III
"Ouch." I cringed, moving to pick up Mohi, who was trying to knead dough across the tender part of my belly. The little kitten mewed in response, rubbing his soft face against the side of my arm as I relocated him to my other side. Yui, who was strangely asleep on top of my legs, woke up just long enough to grumble at the movement as well, quieting Mohi down to submission with his blatant outcry of unhappiness.
My mother stuck her head through the doorway of my room, looking at me with a concerned smile. Her dark hair was pulled back into an elegant bun, which complimented her crisp and high buttoned outfit. Although she looked the harsh teacher on the outside, she was one of the biggest softies I'd ever seen. "Hey, I'm just about to leave for work. Are you sure you're going to be alright?"
"Yes, yes." I grumbled, trying hard not to move as a new wave of pain rolled in. "I did something stupid once; I'll be just fine- go enjoy your gardening group."
She shook her head at my blatant stubbornness, closing the door behind her with a resounding click. Every part of my body was still screaming in pain, and with the events of my own idiocy only happening yesterday, it wasn't a major surprise. Most people would be in hysteria after being hit by a car, but me, not so much. I was more worried about the fact that I had forgotten to make Dad a plate of skewered meat like he wanted for work, and now was being checked out frantically by a guy probably old enough to be my father after he abruptly hit me going probably no more than ten miles an hour. He insisted on taking me to the hospital, but I steadily declined, telling him I was sure nothing was broken and limped on home as he watched, unsure of what else to do. I kept up the nonchalant charade until Dad's meal was prepared and he was on his way to work before I started bawling hysterically from the excruciating pain, only to have Aki and my mother, who had just walked in the door, help get me up to my room where I'd been laying like a bruised, pain-laced potato for almost an entire day.
I was probably stupid for not going to the hospital, but the last thing I needed was to put more stress on either of my parents. Our oven had broken in some way a little under two weeks ago, and like the saying always goes, trouble seems to travel in a pack. Once the oven was fixed, something was wrong with the washing machine, and low and behold, my father was a ticking time bomb to anything needing even an extra yen out of his carefully calculated budget. This included any medical expenses, and that meant no hospital trip for me. My mother and Aki had already sworn secrecy to not telling him about my run-in with the car, and I had slept fairly decently in the realization that my father would not have a reason to be angry with me.
From my room on the second floor, I could barely make out some noise coming from down the stairs. Dad was still asleep, so I was hoping it was just Aki leaving to some gaming tournament or watch some sports with his weird gaggle of friends. I loved that idiot to pieces, but sometimes, I had to shake my head at the things he found enjoyment in, especially when it meant staring aimlessly at a screen and 'rage quitting' more times than not. His friends were all in the same boat, and whenever they got together, it meant a lot of yelling, laughing, and cursing. Fun thing to look forward to when you're lying in bed like a potato, right? My hopes were him and whoever he was meeting at the door was squashed squashed as I heard two sets of heavy footsteps making their way slowly up the stairs, my mind racing as to who was coming up here. Light, had the guy from the accident yesterday found out where I lived?
My answer came as Aki opened the door just wide enough to peek his head in through. He had a bemused smile on his face, looking over at my questioning, fearful glare with great humor. "You have a guest."
He stepped away, and low and behold, the door swung open to let a very tall and familiar shadow dance across my floor. A tiny squeak of shock was all that could escape from my lips as Mori stepped into the room, looking more glorious and heavenly than all the beautiful male protagonists or Greek god reincarnations I could whip up out of thin air. The realization that I had neglected to call him and cancel our plans for today slammed into my head like a speeding bullet, and as tempted as I was to slap myself repeatedly against the head, the pain made it impossible to do anything but gawk at him in embarrassment.
"Light, Mori! I completely forgot about taking you to the opening day for the air market today." I rambled, sounding more and more idiotic with each word that passed without paused from my lips. The blush of pure mortification ran hot and down my cheeks like an inferno of never ending shame and humiliation at my inability to shut up."You should go by yourself- it's really a nice experience, even if you're alone. There's so much stuff you would like, and we did promise to get Hani something cute and something sweet, so you shouldn't leave him hanging. As for me, I'll make it up to you somehow, so let's plan to meet up another time, okay?"
He didn't say anything, and instead, came to sit in the chair my mother had left by my bedside last night. Mohi noticed his presence and immediately shot up from his peaceful spot on the far side of the bed, stepping over my abdomen yet again to move to the lanky boy's outstretched hand. I hissed in pain as the kitten intersected with the various bruises I had all over my torso and upper legs, but quickly pressed my lips together as I felt Mori's intense gaze peering directly onto my face. After spending a few months getting to know him and Hani a little bit better, I started to pick up on silent messages the usually silent guy left in wake of speaking words out into the open for everyone to hear. And this silent cue, I had come to realize very early on, meant he was expecting more information out of you than what you were saying.
