In Time of Need Chapter 3, a vg cats fanfic

In Time of Need

Chapter 3

It was a warm afternoon in Toronto, strange since it was mid-November. But she wasn't complaining. She was just happy to be alone with Leo for a while, as they walked through the mall. Leo's Xbox had broken, Aeris's was most likely too damaged from smoke to work, and the PC games Leo had were getting old, so they had nothing much else to do rather than walk aimlessly around Toronto's giant mall. They walked past a clothing store, and Aeris stopped and looked at a poster advertising a kind of perfume.

"Haha! Leo, come look at this." The gray cat turned around to inspect whatever it was that had made Aeris stop.

"Mm. It's perfume. What about it?" Aeris giggled quietly.

"Says here it's supposed to make you smell like Paris Hilton." She couldn't help but giggle a little.

"Ha! Who wants to smell like beer and cigarettes?" he chortled. Aeris started laughing. "Well, now I'm intrigued. Let's go see what this stuff smells like." They walked inside and found a sampler bottle of the perfume. Leo held the bottle up to his nose, took a sniff, then put the bottle down with a confused look on his face.

"Well?" she questioned. "Is it bad?"

"No... actually, it's kind of good."

"Whoa Leo, did you just turn gay on me?" she teased.

"No seriously, smell this." He held the bottle out for her to sniff, which she did. It was a strange mixture of scents; very sweet with a slight floral hint to it with a pleasant spicy high-note.

"Wow..." She took the bottle and sniffed it a couple more times. "This might be the best stuff I've ever smelled." She handed the bottle back to Leo, who put it back, and picked up a box of the perfume.

"I'll get you some," he offered. Aeris felt herself blush a little.

"Leo, you know you don't have to do that." Leo ignored her protests as he walked up to the checkout counter, with Aeris in tow. "Leo, please, come on. I can't get you anything in return and I'll feel bad." He looked back at her.

"What makes you think I want something in return?" He winked at her as he pulled out his wallet. After he had paid for the bottle of concentrated happiness, he handed Aeris the bag. Any doubts she had about loving Leo vanished at that moment as she sprang her arms around his neck.

"I love, you Leo."

"I love you, Leo." The words seemed to echo through his head as he slowly came to, his head resting on the now-deflated air bag. It took him a while to remember exactly what had happened. He didn't remember anything before crossing the intersection. He sat up and opened the car door. A small crowd had gathered, at least 3 people on their cell phones. He stumbled out of the car in a daze, rubbing his head.

"What the hell happened?" he said to himself. He could hear the sirens wailing in the distance as they seemed to grow closer. He remembered only then that there was someone else involved, as he rushed over to the Dodge pickup truck. The driver was unconscious, and Leo reached his arm in the window to shake the guy to try to get him awake. Before his hand made contact, he saw the empty beer bottles on the passenger-side floorboard.

"Oh, you son of a bitch," he said under his breath. He felt like punching the guy square in the jaw, and he was about to, had his vision not gone blurry. He became unbelieveably dizzy, holding to the door of the truck for balance, to no avail. He stumbled a bit, before he fell to the ground and passed out.

Aeris woke up to the sound of the Leonardos' phone ringing. She rolled over and looked at the clock - she had only been asleep for about half an hour. She sat up rubbing her eyes. "Uggh, fuck..." She was so unbelievably tired, and all she wanted to do was sleep, but for some reason, she couldn't. She thought about laying back down and sleeping more, but she had that feeling that if she tried, she wouldn't be able to sleep. Frustrated, she went into the bathroom to take a shower. As she started undressing, she heard a knock at the door.

"Aeris, you wouldn't happen to know the whereabouts of your old folks' car keys, would you dear?" said Leo's dad through the door. A confused look came across her face.

"Uhh, yeah, I think they're in the guest room," she replied, taking a towel out of the closet. "Why?"

"Right then, get dressed quickly and go get them. We've got to go. Leo's been in an accident." She swore she felt her heart skip a beat.

"Oh, fuck..." She quickly took her clothes out of the hamper and threw them on, as she ran out to find her shoes.

Leo came to right around the time the ambulance showed up. He didn't bother standing up, fearing he would be too weak to stand on his own. He saw a small pool of blood from a large gash on his forehead, most likely from striking it against the window. The paramedics jumped from the ambulance with their equipment, and began to load Leo onto a stretcher. While doing so they asked him a series of questions.

"What's your name, son?" one of them asked.

"Leo Leonardo the Third," he strained to reply.

