Last Edited: 29.12.o5

Written: 11.11.o5

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Do You Still Think of Me?

PART TWO – Picking up the fragments

Chapter Five

By Flipstahhz

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She lay besides the patient, her back against the stiff hospital bed as her eyes focused onto the dull white ceiling of the room. She traced her long auburn hair away from her face and fastened it around with a crimson silk ribbon. Her body was much relaxed as it had been earlier. She recalled storming into the room, causing the workers in the hospital to flip and almost kick her out of the building. Luckily, Sora had her say that she 'knew' her and that she wasn't some stranger that had absently walked in and gone completely deranged. Her face was still wet from the grief stricken tears she had shed. When she had found out that Sora was safe, her grief was replaced with relieved happiness.

" You're quiet," the patient noted observantly. " It's not like you, cos."

She stared at Sora and stuck her tongue out, " Even though you're all crippled now you still manage to tease me."

" Well…it's not unmanageable," Sora gave a weak smile as she pulled the quilt higher making the girl shift a bit since she had been on top of it.

They sat there silent for a while. The only sound remaining was the constant ticking beat of the clock materialized in the atmosphere, combining with both of their steady breathing.

" I was worried," the younger girl truthfully croaked out into the heavy air as she began to speak her story, " I hadn't visited you in a while so when I went to visit your house…you weren't there. I thought you were out, so I waited for hours. After losing my patience I unlocked the door with one of your spare hidden keys and went in. That's when I saw the note on your kitchen table."

" The note that Mimi wrote?" Sora suggested.

" That's right," the girl said. " It read that you were at Odaiba Hospital. The roses in your vase had already dead on the kitchen table. I hesitated a bit. I knew you always changed your flowers as soon as the petals started falling…and that only meant that you hadn't been home in a while. That was when I suspected that…I thought…you were dead."

Sora still carried the weak smile on her face as her hand stroked her cousins back reassuringly. " You know, I wouldn't leave my only cousin behind."

The girl burst into cackles of laughter. " That sounded real corny."

" Anything to do with drama is corny," Sora inclined her statement, shrugging.

Sora let her warm eyes gaze at her cousin. After her mother had died the girl, lying next to her, was one of the only relatives she had left. She always thought of her as her younger sister and confidant because she was an only child and got quite lonely at times. Many people had mistaken them for sisters since they had the same fiery auburn hair; only that Sora's was inches shorter than her cousin's tresses.

" I'm glad that you're alright," her cousin cracked a smile. " Just being crippled for months."

" Yeah," Sora said, " And it's my friend's wedding is soon!"

" Who cares about the wedding! Your friend should understand your circumstance!" Sora's cousin exclaimed. Her tone hushed down as one of the nurses walking by who gave her an icy disproving glance. The people that worked at the hospital constantly walked by Sora's room since after he 'guests' outburst and commotion her cousin had caused. " Aren't you in pain still? Those wounds look pretty deep."

Sora followed her gaze as she stared at the injuries on her left arm. " It's healing though it occasionally hurts, especially when I shower. It's like rubbing salt on an open wound."

The wounds had managed to heal in comparison with the terrible state it had been weeks before. The pain had lessened, though her feet ached whenever she walked with the assistance of nurses or her brand new crutches. Since Sora had taken up nursing she knew that it was best to follow her superior doctor's commandments and not being rebellious since she knew it would take her way longer to recover.

It had been about three weeks after the accident. When she had become conscious and found out why her body was shaking in pain, she was immediately filled in on what had happened. She only hoped that Yamato wasn't blaming himself. She knew that he tended to do that a lot, even when they were much younger. Sora had caught him intruding once in a while to check up on her, and she mischievously played along pretending to be asleep just to see how he reacted to her sleeping body. Him just being there made her comfortable and safe, even though it was he who had crashed into her vehicle.

