Posted: 29/3/2006
一
Stain
Thanks to Astarael00 for beta-ing.
Chapter 5
一
"Miss! You can't go in now! The - "
"Move it!"
A vice-like grip suddenly clamped down on her elbow, and pulled her back slightly.
"Kuga! Calm down!"
She tried to wrench herself away from the firm hold.
"Let...go!"
"Kuga - "
"Let go of me, Takeda, or I swear you will regret it!"
She felt herself pulled into a pair of strong arms, rendering her immobile.
"Calm down, damn it!"
Natsuki stiffened at his action, before she begun to struggle against him.
"Takeda, if you don't let me go now, I'll - "
"KUGA!" The dark-haired kendo practitioner finally snapped at her.
If it wasn't for him holding her down, she would have jumped in surprise at that tone.
"What can you do right now?" he asked sharply, brutally honest.
She stilled, but her fingers curled into tight fists.
His hard tone softened, just a little.
"What will you do if you go in there?"
She wanted to fire back at him.
"I will...I - I will..." Natsuki faltered.
"Shout at her?" Takeda cut in. "Scream at her? What, Kuga?"
She couldn't answer him.
"Miss," a soft, timid voice called her.
Takeda and Natsuki glanced at the source; a nurse. The same nurse who tried to stop her earlier.
"You...you can't go in now," she said hesitantly. "They are in the middle of an operation, and if you go in, you will hinder the doctor from doing his job.
The dark-haired man offered the nurse an apologetic smile. "I'm sorry about this, miss."
The other nodded, a little nervous as she glanced at Natsuki, who had yet to move, before scuttling away.
For a brief moment, Takeda and Natsuki remained silent.
"Let go of me," intoned Natsuki dangerously, finally.
He blinked, then seemed to realize what he had just done. Face reddening, he stepped away from her abruptly.
"A-ah," stuttered Takeda, "Sor - "
-Crack-
Her palm stung, but she didn't care.
Takeda's face was suddenly jerked to a side, his eyes wide.
"Try that again," Natsuki whispered, her voice shaking, yet strangely calm.
He lifted a hand to his cheek in astonishment, and stared at her wordlessly.
"Try that again," repeated Natsuki, "And it will be worse."
It wasn't a threat, it was a promise.
一
Shizuru took in a deep breath.
It was over, at last.
"Are you alright?"
Reito.
"Yes." No.
She glanced at him, a tired - calm, impenetrable - smile forming. "I'm alright."
"You are amazing, Fujino-san," the doctor heaved a loud sigh, shaking his head in mild disbelief.
The brunette giggled at that, though a little weakly.
"Ookino, sensei."
The doctor's shoulders seemed to relax, upon hearing that light tone. "The operation was successful, Fujino-san, Kanzaki-san," he glanced at Fujino, "Although I would advise her to stay here for at least a week for observation."
"I understand your concern, doctor," she said, and left it at that.
Looking into the near future - or in two to three days time, more specifically - if Shizuru took it upon herself to leave without notice, the doctor would find himself strangely unsurprised.
It was expected, to say the least.
"Doctor," Reito looked at him, "Do you mind if we...?"
The other shook his head. "No, of course not. Take your time," There was a kind yet knowing smile on his face, before he ushered himself and the nurses away.
He agreed too easily, thought Shizuru, a little wary. When she was about to delve deeper into the oddity of the doctor's action, though, she felt a pair of eyes fixed on her.
She turned, and saw Reito giving her a wry grin.
At that, her eyebrow rose. "What is it?"
"You were right, though I wish you weren't." He said, "Kuga-san did make a ruckus outside. You probably didn't hear it," Because of all that pain you were enduring silently, "But I heard it from all the way here."
For a moment, she didn't react; merely stared at him. Then Shizuru closed her eyes, a sudden weariness overtaking her. Perhaps it was the operation itself that made her feel tired, she told herself. Or the loss of blood. Or the dreams, the never ending dreams. Or the events she had to deal with, lately. Or...or...
...Or Natsuki...
She halted herself, immediately.
Rest, she told herself, was what she needed. Some rest, and she would be fine.
"Do you want to stay here a little longer, Shizuru-san?" Before you have to face her, was the unsaid statement between them. And put that mask back on again.
She took in a deep breath. "No. That's not...necessary."
She tried to get up, only to be pushed back firmly down on the bed.
"No," Reito said quietly. "No more inflicting pain on yourself, Shizuru-san."
To be on the bed was not a good idea. What would she assume, upon seeing her on a bed instead of on her own two legs?
"Reito - "
"Five stitches."
She paused.
"Five stitches, Shizuru," whispered the dark-haired man, for once forgoing the politeness instilled in him since birth. "You had five. Double that, it's ten. You had to remove your former ones, and stitch back your wound again. You are not even supposed to get out of bed after having a few fresh stitches, Shizuru."