"Do you remember anything that happened?"

"mmh... No, I just remember crossing the intersection, and..." His eyes began to drift shut, and the medic gently shook his shoulder.

"Stay with me, Leo! What happened after you crossed the intersection?"

"I..." He struggled to make the words come out. "I can't remember... I just remember waking up." Another team of medics was tending to the other driver.

"Hey, Susan, there's empty beer bottles in this dude's truck," one of them shouted as he helped the driver out. The medics checked him over, and when it became obvious that his injuries weren't severe, the police slapped him in cuffs and escorted him into the back of their police car. The EMT's loaded Leo into the back of the ambulance and sped off.

Aeris sat with Leo's dad as she counted the ticking of the clock on the wall, lost in thought. The last couple of days had been so hectic and chaotic. It was like God was trying to smite her for something she may have done. But even then, nothing she could have done would warrant this series of events. God, what about Leo? she thought to herself. I hope he's all right. I don't know what I would do without him. She stopped herself. Though it was only natural to be so concerned about your childhood best friend, she couldn't help but wonder if something else could possibly be there.

She was getting sick of denying it to herself. All right, that was it. She had made up her mind - she loved Leo. Fuck what anyone else thought, even herself. All the crap that had happened in the past couple of days, who was there? Only Leo. And he always seemed to know exactly how to calm her down when she was stressed. He was someone she could talk to about pretty much anything. He always knew how to cheer her up when she was depressed. He was pretty much perfect. And why didn't I figure this out before? She shook her head in an attempt to evict the thought from her mind, as she rest her head in her hands. Leo's dad chimed in.

"You all right, dear? You seem proper stressed." She sat up and looked at him.

"Oh, yeah I'm fine," she said stretching. "Just really tired. How about you?"

"Oh, I'm fine. I had to tell myself when Leo got his license that it was bound to happen sooner or later," he said as he laughed nervously. "I could go for a drink, would you like something?"

"Mm, no thanks," she replied. "I'm not very thirsty." He nodded and stood up, walking down the hall. Aeris rested her head in her hands and let herself get lost in thought for a bit.

In the ambulance on the way to the hospital, Leo was continuously bombarded with questions - was he allergic to anything, what was his blood type, etc. It was a couple agonizing minutes of Q&A before they finally gave him some morphine to ease his pain. In a matter of seconds he went from blinding pain to floating on cloud nine. He thought he felt himself let slip a stupid chuckle, which he had hoped he didn't do, but the laughing from the paramedics told him differently. But, fuck it he thought, he was too bubbly to care. He had some time to think about the accident, trying to dig up memories of what happened. He was pretty sure, almost positive, that his light was green, and that he was obeying the 60kph speed limit, so at least he wasn't at fault. But regardless, he was driving drunk, so it would have been his fault either way. Eventually the morphine made him too tired to think, and he let himself go to sleep.

He woke up a couple hours later in the hospital. His head was now throbbing, and he noticed his left forearm, as well as his right knee, were in a cast. He looked over to see that Aeris was sitting next to his bed. Still too doped up on morphine to form a coherent sentence, he let out a small grunt, which made Aeris turn around.

"Oh my god! You're awake!" She lept out of her seat and hugged Leo tight. Too tight, it would seem, judging by his pained shout. Instantly she eased her grip. "Thank god you're all right!"

"Mostly, anyways," he replied, snapped out of his trance by the blinding pain caused by Aeris's death grip. "Where's dad?"

"He went outside for some air," she said, absent-mindedly playing with her tail. "I think your mom's here too, he might be talking to her. Can I get you something?" Leo lay back on the bed.

"Yeah, if you can get the nurse to bring me some ibuprofen, that would be awesome. Oh, and a sierra mist if you don't mind." Aeris nodded, and walked out. He took a little bit to get his bearings. Everything was happening so fast - just last night, Aeris's house had almost burned down, and now he narrowly escaped dying in a car accident today. No denying it, life sucked. He wished he could just close his eyes and make it all be over. The door opened, and his mom walked in.

"Leo! Oh my god, are you all right?!" she said in a panicked tone as she hugged Leo tight.

"Agh! Too tight!" She immediately loosened up. "Jeez, that's twice in a row, Aeris about broke my spine."

"Sorry, Leo," she said in a guilty tone. "Well, are you all right?''

"Dunno yet," he shrugged. "I feel fine, but we have to wait and hear what the doctor says." The door opened again, and Leo's dad walked in.