She continued, " I'm just so thankful that I'll be able to walk properly. If my spinal cord had been damaged badly from the impact of the car crash, I wouldn't be able to walk. I'm so grateful."

" Thank the lord," her younger cousin smiled. She had always been religious, it sided lovingly with her desire and talent for music and high academic skills. Sora had always mockingly envied her cousin's talents.

The doors to the room gaped open. Both their heads instantly directly turned toward the new person that had entered the room. His tousled dirty blond hair spat out in every incomprehensible direction possible as his sharp sapphire eyes stared directly at the pair, for once readable. Shock tainted them as he pointed at Sora's cousin in surprise. " You?"

" Me?" the girl sat up on the bed to get a better glance at the man. Her eyes widened. " Hi Mr. I!"

" Grace, what are you doing here?" he chuckled bubbly as his eyes sprained on Sora's lying body for a minute. " Do…are both of you related?"

" Cousins," Sora replied simply as she sat up too, even though it was quite a challenge since her muscles were still killing her.

" Uh…" Yamato scratched his back nervously as he approached the bedside table and planted some roses with the other cramped flowers into the vase. " Just wanted to say sorr-"

" Apology not accepted," Sora said bluntly, yet warmly. " It wasn't your fault. We both hit each other."

Yamato nodded, standing there uncomfortably. It was strange seeing Sora sided next to one of his own students. Finding out that they were cousins at that moment still surprised him. " Just wanted to check up on you. I'll visit another time…you and Grace need catching up."

Before Sora could shout back at him that it was fine, he had already retreated the room. Her eyebrow arched as she turned her head back to her cousin. " Grace, I didn't know Yamato was your teacher!"

" I can't tell you anything. I didn't even know you knew him!" Grace defended. " I can't believe you know him, even worse…he of all people crashing into you! He must be a pretty reckless driver since you drive so slowly cause you're frightened of turning every corner!"

" Hey!" Sora warned, but she w as glad that Grace was back in the talkative stance that she had grown accustomed to over all the years. " Yamato's one of my friends I met back in my childhood. It was sweet that he brought the roses though…wonder why he left…"

Grace stared at Sora's thoughtful expression, " He was uncomfortable."

They both laughed.

" You have a lot," Grace jumped out of the bed and walked towards the bunch of flowers. She fingered each of them, and withdrew her hand when she felt one of her fingers be pricked from one of thorns of the flowers. She rocked her arm and in haste sucked her slightly bleeding finger. " Who gave you all these?"

" Mimi and Tai, some of my workmates at this hospital, Yamato's brother and his brother's wife and Yamato himself," she listed and then let her eyes fall onto her cousin, " Not you though. I'm still pending for orange tulips from you."

Grace walked over to Sora and lightly pushed her. Sora grinned.

" I'm going to go now," Grace said as she snatched her backpack from the ground and flung it around her shoulders. " My mother is probably cracking it cause I haven't come home yet, plus the bus takes forty-five minutes from here to get to Tamachi."

" Don't worry, I'll back you up. Just tell your mother the truth -"

" I'll never hear the end. She'll go ballistic when she finds about the accident," Grace said. " She'll probably come nursing you everyday and giving you baskets of chocolate."

" That's fine by me!"

"Chocoholic."

Grace gave a nod and headed towards the door. She lifted the back of her hand, not turning her back to face Sora, as she gave a silent goodbye until Sora yelled after her.

" Remember to check my mail!"

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The doorbell rang. He twisted to see the clock – reading 09:43pm. He jumped up from his seat and went to answer the door. As soon as he had opened it, Grace came charging in. That was twice in one day that his year eleven student had shocked and caught him off guard.

He still hadn't recuperated from the fact that Sora and Grace were related. It was a blow to the system. He looked down at the younger version of Sora as she arose to blabber on.

" …so you've got to help me, Mr. I!"

" What?" he queried, hands raised vigorously in the air. " How did you get here?"

