Headaches.
"I'm sorry you had to see that, Roxas," Ansem frowned, "It's hard even for me to see someone as young as her go through something so horrible."
It had been nearly three days since the incident and Ansem and the other doctors had been busy restoring Naminé to a somewhat normal state. She was stable now so that meant that Ansem and Roxas were able to resume their weekly meetings, but unfortunately she wasn't stable enough to return to the lounge just yet.
"Is...is it normal for people in her condition to hallucinate like that?" The blond asked meekly. He looked more tired than usual; because of what happened he wasn't able to get any sleep at all.
"Yes - hallucinations like those are a common attribute to schizophrenia, I'm afraid," Ansem frowned, "Though this one is quite mild in comparison to her previous ones."
Roxas immediately glanced upwards to gape at the older man. "She's had worse ones?" He thought that being doused in imaginary blood was the worst it could possibly get.
"Oh yes, far worse - there were points where we had to keep her in one of the padded rooms for a few days," Ansem's frown deepened as he forced himself to remember, "She would even have bouts of violence but it's rare for her to attack others - the only person she really harms is herself."
"Which is why her patient profile suggests to keep sharp objects away from her." Roxas concluded, and the older blond nodded.
"Yes - you must take all the precaution you can when interacting with her," He instructed firmly, "Because she's done a lot of damage to herself in the past."
He didn't even want to think about it. "I'll be sure to remember." He sifted through his memories of the incident and immediately lit up when he remembered something. "Oh, there was one other thing that I think you should know."
"What is it, Roxas?"
"When she talked about wanting to scrub the blood off she kept saying how it was her blood, as in someone else's and not her own," The blond explained as he automatically brushed his fingers through his hair, "I don't know if that's any importance to you-"
"Oh, it is," Ansem assured him as he reached for his clipboard, "So you're saying that the blood she was supposedly soaked in was not her own?"
"I'm guessing it isn't," Roxas shrugged, "Unless she's referring to herself in third-person."
"Thank you for the new information, Roxas," Ansem smiled gratefully, "You're helping us solve the mystery."
"I want to figure this all out as much as you do," The blond admitted as he rose to his feet, "I don't know why, but I feel like I have to."
"You've grown quite close with Naminé, I've noticed," The older man smiled as Roxas flushed, "You know it isn't advisable for volunteers and employees to get involved with the patients."
The psychiatrist's implications only made the boy's discomfort worse. "Er, I assure you - I'm pretty sure we're thinking entirely different things here-"
"I've been studying human behaviour for more than twenty-five years, Roxas," Ansem chuckled wholeheartedly, "Don't think I don't know a lie when it's staring me in the face." He nodded towards the door. "I'll see you next week."
Great - he knew this was bad when he had a freaking psychiatrist tell him what his feelings were.
"See, I knew you loved her," Sora snorted the moment Roxas finished his explanation; the brunet doubled over on the couch, clutching his stomach with his hands, "My brother...in love with a crazy girl!"
The blond's hands tightened into fists. "Y'know, I'm getting a little tired of you ripping on her all the time - she hasn't done anything to deserve it!"
"Yeah, Sora - cut it out," Xion rolled her eyes, "You're so immature."
"Sorry man," The brunet sighed and wiped his eyes, "I can't help it."
"Mmhmm," Their half-sister rolled her eyes again, "Of course you can't."
Naminé wasn't in the lounge the next day, just like how she wasn't there the three days before that. Her lack of presence in the room reverberated painfully inside Roxas' chest, and it was affecting him so bad that Demyx and Axel had to distribute the medication to the other patients for him.
"Geez," Larxene shook her head, "Cheer up, would you? You're bringing down poor Kaori over here."
"Cut him some slack, Larxene," Axel muttered distractedly; he was actually trying to pay attention to the television, "Can't you see he misses her?" When Roxas' cheeks flared a dark scarlet he chuckled, though his eyes didn't leave the flickering screen. "Told you so."
"I just want to help her." The blond insisted, though his blush was getting worse.
"Everyone does, Roxas," Larxene rolled her eyes, "I mean, who wouldn't want to help a poor, defenseless, cute little girl? But let's face it - she's not going to get any better. No one knows what happened the night the cops found her walking the streets like some deranged hobo, and she won't say shit about anything so what's the point? It's a wild goose chase."