"Hello, love," his dad said as he kissed his mom on the cheek. "You doing all right?"

"Yeah," she responded, returning the kiss. "I about ran off the road when I picked up my cell phone, though. That's not exactly something you want to hear while you're doing 100kph down the highway."

"Indeed," he said. "Where are Dan and Martha?"

"In the waiting room. They won't let more than a few people back here at once." At about that moment, the doctor came in.

"Hello, Mr. Leonardo," he said as he thumbed through papers on his clipboard. "I'm Dr. Hammond. How are we feeling today?"

"Better, but I still feel like I got run over by a truck," Leo responded. "But then again, that's kind of what happened." The doctor chuckled as he brought a paper to the front of the stack.

"Well, at least you're feeling better. Well, we got the results of your X-rays back, and it looks like your radius has broken clean in half. You'll have to have surgery." Leo's face sank, and he felt like he was going to pass out. That was before the doctor chimed in.

"Just kidding!"

Leo glared at him. "That wasn't funny," he hissed.

"Sorry," the doctor chuckled. "Kind of a slow day today. Gotta keep entertained somehow." Leo rolled his eyes and sighed. He looked the paper over. "Well, your radius is indeed fractured, but it doesn't look too serious... You also seem to have a chip on your tibia and a couple of bruised ribs. You're lucky you were even able to walk out of this, judging by how fast the guy was going."

Leo heaved a sigh of relief, still a little frustrated at the doctor for the joke he pulled earlier. "How fast was he going?"

"Well," he said as he brought a different paper to the front, "the police record says... about 120 kilometers per hour. It was a pretty rough impact." Aeris came back in the room with the soda and ibuprofen Leo asked for.

"Oh, hi doctor," she said. The doctor issued a friendly wave in return. "Here, Leo." She gave him the soda and medicine, which he eagerly took. "So how is he?"

Dr. Sammond adjusted his glasses. "He's got a couple broken bones, but he'll be fine. It's nothing his body can't sort out itself." She let herself breathe a soft sigh of relief. "Well, Mr. Leonardo, if we can get you and your parents to sign these forms, we can get you some crutches and have you out of here before dinner." He put some papers on the counter. "I'm going to write you a prescription for some painkillers, in case you start hurting too bad. But be sure not to use them too often, or you could get addicted." The doctor walked out of the room, closing the door a little too hard which made Leo jump slightly.

"Did he say dinner? What time is it?" he said, confused.

"A quarter past 5," his dad said, glancing at his pocket watch. He must have been asleep for a long time, because when he went to Wendy's, it was just past lunch time. He picked up a pen from his tray and read over the papers, then signed them. The doctor knocked at the door before opening it, entering with a new pair of crutches.

"All right, Mr. Leonardo, these are yours," he said as he propped them against the wall. "I would advise you to use these for as long as you have the cast on, but if you feel like you can walk without them, you can." He taught Leo how to adjust them, and how to replace the pads with softer ones, if he chose. "OK, you can go into the bathroom and get dressed now, we'll get you out of here in a few minutes."Leo nodded, and his mom helped him out of the bed.

"Mom, I'm 16, I think I can get out of bed by myself," he said, irritated. Regardless, he accepted his mother's help as he grabbed his clothes - which the hospital had kindly washed and placed in a bag - as he hobbled off to the bathroom. He noticed they were still tinged with blood, but it was less noticeable since they had been washed. While he was naked, he looked himself over. He had some pretty deep cuts and scratches on the parts of his body that weren't bandaged, but it didn't look too bad. He looked in the mirror at the gash on his forehead, which was now clean and neatly sutured, but he had noticed they apparently had to shave some of the fur off to get the stitches to hold. Great, he thought. He put his clothes on and walked back to the room, where everyone was waiting outside talking.

"So the doctor says he'll have to use crutches for a few weeks, but if he thinks he doesn't need them, he doesn't have to use them," Leo's mom said to Aeris's dad. "Oh, here he comes." They turned the release forms into the reception desk, then they headed home, Aeris and Leo riding with his dad and Aeris's parents riding with his got in the car and started home.

"So dad," Leo chimed in, "what are you going to do about the car?"

"Well, since you weren't at fault, and since you're on the policy, the insurance company should replace it," he said. Leo was relieved; the last thing he wanted was to be responsible for buying another brand-new Lexus.

