A/N well here's the next chapter. thanks for reviewing Wulf 4 Life and a special thanks to my beta Mari Ferolla =]
Ch5
Nadeshiko stood there staring at where the monster once stood, her mind still reeling from the battle. The sound of a pained groan snapped her back to reality and she turned to Aoki, who was struggling to stand. He was still bleeding from his chest wound and his moving around was not helping. Nadeshiko ran to him and caught him before he fell.
"Stop, you need to rest. I have to dress your wounds or they'll get worse." She tried to get him to lie back down but he wouldn't listen to her.
"Mi-Midori," he reached out to his fallen sibling. Nadeshiko looked to her friend her eyes went wide when she saw her broken form unmoving on the ground. She forced Aoki to sit down, even though in his condition it was a bit difficult, and went over to her other friend.
Nadeshiko stared down at the lifeless form for what seemed like an eternity before everything caught up to her and she slid down to the floor. She could barely hear the cries of Aoki as her mind shut down. Her best friend was dead. The Hollow had pierced her straight through the heart. Somewhere inside her, Nadeshiko felt this was all her fault. she could feel the sting of the tears she wanted to cry but she couldn't for some reason let them fall.
When Nadeshiko froze over his sister's body, Aoki knew that his sister had not survived the attack. He let the darkness consume him as he fell unconscious.
'I couldn't protect her. I was the one with the powers but they were useless, no I'm useless.' Nadeshiko couldn't help the thoughts that crossed her mind. She felt powerless as she sat there looking at her friend but not really seeing her. Nadeshiko felt a familiar pain and her chest began to constrict with the feelings of grief. Darkness crept into the corner of her eyes and would have swallowed her had she not heard the familiar voice.
"Don't start blaming yourself now." It was almost as if Nadeshiko could hear the violet haired girl scolding her as she often had in the past. "Now you go and help out that idiot brother of mine." Nadeshiko snapped back from her thoughts, Aoki was still injured and needed help. She looked back to the unconscious boy before searching through the rubble of their destroyed home. Her mind wandered for a moment, thanking the weather for it being a mild night. Nadeshiko moved the broken boards aside, uncaring of the jagged ends and new scratches she received from them focusing all her attention on her task to block out the grief she felt over Midori
She searched through the rubble for what seemed like hours, but was more like ten minutes, before Nadeshiko found something she could use to wrap Aoki's wounds. She was able to find one of their old blankets and Nadeshiko began to tear it into strips. She laid them out next to Aoki. When Nadeshiko was done ripping the blanket she quickly dressed his wounds.
Nadeshiko stood back when she was done and looked at her work. It wasn't pretty but it would do until she stole some real bandages and fetched some water to properly clean his injuries. Without a thought of her own wounds, Nadeshiko went into the village, being careful to stick to the shadows, because, even though it was night, the danger of being caught was still high.
~0~0~0~
It took her longer to steal the supplies than she had anticipated. She was not the only thief about that night and the other one had gotten himself caught. So the villagers were wary and ready for another attack. She was in a hurry but not stupid and luckily she had kept her cool since Midori's voice had yelled at her. She wasn't sure if that was a hallucination or not, but Nadeshiko knew she had to help Aoki and she couldn't do that while being locked up. Nadeshiko just hoped that Aoki did not wake up yet with his dead sister and she herself being gone. Nadeshiko had one more stop to make and that was by the river. She had picked up a bucket in the village. The sun was almost up and she would be home soon so she just moved on and did not think about what would happen when Aoki woke up.
It didn't take Nadeshiko long to get home after she had gotten the water and the sun was just rising. She found Aoki where she had left him and let out a breath she did not realize she had been holding. She put the bucket of water, bandages, and food she had stolen down and began taking off the makeshift bandages she had covered him with earlier, careful not to reopen the closing wounds. She then proceeded to clean the wounds with the water and rewrap them with the clean bandages she had brought back. His injuries were bad but he would survive.
After she finished with her friend she looked over herself. She had minor injuries, a few cuts and bruises. The scratch marks on her arm were the worst of her injuries. She couldn't help but feel guilty about that. Her friends were hurt so much more than she was.
~0~0~0~
Aoki didn't speak to her when he first woke up later that day. Nadeshiko was a bit relieved that she did not have to tell him his sister's fate but upset that he had refused to talk to her at first. She had lost one of her only friends and being ignored by the other hurt. They buried Midori in silence, the day too cheerful for the occasion. Nadeshiko felt that a rainy dreary day would be more appropriate than the sunny cloudless one it turned out to be. Aoki had used two of the broken boards from the house the make a cross to mark Midori's grave. Nadeshiko felt the heat of the tears she had held back since the moment she knew Midori was no longer alive. They left wet trails down her face.
Nadeshiko couldn't help but t think back to all the good times she had with Midori, even though it was painful. She remembered the first day when she was confused and knew nothing. Midori was willing to help her a stranger and call her family. Nadeshiko couldn't remember ever being happier. She didn't even mind becoming a thief to survive because each time they stole was just another new adventure with her friends.
She couldn't count how many times they had fallen asleep under the stars instead of in their home because Nadeshiko liked to stare up at the night sky, it was the only thing that was familiar to her. She had showed them many constellations and they had even made up some of their own. Her silent tears were now rivers running down her face. They stood their in silence for a while.
"I'm sorry." Nadeshiko just felt like she had to say it. She didn't like the silence of her friend. He hadn't even cried, though she herself felt like she had no more tears left in her. Even his eyes had a hollow look to them.
"Sorry?" There was a bitter edge to his question the made her flinch.
"Aoki." She reached out to touch him, but he stepped back.
"I want you to leave." He said the word without any emotion at all. Nadeshiko stood there in shock as her friend walked away.
She stayed for a few days too numb to really do anything, but Aoki didn't return. A part of her wanted to go and look for him but something held her back. Nadeshiko packed the few supplies she had and left her wrecked home the only place she really knew with a heavy heart. She would have to steal to survive, as usual, but this time she had no one to help, nor a home to go back to. For the first time since the day she came, here she was alone again. The weather began to match her mood as the sky darkened with gray clouds covering the sun and rain started falling. She didn't bother looking back it would have been too painful.
A/N: hope you enjoyed this chapter, as always please review.