(Hey everyone! So I have some good news, and some bad news. The good news is, I'm officially back from my 'unannounced hiatus', and will hopefully be able to get back into the writing process. Skip passed the italicized text if you want to get straight to the chapter.
The bad news comes in two parts, one not as bad as the other. First off, although I'm back, chapters won't be as frequent as they were towards the end of the year last year, mainly because I'm in my last year of high school, and I have a lot of work ahead of me as to of getting into college. So as far as chapters go, with any free time I have, I'm going to work on stories, but there just isn't an established schedule for uploading, at least not until closer to summertime.
The second part of the bad news, is really just how I feel. I'm feeling a little… burnt out… when it comes to writing this story. When I first started writing this story, I chose to write about Sayori (this being Natalie) because she seemed to be the easiest character to write about. This may have been obvious, but believe it or not, Natsuki (this being Naomi) is my favorite girl from DDLC. I like all the girls, all of them deserve equal attention in my opinion, but I guess I'm just getting a little tired of writing a story around Sayori (Natalie). That's actually why I incorporated Natsuki (Naomi) to be more of an occurring character into the story, because I almost wanted to shift the story into a Natsuki based story, until I realized this is a Sayori based story. You'll probably notice with more of my recent chapters that my mind was sort of in a Natsuki state, and I started to make Natsuki (Naomi) more involved for the wrong reason, and that was a mistake on my part. Actually, when I wrote the story, I made the Sayori character's name Natalie because it was as close to 'Natsuki' as I could get, and deep down I wanted to feel like I was writing for Natsuki as well as Sayori. Don't ask me why, it was a dumb decision and I can't really figure out why I did it, it just complicated things for myself and you guys, that I'll definitely admit.
So in conclusion, what I'm trying to get to is, I'm not going to stop writing this story, and after this chapter, I'm going to recollect myself and start to change the focus back onto Sayori. And, with my own desires in writing, I'm actually going to start a new story, a Natsuki based story. One of the regrets about this story I have is that I made up my own character names, and a lot of times I accidentally confuse myself, so with the new Natsuki story, I'm going to use the original character names, with the exception of the main character having a name so I don't have to refer to him as 'Anon'.
Admittedly, my focus will start to shift to the Natsuki story, simply because that's what I really want to do right now. But I know there is some love for this story from lots of people, and that truly warms my heart. So this story won't be completely forgotten, and I'll still try my hardest to write for it, as well as my new one.
As soon as I figure out all the details, like the title, draft the first few chapters, and so on, I'll start posting the new story on my profile, so just keep an eye out for it if you'd like to give it a read.
If you made it this far, thank you for reading my thoughts, and understanding. This chapter was already written, and was pretty short as I tried to write it in December when I was about to take my break. I'm sorry for the unannounced break and the short chapter, but I'm excited to see what the future holds, and I hope you guys are too. This isn't the end to this story, I promise.)
I do not own Doki Doki Literature Club, nor do I own any of the characters portrayed within this story.
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"Um… guys? What exactly happened?" I asked.
"You… you don't remember what happened?" Natalie asked, taking on a serious tone.
"No. Not really anyways. I remember being outside with Naomi's dad, and he was trying to make her come home, but that's about it." I said
"You kicked my dad's ass, but he did a cheap shot and pulled a knife on you, and cut you across your core." Naomi said plainly.
"I… I did?" I looked down at the old clothes covering my torso. "I guess that explains this, huh?" I said with a light chuckle.
Both of the girls stared at me.
"What?" I asked.
"How are you taking this so lightly?" Naomi asked.
"I wouldn't say I'm taking it lightly. I just feel relieved that you guys did such a good job of cleaning me up." I said smiling.
Naomi sighed. "Well, after you passed out, we didn't know what to do. So we just winged it."
"Neither of us know how to drive, and we weren't about to carry you all the way to the hospital, we could barely get you on the couch. So we had to do what we could with what we had." Natalie said.
