Author's Note: This is where Kita's personality change becomes more obvious and she becomes my best friend but if Kita were a real person, I'd probably try to befriend her and she'd probably be afraid of me. After this: one more chapter and the epilogue.

Chapter 29 (Sinners At The Mercy Of An Angry Goddess)

Kita woke up in a pitch-black room feeling smooth cotton against her cheek. Her legs were resting across two plastic chairs with cold metal frames that, while sleeping, she would accidently rub with her ankles every so often and then flinch from the chill. She was aware of all of her body except her head. Other than the smooth cotton, she could also feel a distinct dip where her head was placed, separating two masses. I'm lying on someone's legs, she realized.

"Akito?" she murmured into the dark as she lifted her head up and allowed her eyes to adjust. Brown slacks. She was lying on legs encased in a pair of brown slacks. She looked upward and saw the barely visible face of Kureno, sitting up asleep with his head resting on his shoulder.

She glanced to her left and saw Akito laying motionlessly on the hospital bed, hooked up to a heart rate machine. The liquid crystal display showed a constant but weak heartbeat. He had been moved out of intensive care but he had been virtually dead since they had done it. Hatori tried to convince the doctors that it was too soon but they seemed more concerned with giving the room to someone else than making sure to take the extra precautions for him.

It was early in the morning, two o'clock according the barely visible clock on the wall, and Kita still had two more days of her last three exams before graduation. She was starting to wonder if she had studied enough because she could barely concentrate over the past few days, yesterday in particular. All the events started to line themselves up in chronological order as she reflected on yesterday...

After two grueling and lengthy exams, physics and history, she went to the main house to change out of her school uniform and then hitched a ride to the hospital with Hatori. Kureno was already there when they arrived, sitting in the same chair as yesterday and pondering a bird-watching magazine with a confused expression. While Hatori went to discuss medical procedures with Akito's doctor, Kita had sat in the waiting room with Kureno.

She had her English book in front of her but she couldn't comprehend a word of it. She had never had trouble in the class, it was one of her better subjects, she just couldn't focus on anything when the outcome of Akito's condition remained yet to be determined. As she gazed at the book the words and characters started to go out of focus and blur until all she could see on the page was a gray smudge on the white paper. Instead of trying to read, she sat twirling her engagement ring around on her finger, her new substitute for twirling her hair. Both Kureno and Hatori had noticed the ring but neither of them decided to ask about it, thinking that she probably wasn't in the right mental state to discuss the idea of marrying Akito.

"Excuse me?" a matronly voice addressed Kita. She looked up from her book and saw a woman dressed in pink scrubs with short, black graying hair, amber eyes, and a warm, maternalistic quality about her. It was the nurse who had cared for her father.

"Yes?" Kita asked, wondering if of all coincidences, this woman was also Akito's nurse.

"Aren't you that poor girl who was in here for her father two months ago?" the women asked.

"Yeah, that was me." Kita said, somberly.

"Oh no! Why are you back here again, hun?" she asked, putting her hand on Kita's shoulder. She winced in a minor shoulder undulation. The comfort from strangers thing still made her a bit uncomfortable but this women seemed to think they did have something since she had, after all, cared for her father in his dying hour.

"My...fiancé." she said, holding up her ringed finger as proof. Kureno raised his eyebrows. Well, there's the answer.

"Oh, dear. I wish him the best." the nurse said, patting her shoulder. That unfortunate girl. Never have I met a girl who has gone through so many tragedies in such a short period of time, she thought.

"Thank you." Kita answered, looking down at her navy blue flats in embarrassment. It's not often that a stranger feels that sorry for you.

The nurse walked away to attend to a patient and Kita decided to study the not-so-intricately laid floor tiles. With her sense of sight barely functioning, her sense of hearing was heightened and she was instantly tuned in to an oddly familiar voice talking around the corner.

"Listen, I don't care about the intricacies of his ailment. I just came here to find out if he's dying or not. Okay? Can you tell me that much? I'm his fucking mother, after all!" That cold, condescending, women's voice.

Kita stood up and stormed out the waiting room door towards the nurse's station with Kureno following behind her. Sure enough, standing in front of the desk with long, black hair, a way too low black dress, and a frightening stare was Ren. Hatori was standing next to her trying to get her to calm down.

