Ch9

Nothingness. That's what I saw when I blinked open my eyes. There was just empty white space before me. I slowly sat up into a kneeling position, and scanned the room cautiously, as if something were to randomly pop out. There was nothing at all, and so I rubbed my eyes in disbelief. Where the hell was I..?

After contemplating it for a minuet or two, I carefully stretched out my shaking arm in front of me. I didn't feel anything, but I froze, at the sight of my arm. My fingernails were perfectly coated with a light shade of pink, and polished until they shone. My arm was in a long white lace sleeve that reached midway on my hand and had a hole where my thumb poked out of. Alarmed, I immediately stretched out my left hand and saw it was almost identical except for the enormous rock that sat on my ring finger. My eyes grew huge and I immediately brought my hand up close to my face. The most gorgeous ring I had ever seen was snug on my finger. W-what?! I immediately looked down at the rest of my body and, just to top it off, I was in a velvety white dress that reached down to my feet. I spun around, grabbing the dress and saw the long train that trailed on the floor behind. The dress itself clung to my body so perfectly, it felt unreal. I marveled at the luxuriously soft feel of it as my hands glided down my sides.

Suddenly, I snapped out of the trance and shook my head. Focus. I had to focus.. Anxiously, I spun around on my bare feet looking for something, anything, to clue me in on where I was exactly. While I scanned the room, I almost missed something that glinted on my far right. I turned around again to see it in the distance. There was something red, a flower, I think, on top of something shiny and silver. I needed to get to it, I knew that much. I picked up the sides of my dress and hoisted it up near my knees. Uneasily looking at my feet, I took a step forward and took a shaky breath as I walked over what felt like thin air. I stared hard at the object in the distance.

Finally, I was close enough to it to stop. It was a flower, a rose to be exact. Squatting down, I picked it up by the end of the stem, careful not to prick myself with the thorns. However, even when I did, I didn't feel a thing. As I brought the fragile thing to my nose, it erupted with a light bittersweet aroma, as stray petals brushed my face. Putting the flower off to the side, I inspected the silver object that had glinted in the distance. It was a mirror. Turning it over in my hand, I jumped a little at the sight of my reflection. It was me, or rather model me. I looked exactly the way I did when I had modeled for that day and her prep team had done me up. Bewildered, I let my hand graze over my reflection in the mirror. Something was wrong.. I narrowed my eyes and continued inspecting myself when suddenly, another familiar face focused behind me in the mirror. I let out a small shriek and the slim mirror slipped from my hands, breaking into a million crystal pieces around me. I covered my face with my hands for a second, and then mumbled a string of useless words. Instinctively, a got on my knees and started collecting the shards of glass around me, all the while I felt myself shaking more and more..

"Hey.. stop that.." Said a voice behind me, and I heard his footsteps approaching. I made a small noise of fear when I turned my face and saw his tall figure approaching. I felt my eyes start watering and fumbled with the glass in my hand as I tried scooting backwards, away from him. However, as I pushed myself back, one particularly long piece of glass tore through the skin in my palm. I dropped the rest of the pieces and immediately doubled over from the pain, my bleeding hand dripping on the pure white surface of Nowhere. The searing pain numbed all my senses. I felt tears start stinging in my tightly shut eyes, but suddenly, his strong hand grabbed my small wrist, and I fearfully looked up from under my long bangs as he put the bloody palm to his lips. My eyes widened and I wanted to scream in protest, but when he let go, my palm was completely healed, with no trace of it ever having been cut. His mouth was somehow still clean too. I looked up at him incredulously.

"How did you..?" I started, but his intense hazel gaze made me forget how to speak. Our faces were mere inches from each other. I felt the blood rushing up to my cheeks, my mouth forming a tiny ''O'" shape. My mind suddenly toggled back to a time similar to this. Their faces this close, his eyes staring at something beyond her, in his room. Remembering his random flash if anger after that, I pulled my bright red face away from his and let my hair act as a curtain over my face. He chuckled.

"Your real blush is much prettier than that powder on your face.." He said, as he put a finger under my chin and urged me to face him. I let him, but nothing could make me look up. I kept my eyes stubbornly glued to my lap although it was a struggle to keep them there. His gentle touch glided across my cheek and he tucked my hair behind my ears. "Mayu... look at me." Mayu. He called me Mayu. Not my name, or Katayama-chan, but simply Mayu. My nickname. At this point, I had to look up, completely forgetting that I had been scared of him just a few seconds ago. He smiled, a crooked toothy smile. It was a real smile. Not the mischievous kind that he flashed every so often, and not the dead, meaningless smile he put on for girls at the Host Club. It was a genuine smile; the kind I had been unknowingly longing for. Ever so carefully, as if I were made of glass, he cupped my face in his firm yet soft hands. I let him, startled by the sudden static I felt where his hands touched my face. He tilted his head, ever so slightly, and started closing the distance between us. It was as if by magic, the closer he got, the heavier my eyelids felt. However, when his lips touched mine, it wasn't what I was expecting at all. They felt furry. And kind of cold..? Suddenly, his hands started squeezing my cheeks hard and his nails dug into my skin. OWW-

"OWWW!" I yelped and jerked upright in my bed. My vision was still a little hazy but when I put my hand up to cheek, warm blood seeped through my fingers. My eyes widened and I scrambled out of the covers. Please don't leave a scar Please don't leave a scar Please don't leave a–

