Amnesia Chapter 31:

Laughter Isn't Always the Best Medicine

Ichigo went back to Kisshu, who was still awake. "Kisshu, you should get some rest, you've been up for a while now," Ichigo said.

"I guess I am kind of tired," Kisshu said. "But I don't think I can sleep if I'm thinking about Taruto and Pudding tormenting Pai."

Ichigo came over and sat down next to him. "Sounds like you need something calming," she said, and started rubbing behind his ear. To her surprise, Kisshu almost immediately started to relax. A few minutes later he was sound asleep, and Ichigo switched from rubbing his ear to stroking his hair again. It was calming to her as well, and she smiled as she watched Kisshu sleep.

About an hour later, Ichigo was starting to get sleepy too. Nevertheless, she kept stroking Kisshu's hair. It really seemed to calm him down, and she was glad the ear rubbing thing worked too. She knew Kisshu needed rest, so she was relieved that it had been so easy to calm him down.

Another hour passed before Ichigo started to doze off too. This calm was quite suddenly broken when both Kisshu and Ichigo were woken up by someone screaming, "AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRR RGGGGGHHH!"

Ichigo sat bolt upright, and Kisshu woke up with a start. "What the hell was THAT!?" he asked.

"Beats me," Ichigo said. "I'll go have a look."

Before she could get up, though, Taruto teleported into the room with Pudding, and said, "HIDE US!"

"Why?" Ichigo asked suspiciously.

"Pai's on a rampage!" Taruto said.

"Fine… Get under the bed," Ichigo said.

Taruto and Pudding wasted no time in obeying. Just in time too, as Pai burst through the door, and yelled, "WHERE ARE THEY!?"

"Where are who, and why are you yelling?" Kisshu asked. "You woke us up!"

Pai seemed to calm down a bit at that, and said, "Pudding and Taruto are driving me insane! I'm sorry I woke you up, are you okay?"

"We're fine, but I thought you already were insane, so how can the little monkeys be driving you insane?" Kisshu asked.

"I. Am. NOT. Insane!" Pai yelled.

"You're yelling again," Ichigo said. "Pudding and Taruto aren't here, so can we go back to sleep?"

"Uh… sure," Pai said. "Ichigo, you're not sick, are you?"

"No, I just got sleepy stroking Kisshu's hair, and besides, cats need a lot of sleep," Ichigo said.

"Fine… I'll go look elsewhere," Pai said, then teleported out. Ichigo got up and closed the door, then sighed. "Pudding, Taruto, you can come out now," she said.

The two troublemakers crawled out from under the bed, and Taruto said, "Thanks, Ichigo. Pai was really steamed when we told him that he should be in an insane asylum with a straitjacket."

Ichigo and Kisshu burst out laughing. "Straitjacket?" Ichigo asked, giggling. "Boy, that's a pretty funny image."

Kisshu was laughing too hard to speak, and Ichigo said, "So what else did you tell him?"

"We told him to let us know when he started seeing imaginary squirrels, and he said something about 'there are no squirrels on this planet'," Taruto said.

"Then Pudding told him that he was foaming at the mouth, na no da!" Pudding said. "And he actually touched his mouth to see if Pudding was right!"

"I told him that he had a duck on his head," Taruto said. "He tried to strangle me, but Pudding told him that Lettuce was coming. Boy, you wouldn't believe how fast he got off me."

"Then Pudding and Taru-Taru told Pai-oniisan that Lettuce-oneechan was a shapeshifter, and could eat him if she wanted to," Pudding said. "He didn't believe us, na no da."

"I told him to let us know when he smelled chocolate, and he said, "Why?" I told him it was because we wanted to see if he'd drool like he did over that picture of Lettuce," Taruto said. "Then it looked like he was going to explode, but Pudding pulled the 'Lettuce is coming' prank again, and he actually fell for it."

"Pudding told Pai-oniisan that he was wearing his shirt on backwards, and he fell for it, na no da," Pudding said.

"I told him that insane people often have purple hair," Taruto said. "Then I told him that since he was born with purple hair, it was only a matter of time till he totally went off the deep end. He said he didn't believe me, and I told him that it was in his notes that I stole, and he actually fell for it!"

"Pudding and Taru-Taru laughed so hard when he looked panicked, na no da," Pudding said. "The look on his face was hilarious!"

"Then we got the idea to start telling insane asylum stories," Taruto said. "So we spent about half an hour telling Pai horror stories, and he got so nervous- until we told him he needed a straitjacket, and he blew up."

