A/N: Sorry for the lack of updating, I've been busy. Please Read, Review, and Enjoy!~~

Two Queens

Act 1 – Repair

Chapter Three – Friends

The rest of my first day at Yamaku went by rather fast. Misha continued to try and get me to take one of their tours around the school, and I could see that Shizune, too, would have liked the opportunity to show me around.

However, every time I indirectly said 'no', and Shizune was able to get Misha to stop bugging me for about five minutes before she started up again.

When the final bell began to chime, I gave a sigh of relief. Everyone stood and began to pack of their belongings. I did the same, but Misha shot up out of her chair and pointed at me.

"Hey~! You're going to come with us tomorrow at lunch, okay?" Misha appeared to be taking the initiative now, almost demanding me to do what she says. However, now that I knew her a bit, I couldn't really take her seriously.

"Okay then, tomorrow," I told her. She lit up and turned to Shizune, signing what I had said. It wouldn't be too bad to spend some time with them, I was just thinking of visiting Lilly and Hanako again. Shizune smiled and pushed up on her glasses, signing something back at Misha rather smugly.

"Whaa~? Being patient with people always works? But...It was because I was so persistent, Shicchan," Misha retorted. The two of them began to get into a sort of signing argument, so I took that moment to give a slight wave and made my escape.

Before exiting the classroom, I glanced towards the back and realized that I wasn't sure if Hanako had actually come to class after lunch or not. Was she there the whole time, and did she look my way? Did it look like I was ignoring her? I hope not...

My train of thought was suddenly interrupted by a person running through the doorway and slamming right into me, causing us both to topple over. It wasn't that much of an impact, and I was about to stand right back up...

But then, the pain came in, surging through me in an instant. My chest tightened, and my heart beat rapidly became louder and faster.

At first, I felt panic come over me. I placed a hand over my chest and clenched my eyes shut, not moving at all. Calm...down, I told myself. This was my first attack that I'd had since my third day in the hospital, when I tried to stand and ended up passing out.

The next few moments passed by slowly, but the pain eventually subsided. As my heartbeat fell back into its usual motion, I looked up at the person who I had run into.

She was the girl whom I had seen before, sitting in the front row of the class, her left hand but a mere bandaged stump. Her look was of concern, which was rather offsetting.

"Are you okay?" The girl held down her good hand, and I nodded, taking it. She helped me stand, and, after a few moments of swaying, I regained my balance.

"I-I'm...fine," I told her, resting my hand on my chest for a moment to confirm that it had returned to normal. Then, I gazed around the classroom, and realized that the few remaining people were giving me worried looks, including Misha, and Shizune, who had followed her gaze.

I jumped a little as the girl who ran into me set her hand on my shoulder gently. "Are you sure?" Her voice was full of concern, which I didn't like. Ever since being in the hospital, I didn't want anyone worry about me.

I nodded and quickly moved past her and left the class. The feeling of several eyes burning into me was a discomfort, and I just wanted to get away.

I made my way down the hall, following the flow of students. After a few minutes, I finally began to slow down, realizing that I had no idea where I was going. I still had to visit the nurse, but I had no idea where to go.

Stopping, I turned and scanned the groups of students passing by. Maybe I should just get Misha and Shizune to show me the way, I thought. However, I could see the head of a familiar figure practically hugging the wall back the way I came.

Sure enough, as I had figured, it was Hanako.

"Hi Hanako," I said. "I don't think I saw you after Lunch."

She nodded. "I-I had to d-do something..." It was a simple answer, but I didn't press it any farther. From what I could tell, Hanako liked to have time to herself.

Hanako started looking back over her shoulder, then back to me, then down towards the ground. I realized that I was probably stopping her from going somewhere.

"S-Sorry if I'm stopping you, I just needed to know where the Nurse's office was," I told her. Hanako raised a finger to her lips for a moment in thought, looking around rather nervously.

"I-I can show you the way..." Hanako pointed past me down the hall. I smiled at her and nodded.

"Thanks," I said. I turned and waited for Hanako to take my side, as I would expect any person to do, but, instead, she got behind me and gently took hold of my sleeve. I was confused for a moment, but then I realized that she probably needs me to help hide her from the mass of students around us.

As we made our way down the hallway, the flood of students eventually died down. Hanako moved closer and closer to my side, and, eventually, she let go of my sleeve and walked without me acting as her protector.

"I-It's in a s-seperate building over th-there," Hanako told me as we exited the main building, pointing over towards a smaller building across the courtyard at the front of the school.

As we approached the building, a couple of students exited, and Hanako was quick to move behind me, her right hand falling upon the burn on her face. Once they moved past, I opened the door and turned back towards Hanako.

"If you want, you can go ahead to the tea room," I told her. For a moment, Hanako seemed to contemplate this, but then she shook her head slightly.

"I-I can wait for you," She said. I nodded in understanding, and we entered the building.

I headed towards the door with the marker clearly labeled 'Nurse'. Hanako stood out beside the door while I knocked and stepped inside.

"Hello?" I said. The room looked just how I expected it to, with a counter and shelving along one wall, cluttered with papers and books with titles that I can't even pronounce. On the other side of the room were two beds with a curtain in the middle. The room's light wasn't on, but there was enough sunlight coming in through the window that you could see well enough.

A voice caused me to jump. "Hello there." I turned and realized that someone was standing on the other side of the door, just out of sight. I closed the door gently and realized that he must be the nurse.

I took a moment to get a good look at him. He was tall and had slightly unkempt purple hair. His dimples from his smile that appeared on his face quickly washed away the young person that I took him for.

"A-Are you the nurse?" Perhaps it was a dumb question, but I better make sure at least.

