Hi. Again.

If you reviewed, I love you. If you didn't WHY THE HELL DIDN'T YOU, I'M ONLY ONE SHY OF FITY! But I'm not mad or anything….

Did I mention my love of doughnuts?

Um… anything in my life that's going on?

Funny you should ask (you can skip this part). I have exams, which are SO much fun. My friend Derek asked me out extremely badly, so I realized he was doing it only after I had already said no, kinda rudely, and he almost cried. He's a football player. So not my type. My mom heard me on the phone with my bf Mike and she had a sex talk with me which included how I should 'not be a rabbit'; because rabbits proliferate (have lots of sex and babies. Lots and lots of babies). I think.

It was great.

So… yeah that's it.

Chapter 11, can you believe it?

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There's Beauty in the Breakdown

Mahiru had not seen Akito in two days, although she had heard that he was doing fine, even a little bit better.

She verified this when she came home from school and found him sitting in the kitchen with a glass of water.

"Um… Akito-sama, how nice to see you." Mahiru gave him a half-bow.

He nodded curtly in her direction "Mahiru."

"You must be feeling better, to be out here."

Again the nod.

"Well, I'm just going to go now." If Akito had heard her, he didn't give any sign, and she sighed and turned to leave, but then after a moment turned back "Oh, and Akito-sama? I have a ballet audition in tomorrow. I just thought you should know…"

"Who?" he still wasn't looking at her.

"I do, Akito-sama." She wondered if he was having trouble hearing her.

A scowl crossed his face "Who are you auditioning for?"

"Oh," she blushed 'that was dumb…' "the Transcends."

"…I've heard of them." Akito had a vague memory, probably from childhood, of them.

"Yeah, they're pretty good, I don't know if I'll get in though."

Akito snorted.

"Well, thanks for the vote of confidence…" she muttered, then turned and left.

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Mahiru woke up to a yelling from somewhere by her head. She groped in the darkness and only found a wall, and then slowly realized that the sounds were coming through the wall, from Akito's room. She pushed herself up on her elbows groggily. Most of the voices, if not all, were female. The Nurse Brigade. She let herself fall back down onto her pillows, drawing them over her head in an effort to block out the noise. It didn't help. At all. Mahiru groaned and stood, waiting for her world to stop spinning as the blood rushed to her head, and padded unsteadily to the door, walking into it a few times before figuring out how to open it. The light in the hall blinded her for a minute, but then she continued into Akito's room, where all the nurses were yelling at each other.

"Can we keep this down?" as one, the nurses turned to scowl at her. Mahiru didn't recognize any of them. "What's going on?"

"Sohma-sama has a fever" one nurse informed her crisply.

"Yeah, well, what else is new." Mahiru grumbled "Anything else?"

"See, I told you." A nurse rounded on all the others "It's perfectly normal. I know, I've been here longer. Usually Hatori-san just stays with him so he doesn't hurt himself."

"Well Hatori-san's not here now, is he." One of the other nurses retaliated, visually peeved.

"Where'd Hatori go?" Mahiru asked, rubbing the sleep out of one of her eyes.

"Another patient." The peeved nurse told her "And he left us in charge, saying that if anything went wrong, we should care for Sohma-sama, not leave him alone to suffer."

"Akito's suffering?" Mahiru couldn't keep up with this conversation. A whimper ended in a gasp answered her questions as all of the newer nurses turned to look at Akito. He was lying on his bed, his face flushed, eyes closed, and twitching in his sleep.

"So, should one of us stay with him?" one of the nurses asked.

"I volunteer anyone but me." The older nurse told them "Hatori-san usually sits there and comforts him. No offense to Sohma-sama" she gave a little bow in his direction "But that's not really on my to-do list."

All the other nurses nodded. "One of us is going to have to do it," said the peeved nurse to the older one "you've been here the longest. You know him the best. You do it."

"I'll do it." Volunteered Mahiru. She was getting the gist of the conversation now and didn't want to leave Akito in the care of people who would do it half-heartedly. "It's fine. He just has a fever, right?"

