For once in his life, falling off a cliff can be attributed to sheer rotten luck and not yokai interference. It would be funny if it wasn't so sad. Still, as he tips backwards, catching the briefest flickers of horror on his friends' faces before they're overtaken by the clear blue sky, Natsume has just enough time to think "this is going to hurt" before the world dissolved into a whirlwind of greens and blues and browns before finally disappearing in a sudden onslaught of black.
He awakens to the sound of frantic screaming, voices calling to one another in terror stricken tones, tight with fear and wet with tears. He isn't aware enough to understand what they're saying, but he does know that when he groans the voices come to a screeching halt.
"Natsume?" a voice says, and he feels a light touch on his shoulder.
"Don't move him!" the second voice snaps, quivering despite the commanding tone. The feather light brush of fingers withdraws immediately. "We don't know what's broken yet. You could make it worse if it's a spine or head injury!"
Natsume lets the world swim back into focus, eyes squinted nearly shut against the radiance of the sunny day. He slowly curls each finger and toe, flexes each muscle, searching out all of the familiar aches and pains as they radiate through his body. He's fairly sure that nothing is broken, though he definitely hit his head at some point during his tumble down. With a soft groan, he eases his way into a sitting position.
"What do you think you're doing?" a voice screeches, so high and full of panic that it makes his already tender head pound.
Nishimura shoves his way into Natsume's space, so close their noses are nearly touching. His wide eyes are earnest and worried, wet with tears, and despite Kitamoto's earlier warnings his hand has come to rest on Natsume's shoulder once more. It is hot and a little damp, and when he manages to make his eyes focus long enough Natsume can see mud and grass stains on the knees of Nishimura's pants. The skin on his elbows are scraped raw. Natsume wonders if the boy is leaving blood smeared across his shoulder now, wonders if the dampness is from open wounds instead of summer sweat. He can't help but lean into the touch, either way.
"You're hurt," Natsume says, rather stupidly if the bewildered look Kitamoto wears is anything to go by.
"We had to climb down the cliff to get to you!" Nishimura yells, though there's no anger behind his words. It's like he thinks if he says them loud enough, some secret meaning will be conveyed as they burrow into his brain through his ringing ears. Natsume feels burning shame begin to eat away at his insides at the realization that he's the cause of so much trouble for his friends.
"I'm sorry," he begins, though the words are cut off when Nishimura begins to scold him for apologizing. Before he can get too far, Kitamoto's voice rises above the din.
"Natsume," he says, and there's something strange in his tone that makes even Nishimura hold his tongue. Natsume forces himself to meet his gaze and is startled by how haunted he looks as he asks, "How are you alive right now?"
"Huh?" is the most intelligent response he can muster.
"The cliff," Nishimura says slowly, like he's trying his best to accommodate for his friend's apparent head injury. "It's probably a good thirty feet tall."
Natsume tilts his head back, considering the drop.
"Only thirty?" he asks, squinting to see the top. "It felt more like forty to me."
"How could you possibly know that?" Nishimura chimes in, voice pitched very high. Kitamoto's face has gone pale, and he's making a strange grating sound somewhere deep in his throat.
Natsume blinks, and despite his friends' protests pushes himself slowly to his feet. His left ankle twinges a little and his head pounds so hard the world tilts and wobbles around him, but he manages to keep himself stubbornly upright. He wishes that Nyanko-sensei had come along today, if only because it would make the trip back into town significantly less troublesome. Flying is so much easier when he's in a state like this, as long as he keeps his eyes closed. Walking will require him to trouble his friends for assistance.
"Natsume, how do you know that?" Nishimura repeats more sharply, snapping his fingers in front of Natsume's face like he's trying to keep a dog's attention focused on him. Natsume frowns. If his head weren't so muddled up, he might have found enough energy to be annoyed by the treatment. As it is, though, he doesn't really blame him. At some point, Nishimura had slipped beneath his arm to offer support and Natsume hadn't even noticed.
"Bad luck," he answers after realizing he hadn't said anything for several long minutes. A wry grin tugs at the corners of his lips. "It's not the first cliff I've fallen from."
"Oh," says Kitamoto.
"How many?" demands Nishimura from his other side, one arm circled around his waist.
"I've never bothered to keep track," Natsume answers honestly. He thinks on it a bit longer before deciding that ten is a pretty safe number. He hears his friends mutter at that answer, though he can't actually make out what they're saying. He wonders if they're mad at him.
"How many have you…?" he gestures weakly, casting around uncertainly for something to say to soothe the conversation. Bonding over stuff like this is good, right? He's heard his past foster siblings laughing with their friends over the dumb ways they hurt themselves. There's no way he's the only person who's ever taken a tumble. Nishimura isn't exactly the most graceful person on the planet and he seems to enjoy spending time in the forests surrounding his hometown, so Natsume would bet money that he's tripped over the edge of at least one—
"Exactly zero," Nishimura responds with a tone so upbeat that even Natsume can tell the cheer is fake.
"Also zero," Kitamoto echoes dryly.
"Ah," Natsume says, swallowing despite the unbearable dryness in his mouth. His head is still pounding. "That's probably for the best. It's not particularly fun."
"What's the highest you've ever fallen from?"
Natsume thinks, trying to recall each tumble he's had in the past through the haze in his brain. He wonders briefly if being dropped by a flying yokai counts, before deciding that it does.
"Maybe…seventy feet? Eighty? I'm not totally sure, but it felt high."
"How are you still alive?" Nishimura demands, an echo from an earlier question.
"Ah, well Nyanko-sensei was waiting to catch me," Natsume explains sheepishly.
"That's just…that's not…." Kitamoto cuts himself off before he can finish the thought, grunting as he stumbles a little over a fallen log they're helping Natsume climb over.
Not normal? Not human? Natsume thinks bitterly before pushing the thought angrily away. His friends seem to notice the way he cringes and shrinks into himself though, because before he can get too lost in his own head, Nishimura is chattering away about their math test on Monday and Kitamoto is cutting in to remind him of their history quiz on Wednesday. Both suggest that the three of them get together tomorrow to study.
"If the Fujiwara's are okay with it, of course," Kitamoto says, and Natsume can practically feel his heavy gaze despite not daring to turn his head far enough to the right to see it. His neck is too stiff, and if he turns too fast he's fairly sure he'll end up puking.
"And if you're feeling up to it!" Nishimura chimes in from his other side. His loud voice makes Natsume's ears ring and his vision swim, but he smiles all the same.
"I'm sure I will be," he says, because he's beginning to feel better already. After some food and maybe some pain killers, he's sure he'll be right as rain. He might not even have to bother his guardians with the details of the day's mishaps.
"You fell off a cliff," Nishimura reminds, voice pitched higher than usual with a strange mix of horror and amazement. "A thirty foot cliff!"
"Forty," Natsume corrects absentmindedly, and laughs at the muffled groans he gets in response.
This boy has survived way too many falls in his life so I decided to add another to the list. This is basically just an unedited mess, so sorry about that! Hope you liked it regardless! :)