Fifth song: Impression
Note: Ok… *takes deep breath* I'm going to use super speed to try to finish up the chapter, it's getting a bit later over here… well I don't think I mind sacrificing a few hours sleep as long as everyone enjoys this chapter! So enjoy! (It's an order! No, not really. Just wishful thinking)
Shizuru stared at the scene before her, and as if on cue Natsuki quickly dropped her ankle, and glared at her menacingly.
"What do you want?" she snapped defensively while pushing some strands of her hair behind her ear.
The older woman said nothing her eyes narrowing till she finally decided to ask the obvious question "Is there something wrong with your ankle?"
"No." The spade replied a bit too quickly confirming her partner's suspicions.
"In that case…" Shizuru started feeling slightly annoyed by Natsuki's defensiveness "… I'm guessing you wouldn't mind me having a look."
A pair of emerald eyes widened in shock.
"Why would you want to do that?" The blunette asked trying to keep her voice cool and indifferent.
"Why would you mind?" the chestnut haired woman asked cleverly evading the question.
Natsuki gulped, her throat feeling suddenly dry, Shizuru decided to take this chance to move closer to the younger woman, slowly if not almost unnoticeably. Meanwhile the blunette was racking her brains in seek of a good excuse to get Shizuru to stop suspecting something was up.
And before she knew it, she felt a hand squeeze her ankle, spreading a jolt of pain up her leg, making her wince. A moment later Natsuki glared at the owner of the hand who only stared back with a victorious grin spreading on her face.
"So what?" Natsuki hissed highly annoyed of Shizuru's clear victory "It's nothing major."
Shizuru merely raised an eyebrow and added some light pressure on Natsuki's injury, causing the blunette to jerk and glare in fury at the older woman.
Ara, ok… that was a bit mean from my part. Shizuru thought feeling guilty that she was causing her partner this much pain.
"Can I see…?" she asked after a while but she didn't wait for Natsuki's permission, she just went ahead, taking of her shoe and then gently pulling down her sock. Natsuki was just too shock to do anything, but sit there and watch Shizuru's actions.
A pair of crimson eyes widened as she saw the state of her partner's ankle, it was all swollen and purple looking as if it had been bruised. Probably, it had worsened while they were performing; after all, she had been putting her own weight on it for the past hours.
"Ara… this won't do, I think we should go to the hospital."Shizuru suggested realizing that this was out of her hands.
Natsuki huffed in annoyance, "I don't think so…" and before her partner could stop her she tried to stand up, but somehow the pain had worsened and she almost collapsed on the floor. Luckily Shizuru had managed to catch the blunette right on time by the arm.
"Don't be stubborn, just go to the doctor and have it checked out."
A pair of green clashed with red and started a silent staring contest. Finally, Natsuki gave in. "Fine. Whatever." She said reluctantly raising her hands as a sign of defeat.
Meanwhile Shizuru smiled inwardly. Ara, looks like I'm on a roll today.
There was one thing that Natsuki dreaded though:
"Does Natsuki want to lean on me for support?" Shizuru asked half serious half teasing the blunette
The spade felt one of her veins pop somewhere near her temple; oh I bet she's having fun… curse her. Thougheven if her pride was telling her otherwise, her common sense kicked in; informing that she would in no way be able to move without assistance, if she could barely stand without being in agony.
Sighing and steeling herself from making a comment, she circled an arm around Shizuru's neck as the older woman circled hers around her waist in order to keep her incorporated. Feeling a bit relived that there was less weight leaning on her bad leg, she limped across the room.
It took a while to get a taxi to the hospital, partly because Natsuki was worried about her bike and after a lot of discussing Shizuru finally managed to convince her to leave it behind. There was no way Natsuki was going to drive that wretched machine in her state.
Finally reaching the hospital they made it to the reception, where a young woman was talking on the phone taking notes.
Waiting patiently for the woman to finish, she finally hung up the phone and looked at Shizuru.