"A very high one." The peeved nurse was really starting to get on her nerves.

"Okay. Bye." Mahiru ushered the nurses out, and then clicked off the light in the room, waiting for her eyes to adjust again, then going over to the armchair and flopping down there. Every so often Akito would moan or whimper, and he was almost always moving. She put her hand in his again, this time his acceptance of it coming much quicker and stronger, his hand tightening around hers almost instantaneously. She smiled a little and stroked his head. He whimpered. "Sh… it's okay Akito-sa… Akito. It's okay."

He slowly opened his eyes at the sound of her voice. It took what seemed like a century for them to be able to focus on her. Mahiru moved closer that he could see her better, kneeling by the side of his bed. He groaned.

"Why… is it always you?"

"Huh?" Mahiru didn't get it.

"You're always here when…" he paused to breath, but Mahiru knew what he meant.

"I dunno, it's just weird, I guess."

He closed his eyes again. Even kneeling by the edge of his bed, Mahiru could feel the heat radiating from his skin. The bed covers were thrown all over the floor, and Akito squirmed around on his bed. Mahiru sat on the edge of his bed for a moment, and then jumped up. It was soaking with his sweat. She frowned. No wonder he was uncomfortable. She cursed the nurses to the depths of hell for leaving him there. Mahiru took her hand from his and quickly went to the kitchen, putting a hand-towel in a bowl and covering it with cold water and ice. She brought it back into Akito's room, setting it on the floor, and put laid his discarded bed-clothes in a stack. She opened the shoji doors half-way to let air into the stifling room.

Walking over to Akito's bed, Mahiru heard him whimpering again. She called his name into his ear, trying to wake him up. His eyes didn't seem to want to open. She grabbed his arm, which was slick with sweat, and shook him gently. Still, he remained unconscious. She shook him harder, "Akito…" she called into his ears. Finally, he opened his eyes, although they remained unfocused and glazed. "Akito, I need you to work with me here." She tried to get him to sit up, and he whimpered, flopping against her like a burning rag doll. She wrapped her arm under his shoulder and slowly helped him stand. To her dismay, he was a good six inches taller than her, which made their positions slightly awkward. Mahiru slowly took a step forward, waiting while he awkwardly shuffled forward a few inches. It took them about five minutes to get to the make-shift mattress she had made with his covers. She lowered him to the ground a few inches from it, and then went to get her bowl full of cold water. She took the towel out and squeezed it until it was just damp, holding it gingerly, her hands freezing. She ran the cold, wet towel over Akito, rinsing off his sweat and cooling him down. He shivered and clung to her. She half-dragged him onto the covers, helping him lie down and rinsing the towel so that she could put it on his forehead, after a moment of thought pillowing his head on her lap. After a few minutes of this, Akito seemed to cool down, his breath coming easier, eyes tightly shut. Mahiru yawned as she played with his damp hair. She wanted to go back to her room and fall asleep, but she didn't want to leave him there. His bed was soaking, so no way was she sleeping there. The chair seemed like a good idea, but she thought she might be kinda uncomfortable, and she wanted to be closer to Akito.

She looked at the sleeping God. He was thin, took up less than half of the blankets, and was over to one side. She could easily fit in next to him, and they wouldn't even touch…

She gently lowered his head, sliding her lap away. He moaned a little, but showed no other signs that he knew what she was doing. She scooted over to what she christened 'Her side of the…bed?' she lay down, surprised at its softness, and pillowed her head on her arms. In a few minutes, she was asleep.

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Hi again. I'm really cool and pretty so you want to make me happy and review. This would make me happy. This in turn will make me write. This in turn will make me post. Haha! This keeps out the flames, you see, because if someone reviews, any review, then I'm very happy, and if you're flaming me you don't want me to write. Haha –headache--

Love to White Alchemist Taya. You make my life!

I swear it will get more interesting soon... just think about what they're gonna do when they wake up!