English is still not my first language, so whatever this is - I tried my best.
This is not proofread. So, if you find mistakes (what kind soever) or something confusing then please tell me. I will try my best to fix it.
Have fun :3
It's the first time he looks away from her for more than a second, since he brought her into the car.
A last little press on the blood-soaked cloth and he is carefully picking her up. Carrying her bridal style with her head resting on his shoulder, he tries to stretch the wound as little as possible. As soon as Ren is out of the vehicle Lory presses the cloth back down, taking no risks.
The staff rushes towards them the moment they step into the brightly lit hall. Ren lays her down on the stretcher as cautiously as even possible and gets slowly pushed away by one of the nurses.
It doesn't seem to register in the man's mind.
His eyes won't leave her in all the time they need to check for her vital signs until they move her through one of those emergency doors and out of his sight. But even then he keeps on staring at the door through which she had just vanished.
"Excuse me." A nurse with a clipboard in her hands looks at the three men, probably trying to decide who would be the most reliable one. Between a pale, bloodstained man staring into nothingness, a man dressed like Sherlock Holmes and a man who looks like a butler, staying a few steps to the side, she tried her luck with the man in the strange coat.
"Can you tell me what happened, Sir?"
"I'm sorry, miss. But we just found her like this, put her into the car and drove here."
"So, you don't know who she is?" A frown appears on her forehead.
"I don't." Lory turns expectantly to his protégé. "But he does. Ren?"
There is no reaction.
Did he go into shock after all? "Ren?" Lory asks a bit louder, worried.
He blinks a few times before he turns to his boss. "Hmm?"
At least he is responsive. "The hospital staff needs to know, who she is. Can you tell them her name?"
Ren's eyes stay on Lory for a few seconds, trying to comprehend what was said, before he turns his attention to the waiting nurse.
"I don't know." He answers, shaking his head slowly.
"What do you mean, you don't know?" Lory frowns aghast. "You jumped out of a driving car as you saw her on the sidewalk! Of course you know her!"
This got the attention from the nurse. "Sir?" She looks Ren up and down. "Are you hurt?"
"No. I'm fine." He answers her and turns to his boss. "I mean, I don't know her name."
Lory wouldn't believe him. Not with the way he had looked at her. "But you do know her?"
"Yes… No…" He sighs and rubs his face with his hand. "I don't know her name. But I've seen her before... a few times."
Ren and love at first sight? Lory surely wouldn't have put him in that box.
"So you don't know what had happened to her and you don't know who she is?" The nurse chimes in. "Is that correct?"
"It seems." Lory answers, not taking his eyes off of Ren.
"Then we will send her to the General Hospital after she has been stabilised."
"That won't be necessary." Lory looks at her. "I'll take over the expenses."
She looks surprised for a moment, before she nods in acknowledgement. "Very well. Would you please follow me. You will need to fill in a few forms." A short nod to his always helpful aid and he follows the woman to the front desk.
"Tsuruga-sama, would you like to sit down?"
Without a word Ren follows him into the waiting area, getting lost in his thoughts the moment he sits down.
Heavy. Why does he feel so heavy now? Shouldn't it be the other way around? Shouldn't he feel lighter now that he isn't carrying her anymore? Lighter, now that he knows there are competent people to help her. But somehow her weight is missing.
And she had felt so light. Is it normal to be so light? Or was it just his panic and he didn't really register anything else?
Though she looks so delicate, when she is dancing. In those flow-y dresses, with the pretty fabrics flying all around her.
That dress - the reason he had recognised her. It had been his favourite. So pretty shades of green dancing around her, like fairies in a sunlit clearing in the forest.
It is her 'happy-dress', at least that is what he thinks of it. Her dancing was always so alive, so bright and light when she chose it. A being-in-a-good-mood dress. She had been happy today - she wouldn't have picked it otherwise.
But now it's nothing more than scraps of fabric defiled with her own blood.
She had been happy. So happy that she even left her apartment in that dress.
But someone had destroyed it. Had destroyed her fairy tale.