The drive home seemed to take forever, but Leo was so glad to finally be home. His mom started dinner while he went back in his room, and Aeris took a shower. Out of curiosity, he took the Xbox out of his drawer and hooked it back up - still broken. He sighed, though he wasn't really surprised, and unhooked everything. He lay on his bed propped up by pillows and started reading a book. A few minutes later, Aeris came out of the bathroom wrapped in a towel.

"What are you reading?" she asked. Leo looked up, noticing that Aeris was only wearing a towel that came down to her mid-thigh, catching him off-guard and startling him.

"Mr. Kos-oh, uh.." He blushed gently and raised the book to hide his vision. "Mr. Kosinski is making us read Of Mice and Men for English, then write a 5-page essay on what we think it's trying to say."

"Mm. Well, you can get a shower if you want to," she said. Leo scoffed.

"I wish. The doctor said I can't take showers because of these fucking casts. It's sponge baths for me for the next couple of weeks." Aeris got some clothes out of her bag as she started back into the bathroom.

"I thought most casts these days were waterproof," she asked.

"Actually," Leo responded, "I'm not too sure. I'll find out tomorrow, I guess." She nodded and headed back into the bathroom to get changed. He laid the book across his chest for a bit, stopping to think. He began to remember the dream he had after the wreck. Did it actually mean something? Or was it just a meaningless dream? He assumed the latter, because only in his dreams would Paris Hilton smell that good. He laughed to himself as he started reading again. Aeris walked out of the bathroom, dressed in a plain white T-shirt and purple pajama pants, and noticed the Xbox sitting vertically on the TV stand.

"Does the Xbox work now?" He didn't look up from his book, repling with a simple "nope". Aeris sighed. "Mind if I use your computer?"

"Sure, just keep the speakers low. I gotta pass this test, I can't afford to get another F." She booted up his computer. "And no yaoi, either. I don't want that crap in my history," he chuckled.

"Har-har," she retorted. "What's the password?"

"Gamercat." She typed this in and the computer booted up. She checked her Facebook, which of course, was full of random friend requests full of vulgar and explicit messages. She groaned to herself as she aggressively denied every friend request she got. Having nothing worth reading, she logged into her Steam account and played some more Left 4 Dead 2. Leo stopped reading his book for a second to look at her. She was far from bad looking; she managed to stay in good shape, especially considering all the junk food she ate, and that she never really exercised much outside of P.E. You could almost say she was kind of cute. He laid back on his pillow and rested his eyes for a few minutes, lost in thought. He couldn't help but notice that she hadn't been nearly as angry as she usually tended to be, and wondered why that was.

She was shocked when she turned the graphics up to full and still managed to pull off 60 frames per second." Holy crap Leo, your computer is incredible!" she said. Leo didn't respond, not even with a quiet grunt. She turned around and noticed that his book was now laid across his chest, himself having fallen asleep. She admired him for a second, smiling the same way an elementary school girl would smile at a newborn baby. He was kind of cute when he slept. His jaw was slightly slack whenever he slept. She looked at the clock - it was just past seven o'clock, not nearly enough to go to bed. She noticed she was getting hungry, and shut down the computer as she went to go check on dinner. She walked into the kitchen where Leo's mom was cooking.

"Hungry, Aeris? We're having chicken carbonara for dinner tonight." The zesty, rich aroma that flooded the kitchen, accompanied with the sight of the dish in the oven, made her mouth water.

"Mmm, that looks great," she said. Her own parents rarely cooked like this, preferring meals that could be microwaved or prepared quickly in a skillet, as they took less time and tasted all right. "Is it done yet?"

"Almost," Mrs. Leonardo said. "Just have to wait for the garlic bread to be ready." Aeris grabbed a soda from the fridge and went back in Leo's room to wake him up. He looked so comfortable and peaceful, she didn't want to wake him up, but she had to. He had to eat something to get his strength back up. She shook his shoulder gently.

"Leo, wake up. Dinner's almost ready." He didn't wake up, and she shook him a little harder. "Leo, wake up~.." Still sleeping. She thought for a second, and cracked an evil grin across her furred lips, as she leaned in and kissed him on the forehead. His eyes instantly shot open.

"What the fu-" he said as he sat up and instinctively propped on his broken arm. "Aaagghh, fuck!" He winced as he grabbed on to the arm in an effort to quell the shooting pain.

"Shit, I'm sorry Leo!" she said as she sat in the bed next to him. "Are you all right?" Leo opened his eyes from the squint they were in.

"Yeah," he said biting his lip. "I'm fine, but what the hell was that?" Aeris giggled a little.