"Oof!" I grimaced under the blanket I tripped on. I grinded my teeth in annoyance. Should have seen it coming.. Sighing, I got on my clumsy feet and crawled a few paces toward the long mirror. Three parallel scratches on my right cheek. Nice. I sighed, closing my eyes. My black eye and cut had just healed a few days ago, and now I had to deal with this? The searing pain of the cuts made me blink my eyes open. Gently grazing my fingers over the gashes, my eyes wandered over to the side where out of the corner of my eye, I saw Aiko, resting nonchalantly on the headboard of my bed. His beady little green eyes were staring intensely at me, and if I didn't know any better, I'd say he was looking at me smugly. I turned around in a flash and grabbed the nearest pillow. I swear I was ready to throw it at him in less than two seconds but, by that time, Aiko was gone, mysteriously disappearing like he always did. "Stupid cat.." I mumbled, dropping the pillow in defeat. Aiko was my mother's brown and black striped cat, that personally, I thought caused more trouble than anything, in this house in his own mysterious way..

I rubbed the remains of sleep off my eyes and stumbled down the hallway towards the bathroom. First things first. Disinfect. As I approached I could hear my mother humming from outside, but I knocked anyways.

"You're not going to take long, right?" I called, cupping my cheek to keep blood from dripping. After a bit of rummaging, she answered and burst open the door.

"Nope!" She smiled at me cheerily. How could anyone be cheery at seven a.m. on a Sunday morning? I, not being a morning person,shook my head confused and a bit annoyed at my rude awakening. However, I did know well enough to keep my mouth shut, so after muttering a 'good morning' I made my way around her and reached for the doorknob. At that second she turned around about to say something else, but instead she was cut off at the sight of the scratches."Ah–wwww-WHA-?" She grabbed tried grabbing hold of my face bit I put my hands up in protest.

"Mom, it's okay." I said as soothing as I could.

"H-hospital? Du-Du-Docotor! Doctor! I'll call an am–"

"Mom, it's not that bad. I can handle it on my own.."

Seeming to find her voice again, she said,"Are you sure? I don't think it'll heal by Saturday! Oh lor–" She prattled on but I stopped listening after I heard 'Saturday'. What was going on on Saturday?

"Mom, I'm fine." I said putting my hand on her shoulder. She gave me a disapproving look. "I swear, I'm okay!" I said raising my hands defensively. "It was Aiko.." I said pointing at the bloody scratches my left on my cheek. At this, her eyes grew wide and she guiltily looked away. My mom loved Aiko. I mean really loved him. He was like her baby. "Anyways, what's happening Saturday?" I said changing the subject. There was no way to argue against a woman's love for her cat..

I stepped into the bathroom, and reached on my tip toes to get the little first aid kit that sat on top of shelf. One thing I never understood was why everything in the house was so big yet no one was particularly tall. After pushing the little kit with my finger a few times, I was finally able to knock it over. I smiled with satisfaction, but then looked up out the door and realized my mother hadn't answered the question yet. Instead, she was biting back a mischievous grin, the kind I should have been more wary about. "Huh?" I said urging her on while prying the small kit open with my nails.

"Well, since your father did so well overseas, I was going to throw a party...Didn't I tell you?"

"No.." I said suspiciously and looked up from the disinfectant in my hand. Her face told me she was hiding something.

"Well then I guess I also forgot to tell you to bring your boyfriend."

"What?!" I asked, whipping around to face her, dropping the disinfectant in an instant. "Mom, I don't think that's necess–"

"Of course it is! We have to thank him properly. If he didn't find you that time in the woods then who knows what could have happened to you! Oh, and you can invite Nisa and Matsu too. Just make sure Matsu behaves... You know your father," she smiled softly.

"Mom, I really don't think–"

"Don't say it. You invite Hitachiin Hikaru or I will." She said firmly, and then spun around on her heel and left. I went back into the bathroom, and fiercely dabbed the cuts with peroxide. In the mirror, I grimaced at myself partly because of the sting and partly because of the new weight on my shoulders. I had just gotten on (somewhat..?) good terms with Hikaru and after the fight we had a few days ago, I felt kind of weary around him. I know that we were never really friends before the fight, but I was..comfortable? True he endlessly picked on me and sometimes made me angrier than I've ever felt, but I was starting to lose my shyness around him up until the fight. Now, even after he apologized, I felt like things would be weird. Especially tomorrow, when I'd have to face him again at school.

I put three band aids on my cheek and carefully patted them on my face. Walking out of the bathroom and back towards my room, I could smell burnt bacon, and even though bacon is just well.. fantastic.. for the first time my stomach really wasn't in the mood. Instead I ungracefully belly-flopped down onto my bed groaned into a pillow. Tomorrow was going to be... well.. I honestly didn't know, but one thing I was sure of was that it would be awkward.

..to be continued..

Hey guys! What did you guys think about my first real attempt at fluff ;). Too cheesey? I'll work on that, but I hope you liked it anyways^_^ Thank you guys so much if your still sticking with me. Your reviews really do make me happy. That's about it so... yeah! reviews are appreciated and goodbye guys

P.S VIRTUAL HUG!(^-^) 3 see you later guys :3