Why would someone do this to her? Who would hurt her like this. Was it an attack from some bad guy and she could somehow escape? Or was it because of her work, whatever it is she does?
A sudden blinding light right in his eyes brings him back into reality. He jerks away and stares at the man crouching in front of him.
"Hello Tsuruga-san. My name is Kameda. Can you tell me where you are?"
For a few seconds he is just staring at the man in the white coat. "In the hospital."
"Good. And do you know why you are here?"
"I caught her. She's wounded... So much blood." Not really hearing what he's saying, realisation hits him suddenly. "Where- How is she?"
"She will be fine. The cut in her stomach looks worse than it is. We're doing a few tests now that she is sedated to see if there are any other injuries."
Ren is still for a moment, thinking. "When it isn't so bad, why did you need to sedate her?"
Dr. Kameda exchanges a brief look with Lory before he answers. "Sometimes when a person wakes up from unconsciousness, they are disoriented and start to fight off the people who try to help them. She woke as we stitched the cut. We had to sedate her before she hurt anyone or herself even more."
Though normally we don't need seven people to hold one small woman down, but Kameda wasn't about to tell him that.
"Could you take a look at Ren now, Sensei? We don't need him to go into shock." Lory chimes in.
"There's no need. I'm fine."
Both men look at him rather unbelieving. "Ren." Lory's lecturing voice - Ren recognises. "You sat there more than half an hour. No reaction whatsoever. You still haven't cleaned yourself up and you're pale as a sheet."
Half an hour? Has it really been that long? In the car it had felt like they have been on the way for hours. And now it was like not even a minute has passed. He looks down at his hands and sure as hell they are stained with dried blood. Her blood, he remembers.
He pulls himself out, before he can get lost in his thoughts again.
"Where can I wash my hands?"
The sight in the mirror is worse than what Lory described. Not only is he pale as a ghost, there are blood smears on his face and neck.
His shirt. He can only be lucky that he chose a black one that morning or people would think he is a mur-
He scrubs his skin until it's clean and a bit more, stopping only when his hands start to hurt.
Yeah… right… he is totally fine. Every normal person scrubs his hands until the skin is raw.
In the end the doctor still wants to check him. But he finds nothing that a full night of rest can't heal.
So, obviously Yashiro needs to be called to push back Ren's schedule for at least half a day.
After the doctor leaves them to check on her, Lory scrutinises his protégé again. "How do you know her?"
"I told you already. I don't."
"Don't give me that. You have to. How else would you have recognised her. In a driving car, at night, with her in that state? It could've been anyone."
… "Maybe she is anyone... Maybe I mistook her."
"Maybe you did." Though Lory doesn't believe him for one second. Not with how he had looked at her face - silently begging her to open her eyes. "How do you know her then? The girl you think she might be."
Ren sighs. "She is a neighbour. I met her in a grocery store a while back."
Lory waits for more. "And then?"
"Nothing then. I never talked to her. Just saw her a few times sitting in a café or walking on the street."
"That still doesn't explain how you recognised her."
No, it does not. But Ren isn't in the mood to tell him the truth. He surely will never be in the mood to tell Lory about how well he knows her dresses. How many times he had seen her in that one dress.
He had seen it often enough, that even from such a distance in only the streetlights he knew something was off with it - with her. And before he could think it over he was out of the car and running down the street, not noticing anything except what he had needed to find her.
But now that he thinks about it… Was it really her? He hadn't seen her in… what? Two months? Three? He doesn't remember anymore. Doesn't want to remember.
Maybe she really is just some unlucky girl in a similar dress and he had wished for her to be her.
No.
How could he wish for her something like this? Nobody deserves this.
But is it her or is she someone else? He needs to know. Needs to be sure. Otherwise there would be no way for him to get home and sleep. Or even to work. Nothing that could help him take his mind off of her. Off of the fact that there is a wounded woman in a hospital - alone and unknown by anyone - and it could be her.
He needs to see her eyes. It's the only way for him to be sure. He would recognise those golden eyes everywhere.