"Sorry, I had to get you awake somehow," she grinned. "Dinner's almost ready."

"Yeah," he said, "that was worth re-breaking my arm." Her ears folded back as a sad frown adorned her white muzzle.

"I'm sorry, Leo, are you mad?" He looked at her and felt guilty.

"Damn it, don't do that..." She purposely looked even sadder, which made him chuckle. "Stop it, you're making me feel bad." She couldn't take it any more and had to laugh. "No, I'm not mad at you. How could I be mad at a face like that?" She giggled as she blushed, which made him realize what he just said and blush himself. Aeris leaned in to give him a quick hug, being careful not to hurt his ribs. This surprised him, but it would be stupid to resist, so he returned the hug.

"Okay, what do you want from me?" he asked as he sat back.

"What do you mean?" she asked as she wiped her bangs from her eyes.

"You're being too nice," he said. "You're only nice to me if you did something wrong, or if you want something from me. And you haven't done anything wrong, soo..." Aeris scoffed, giggling quietly.

"What, can't a girl be nice to her best friend?"

"Are you sure it isn't something moooore?" he asked with a sly grin, slipping his paw over Aeris's.

"God, you're such a tool," she said, blushing. Dammit, she didn't mean to blush. Crap, now he pretty much knows.

"I knew it," he said with a sly grin. She was blushing hard, the white of her muzzle turning beet-red. Without another word, she stood up and walked into the bathroom. Leo watched, pinning his ears back as the door shut. She sat on the commode, trying to calm the commotion in her mind.

Well fuck it, she thought, he already pretty much knows how I feel, no sense hiding it anymore. ...But if I just come out and say I love him, what if he doesn't feel the same way? Not only will it make me look stupid, it will probably make him mad. She felt like crying, but knew she couldn't because he would hear.

Leo sat at the edge of his bed and lay his face in his palms. "God damn it, Leo, what the hell did you do that for?" he said quietly to himself. "This is why we can't have nice things, you dumbass". His mom knocked on his door and walked in with two plates of food.

"Leo, I brought you and Aeris some dinner," she said. Leo looked up as she put the plates on his bedside table. "What's wrong?"

"Nothing," he said as he picked up his book and resumed reading. A concerned look appeared on his mom's face.

"You don't look like nothing's wrong." She sat on the bed next to him.

"Mom, nothing's wrong," he insisted. "I'm just tired. This has been a rough couple of days." His mom stood up.

"Okay, if you say so..." She stood up. "If you ever need to talk, you know where I'm at." She gave him a kiss on the forehead, much to his embarrassment. "Eat your dinner, you need to get your strength up." She walked out of the room, closing the door behind her. Leo stood up and walked to the bathroom door, knocking on it.

"Aeris, will you come out now?"

"I'm using the bathroom," she responded.

"You've been in there for forever," he said. "Besides, it was awfully convenient of you to have to use the bathroom right as I say something stupid." There was a long silence. "I'm sorry, Aeris. Will you come out now?" He heard the toilet flush, and Aeris walked out.

"Well, I'm out," she said, holding tears back. "What else do you want?"

"Aeris, why are you crying?" he asked. He had never looked that concerned for anyone, quite the way he had now.

"I don't fucking know," she said, a tear rolling down her cheek. She turned away so Leo wouldn't see her cry. Even she didn't know why she was so worked up. She was usually a strong girl, but she had never felt as weak as she was. Every other guy she'd been with just wanted to use her; she was even almost raped once, but the guy's dad stepped in before he could try anything. Leo was the only person who actually cared for and about her, and about how she felt. He put his hand on her shoulder.

"Aeris, please don't cry," he said, folding his ears back. "It makes me sad." He knew how much she liked him, and he liked her just as much, but they had both been too afraid to tell each other. Though they were both quite popular in school, and had a lot of friends, they didn't have a boyfriend or girlfriend, because just about everyone they went to school with were taken. "Aeris?"

She sniffled. "What?" Leo walked behind her and wrapped his arms around her stomach, kissing her on the cheek. She jumped slightly, gasping.

"Now we're even." Aeris froze. Did that seriously just happen? Leo realized what he just did, and let go of Aeris as he took a step back, folding his ears back.

Damn it, he thought. Leave it to me...He put his palm to his forehead and swore quietly to himself. "I'm sorry, Aer-" She turned around and pulled him into an embrace, resting her head on his shoulder, still crying slightly.

"Thank you."