I sighed lightly, before groaning as I realized he wanted to know what in the world was going on. He would think I was the queen of all idiots, but hey, if he hadn't got that idea in his head yet about me, something was definitely wrong. "Look, Mori, I know this is going to sound really, really stupid, but I got into an accident yesterday. I wasn't really paying attention when I was crossing the road a few streets over, and a guy came out from around the corner and tapped me. He wasn't going fast enough to break anything, so I just went home."
His eyes didn't lift from mine, though Yui had now gotten up as well to rub against the side of his knee. He alternated petting each cat as the moments wore on, and all I could do was stare at him, anxious as the silence continued. The thing with Mori, surprisingly, was you could almost always tell what he was thinking. He was the king of nonverbal communication, and had perfected the art form to a tee in body language, emotion filled eyes, and a Morse-code of eyebrow movements. After gathering all of that, I came to the conclusion that he was deep in thought and was going into dangerous waters with someone like me.
"You need to go." He said suddenly, and I tensed at the sound of his pensive, richly deep voice.
"Where?" I laughed lightly, hoping he was just trying to make a joke. "The festival?"
He shook his head, pulling out a gray cell phone from the inner pocket of his black denim jacket. "The hospital."
Before I could even protest, he opened the phone, pressed a button, and began speaking in clipped, polite sentences to a voice I didn't recognize. He clicked the phone shut, giving the cats one last scratch underneath their chins before he stood. I watched him stretch for a moment, my mind racing as I tried to come up with a valid argument as to why he couldn't take me to the hospital. Other than the fact that I didn't have any money to pay for the bill, there was really no reason to stop him.
"Mori." I squeaked as the tears brimmed my eyes. Light, I wouldn't cry over something so petty! I knew that I was poor and that there was nothing I could do about it. "Please don't do this. I won't-" I choked back my pride and lowered my eyes as the humiliation set in. "I won't be able to cover the bill."
He moved to squat beside me, ruffling my hair gently underneath one of his hands. "I know."
Within the next five minutes, I found myself out of bed, walking- more like alternating wincing with a pathetic excuse to put one foot in front of the other- down the stairs with Mori's help and into a very posh looking car that was magically parked outside of my house. I leaned back into the soft leather seat as the car took off gently down the straight streets, sighing as a mix of pain and intrigue swept over me. Mori sat beside me, his arm propped against the armrest attached to the door while his head leaned into it. As I saw his stance from the corner of my eye, I thought he was entertaining himself by looking at the summer scenery passing us by. But when I actually turned to regard him, my eyes widened as I realized he had been looking side-ways at me the entire time. I could only hold his gaze for a few seconds before looking down at my hands, unsure of what to say to him.
That feeling was only seconded as we sat in the emergency room of the hospital. People were passing us by as I filled in the medical records that the nurse handed to me, eying Mori with extra attention as he stood stoically by my side. A lot of other women were watching us just as carefully, whispering dejectedly as he sat down beside me, twiddling his fingers as the awkward silenced between us wore on. He didn't seem ill at ease about being here with me; his posture told me that he was as relaxed as anyone could possibly get in a place like this. Unlike him, I was a raving mess. All I kept thinking was how horrible I felt that he felt obliged to take me here, even when this wasn't his fault. Although his kindness touched me, it didn't help that he was a) the nicest guy I had ever had the luck of being friends with and b) richer than my parent's wages for five years squished into one fat paycheck. I didn't want anything to disrupt the strange balance the two of us were allowed to interact in, and honestly, I had been walking on egg shells to make sure I never overstepped the boundaries I had put up. Now, I had this sickening feeling clawing at the back of my throat as I realized that may have all gone up in smoke.
"Mizutemari?"
I craned my head to look at a male nurse at the double doors leading into the actual hospital, who was looking over the papers I had Mori hand back in to the desk a few minutes before. My companion stood, moving to hold out his hands to me so I could stand without screaming like a yeti at the pain lancing through every fiber of my body. He let go of his hold on me as we moved to walk to the entrance of the examination rooms, although I was half tempted to make a hasty escape before he could even process what was going on.
"Alright, miss." The nurse said cautiously, looking over at me and then down at my file once again. "It seems we'll have to do some x-rays to check for fractures or any bone damage from the collision. Is there any chance that you could be pregnant?"
My jaw dropped in mortification. "No." I muttered through pursed lips, the blood draining from my face as I hoped someone would strike me down now.
He raised an eyebrow, splitting a glance between me and Mori, clearly skeptical. "Are you sure?"
I couldn't help but let the image of what he was implying race across my mind. Heavenly, beautiful Mori, coming to bask with a mortal like me? Oh light. The blood finally rushed back to my face as the imagery went a little too far in the safety of my own mind. "Very sure."