"I need to see her." He says to no one in particular, though Lory is the only one in the vicinity to hear him. "I need to see if it's really her."
Lory wonders just how far this boy is gone by a girl he claims not to know.
But be that as it may, if there is Love, especially involving Ren, there isn't much that the Ambassador of Love wouldn't do to see it bloom.
So, he signals his loyal aid to get the doctor for him.
"And what will you do, if it is her?"
Ren stares him right in the eyes, thinking. Hard.
Yeah… what will he do if she is the one lying in that hospital bed?
If it's her being wounded and alone.
Always alone.
Just like him.
But he deserves to be alone.
He needs to be punished.
But she doesn't.
So what would he do?
"Nothing." Is what he answers. And he means it.
"Ren. This could be the start of a wonderful love story: A girl hurt and alone wandering the streets at night. You catching her as she faints, saving her from a tragic fate. You could be her knight in shining armour fighting the evil that tries to take her. And the both of you would live a happily ever after."
Shocked silence falls for a whole minute between the two men, before Ren even thinks of answering.
"I. Will. Not." He can't even say it as appalled and disgusted as he feels in that moment.
… "Spoilsport." That of course doesn't mean Lory gives up. Not when it's about Love. Not when it's Ren.
They need to wait at least another hour until they can see her.
It feels like waiting forever for one of them. It's not enough time to scheme for the other one.
Ren's feet become heavier with every step he takes, following the two men through the corridors.
Does he really want to know if it's her? And if, will he be able to stand the sight of her pale form in a white bed supported from the machines all around her? Not being able to do anything than stare at her? Was there even anything he could do? Or would do. Would want to do?
Except the things he knows he shouldn't... couldn't... wouldn't do…
They stop on a corner, Lory and the doctor discussing something Ren hadn't paid attention to.
"It's the the room right there." Kameda says to him, motioning to a door a bit down the hall and turns back to Lory.
Ren walks the last few steps alone. Still heavy steps. Unsure. Agitated. Nervous.
Standing in front of the door, one hand on the handle, he takes deep breaths. Bracing himself for the impact.
His mind can't comprehend what he sees inside. It doesn't make sense.
Pain in his chest. Not being able to breath. There is a split second, when everything goes black, but he keeps standing. And then it's sheer reflexes on his part.
Until she is in his arms again and he hears himself calling for help.
I'm sorry Q-Q
It wasn't even supposed to end like this. But it wrote itself. And it didn't want to change. Not one bit.
What the heck is going on?! I'm confused right now. (Not with the story! I know what's happening there. My writing... it has a life of it's own...)
OK... I need to calm down... ... ...
Hey guys :)
Here is... whatever it is. I hope you like it? I'm still confused. Sorry.
There are a few things I don't like that much in this chapter, but if it's not standing out to you (that they're off or the like) then I think it's fine. And the last lines... well, I don't know where they came from and why they insist they are the end of this chap... Strange
But I promised I would give you the next part this weekend, so we all have to live with this, I think... For now...
Thank You for all your faves, follows and reviews! I love you guys! xxx It makes me so happy to read them :D
For that super long review from Ogg: I don't feel bad for getting in the right mood - I love it and want it every time I try to write! Wanna have!
I cut the chapter the last time only because I wouldn't have had (is that right? o.o) the time to update, if I finished it. I didn't cut anything from what I wrote, just made 2 parts out of it.
Aaaand I have the whole story line/plot line/outline (whatever it's called) down. The whole story popped into my head just after I published that first chapter and I read everyone's reviews. It was awesome!
Thank You for that review and all your others :D
And about the A/N: I actually love to write them (and to read them from other writers ;3) I just didn't know, if you guys liked it.
So what's next?
Oh, right. I will probably need a while for the next update. RL and such. Sorry.
(Maybe one or the other review will give me the energy to write under the week as well? ;3) No, honestly I'm always so tired when I had to work... It's not fun :(
I think that's enough for now?
Thank You for reading :D I really appreciate that ;)
Have a nice day
Ja ne
Kia