"Of course I am, it says so outside of the door, doesn't it?" His smile widened a bit, as if mocking the fact that I had asked an obvious question. "You must be miss Hisako Nakai. I thought you were going to visit in the morning, so I lost hope of seeing you!"

He extended his hand to me and I shook it. His handshake was firm and friendly, which complemented his already friendly appearance.

"I um...I got lost, and had no time to come by..." I looked around the room, trying to make up an excuse. However, he merely let out a chuckle.

"It is your first day here, so I can't blame you," he told me, "By the way, you can call me 'the Nurse', like everyone else does." Hewalked over to a file on the counter and grabbed it. He then sat in a black rolling chair and rolled back over to me, holding up the file. "I read your file this morning. Some kind of chronic arrhythmia and related congenital heart muscle deficiency, right?"

The long string of words made no sense to me, but I nodded anyways at the word 'heart'. The Nurse turned in his rolling chair towards his desk, and motioned towards the chair in front of it. I approached the chair and sat down, while he rolled around to his side of the desk.

"I'm sure you've heard about our establishment already, so I'll give you a small run-down about things here. We have many facilities available, mostly physical therapy and such, and there's always faculty around the school, so don't hesitate to call us if something is wrong." He stopped for a moment to let me soak that knowledge in.

"That makes this place sound like a hospital..." I said, more to myself. However, the Nurse looked pleased, as though he had heard this statement hundreds of times already.

"You'll find that this is just like any other school. I mean, we don't do brain surgery here or anything." His joke felt a bit stale, and I smiled a bit just to give him a response. "You'll get used to everything that goes on here. Now, let me find your file..."

While the Nurse opened his laptop and began to look through stacks of papers around his desk, I let my mind wander a bit. I began to wonder about how life will be here, and...

Will I fit in here? That question had been looming over me, especially after seeing my classmates and what disabilities they had. Sure, my attacks are scary, but they only happen when triggered, so it's something I could live with. Can it match up to having a missing hand, deafness, blindness, or a permanent scar?

"Ah, here we go," the Nurse said, breaking my train of thought, much to my relief. I didn't want to worry too much about it. I watched as he pulled out a thick file from a stack of papers and opened it, skimming through it until he found what he needed. "You already have your pills for your arrhythmia, just remember to take them every morning and evening, or it won't be much help. Apart from that, do you do any sports, or anything like that? Boxing maybe?"

Another joke, equally as out of place. I shook my head, then a thought crossed my mind. "Well, I did play soccer a little bit with my friends at my old school," I told him.

"Well, I'm afraid I'm going to have to refrain from doing that, for a little while, at least," he told me. "Any hit to the chest could cause another attack, and we can't allow that to happen. Is that what happened for the first attack you suffered? It didn't say in your file."

I couldn't help but blush a bit. I thought back to hearing the words that Iwanako spoke that triggered my pains. "Um, n-no, not exactly..." I side-stepped the question, which caused him to give me a slightly more serious look. It was a personal thing that I'd rather not share with anyone.

"Well then, it'd still be good to get some exercise. Just a jog in the mornings, jumping rope, a brisk walk. Possibly swimming? We do have a pool here." I shrugged indifferently. "Well then, I'm sure you've heard all of this before. You just need to keep it simple, and don't overexert yourself."

The Nurse wiggled his finger a bit as if to exagerate his point. For the first time, that made me grin a bit, which made him smile in return, although he dropped it and put on a fake, serious expression. "No unecessary risks. You need to take care of yourself." I nodded in understanding. "Well then, that's it. Come by if you ever need something."

"T-Thank you," I told him as I stood. I dipped my head respectfully and turned to leave.

"By the way," he began to say, making me stop and look back at him, "Who was it who directed you here?"

I was surprised by his question. "It was Hanako," I answered. From her condition, I figured that was enough for him to know who it was.

The Nurse seemed surprised by my answer. "Interesting..."

I stepped out of the Nurse's office, and saw Hanako's alarmed expression. She calmed as she saw that it was only me. "H-How w-was it?" she asked me.

"Um, I just got lectured a bit over my medicine, that's all." I told her. As I started to close the door, the Nurse's hand stopped it, and he peered out of the room. Hanako jumped as she noticed him.

"Hello Hanako," the Nurse said to her, smiling. I glanced at Hanako, who raised her hand to her scar and hesitantly nodded to him.

"H-H-Hi..." I couldn't help but think that the Nurse's rather too-hapy smile may be frightening her.

"Have you been attending classes more often?" The Nurse's smile dropped a bit as he asked this, becoming more serious. She looked side to side, and then nodded. "Well, that's good to hear then," he said, his smile returning. He then looked over at me, then back to Hanako. "And it's nice to see that you're both friends."

The Nurse nodded to us, then retreated back into the room, gently closing the door behind him, leaving both Hanako and I standing there. I opened my mouth to thank Hanako for waiting on me, but she seemed...out of it.

Hanako's eyes were gazing down at the floor, but it was not out of fear, nor worry. Her hand had dropped from her face, and I couldn't help but think that she was confused.

"F-Friends..." she muttered softly, as if the term was a surprise to her. Her gaze moved up and met mine, so suddenly that I blushed slightly. For a very brief moment, I felt a flutter in my heart. I placed a hand over my chest to make sure that my heart was still in its natural rhythm, and it was.

But, as quickly as our eyes locked, Hanako quickly realized that she was staring and seemed to gasp a bit, looking from side to side and turning away. At that moment, I couldn't help but turn away as well, blushing a bit.

"W-Well, let's go find Lilly, shall we?" I asked, not wanting an awkward silence to pass over us.

Hanako glanced my way, then nodded, and we made our way out of the building side by side.

To be continued...

Next Chapter - Checkmate