100 Moods: A Tale of Opposites Attract
Chibi-Sorrow

Chapter Two: Romantic
(Part Two of Two)

The heavy smell of sterilization stung her nostrils as consciousness came to her.

'Did I pass out from working too hard... again?' It wouldn't be the first and certainly not the last time it would happen. Her mind wandered over that thought carefully. She couldn't really remember where she had been last – never mind what she had been doing – so as to why she was in the oh-so-obvious clinic failed to come to her slightly ditzy mind. She knew it was something important. Something of great value. 'Maybe I passed out in the mine,' was all she came up with.

Mind you, all this was thought while her eyes were still closed.

She felt very comfortable, very warm. The warmth exceeded what she was used to feeling in the normally cold office. After all, Alex claimed that keeping it cold helped keep it sterile; at least, that was what he had told her last time she fainted. She just thought he was a nut bar who liked arctic wind-like temperatures. But getting back to the warmth, nothing seemed to radiate more heat than whatever was keeping a tight grasp of her damaged right hand. It was like the sun's rays themselves were shining down on that solitary hand of hers, for whatever reason she wasn't sure.

The reason for her confinement to the hospital slowly came to her in bits and pieces. Climbing up a mountain. Falling rocks. Bleeding. Dirty stone. Blue feather.

Blue feather...

'Ah, that's it! I was trying to get the feather so Jamie and I could...' her thoughts trailed off as she mentally, and physically as well, blushed. She had been so determined. It was slightly embarrassing.

Something bothered her, though: Just how did she survive? She remembered quiet clearly getting hit by a stray boulder – her shoulder actually aching at the moment from that bit – before falling down a good fifteen, twenty feet. The fall alone should have killed her, never mind her body already being torn up.

Deciding it was about time she tried to pry open her eyelids, her face twitched slightly – as did the rest of her aching body – before she was able to get them open even a slight crack. She moaned gently, closing her eyes against the bright florescent lights overhead that felt the need to thoughtfully blind her poor irises. The glare made her head pound more so than it already had been and she desperately tried to roll over onto her right side, groaning all along the way.

"Did anyone get the branding from the cow that ran me over," she mumbled, trying to find a comfortable position while her arm was still in a vice grip.

She hadn't really been expecting an answer.

"No, but the mayor will be getting a very nice branding himself."

Sakura now seriously attempted to open her eyes even a little bit, trying to get a good view of what now looked to be a giant, talking blur. She blinked heavy eyes, her image slowly but surely clearing; the blur took on a more human like appearance. The thing that was holding her, a hand, became more clear. It was then that she realize a very familiar pair of crystal ice blue eyes were staring at her pensively, almost coldly.

Jamie.

She let out a rather audible gasp, before squeaking even louder and trying to bury her face into the warm blanket that covered her damaged form. She hardly noticed the brightly colored "blanket" that laid across the bed and over her. She just wanted to hide her face in comfort of her blankets and not be seen by the one she had been so determined to almost die for, the one who was sitting on one of those uber uncomfortable hospital chairs

"Idiot," he stated simply, tugging gently on the bandaged hand that was still in his grasp. She looked up from the mounds of blankets that she had been, her face slightly flushed. Oh, how she wanted to just stay hidden. "Why?"

Wait...

No lecture?

No berating?

No glare?

...Okay, so he always glared, but this was less of a glare than what he normally gave.

"W-why..." she mentally cursed to herself as she stumbled over her words before gulping heavily. "Why what, Jamie?"

"Why did you do that?" He was getting angry now. She could feel the anger practically flowing off of him in waves as he clenched her hand tightly in his own to the point of pain, standing up in his anger. She winced but endured it as he continued. "What could you have possibly been thinking? You could have been killed, you idiot!"

"Jamie, I -"

"What would have happened then, hm? Dying for the simple reason of getting a feather. A feather!"

"Jamie, ple-" She tried once more to get a word in, but his tirade continued.

"I don't understand why you listened to that stupid mayor. I'm sure whoever you wanted to marry would have accepted you without that damn th-"

"I love you!"

That phrase seemed to shock him into a slight stupor as he stopped his ranting, his mouth hanging open for a millisecond before closing. He stared at her, steel blue staring into chocolate brown. They were so different, so clashing. She was bright, sunny, and optimistic. He was cold, shameless, and believed that all human kind was undeserving.