"Why didn't you just call an ambul-"
"No. It would've been too much to explain and been a major headache. Plus, on top of that, I know how much you hate hospitals." Natalie gave me a teasing smirk. She was right though, I do have a pretty bad fear of them. She continued. "We wanted to get you professional help, but what choice did we have?" She asked. "What if they would've asked what happened? You could've gotten in trouble with the police!"
"No, I get it. You guys made the right decision. And you did a hell of a job too." I assured them.
"Seriously? All we did was stop the bleeding with what we assumed was some of your old clothes. It's not like we did anything beneficial!" Naomi said, raising her voice.
"I'm still alive, aren't I? It doesn't even hurt that bad, see?" I tried to sit up, but winced as the burning pain that I had forgotten about set back in.
"Stooopp" Naomi said lightly, pushing me back down by the shoulders. "You seriously need to take it easy for a while." She said, in an uncharacteristically sympathetic tone.
We were quiet for a while in the dark living room, awkwardly trading glances at one another.
"You guys… I really appreciate the help. But you don't have to worry about me. I'll be okay!" I smiled at them.
Natalie scoffed. "A-are you seriously saying that right now?!" She paused, and took a deep breath. "Nick, you're a great guy, but you care too much. You worry about everyone and everything, and don't allow anyone else to worry about you. You devote so much energy into others, but don't think to think about yourself. It's an extremely humble trait, but it hurts you in the long run."
I just stared at her, in disbelief that something so serious could come out of Natalie's mouth. Sometimes I feel like I may take Natalie's efforts for granted.
Naomi looked at her, then at me. She spoke up. "She means, let us worry about you. You may not think it, but you're just as deserving of help than any of us, especially with all that's been going on with us recently. I think I can say for the both of us that you deserve whatever type of help we can give you." She said, smiling at me.
This really isn't like them. I've never seen this side to either of them before. They're acting so… mature.
"Alright… but you guys have to promise me something."
"What is it?" They both said in unison.
"We're telling Marissa and Ada everything." I looked at Natalie. "Natalie, you're telling them about your depression, and what you did." She looked away, rubbing the back of her neck. I looked over to Naomi. "And Naomi, you're telling them about your home issues." She got a nervous look on her face. "I'll tell them about my home issues, and my scuffle with Naomi's dad just to be fair. And on top of all of this, we're telling them we're all living together, because this whole cover up mess is a pain in the butt and could've easily been avoided." I looked at both of them again. "They're our friends, and will only want to help us. I think we've all discovered that with each other on our own."
They looked at each other, and looked back to me.
"I mean, I-I guess that's fair." Naomi said, huffing.
"If it's what you think is okay, then I'll do it." Natalie said.
I smiled. "Thank you, guys. That's a huge weight lifted off my shoulders." I checked the time again, still surprised by how late it was. "You guys should probably be getting to bed. We have school tomorrow and I don't want to make you tired for tomorrow."
"Like hell we are! What if something goes wrong with you in the middle of the night?" Naomi fired at me.
"But I told you I feel fine…" I said.
"We literally just talked about this." Natalie said.
"Okay, okay." I said, holding my hands up, defeated. "But whether I'm able to go or not, you guys are going to school tomorrow, so if you aren't going to sleep upstairs, at least sleep down here on the other couches."
"If you can't go, I'm not going." Natalie said, straightforwardly.
"Y-Yeah, me too." Naomi said.
Looks like no matter what, I'm going to school tomorrow. I'm not letting them miss because of me.
"Fiinnee." I said in a dramatically whiny way.
The girls went upstairs to get pillows and blankets. After they came back down, Naomi laid out on the longer couch, and Natalie laid back on the recliner. I noticed they were both staring at me, Watching over my every movement.
I knew if I told them they didn't have to do that, I'd probably just get an ear full from one of them again, so I simply closed my eyes, and tried to get some more sleep.
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I awoke to a faint voice in my left ear, and some nudges on my shoulder.
"…Hey, you should probably wake up now, dummy."