"What are you doing here?" Kita demanded. Ren turned around.

"Oh, hello, Kita. That's a beautiful ring you have there." she said, grinning malevolently at her, no longer acting uptight.

"What are you doing here?" Kita repeated, filling with anger just thinking about what she did to Akito. Not to mention the fact that Akito had told her stories about how Ren used to loathe Mina for her nearly perfect life and made New Years hell for her which explained why she had found such displeasure in noticing that Kita had the same eyes as her mother. Kita is rarely ever angry, certainly never angry enough to yell or resort to physical violence, but she found herself clenching her fists tightly and imagining herself wiping that smile off Akito's mother's face with a solid punch in the nose.

"Oh calm down, Kita. I've just come to see if my son is dead yet." she said, as if she was praying for his death every night. "It shouldn't be too much longer now." she said, cheerfully.

"You bitch!" Kita shouted, as she stormed towards the women with her arm swung back with the intention of punching her. Before she could release her fist on her, Kureno grabbed her arms and pulled them behind her back. "What kind of a fucking mother are you! You deserve to be the one in the hospital! Let me go, Kureno!" she said kicking her feet around as he lifted her off the ground in total shock at her outburst.

Hatori turned to Ren. "Here, I think you should go." he said calmly.

"Fine." she said sharply, shaking her head as he directed her towards the elevators. Kita was still yelling at her as she left and the nurses started to give her and Kureno dirty looks because she was disrupting the patients.

Kureno, still holding Kita off the ground, carried her into Akito's room, hoping that if they were in his room, she would be quiet to avoid disturbing him.

"Kita, relax." he told her, as he set her feet down on the ground, her body still trembling with rage. Kita's eyes fell on Akito's frail, lifeless form in the hospital bed and had an instant breakdown. Overcome with the image, she fell forward and cried uncontrollably into the Kureno's shirt. He wrapped his arms around her in a friendly, comforting embrace as she wept over her sickly fiancé.

"It will be okay." he told her. "They wouldn't have moved him if they didn't think he would recover."

"I...hope...so..." Kita said mumbled, through broken cries.

Kita and Kureno spent the rest of the evening in Akito's room talking, while Kita made another feeble attempt at studying. They then proceeded to fall asleep in the chairs they had been sitting in until Kita woke up early that morning.

She stood up and slowly approached Akito's bed. He looked much smaller than he ever had as he laid between the stiff white sheets. Kita reached out and ran her fingers through his messy hair, her already scintillating ring and his velvety hair catching the moonlight coming in through the window giving the entire bed a celestial glow. Akito stirred, turning his head in the direction that her hand was stroking his hair.

"Akito?" she asked, kneeling down beside the bed.

"Kita.." he responded weakly, opening his eyes.

"Yes, I'm here." she said, taking his hand into hers. He had a heart rate monitor on his index finger.

He made some nondescript, gratified noise, something like "Mmm," and closed his eyes again. Kita rubbed his hand in hers to try to warm it. He was cold as ice even though he must have had at least four blankets on him and his skin felt loose on his bones, like that of a wrinkled, elderly man. His body was so pale, it almost had a bluish tint to it.

"Akito?"

"Mm?" he answered, opening his eyes halfway as if it was an insurmountable challenge to open them the entire way.

"I love you and I want you to know that no matter what happens I will still love you." she said seriously, placing a kiss on the back of his hand. He smiled sleepily and shakingly reached out to touched her long, violet hair.

"I know." he said simply. "I love you, Kita."

Kita tightened her lips as she felt a cry coming. She instinctively changed the topic. "I bitched out Ren today." she said quickly.

Akito smiled, his normal twisted smirk, surprised that she had acted so capriciously. "I hope you got her good."

Kita nodded and tried to smile back.

As Akito drifted off the sleep again, Kita started to feel horribly guilty for considering leaving him to go to the university. Until that point, she had always considered running away to be an option, albeit a dangerous one, but now, with the ring on her finger and his lack of health, she felt tied to him. She felt like she had a responsibility to him. But she would love him no matter where she was, and isn't that all that matters?

Kita laid her head down on the hospital bed, her hand still wrapped around his, and allowed herself to sleep. I'll worry later, she thought. But I don't have much time left to decide.