"Yes? How may I help you?" she inquired politely to the pair.
"Hello, we need…" but Shizuru was cut off when the receptionist's eyes fell upon Natsuki.
"Oh! Kuga-san! Have you come for-?" but was interrupted when Natsuki hastily shook her head and gave her a warning stare.
The receptionist soon noticed that Natsuki was leaning onto Shizuru for support that made her frown "What is wrong?"
"I hurt my ankle… nothing serious…" The blunette added as the receptionist gave her a concerned look.
"Oh no… hang on I'll set you up with a doctor right now" she said as she picked up the phone and dialed a number.
Shizuru stared at the blunette not understanding what had just happened, Natsuki was very careful at that moment to not to stare into the chestnut haired woman's eyes.
"Well it looks like a minor sprain… you haven't broken anything." informed the doctor while surveying the radiographies of the blunette's leg. "Though it probably got a bit worse when you leaned on it with no mercy for hours straight" he added with humor causing the blunette to raise an eyebrow. "Now, about the treatment…" he continued with a smile ignoring her look "…I'm going to give you some pills to bring down the inflammation and we are going to bandage it to keep it immobilized."
"For how long?" Natsuki asked a bit preoccupied
"Not long, a week at the most." The doctor replied giving the blunette an assuring look"…And also remember to keep you ankle elevate at night to facilitate blood circulation."
And after he prescribed the pills that Natsuki was supposed to take for the next few days, the pair left the hospital.
Neither of them said a word while they moved towards the street in the hope of catching another cab. Although a thought started nagging in the back of the chestnut haired woman's mind and she decided to voice it out for the other woman to hear.
"Will Natsuki be able to handle getting back home?"
"I can manage." She answered curtly looking away.
"Ara, just like she managed to get to the hospital?"
Natsuki glared at her as she said this.
Ara… that was a bit over the top… "Kannin na, I didn't mean to say it like that"
Moments later, Shizuru raised her hand to stop a taxi driving down their way. The driver asked for directions which the blunette gave without paying much attention to the woman beside her.
The vehicle stopped finally, in front of a high luxurious looking building that almost resembled a mini sky scraper.
Ara… Someone has been making a good living… is this how famous singers live?
The older woman helped Natsuki move into the huge building, and into the elevator, where the spade pressed the upmost button.
Shizuru could feel the tension building up as they rose past floors, the silence between them only being broken by the annoying 'elevator' music.
A ding indicated that they had reached their destiny and they moved across the hall to the furthest door.
It took a moment for Natsuki to pull out the key and unlock it.
With a last effort, Shizuru managed to bring her partner inside and onto the couch, sighing in relief as she felt the weight off her. And as she recovered from the soreness lingering round her shoulders she took the chance to look around.
The 'apartment' was big and open, and rather empty and hollow, since it only had the basic furniture: like a sofa, a plasma television screen and a table with a few chairs.
Natsuki hadn't bothered turning on the lights even if was very late at night, not that it seemed to need any, since one of the walls was made entirely of glass, revealing the city life below that was now glowing with neon lights and cars that gave the whole place a faint golden glow.
"This is a nice house." Shizuru said trying to get the blunette to say something to relieve the tension between them but only managed to catch her attention. Is she still angry because of what I said before?
"Kannin na I really didn't want to sound mean before-"
"No, don't apologize to the likes of me." She said finally causing the older woman to blink in confusion
"Natsuki?"
Natsuki huffed impatiently "I said that you shouldn't apologize, it's not like I have been treating you any better."
Now for the poor Ace of Hearts that was definitely unexpected, this last comment had made her feel a bit light headed and she began to wonder if she was becoming delusional or that she was dreaming.
The older woman got up to head towards the door but paused before reaching out for it, turning on the spot to look at the blunette who at the same time raised her green eyes for a few seconds and then she opened her mouth again.