" I walked," she responded. " Just found out you live about three streets away from me."

" No," Yamato paused. " How did you find out my address?"

" Found it in Sora's address book, but that doesn't matter!" Grace declared. " There's something more important to talk about."

" It better be because I do think it's really strange that one of my students comes meddling into my household especially if someone sees you here. A teacher and student together out of school grounds always looks bad," Yamato said as he gave on last gaze behind her and shut the door.

" You and me? That's eww!" she announced.

" I double that," Yamato agreed, adding a nod. " Take a seat."

As she did, Yamato cleaned up a bit. His apartment was a huge mess, he wasn't used to visitors. He was putting effort in finding his dirty jocks and tossing them into the laundry so Grace wouldn't see. He gave a relieved sigh since her attention was focused on making herself some coffee. Though he had to frown that she seemed rather comfortable and was making herself at home. It was strange. Or was he that was simply overreacting?

He thrust some random trash into the bin and headed back to where Grace was. Currently, her head was buried into one of his photo albums.

" Is that…Sora?" her head lifted so that he could have an equal view of the image as she pointed at a specific figure in the photograph.

" Yeah," he said, eyes sparkling with amusement as he reminisced when the photo had been taken. " Taken at our high school graduation assembly."

His eyes familiarized at what he saw. He couldn't help but let a smirk play on his lips when he saw both he and Tai had an arm around each other with both their teeth firmly gnawed on their graduation certificate. Taichi's other arm was wrapped around Mimi's waste in possession. And Sora was besides Tai's present fiancé as she held on the certificate looking shyly towards the photograph with one of her pleasant simplistic smiles.

" I thought so…"

Yamato's eyes darted from the photo to Sora's cousin rather questioningly. " What?"

" I thought so," she repeated snickering at the obvious impatience written on her teacher's facial expression. " I can see it now. It's as clear as water. It's her…isn't it? She was the one that you fell in love with…the one that you regretted to tell your feelings to, isn't it?"

" Who?" Yamato asked, even though he knew the answer.

" It's Sora!" Grace proclaimed. " If you two get together…you'll become my cousin-in-law!"

" That sounds scary," Yamato laughed. " And what makes you think that we'll ever get together. I've liked her since elementary school…that's crazy enough how it is!"

" She likes you too."

He kept silent for a while as he pushed his faintest vibe of hope aside. " How can you be sure? How would you know?"

" I just do. Of course I know! You're just both just too stubborn to admit it to each other!" she muttered. " Sora and I are close, she's my only cousin I have for all I know. She tells me everything. But I didn't expect that it was you she liked! She called you Matt. And when I saw her reaction when she saw you today…it all clicked."

" Aren't you smart."

" I know," she replied jeeringly at her attempt to be conceited.

Yamato gave a gruff cough. He disliked going around in circles. " So what's the real reason you came here for?"

Grace took an envelope from her satchel she had brought along and handed it to him. He read the company name aloud, " Garde Collective."

She stared at him, awaiting his reaction.

His eyes widened. " Are you serious?"

She grinned.

This had to be the third shock that day.

" Tell me, fill me in," he said.

She nodded. " It's a letter from that fashion label. It seems that Sora has showed her display folio to them and I assume they liked her work because they want to interview her tomorrow."

" Sora? Fashion label?" he said. " I thought she was a nurse!"

" She is, but she designs behind the scenes. She didn't exactly give up."

He thought, after all this time that she had given up. In a way, she had kept their childhood promise. His lips curled but instantly turned the opposite direction. " But her interview's tomorrow!"

" That's why you've got to help me!"

" I don't understand…"

" We need to do something! She's not allowed out of the hospital! And if she doesn't turn up, her life opportunity will be blown. We've got to think of something!" she cried.

Staying quiet, an idea speared into his mind. His eyes darted between the high school picture of Sora then at Grace.

" What?" it was her turn to ask.

