author's note: Just to eliminate any possible confusion, this chapter begins the "real" story. This takes place a few weeks after the last chapter of the manga.
Enjoy!
heroes and thieves
chapter two - my best (part I)
two years later
She's getting tired of dreaming in German.
The elevator doors close with a dull thud, and as her trip to the upper floors of the hospital begins, Yui tries - and fails - to stifle a yawn. Although she's been back in Tokyo for nearly a week, the jet lag still hasn't quite gone away. It doesn't help that the apartment Kiyotaka secured for her is on a busy street, and the sound of pedestrians, cars, and motorcycles keeps her awake well into the night. And when she does finally sleep, her dreams are a muddled mix of physicians and research, all in German with the occasional drop of English.
Well, she thinks, rubbing her eyes with her free hand, the other tightening around the bouquet of daffodils she's carrying, at least she's not having dreams about him. But maybe that's because she has the real thing now.
Sort of.
The elevator doors slide open with a polite little ding, and she steps out into the quiet hallway, her low heels clicking on the floor. Though she's only been here once before, she's studied the map enough times to know where Narumi Ayumu's hospital room is. And if she somehow managed to forget, she could always ask. Anyone would be able to tell her the answer. Excuse me, where is the room of the patient with a piano by his bed?
Kiyotaka is waiting outside when she arrives, tapping away at the buttons on his cell phone. When he notices her, he shuts the device quickly and folds it closed, clearing his throat. "Well," he greets her, keeping his voice low, "it should be finished by this afternoon. Your contract will be officially terminated."
She forces a smile, but that's as much as she'll give him. "Thank you."
"You may not believe me, but my intention was not to keep you away for so long." He glances at the closed door beside them. "Things simply... progressed... faster than I expected."
"I understand."
"And - "
"But," she interrupts him, reaching for the handle of the door, "that doesn't mean I have to forgive you."
The detective sighs, shaking his head, and as she enters Ayumu's hospital room, she sees him flip open his phone again as he begins to walk away. She knows that she's being slightly ridiculous about this - and that it was, in fact, absolutely necessary for her to be abroad for the entirety of two years. But she also knows that she asked to come back a year ago and wasn't even told about the decline in Ayumu's health (or Hizumi's death). And that is one of the many reasons she has for being absolutely and utterly infuriated with Narumi Kiyotaka right now.
"Ah. You're back."
... but, she thinks, and turns her head to look into the face of a nineteen-year-old brown-haired young man in a hospital bed, one hand on the keys of a piano, she can't be too mad. Because he's not keeping her away, after all.
"I brought flowers, Narumi-san!" she announces, shutting the door behind her with a smile. "I hope you aren't allergic."
"Hn," he grunts, and looks at the piano instead of her. "Why are you here?"
"Oh? Didn't I tell you I'd come by again soon?" She keeps her tone cheerful, walking to the small table that sits on one side of his bed. It's neatly stacked with books, folders (presumably with sheet music inside), a few pens, and a lamp - and, she notices, a pair of silver-rimmed glasses. She shuffles all these items carefully to one side, unwrapping the protective cellophane around the daffodils. "I bought a vase, so you don't have to worry about that. Now if anyone brings you flowers, they'll have somewhere to put them. Isn't that nice?"
He's still looking at the piano. "Hn."
"Well, you really haven't changed very much in two years," she continues, smiling to herself as she places the vase on the table and carefully re-arranges the flowers within. "That's the Narumi-san I remember, after all. Always answering me with "hn" or "ah" or "stupid girl.""
"And you're still calling me "Narumi-san.""
"Hmm? Is there something else I should be calling you?" She glances at him before turning her attention back to the flowers. "Isn't that the polite way to address you?"
"It's annoying."
"Oh, is it?"
"It is." She straightens and turns around, opening her mouth to respond, but this time he's looking at her, frowning slightly, almost squinting, and her train of thought comes to a screeching halt. There's something he wants to say, she thinks - and she's right. "Where were you?" he asks, his voice low.
She swallows, but there's a lump in her throat all of a sudden, one that she thinks won't be going away anytime soon. "Wh - what do you mean?"
"Not that it's any of my business." He looks away again. "But everyone made a big deal out of it, assuring me you hadn't run away."
"Oh. Well, I... I had another job to do. And..." She folds her hands together, wondering if she should be closer to him. This distance between them feels cold, somehow. "... and it kept me busy."
"Another job," he repeats. "For my brother?"
"Yes," she admits.
"So he's still controlling you?"
"Not anymore," she responds, softly, and can't quite keep herself from smiling. Ayumu turns his head and looks at her again - looks at her hard, almost as if he's trying to figure out if she's lying - and there's a long pause before she thinks of something else to say. Something she has to say. "Although my contract is being dissolved, I've agreed not to disclose the details of my job. It's not as if I did anything - um, illegal, or bad, or anything like that. But it was some very sensitive... material. And - "
"It's a trade secret," he interrupts, and for just a moment she swears he smiles. He shifts in his bed, turning his face toward the nearest window, and the sunny spring morning covers his body in light. "I suppose I don't really have to know," he continues, "just as long as you did your best while you were out there."
"I did," she responds, softly, taking a few steps closer to his bed, studying the way the sunlight falls on his face, the way his profile seems to have changed so little and yet so much in the last two years. He's older, now, and so is she, but somehow, in some ways, it doesn't feel like any time has passed at all, like they're right back to where they were before everything changed.
But things have changed.
"I'm tired," he announces, suddenly, and yawns as if to prove it. "Go away and let me get some sleep. The nurses had me up all night doing blood tests again."
"Go - go away?" she sputters, eyes wide. "But I - I just got here!"
"And?" He looks over his shoulder at her, lifting an eyebrow. "I didn't know you were coming. You're still showing up unannounced and uninvited."
She clenches her jaw. "I thought you might be happy to see me again."
"Have I ever been happy to see you?"
"Narumi-san."
He laughs. He actually laughs. It's a short laugh, and she almost mistakes it for a cough, but the sound is good and warm and welcome, and it fills her with some strange, vaguely familiar kind of happiness. "Come back tomorrow," he says, with a nod and a brief wave of his hand, followed by a pointed look at the bright yellow daffodils on his bedside table. "And make sure you water those things. If I manage to get out of bed today, it won't be to keep your flowers alive."
And she is so stunned by his invitation to come back again, so caught off guard by the sound of his laughter, that she can do nothing else but quietly agree, turn around, and walk out of the room.