"Ugh… Naomi? What time is it?" I looked around the room. "Where's Natalie?" I asked, groggily.
"She's in the shower, I'm in charge of you. And like I said, time to wake up." She said. "How're you feeling?"
"Fine, I guess. As you would expect." I slowly got up to a sitting position on the couch, and looked down at my body again. I still had pants on from the scuffle, but my top was off and my torso was covered in the old clothes. I pulled the towel off the top of my head.
"Man, a shower is probably gonna hurt like hell." I said.
"I-I'm… I'm sorry this happened to you. It's all my fault. I should've never even came here and put you in danger…" She said.
"Nonsense. I know you would do the same thing for me. It's the least I could do." I said, giving her a smile.
She looks like she wants to say something, but stays quiet.
"Well, I guess it's time to take a look at the damage." I said, starting to remove the clothes from my torso.
Naomi's face immediately gets red.
"W-what're you doing?! Taking off your clothes in front of a girl!" She says, looking away.
"Well, I had a shirt on before I passed out, and now I don't have one on. You guys clearly took it off earlier, what's the difference now?" I asked, continuing to take them off.
"T-that was different, it was an emergency! We were worried about your health, now this is completely different!" She stammers.
I personally wasn't self-conscious about my body at all. I went to the gym, I ate relatively well, I know what I'm about. I'm not ripped, but I'm fairly toned. The only thing I ever worried about were my scars, but I'm comfortable around Naomi and Natalie.
After I got down to the last layer of clothing, the blood was really dried and stuck to my skin. It hurt to pull it off.
"Ugh, gross. Could you get me a damp warm cloth?" I asked Naomi.
"Y-Yeah, sure!" She ran off to fetch me my request.
When she came back, I gently dabbed the cloth among the lines where the blood was the thickest, and worked the rags off to reveal my recently acquired wound.
It ran from the lower left part of my abdomen all the way up to the upper right part of my chest. And now that it was exposed, man did it burn. Luckily it had already scabbed up well, and I Hadn't done any more damage to it after carefully taking the rags off. The cut was surprisingly deep though.
This is going to scar for sure.
Oh well, scars are nothing new.
"Well, to make the best of a bad situation, at least it looks kinda cool, right?" I asked Naomi.
She was quiet.
"Naomi?" I asked again, looking up to where she was standing.
Naomi stood in the same spot she was, staring at me.
Suddenly, she outstretched her hand towards my chest, slowly. She placed her fingertips on my chest, and slowly ran her hand over the wound.
It stung as she ran her hand over it, but I didn't express that to her. Her hands were slightly cold, and I had never realized how small they really were until now.
"Umm… Naomi?"
She locked eyes with me.
"I…I did this to you…" She said, her voice cracking.
"Naomi, no! We've been over this already." I said.
Her eyes started to get glossy.
I took her hand in mine, she locked eyes with me again, her face getting slightly red.
"You never know what somebody else is going to do, and you can never blame yourself for the consequences of somebody else's actions. I didn't have to fight the guy either. I could've ran inside and just called the police. It's my fault for making a poor decision." I reassured her.
"Well…I am glad you kicked his butt, he deserved it." She said, giggling a little.
I smiled at her, and laughed as well. "I think I'm glad too."
We had only just realized that I was still holding her hand. She withdrew it quickly, and we both blushed.
"I'm out of the shower, for whoever needs to go next!" Natalie called downstairs.
"You go ahead. I'm definitely going to take my time, and I don't want to use up all the hot water on you."
"Alright. Don't do anything stupid and get yourself hurt while I'm gone, Natalie would kill me." She says, as she walks up the stairs.
I smile to myself, and imagine Natalie giving an earful to Naomi and getting into an argument over me. I'm way too lucky to have these girls care about me.
I slowly get up, make my way to the kitchen, and start to prepare breakfast for the girls while they're getting ready for what'll probably be the longest school day of my life.
I can't wait… I think to myself, imagining the pain it's going to be to for us to explain everything to the literature club later.
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