But it worked.

"You... what?"

She felt her face heat up even more. "I-I... love you," she stuttered out. "People noticed – everyone noticed – that we were getting closer. The mayor told me that... the only way that I could possibly, eventually try for marriage would be to... get the blue feather. But to do it, I had to climb up the side to the top of the mountain." She looked up at him, seeing him still staring at her in shock. She knew she had his attention. "B-But I had to do it! I've always been... such a disappointment to you that I... I figured that if I got the feather, you'd gain some respect for me and want to... well, you know..."

Silence hung in the air heavily as he still stared at her. She almost didn't expect a response again. She actually expect him to let go of her hand, which he still held tightly onto, and storm out of the clinic. Then she expected him to build an electric fence around his ranch. But no, he did neither. Instead, he sighed heavily to himself, closing his eyes slowly while shaking his head before sitting down. His grasp on her hand lessened slightly; but he didn't let go.

"Humph. I would've done it anyways."

"Huh?" She said, gaining a curious look on her face as stared up at him – because even being in chair, he was still taller than her – wondering what he was speaking of.

"Married you. With or without the approval of that stupid mayor," he quietly spoke, his own face now flushing with heat. She blinked, her eyes widening at what she heard. "I've never cared what him or the idiot villagers think. You should know this quite well..."

Now it was her turn to stare. Sakura looked on at Jamie for what could've been hours, but was really only minutes. Finally, the dam broke and tears started to spill over from her eyes. She heard Jamie sputter slightly at this new occurrence, not used to seeing tears from the chipper female. She ignored him. She ignored his unintentional break on his oh-so-controlled emotions as she pulled her hand from his and pushed herself up, wincing quite a few times at the shooting pain the seemed to make home in her body. She felt more than saw Jamie practically shoot from his chair, telling her that she shouldn't be moving yet as he moved closer to the bed to push her back down.

This was he chance.

As soon as he got close enough, she wound her arms tightly around his hips while burying her face just above his naval. It wasn't until that moment that she noticed the familiar poncho of his that he always wore was missing and instead she clung to the black, cotton cloth of his long-sleeved undershirt. Not that it mattered now anyways.

"So you'll marry me?" She asked quietly, hesitant. Unlike herself. She waited for moments, almost taking his silence as drawback from his previous statement, until she felt a pair of arms wrap gently around her shoulder blades, being careful not to hurt the damaged one farther. Those familiar arms pulled her closer to an even more so familiar body.

"Yes."

And that's all she needed to hear.

"So, how'd I end up here anyways? I thought for sure I was going to be a goner." Many hours later, past what would be considered visiting hours if this wasn't Jamie we were talking about, the couple sat together on the uncomfortable hospital bed. Jamie leaned back against the headboard while Sakura had her head in his lap, a bit too cozy to move. Not that he minded much considering his fingers were threading through her loose auburn hair quite happily.

"I saw the mayor lead you off into the mountain part of the wilderness. At first, I thought nothing of it. But then when he came back and you weren't with him, I got a bit suspicious. So I... asked -" she quickly noticed his hesitation around that particular word. "About what had happened to you before I went up to the mountain cliffs."

"You threatened him, didn't you?" She questioned, deadpanned as she tilted her head back to look up into his face.

"Humph."

"Yeah, yeah. Humph to you, too. But seriously! I was falling. I was probably, like, twenty feet in the air! I shouldn't have survived, not that I'm complaining, but I should've totally become a pancake. Or was I delusional?"

"No, no... for once, you certainly weren't having any delusions," he mumbled while shaking his head, normally kept, but now messy, lavender hair falling into his eyes. His familiar hat was on the bedside table. "And it was probably only ten feet."

"Still high enough to let me get killed. Now, spill it!"

Looking down into her eyes, he gave her a small smirk before shaking his head and pushing a particularly annoying strand of hair from her eyes.

"I caught you."

Just for future questions:

No, this is not going to all be connected. Most will be one shots, but some will have connecting stories.

Yes, Jamie is a dude in my story. His gender changes depending on what gender the farmer is and since Sakura is obviously a girl, you can all assume Jamie is a boy. Plus, I just see him as a boy, so there.

Each story can range from being at the very beginning to being after they were married. No limitations, thank you very much.

And yes, I am going to try and actually make it to one hundred. Or die trying.