"See I been traveling, been traveling forever,
But now that I found a home, feels like I'm in heaven.
See I been traveling, been traveling forever,
But now that I'm home, feels like I'm in heaven."
The Traveling Song by Will I Am
VII
"…So is my wrist broken or what?" Kisara said, rudely interrupting Dr. Yamato as he was explaining the x-rays he was holding up. She felt bad for being rude but after sitting in a hospital room for almost two and a half hours with Seto fighting with other doctors and nurses left and right, her patience had run thin. Kisara was tired and in pain… though the wrist brace Dr. Yamato had put on her certainly helped.
"No, your wrist isn't broken but it is fractured. Fractured bones aren't as serious as broken bones but you are going to have to wear that brace for a couple of weeks until it fully heals," Dr. Yamato stated, putting the x-rays down and turning to face her, "There is also some medication I can provide to help with the pain along with the brace… and due to the urgency Seto put on making sure I looked you over, insurance forms were never filled out. Do you know your insurance situation?"
Kisara eyes widened. "I'm not currently aware of my insurance situation… you see, I just moved here and I haven't exactly had the chance to figure that all out yet."
"That's understandable. I'm sure, though, there's someone in your family you can call to find out." Kisara looked to the side.
"I live with my aunt but I doubt she'll pick up my calls. She's very busy." Seto stood up from where he was sitting and walked over to Dr. Yamato.
"Dr. Yamato, how about I just pay for everything Kisara needs for now. It'll take less time for both of us if we do it that way. What do you say you do this one favor for me?" Kisara turned to Seto. Now Seto was paying for her medical expenses? She wasn't sure she felt comfortable with that while Dr. Yamato seemed to be completely fine with Seto's proposition.
"That's fine by me," Dr. Yamato picked up his chart and prepared to leave, but Seto held him back.
"I just have one more question for you. Kisara is actually my assistant and I was wondering if she would still be able to work for me while her wrist is healing."
"I'm thinking she should be fine. I'm going to assume Kisara is right-handed and since it's her left wrist that is injured, she should be able to work. I would advise she not do anything that exerts too much energy because if she does try to do too much, she won't make a lot of progress." Kisara was getting more and more frustrated with each passing second. Seto was talking about her as if she was his kid instead of his seventeen year old peer. It was then that Seto turned to Kisara.
"So maybe you should take a couple weeks off, then. I don't want you hurting yourself more than you already have." That was it. Kisara got up from where she was sitting.
"Look Seto, I really appreciate you taking me here and getting a doctor to look at me but I'm able to make my own decisions and take care of myself, I'm not a little girl. I don't need your sympathy," Kisara spat, "Or your money."
"I never said you were a little girl, I'm only trying to be rational about your condition. You heard what Dr. Yamato said, if you work too hard, you'll get worse. Just accept my help now and you can pay me back later."
"I told you, I don't need your help!" Kisara yelled, her hands were beginning to shake from the rage. Kisara didn't need to be rescued. Just because he was Seto Kaiba didn't mean she was powerless to look out for herself. She didn't need his help in the first place.
"Well, I'm not asking to help you, am I? So just shut up and calm down."
"You know what? Never mind. I quit," Kisara un-tied the brace from her wrist, "I don't know who you think you are, but I didn't become your assistant so you could parent me and tell me you know what's best." Seto could feel his patience slipping away with each passing word in the conversation. She was being astonishingly difficult about this.
"I think I'm your boss and you're acting ridiculous!"
"Oh yeah? Well, you can screw off and keep your stupid brace too!" Kisara threw the brace right into Seto's face. She twisted around to storm out of the room, slamming her left wrist right against of the opened door as she tried to leave the room. Kisara yelled as she felt a jolt of pain in her wrist. She sank down to the floor and rested her injured wrist on her knees.
Kisara bent her head and let her hair fall in front of her face. Hot tears began streaming down her face and she could not stop them. She brought her right hand up to her face and began to cry freely. She felt so many things… she was disappointed, embarrassed, ashamed… hurting her wrist, sitting on the floor of the hospital room, crying in front of her boss, the list could go on and on. The very thought made her cry even more.
"I want to go home," Seto heard Kisara whisper between tears and it was then that he realized there had to be more to her reaction than just the pain, a lot more. He said nothing, bringing over the brace she had tossed away and offering it to her as a sign of kindness and comfort. Kisara was silent as she took it from his hand. Seto wasn't sure what else to do… he cursed himself for not knowing more about handling interpersonal affairs. All he could do was back away and say nothing.
"…And then she just sat there crying for a while. I had no idea what to do so I didn't try to talk to her. Thankfully Dr. Yamato showed up and did all the talking for me. She was quiet for the whole ride home except when we got to her apartment where she thanked me. I wanted to ask her if I would be seeing her at the office tomorrow but I didn't. I figured she was too emotional to know or… something." Seto turned his head to see if Mokuba was even still listening. He had guessed that Mokuba had fell asleep right there on the couch after hearing him yap away about his day but instead, Mokuba looked positively enthralled by the conversation.