Mori was left outside the room in a chair that seemed two sizes too small for his tall frame, while I was whisked away inside for a series of upper body scans and an examination. The pain was so excruciating as the nurse gingerly tried my bruises that I, being the total pineapple I am, ended up biting down on my lip so hard it started to bleed. Oh joy, another injury to add to the list. My nurse didn't seem to notice my self-inflicted wound, and went to work to intently regard the x-ray copies another hospital worker carried in just moments before.
He nodded slowly before turning to look at me. "Well," He said gently, "It looks like you have two fractured ribs, one on each side in similar areas."
Fractured ribs? That sounded very, very unhappy. "Is it serious?" I squeaked, pinching a rift into my pale purple sun dress.
"No, not life-threatening or bad enough that you need to be kept here, but you will need to be on bed rest for at least a week to allow the bones to restrengthen themselves around the injury. That means no rigorous activities or even walking for long periods of time."
Nothing could hide how crestfallen I felt. "Oh."
"I'll go find the doctor to write you a leave of absence for your school and to get some pain killers, so just wait here. Your boyfriend can come in and sit with you now that we're done, so I'll let him in on my way out."
I tried to put in the fact that Mori wasn't my boyfriend, but the nurse had already exited the room before I could even managed a syllable. A familiar, lanky body now entered the room, glancing over at the x-ray charts and then over at me. His eyebrows raised slightly as he took in my tear-stained face and crumpled appearance, but by this time I had already thrown in the towel for having any pride left for my predicament. He sauntered over to my side, and I patted the spot beside me on the lined reclining chair for him to come and sit.
"They said I have some fractured ribs." I blurted out as his warmth flooded the space to my right, my face flushing slightly for goodness knows why. "But there's nothing to worry about. Just a good, long rest for me and I'll be a-okay."
I gave a weak smile and a thumbs up, but all he did was blink slowly in return. His eyes were still deep in thought, and I found myself fretting yet again that I was burdening him in some way that I couldn't necessarily understand. What was going through his brain right about now? Knowing Mori, he was probably trying to figure out how I was going to fare by being stuck in bed for that long, or something along those lines.
"Everything's going to be just fine." It felt weird that I was the one reassuring him in this situation, but I didn't know what else to say. "Mom can take care of Mohi and Yui for me, and Aki, he's not the best cook but-"
My rambling is suddenly cut off as his hand brushed against my bottom lip. The pain surged quick and deep for a moment as one of his fingers brushed against my freshly inflicted cut, and I winced until a strange feeling I had never experienced before flooding my veins instead. It felt deep and strong, leaving me blushing crimson in its wake. From all my experience writing and reading romance novels, this was one thing I knew for certain was a very bad sign.
"Whoa." I said suddenly as his hand descended back to his side. His eyes narrowed at my trance-like state, and I laughed nervously in hopes of downplaying the weird sensation I had just underwent. But before I could stop myself, I lifted my own hand to his lips, pausing as I felt the warm, soft skin underneath my fingertips. His eyes widened for a moment, and I quickly withdrew my hand as a tiny blush tinted his cheeks at my impulsive behavior. Dear light, what was I doing? Sure, I had been wondering if it felt the same for him, but did I really have to go and do that? I wanted to crawl into a hole and die at how stupidly embarrassed I felt.
Neither of us said a word- or even managed to glance at each other- until the nurse arrived back with the doctor. After a quick lecture on how vitally important it was that I stay in bed for at least four days without much movement and if any of my organs started to hurt I needed to rush myself back to the hospital, Mori was handed a vial of pain medications and my excuse for school this week while I was given two small pills and a cup of water. We were then moved to the payment desk, where my mortification grew as the lady behind the counter chatted with Mori about payment options for my bill that totaled over eleven hundred yen. In the end, he just flipped open his wallet and paid the amount in full with a flurry of bills, his expression calm and even like he was spending his pocket change on a convenience store dinner. I almost smacked my head against my hand in the realization that for his family it probably was an equivalent to that, until my thankfulness for him took over. He didn't have to do this. But, as I understood with a tiny smile, this was just the type of person Mori was. It didn't matter if you were a human or an animal; he would do everything in his power to ensure that you made it out okay. There wasn't another person on the face of the earth like him, and the thought of being one of the privileged few to be cared for by him filled me with an overwhelming feeling of safety and happiness.
The medication kicked in during the first few minutes of our ride back to my house, and my eyelids soon dropped in defeat at the effects the pain killers were playing on my body. I wanted to stay awake with all my might, but the prospect of sleep was just too strong for me to fight. I slumped over into Mori's side, mumbling some sort of apology before I was heralded off into a blissful, painless sleep.
AN: Hoshi's injury in this chapter was based on some girl I knew who got hit jaywalking in real life so I didn't pull it our of thin air, if any of you were wondering. Since I always forget, I do not own Ouran High School in any way, shape, or form. Thank you to all who have been reading, and to SRG who reviewed on the last chapter. Please review! ~ E.F.