Ichigo was now laughing so hard she couldn't sit up straight, and Kisshu was laughing too hard to breathe. Taruto and Pudding started to laugh too, but stopped when Kisshu started gasping for air instead of laughing. Ichigo immediately stopped laughing and helped Kisshu sit up, worried. "Kisshu, what's wrong?" she asked.

Kisshu couldn't speak, and Ichigo told Taruto, "Go get Maya, Kisshu needs help." Taruto nodded and teleported out. A minute later he returned with Maya, who immediately went to Kisshu and put a hand on his chest. Her hand began to glow, and Kisshu's breathing started to return to normal. Finally Maya took her hand away, and said, "What happened?"

"I think I was laughing too hard," Kisshu said a bit breathlessly.

"That could be," Maya said. "Try not to get so worked up, it's not good for you in your current condition."

"Sorry," Kisshu said. "I'm tired again."

Ichigo helped him lie back down, and said, "Get some more sleep, it'll help." She smoothed his hair back and started stroking it, which put Kisshu to sleep pretty quickly.

Maya sighed and said softly, "What happened to make him laugh so hard?"

"Pudding and Taruto were telling us what they did to Pai," Ichigo said softly.

Maya turned and looked at the two, who were looking guilty. "Why were you two in here in the first place?" she asked. "You know Kisshu needs to rest."

"We were hiding from Pai," Taruto said. "He exploded a while ago, and we needed to get away before he killed us. Ichigo said she'd let us hide under the bed, and when Pai was gone, she asked what we had done to make him that mad."

"I heard Pai screaming earlier," Maya commented. "I take it he was screaming at you?"

"Yeah," Taruto said.

Maya sighed and said, "I think you should come back to my room or your own, since Kisshu's sleeping."

"We'll come to your room, Pai won't kill us when you're there," Taruto said. He teleported out with Pudding. Maya sighed, and came over to the bed. She placed a hand on Kisshu's chest, and closed her eyes. A minute later, she sighed and said, "He's still pretty weak. I'll be in and out, but if something happens, please come get me."

"I will," Ichigo said. Maya nodded and teleported out. Ichigo continued stroking Kisshu's hair, and eventually went to sleep, her hand still on Kisshu's head.

The next morning, Kisshu woke up before Ichigo, and noticed her hand on his head. He assumed she had fallen asleep playing with his hair. As he woke up further, he realized he was feeling stronger than yesterday. He decided to try sitting up, so he pushed himself up on his elbows, then sat up. Soon he realized it was tiring him out though, so he laid back down. This is irritating, he thought. At this rate, I'll be unable to go to the confrontation with the Kuritara, and Haroshi-sama won't have much of a chance. I wish I could speed up the healing process. Maybe I should talk to Maya. Kisshu sighed, realizing he was really tired out again. He closed his eyes, and went back to sleep.

Ichigo woke up a while later, and noticed Kisshu was still sleeping. He didn't look very happy though, so she started rubbing behind his ear again. Almost immediately, his face relaxed, and he leaned into her hand.

Maya walked in a few minutes later, and asked, "How is he?"

"Still sleeping," Ichigo said.

Maya came over and put her hand on his chest again, then said, "It feels like he got a little stronger, but not much. I'll go get something for him to eat, part of the weakness is from not eating since he fell into a coma. Can you try to wake him up?"

"Sure," Ichigo said. Maya teleported out as Ichigo stopped rubbing Kisshu's ear and said softly, "Kisshu, wake up." She shook him lightly, and he started to stir. Ichigo gently shook him again, and he opened his eyes sleepily. "What's up?" he asked, yawning.

"Maya's getting some food for you," Ichigo said. "She says it'll help you get your strength back."

Maya teleported in with a bowl of soup, and said, "I brought some soup, you should have some, Kisshu."

"Okay, thanks," Kisshu said. "I tried sitting up earlier, but it made me tired, so I went back to sleep."

"I guess you shouldn't be sitting up yet, then," Maya said. She handed the bowl and a spoon to Ichigo, who said, "Kisshu, open up."

Kisshu sighed, but obeyed, and Ichigo started feeding him the soup. A while later, he was done, and Ichigo handed the bowl and spoon back to Maya. Kisshu was looking sleepy again, and Maya said, "Go back to sleep, Kisshu. You need to rest."

Kisshu fell back to sleep, and Ichigo started stroking his hair again. Maya teleported out, and Ichigo continued stroking Kisshu's hair. It seemed to help him stay asleep. So for the next few hours, she stroked Kisshu's hair, watching him sleep with a small smile.

All fluff, I know. I think Kisshu's going to get better next chapter. Review!