Burgundy met grey.
"Please." His hand grasped hers tightly. "This once, Shizuru."
For me. For you.
Shizuru closed her eyes again, but said nothing.
"Just this once."
Crimson eyes opened slowly, and she regarded him with a small, wry, defeated smile.
"...All right."
He seemed to brighten at those words.
"But...I trust you have a good explanation in mind, Reito-san?"
Reito shrugged easily. "You still remember what this hospital is, I hope?
Shizuru looked at him blankly for a moment, and seemed to review a few things at once, before realization struck.
Her eyes widened, and Shizuru blurted out with a rare spontaneity born of surprise.
"This place...!"
He smiled back placidly, although it felt like a bitter smile, for some reason.
"This place," agreed Reito.
一
"Careful, careful..."
She let out a little grunt, though her features exuded calmness.
Her back touched a soft, cotton surface - the nurse helping her - and the bed sank slowly as she rested at full length.
A weight - as if she had been carrying something heavy for a long time - seemed to lift off her suddenly, and Shizuru just, somehow, wanted to close her eyes and fade into darkness.
The door clicked.
Light foot steps reached her ears, before they stopped, and a subdued voice came from her right.
"Shizuru."
...but she wouldn't let herself, of course.
Burgundy eyes closed briefly, taking in what rest she could, before they were opened, and met with a set of aqua green orbs.
"Natsuki," replied the brunette, head tilted to the side a little as she smiled. "You were not injured, I hope?"
"...No," the younger girl replied with some hesitation, "I wasn't hurt."
The nurse who helped her - and opened the door for Natsuki - nodded briefly to excuse herself, now that her job was done. Clothes were donned, patient was put to bed.
"Ookini," Shizuru called after the nurse.
"Shizuru."
The brunette's attention returned to Natsuki.
"Yes?"
"I..." Natsuki paused, then started again. "You..."
To be totally honest, Shizuru had been more than surprised when Natsuki did nothing particularly...extraordinary, after Shizuru was rolled out of the operation room, instead remaining strangely silent and thoughtful. Aside from asking - no, not demanding - the doctor of Shizuru's condition, there was no sign of the ruckus that Reito claimed to have heard.
Although she remembered that Takeda had been acting strangely, as well. Did something happen between the two?
Natsuki may not have been a tough nut to crack at all, but there were certainly times when Shizuru didn't know what the younger girl was thinking. Now was one of them.
The blue-haired girl seemed to be battling against...something within her.
"What is it, Natsuki?" Shizuru asked, even though she felt it was a bad idea, for some reason.
"I...Um...Shizuru...you..."
The poor girl looked so lost and uncertain that Shizuru couldn't resist a smile.
"Yes?"
"Y - How are you feeling?"
She watched Natsuki's shoulders slump, a little.
Shizuru gave her a slightly odd look, but replied with a reassuring smile. "Better, now."
Natsuki mentally kicked herself. Damn it, why couldn't she bring up the nerve to ask the older girl?
"You lost a lot of blood, though," she said quietly, arms crossed as she looked out of the window.
While the doctor told her Shizuru was fine, and that she suffered some minor cuts, Natsuki thought differently. Two or three days of observation, the doctor said, and the brunette would be free to go. When asked about the unusual loss of blood, the doctor was quick to reply that one of the pieces of glass cut through a vein, so it was normal to bleed a lot.
A totally plausible explanation, thought Natsuki. It's just...there was something about this that did not seem right.
The doctor had been just a wee bit too eager to explain Shizuru's bleeding.
Briefly, she entertained the idea that Reito and Shizuru had somehow bribed the doctor to say so, however unlikely it was. There were nurses in the operation room, and it was hard to believe Reito managed to convince all of them (however convincing he could be) in a short span of thirty minutes. Not to mention it was illegal to falsify a patient's condition.
Now that she had evaluated the whole situation, it seemed even more unlikely, if not impossible. It was true that she did notice a bandaged hand every now and then, the result of, in Shizuru's words, having cut herself on a sharp edge. She certainly had gotten a little more careless lately, and Natsuki wondered if it had anything to do with the Festival. Unless those cuts on her hand weren't accidents at all.
Natsuki dismissed it.
Why would Shizuru injure herself, anyway? Natsuki certainly couldn't think of any reason. Even more unbelievable was the idea of Reito knowing about this and not doing anything. Though Reito could be as vague as Shizuru, thought Natsuki briefly, he did not have any reason to hide it, and all the reasons to make sure Shizuru sought medical help. If he was half the gentleman he was advertised to be, anyway.
Also, if Shizuru did have some serious injury before this, surely it would have been more noticeable. And Reito...well, Reito - she supposed, a little grudgingly - had a keen eye for details, much like Shizuru. He was inspecting her back before he picked her up, after all, although it was a little hard to believe that Reito could see a small piece of glass cut through a vein in the midst of all that blood. Natsuki made a mental note to question (interrogate) Reito about it later, when she got a chance.