"I'm not giving up on her, if that's what you want me to do," The youngest blond growled as his hands balled into fists, "She needs my help and I'm going to give what I can to make sure she gets better."
The only female in the group cackled wildly; Demyx flinched from the sudden noise and even Axel twitched a little bit in his seat. "Just who the fuck do you think you are?" She stood up and loomed over the boy, but Roxas didn't waver one bit, "You come here against your own will with the only intention of getting through your damn community hours so you can graduate high school, and nearly one month later you're telling me you want to help some hapless girl who doesn't even want to help herself? You've got to be kidding me."
"I'm not, Larxene," Roxas glared up at her, "And for the record she is getting better, and you know it! She's been talking and showing more emotion because Axel, Demyx and I take the time to actually interact with her in a positive way - unlike you, who puts her down at every chance you get."
"Oh please-" The blonde laughed darkly, "-saps like her are practically asking for it. Y'know, I really don't get the people around here sometimes. Mental illness is a state of mind - the only person who can really cure it is yourself, so why the fuck isn't anybody doing anything about it? You don't see Kaori trying to pick up the broken pieces of her sanity; she's not gluing them together, trying to piece it back into the whole entity that it used to be," She jerked her head over to Axel, who looked like he was trying to tune himself out of the conversation, "And Firecracker over here isn't doing anything to quell his addiction for burning the shit out of things. They're both just sitting there, rotting away like their lives depend on it! Is it really pyromania and, uh, whatever the fuck Kaori has affecting their minds, or is it just sheer laziness and lack of motivation?"
"Well," Demyx piped up, "What about you, Larxene? If you're so frustrated over the fact that the other patients around here don't have the backbone to take matters into their own hands how come you're still here? Why are you lecturing Roxas, the only sane person in this entire room, about how the only cure to mental illness is the motivation to actually deal with it when you're the one that needs to be cured?"
The blonde gaped at him with wide green eyes for a good few minutes. Roxas could feel the tension sparking in between her and the musician; he turned over to Axel for help, but the pyromaniac seemed too occupied with the television to even notice that there was an argument taking place.
"You're just cocky 'cause you're more sane than most of us." Larxene spat before storming out of the room. Demyx smirked triumphantly and crossed his hands behind his head as he leaned back against the sofa, and Roxas chuckled and shook his head; the musician had the right to feel victorious.
"I gotta hand it to ya, Dem," Axel chuckled; oh, so he was listening this entire time, "That was pretty bold of you." The two young men exchanged high-fives.
"Sometimes she needs to be reminded that she's a patient here too," The musician shrugged, "She's got no right to be treating others like that, especially vulnerable ones like Naminé."
The thought of the small blonde restrained to her bed brought an aching to Roxas' chest. "I hope she's getting better," He frowned as he tousled his blond spikes, "I want to see her soon."
"She'll be back in a few days' time," Axel assured him, "She always comes back."
"Anyway, I think it's time for me to go." Roxas stretched his arms and rose from his seat. "Thank God it's Friday - maybe I'll be able to actually sleep over the weekend."
Demyx chuckled and shrugged his shoulders. "You can only hope, right? See ya Monday, Roxas."
The day passed by slowly due to the blond's anticipation to see the small girl again; he couldn't stop thinking about her for some reason. When he got home he spent at least two hours examining each and every one of the drawings he tacked up on the walls; he noticed how most of them contained a blonde girl and a blond boy.
When he woke up the next morning the first thing he felt besides exhaustion was a sharp pain at the back of his head. Roxas groaned and clutched his spiky head with his hands, clamping his eyes shut in a vain effort to suppress the pain. Waking up with a headache was common nowadays ever since the weird sleeping-and-waking-up-tired thing started a month or so ago. He trudged into the bathroom to find some aspirin, and he popped a couple in his mouth and chugged down some water before returning to his bed. After writhing around uncomfortably for another ten minutes he managed to fall asleep again.
He woke up a few hours later to the sound of the front door opening and the thudding of uneven, lilting footsteps. Raising an eyebrow, Roxas pulled on a shirt and some pants and made his way out of his room and down the stairs, only to see his brother in his soccer uniform holding his leg. He then remembered how Sora's house team had a game today.