"I can't believe you made Kisara cry!"
"I didn't make her cry! Obviously there's something else going on that is upsetting her… and making her upset with me," Seto crossed his arms and rolled his eyes. "How the hell am I expected to have an assistant who's having emotional break downs left and right?" Mokuba furrowed his brow.
"Hey now, Nii-sama, don't be a jerk about it… you know that Kisara's a good assistant!"
"I do know that! And I'd like to keep her around but she won't let me help her. I act considerate for a change and then suddenly I'm the bad guy. How does that make sense?" Mokuba shook his head as if to suggest that he knew all the answers.
"Nii-sama, the best way to help Kisara is by going to work tomorrow and acting like nothing happened." Seto raised an eyebrow.
"Excuse me?"
"You heard what I said and you heard what Kisara said too. She doesn't want you to help her. She wants you to let her handle it on her own."
"Why would I do that if she's clearly distressed?" Mokuba sighed and stood in front of Seto.
"Do you remember when we lived in the orphanage together? When we first started living there, you told me you didn't want anyone knowing that our parents died. Instead, you wanted me to tell them that we were in the orphanage because we decided our parents weren't good enough to raise us and that we left them all on our own. Do you remember that?"
"Of course I remember that. I didn't want anyone feeling sorry for us or taking pity on us."
"That's right! And that's what's going on with Kisara. She doesn't want your pity or your money or any of that… she just wants to be treated like a normal person because, like you, she associates being helped with being weak," Mokuba paused for a moment and added, "Which is something you both should probably go to therapy for some day but that's another part of the story."
Seto didn't even hear the last thing Mokuba said as he started nodding his head. It all became clear to him in that moment. It was obvious why Kisara had reacted the way she did… she didn't want to appear weak. She had even been willing to quit her job just to protect her dignity and her pride. It was strange to be retrospective because in doing so, he had become introspective and saw himself in Kisara's reactions.
It was then that Seto knew exactly what he had to do the next day at work. At four o'clock sharp, Seto entered his office to find Kisara was already there, sitting at her desk, typing away at her computer in the corner. Kisara looked up and immediately looked down when she saw it was Seto who had come into the room. They were completely silent as Seto was placing his things down and turning on his computer.
"Kisara." Kisara stopped what she was doing and looked up. Seto beckoned her to come over to his desk and Kisara did as she was asked.
"Yes Mr. Kaiba?" Seto handed her an enormous pile of various papers, folders, and files into her arms.
"I need you to e-mail me all my appointments I have this morning, call up all the employees on a list I have in there, tell them to send me their reports for the week, and organize the rest of that mess in my file cabinet for me within the next two hours." Kisara was surprised. She hadn't expected this but said nothing about it. She turned to go back to her desk.
"Oh and Kisara, one last thing," Seto said, causing Kisara to turn back around, "That wrist brace you have on? You're going to pay me back in full for it. I'll be taking it out of your pay check. Not right now but definitely within the next couple of months after you're more settled. Got it?" Kisara nodded and turned back around.
"Thank you," Kisara said quietly before walking back to her desk. Nothing more was said on the subject for the rest of the work day and both of them preferred it that way.
It was that same night, many hours since Kisara had returned home from work, that she sat in front of the phone and dialed in the familiar number. As she expected, the phone went straight to voicemail. She took a deep breath right before hearing the beep.
"Hey Mom and Dad, this is Kisara. I know you guys are probably at work right now but I just thought I'd leave you guys a message saying 'hello.' I've gotten all your messages and I'm sorry I haven't called you guys until now, but it's been a crazy couple of days. I won't fill you in on details but I just wanted to let you guys know that I'm okay and I love you and miss you two. I promise we'll talk soon." Kisara hung up the phone quickly, tears streaming down her face.
This time there was no shame or guilt that followed what had become her daily crying session because this time she knew for sure she was going to be okay. The way Seto had treated her at the office that day had given her the confidence to believe she was capable of surviving in another country without her family's support. Kisara would rather die than have someone pity her but she had never been a hundred percent sure she would be able to follow through with the decision she made to move away.
After today, though… she knew she was going to be alright. She knew there was a purpose for her here in Japan. Even if she was completely alone and even if she wasn't sure what purpose she served, she was happy just knowing that someday Japan would be her home. Knowing that was enough to assure Kisara that everything would be okay in the end.
A/N: And there ends the seventh chapter of "For Love's Sake"! A bit of a surprise for some of you since it's only been eleven days since I last updated. I felt extremely inspired so I was able to write up this chapter a lot quicker than I thought and I'm very content with how it all ended up. Thanks again for reading you guys and hope you enjoyed the update. Oh and today is my Granny King's birthday! So this chapter is dedicated to her with love.