name even if she did not want to delve on this topic too much. She saw his eyes flicker although did not know if it was in recognition, irritation or something else. "What is it? Why do you want to know?"
"I…"
"Big sister Ami! Big sister Ami! Look, I made you something!"
Mira bounced joyously to them, obviously excited to show 'big sister Ami' her work. The girl was holding out a small wreath of nasturtiums & golden rods to her. She smilingly took them…a smile that diminished a bit when she recalled the last time she had seen nasturtiums and golden rods like this.
Looking back at Keiichi, he was staring at the flowers with a frown. Was his memory triggered by the flowers? Did it mean anything to him? Of course not. Not unless he was really Zoisite which he was not. Ami was 95 percent sure.
What was it that she thought earlier? Ah yes…there was no such thing as too much coincidences.
"Are you OK, big brother?"
"It's just a little headache." He lightly clutched his bandaged forehead.
"You shouldn't frown so, Keiichi. It would certainly give you trouble," Ami fussed.
"I wasn't frowning. Perhaps it's the sun."
Ami shot him a dubious look. She did not believe him for one second. Nevertheless, she suggested that they went back to his room so he could rest. Besides, it was her turn to cook tonight and if she came home late her parents would surely ask some questions. Questions that she was not prepared to answer.
So she wheeled him in with Mira skipping beside his chair. The two chatted (with the girl doing all the talking) leaving Ami free to muse on her thoughts.
Perhaps she was wasting her time. Common sense told her that Keiichi was not Zoisite and that she was doing that wishful thinking bit again. There was no way that Zoisite could come back to life. Only the senshi could do that. Heck, even they couldn't do that. Not anymore.
But then there was that five percent that kept nagging her not to give up hope. That part of her that refused to believe that Fate could be so cruel to not give her happiness and love.
So what was a girl to do in this situation? Hold on or let go?
"We're here! We're here!" Mira's shout jolted her out of her musings again.
"So we are," she said back absentmindedly.
Zoisite reached out to turn the knob while Mira pushed it open. Ami started wheeling him in but stopped before they could fully cross the doorway.
What was it that she thought earlier again?
There's no such thing as too much coincidences.
There's no such thing as too much coincidences.
There's no such thing as too much coincidences.
No matter how many times she kept on saying it in her head, she couldn't quite believe it now. Not with Kunzite, Nephrite and Jadeite standing in the room.
Whoa…what's going on? Is it really them or another look-a-like? Please RR