Flowers From Above
Chapter Nine
I wasn't there when Akihiko woke up.
Instead I was brought back to heaven where I was supposed to be and remained watching him from above. Painfully I saw him stir as he awoke then began vomiting at his side where I'd been. And suddenly the nurses came rushing in immediately to attend to him.
They patted him and encouraged him to get it out of his system when one of them ran out the room then came back in again with a glass of ice cool water plus a mop and bucket.
Akihiko stayed in hospital for another few days until he was released on watch. In that time his editor Aikawa visited him and when she did he'd tell something no one else believed that could be possible.
"I felt Misaki" He said blankly.
"Sensei" She lectured. "Would you like another drink?"
"It was as if he was right beside me,"
"Yes, yes, do you want water or maybe-"
"I could feel him."
I knew he wasn't a cold man. He made out like he was protecting his hard shell and keeping himself locked away from others like a hermit. But it was gradually shattering, bit by bit and that was the moment he finally broke.
Akihiko hung his head with a hand covering most of his face, shoulders quivered and not a single sound came from him.
He was so very fragile.
The only thing Aikawa could do was to wrap her arms around his shaking frame and hold him as he cried.
When we first met Akihiko had told me he hadn't cried in front of anyone since the day he was born. And here he was crying before his editor.
I wasn't sure but maybe this was the start of something.
Not a broken man, but a new man perhaps?
The hermit was finally letting go of it's shell.
However my brother didn't visit Akihiko and he didn't let Manami either. When she bought a bouquet of bright pink roses my brother furiously shoved them into the bin.
Again they argued until either of them couldn't bare to stand in the same room. Manami ran into their bedroom to quietly cry and Takahiro stormed out their apartment.
After a couple of months they two were so close to parting separate ways but they didn't. Then one evening without a word Takahiro left, he slipped out before six taking his passport and a bag. But he did have the decency to leave her a note which simply stated "I'll be back."
Manami woke to finding it at her bedside she must of read it over a hundred times to finally get the message into her head.
"But when?" She muttered.
She rang him non-stop but my brother never answered.
He was already gone.
Okay this is my last update now until I come back in two weeks time from my holiday (I'm so excited I'm peeing myself!)
Thank you so much for the reviews they were as fab as always ! Please leave more for me, okay?
Until next time,
Tah!
TB