Yes, concluded the blue-haired girl. She was - probably - just thinking too much, and her imagination had gone wild. Takeda...Takeda's speculation had been a valid thought, admittedly, but Shizuru's behavior had been perfectly normal for the past few weeks, with no sign of limping, or any pain, or...anything that would give hint to injuries.
None at all.
The only thing that wasn't normal, of course, was Shizuru being with Reito.
Well, Natsuki thought, now I feel stupid.
Although, she supposed, it wouldn't harm to actually ask Shizuru for clarification if she had an injury on her back before. With Shizuru, one could never be too sure, after all.
Natsuki broke away from her thoughts when she heard a knock on the door, and glanced at Shizuru who had been strangely silent for a while. Upon meeting those burgundy eyes, which seemed to be twinkling with something akin to...mischief, though, she regretted it immediately.
"Ara! What a surprise! Natsuki was worried about me?"
Involuntarily, her cheeks grew warm.
"O - of course not!" she shot back instantly, though it was more like blurted out without thinking.
Having said it already, she was forced to continue on valiantly, and quickly, or risk getting a bruised pride.
"It's just...you took the fall for me, and..." Natsuki faltered. What in the world was she saying?
It was an obvious (if not lame) excuse - even if Shizuru did take the fall for her - and was most certainly ignored by the other.
"Natsuki was worried about me...I feel so flattered," the brunette said softly, a smile curling on her lips.
The younger girl felt her cheeks growing even warmer by the second. Unable to formulate a retort at all, Natsuki looked away, and huffed.
The amused smile on Shizuru's face widened by a fraction, and Natsuki - though she didn't see that smile, she certainly did feel it at the back of her mind - almost visibly resisted the urge to stamp her foot on the floor in frustration.
"Both of you seem to be having fun, I see," a new voice called, and Natsuki jumped in surprise, whirling around.
"Kanzaki, can't you knock?" the azure-haired girl scowled, bristling. That man did not even make a sound when he entered - although, granted, half of the reason she didn't notice him was because she had been distracted.
Reito raised an eyebrow at her.
"Actually, I did. Although it appears that I was unheard."
She paused.
Come to think of it, there was a knock on the door, just before Shizuru had begun her little mischief...
Natsuki flushed.
"Knock harder next time," she snapped, indignant.
A/N: First of all, I did like to say there're some minor revisions for chapter 4. Nothing drastic, but as always, I often prefer if you re-save the file. I have recently learned that there's a few of you who saves fics into the computer itself for easy access? I do that, too.
And if Shizuru bleeds to death, I'm pretty sure I did die right now, seeing how -coughsrabidcoughs- passionate you readers are about her. As it is, there's already a particular...someone, who has distaste for Reito being with Shizuru. I thread on dangerous grounds, now.
In this chapter, we get a taste of Natsuki's psyche. It might require some thinking on your part, to see what leads Natsuki to believe that. I'm hoping, though, that this is not assumed as ooc, as it is not. I'm just being very...vague, about my interpretations. If you try looking deeper into Natsuki's mind state, it's not very hard to find how she is lead to that conclusion.
But, in anycase, there will be some ShizNat scene sometime soon, very soon. Although I will admit it's nothing major and a little mild and a little something that (probably) makes you go "Aww." And for the record, we will see Natsuki going ballastic somewhere along the way, if that's any hint. Though a little misleading, I'm willing to say. Hee.
xSojix asked an interesting question, one that, I think I should address to the readers, too. Takeda, apparently, seems to be suddenly clever.
Okay, he's dense, he's...innocent and naive, in certain ways, and he's not very good with dealing with females. That doesn't mean, though, that he doesn't notice things. A little something to note here: Takeda, unlike Natsuki, is not bothered (albeit curious) about the relationship between Shizuru and Reito. Natsuki can be level-headed, but where it concerns Shizuru, she's likely more brawns over brains. And she has one hell of a temper. Between the four of them, it is likely that Takeda has the clearest head, and the fact that Shizuru is bleeding alot is actually quite strange, so it's easy for him to notice details like this. The readers, clearly, are in a different point of view. Occupied with what in the world is Shizuru doing with Reito, plus the surprise of the injury, it is kind of hard to notice other things, I imagine.
My point being, Takeda's pretty much an outsider who has nothing to do with three of them - for this case. An outsider normally has a more objective view on things, and can usually see the bigger picture. That should explain a lot.
In the meanwhile, I shall congratulate myself for a job well done, since it appears that not many noticed the blood thingy. -gloats-
XD
Anyway, I seem to be posting on a periodical basis, so, next chapter in...ten days time, perhaps?
Stay tuned,
Eagle.
(And you know, reviews can really help motivate. Hinthint.)