" I've got an idea…"

Somehow, Grace didn't like her teacher's tone of voice.

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Afternoon of the next day …

He started the engine.

" That was so embarrassing and humiliating!" she stated forcefully as she got back into Yamato's new car. Her face was blushed red as she folded her arms, letting the folio drop onto her knees.

Unable to contain his curiousness, he blurted out. " So how'd the interview go?"

" Bad! I fumbled a lot…"

" How'd it go" he asked curiously. " Did she get accepted?"

" They've accepted her work. I requested that if it would be fine if she started a few months later because of Sora's condition. They said it was fine cause they loved her work so much!"

" That's insane!"

" No…me looking like her is more insane!" Grace howled in laughter. Yamato's idea had worked, though she was still disappointed for loosing a quarter of her hair's length. Her resemblance to Sora was close to identical. And when she dressed into Sora's formal sensible clothing…she no longer looked Grace. It was a miracle that the scheme had worked.

" You're telling her that she got accepted. We're going to the hospital now, Mr. I," she spoke in urgency.

"No we aren't! What makes you have the right to decide where I'm driving?" Yamato said he exited the parking lot, hands firmly gripping the wheel. " Heavens no! She doesn't even know that she was offered an interview in the first place!"

" We're going," she stated as she turned the wheel to the direction where the hospital was situated at. " Come on! It's only a few blocks away from here."

" That's not the case! Do you want me to have another car crash?" he grumbled. " Let go of the wheel."

"NO." Grace replied angrily, eyes firing dangerously. " We've got to go, Mr. I!"

He inhaled deeply and focused on the road, this time going towards the way Grace wanted them to drive off to. " Why?"

He could feel her gaze penetrating through his barrier. She knew him well, he had to give it to her.

" Yamato," she said. Grace had never addressed her teacher by his first name before. " Do you remember when I caught you singing that song and talking to you about the girl you loved? I remember. You said that you owed me for talking sense into you. And this time I want to use this favour towards my advantage."

" Tell me then, Grace," he said stiffly as he turned around the curb.

" She'll be happy that you tell her. I've done my part for playing as her…now I want you to do yours."

" Well, I did think of the idea," he pointed out, but met Grace's blazing emerald eyes. He gave in.

He wondered how weak he had become and started to question that perhaps men were the weakest sex since females could easily persuade them.

Within minutes they had arrived back at Odaiba Hospital, presently walking towards Sora's room. When they reached their destination, Yamato felt Grace push him into the patient's room. The pair greeted Sora and then Grace made a getaway saying that she would get sodas for them.

" Her hair, she loved it." Sora stared after her little cousin then fell onto Yamato. " It's different. Explain."

Soon enough, Yamato had given her the full explanation at what happened from Grace seeing the letter, finding his home address and disguising herself at the interview.

With every word he could see that Sora looked furious at what Grace and he had done.

" Grace went so she couldn't get told off by me, didn't she? Well that doesn't matter," Sora glared as she sat up from her bed, her posture still managing to be straight under her injured condition. " Yamato, I expected better from you. I thought you're an adult. You're such an idiot!"

The blond headed man gulped in sudden concern for his own health. Sora's bad side didn't look good, especially when she was angry.

But then to his surprise, she started collapsing into fit of giggles. Her beauty sparkled as amusement filled her lively expression. She hadn't laughed so hard in a while, and she couldn't help the tears fall down from her face.

" Okay, you got me," Yamato rolled his eyes, maintaining his cool as his hands rested on his hips, clearly not amused.

" I can't believe you guys actually did that for me! I really owe you guys the world," she laughed. " But unfortunately I don't own it. Thank you."

" You're welcome," he replied with a sneer rather cockily.

" Come here, Yamato."

The man edged towards her. Catching him off guard, for who know how many times that day, she suddenly clasped her arms around him in a tight embrace. His expression remained neutral, only his azure eyes widening gave his astonishment away.

" Thanks…"

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