A/N: hahahahahahaha I'm possessed because I'm updating faster than I make my dissertations. T_T I'm going to warn you, guys. Boring chapter ahead. But this is still necessary so please bear with me. :) Thank you Property of Eriol, Annonymous Amethyst and my former teammate, lu for the reviews. Enjoy, guys. :)
Act 19, Winter
Tomoyo still went to work the next day but this time it was Yukito who drove her downtown. His master was suddenly off the weather, coughing all morning that he could barely lay a finger on the piano without the occasional spasm.
"Is Hiiragizawa-san alright?" The dark-haired young woman asked, wondering if Sakura was referring to Eriol when she talked about the cousin with a lung disease. The bespectacled pianist seemed seriously sick when they left the house.
There was one more curb before they finally arrived in front of the town library.
"Kinomoto-sensei is coming home tonight and Akizuki-san will be with him. They will take care of the young master. Do not worry about it, Daidōji-dono." The servant just smiled at her before they made a stop.
"I apologize for the trouble again, Yukito-san." Her embarrassment was obvious in her voice as she hunched to him.
He merely waved off her apology again with another simple smile before driving back to the house.
It was only when the car disappeared around the bend did Tomoyo realize that Yukito had not given a straight answer to her question.
What the hell was wrong with him? He was supposed to be recovering from the last attack and not going through a retrograde condition.
The pianist heaved a lungful of air, trying to control the persistent pain in his chest. It hardly relieved him though.
He removed the annoying glasses despite the appeal of his eyes for clearer vision.
Never mind if he could barely make out the following bars of the next movement of this complicated piano piece because he had it memorized anyway. Long fingers ran across unkempt ebony strands. The palm of his hand had been too clammy as he felt his own forehead.
Too warm to be normal.
He hadn't ceased coughing and now he was coming down with a fever. It was just what he needed when he had barely three weeks to practice for the competition. Terada was going to be really disappointed. Just like how Clow Reed was with him.
He was having a dream, that one that wouldn't want him to wake up until he was completely spent, and that same one that he didn't want to be in.
"Eriol?"
He really shouldn't be in his six year old body.
"Mother?"
The cloudy mist dissolved quickly. A few heartbeats later a picture of an elegant room came into focus, and the vision of a very familiar woman floated before him.
He always thought she was exceptionally beautiful in that dress, the shade of the chiffon matching the green of her eyes.
The boy willed his body to rise but realized that he couldn't. He was in his bed again, frail and sick with the disease.
"Why do you look so sad, Mother?" His mother had smiled but he could read the sadness in her fair face even if he was only a child.
"Nadeshiko..." She might as well have tears in her eyes when she mentioned her cousin's name.
"Is Auntie still in the hospital?"
Her long, straight hair moved with her when she shook her head.
"No, Eriol. She...she died this morning."
"Is it going to happen to me, too, Mother?" It was the most innocent, heart-breaking question a child could ever ask. There was no fear in his voice because he didn't understand what death was supposed to mean. He shouldn't even have this disease.
This graceful, lithe woman with the kindest eyes and the softest voice gently enclosed all of the little boy's fragile form.
"I am not going to allow it, my darling. Mother won't allow it."
The warmth she radiated was so real that Eriol never realized he was only being held by a ghost of the past.
"The weather report says there's going to be a blizzard in Fukuoka tonight and I want to have the library closed before it even starts snowing," her superior announced to the only employees in the building. "Blizzard in Fukuoka, that would be a sight to watch. It shouldn't even snow here to begin with."
It was a relief that the old man was dismissing them already because Tomoyo couldn't help the nagging feeling she had all morning. Perhaps it had something to do with her cryptic conversation with Yukito, she wasn't really certain but she just had to get back to the manor as soon as possible.
They found him in his room, barely able to make it to his bed with only half of his body sprawled on top of the sheets. It looked like he had collapsed as he tried to get himself to rest.
"He is very warm," Tomoyo worriedly stated, carefully touching Eriol's flushed cheeks with both hands when he was finally settled comfortably on the bed. "He is burning, Yukito-san."
Yukito looked guilty as he fought to keep an even face. He had already been instructed by Tōya himself to keep the young master in bed if he got sick again. The servant had tried but Eriol had also insisted that he could handle it.
"I had given him his medicine right before we left. It seems like it worked because he's stopped wheezing. We just need to bring his temperature down for now."
By the time the servant came with a cold compress, Eriol was almost gasping for air but it appeared as if it was an after effect of crying.
"I have to check when exactly the doctor is coming home and maybe ask him if it's best to bring Eriol-sama to the hospital."
Tomoyo nodded once before averting her attention to the resting man.
Eriol stirred once, eyes fluttering briefly before he incoherently moaned a few words.
"Is there something you want me to get you, Hiiragizawa-san?" She was almost whispering the question, afraid that she may startle him if she spoke any louder.
The young man ceased the little actions instantly then looked right at her.
"I am scared," he said in a flimsy, hoarse note that Tomoyo couldn't ignore.
He was suddenly speaking in English after all, accent thick and undeniably British. Eriol didn't make anymore movements as he lain hauntingly still, his breathing shallow.
"Scared of what?"
She was already leaning really close at this, straining to hear. Her pulse was probably louder in her ears.
"Dying."
The former heiress couldn't help but flinch at his reply, eyes widening in horror.
"You are not dying, Hiiragizawa-san!" She sounded terrified of the possibility as she practically choked at her own stern rejoinder.
Eriol was still staring straight at her face as if testing her but only then she figured that he wasn't seeing her at all. He probably didn't even recognize who she was. There was a glazed effect in those azure eyes that belied his delusional state. However, his words still undoubtedly reflected his subconscious thoughts.
How could you have these horrible thoughts, Hiiragizawa-san?
"Rest, onegai," the girl ultimately pleaded as she pretended to fuss on the insignificant creases of his patterned mattress. Despite of her anxious hands she managed to bring the thick blanket to the senpai's chest. "We want you to get better. You don't want to worry Sakura-chan or Kinomoto-sensei, do you?"
Her speech was back to Japanese, easing Eriol to either wake up from this daze or fall to a restful sleep. He had finally closed his eyes at her gentle coaxing, relaxing at last as if her words were the only cure to his delusional state of mind.
Her fingers bravely swept those bangs away from his handsome face before she methodically fixed a compress on his forehead.
"You are going to be fine. I promise," Tomoyo whispered brokenly. It seemed as if she was the one who needed convincing.
This peaceful look suited him more than the disturbing calmness from just a few minutes ago, and she could stare at this unguarded condition forever.
"Don't go away, Daidōji-san," he mumbled one more time just when she was convinced he had finally fallen asleep.
She blinked, bemused again.
Had he known who was with him after all?
The bed sank a little to the side where she had quietly set herself. Eriol lifted an unsteady hand which Tomoyo simply caught, trapping it between her own. This aching display of frailty touched something in her but she ignored the uncomfortable flutter in her stomach.
"Hitori ja nai."
Quick notes:
onegai - "Please."
hitori ja nai - "You are not alone."