"I guess… I should thank you for helping me out."
Shizuru smiled grateful that it wasn't faltering as she felt her heart racing and thumping loudly in her chest. "You're welcome. I hope you recover soon Natsuki." And with that she left, her heart feeling lighter than it had been for weeks.
Finally it looked like Natsuki was coming to accept her.
The following day as she expected Natsuki didn't come by the studio, though at least this time she knew it wasn't without a good reason. She explained the situation to the rest of the band who were very understanding.
It looked like they trusted Natsuki beyond of what the older woman had imagined. Despite the blunette's difficult attitude they seemed to love her very much.
The doors of the studio opened and Misaki came inside half skipping with joy waving a newspaper in her hand.
"Yesterday was a hit! They loved us!"
The band quickly brightened up along with the news and the manager unfolded the newspaper to read its contents out loud:
Symphonia's amazing recovery!
Symphonia has yet again exceeded its expectations, but this time featuring the new Ace, who also proved her talent in this magnificent group of young musicians. The public was amazed how well the new combination of Hearts and Spades managed to overwhelm them.
Who would have expected such a recovery after their retirement from the world of music?
As now Symphonia is officially recognized back into its former place as 'one of the best modern' bands of our time, will soon, according to the studio will start recording a new album and performing in live concerts abandoning the clubs for the bigger stage.
What other amazing trump cards does this band have up its sleeve? Now we'll just have to wait and see.
Kaito gave a big whoop and started jumping around like a little kid, making Jeanne chase after him to get him to stop as Ryû merely shook his head.
"This is great news but we must not relax, now we going to be under the radar of many people so we have to keep working to improve" Misaki told the band while being unable to repress the smile spreading on her face.
And after discussing some of their future plans they made to leave the studio, just to find themselves clobbered by the media.
"Where is Natsuki?"
"When will be the band's next project?"
Misaki managed to make through the mass of people and as if on cue a car appeared and the band quickly crammed inside leaving behind a mob of disappointed reporters.
"Thank god I predicted this could happen"
Everyone but Shizuru nodded in agreement.
"Why? What's going on?" she asked confused.
"Oh, we've just become the media's new toy; they will want stories about us now." Misaki explained
"But I thought we wouldn't get so much attention so soon." Shizuru reasoned still not understanding how this was happening
"Well that applies to new bands, but, we are not new, and we were quite popular before we decided to retire. So they are having a field day, not many bands that has been gone for so long get back on track so quickly or easily." The manager paused "Which reminds me, you should extreme caution now, the media can do anything for a good story if it sells."
The ace nodded not sure if she liked how this was turning out.
Back at the apartment Natsuki flicked the newspaper, her green eyes soon falling upon the article about the band. She read through it quickly and then threw it aside sighing. This means we are getting famous again…
A ringing echoed throughout the house, that made her decide to get up from her seat and limp towards the phone.
Noticing who was calling on the caller ID, she picked up the phone and heard an urgent "Hello?" before she hung it up without caring much for the person on the other side.
She sighed again and limped this time towards the couch and allowed herself to slouch down as she turned on the TV.
The phone rang again but this time the blunette ignored it.
Why can't they just leave me alone?
Note: Natsuki has a stalker! No, not really… It's so late… the things I do for readers…Ah I'm falling asleep... I'll have to read this later to spell check but for now I'm going to bed after I finish the omake.
So make sure to drop in a review in exchange of my sacrifice!
Joking, but they are really appreciated, and I'm not lying when I say that they are my writing vitamins! (I don't even care if that made sense cause I'm half asleep on the keyboard)
OMAKE:
Natsuki:
Shizuru:
Natsuki:
Shizuru:
Natsuki:
Shizuru:
Asuka: No, it isn't a typo; this is what I call a create-your-own-omake!
(Heh, I save myself of thinking up an omake, while the silly readers do all the work without knowing it. The perfect win-win solution. I'm such a genius)