"What happened to you?" The blond asked amusedly as his brother limped over to the couch.
"Some idiot took a nice chunk outta my leg with his cleats," The brunet grumbled as he pulled his sock down, revealing a gash smeared across his shin, "I don't even know how it happened; cleats are way too blunt to deal this sorta damage."
"I'll go get a washcloth for you." Roxas ambled into the kitchen and ran a cloth through the sink before dashing into the living room. He tossed the cloth over to his brother and sat next to him on the sofa. "Where's Xion?"
"Out with Mom? I dunno," His brunet brother shrugged as he dabbed at his cut with the wet cloth, "I just know she isn't home." He wrapped the cloth around his wound and leaned back on the couch, closing his eyes as he tilted his head back. "No volunteering today?"
"Nah - I don't do weekends, remember?" Roxas ruffled his hair, "Though I guess it would be cool if I did - I mean, I hardly do anything on the weekend."
Sora gave his brother a sly grin. "You just want to see that Naminé girl. Is she any better, by the way?"
"Huh?"
"Didn't you say she had some sort of crazy attack or whatever, and she had to be knocked out or something?"
The blond's brow furrowed. "I told you about that? Huh, I don't remember…"
His brother chuckled and shook his head. "You really need to get more sleep, bro."
Roxas groaned and buried his face in his hands. "Don't remind me - I have no idea how this works," He complained tiredly, "This morning I woke up with a headache and I decided to take some aspirin, and then I went back to sleep but then I woke up when I heard you come in and I still felt like I haven't slept at all. What the hell is going on? Am I imagining myself falling asleep or something?"
"Did that Ansem guy tell you anything new?"
"Not really," Roxas shook his head dismally, "He still thinks it's just stress, but I doubt it - I mean, school was never really my biggest priority and it's not like I do any backbreaking work at the psych ward."
Sora crossed his arms and furrowed his brow. "Maybe you're just going crazy."
The blond laughed ruefully. "I've been spending too much time at the mental hospital, have I?" He stood up and stretched his arms. "Maybe I should just go for a walk; I need to clear my head a little."
The brunet nodded in agreement. "That sounds like a good idea."
"I'll see you in a bit - wrap that thing up, it's turning the cloth red!" Roxas hollered before closing the door behind him. It was nice out, thankfully, and he breathed in a lungful of fresh, early summer air as he trotted down the pathway from his door to the sidewalk and veered left towards the park just a couple of blocks away.
As he crossed the street an unfamiliar image flashed across his mind, causing him to stop walking. His brow furrowed in confusion, but then he shook it off and resumed crossing the street. When his shoes hit the pavement once more the same image came up again, though this time it also came with an intense pain near the back of his head, almost like someone was trying to push a pin straight through his skull.
"Ngh…" The pain was so great he couldn't walk anymore; he sank to his knees and clutched the sides of his head with both hands, clamping his eyes shut. The image kept flickering in and out of his vision, and every time it came back the worse the hurt became.
The image wasn't even clear: it was all murky and noisy, like trying to watch a television program with bad reception. He couldn't see anything except for a pair of bright, twin lights approaching him from the distance.
The pain flared up again and Roxas was beginning to feel a little lightheaded. His breathing grew haggard as he tried to stand up, but when he was halfway there his knees gave way and he stumbled back onto the cement sidewalk. Groaning, he tried opening his eyes to see if there was anyone around that could help but there wasn't. Just his luck.
It was getting worse now; nausea began to swirl around in his stomach and he heaved over the sidewalk so that his head was facing the grass, breathing heavily and sweating profusely. He could feel his heartbeat literally pounding in his chest and his hands were beginning to tremble. He needed help, he needed someone to stop the pain. He reached into his pocket for his phone and tried to dial his brother's number, but then everything began to fade in and out like a long-forgotten memory.
"S-Sora-" Roxas groaned before dropping his cell phone onto the grass and tumbling down with it.
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A/N: Woo, 100+ reviews! Thanks for all the support, guys - I really appreciate it!
By the way I've posted a new poll up - I suggest you all check it out and vote ; )
Thank you again for the wonderful reviews, and I'll see you next week!