Chapter 23: The Pendulum Swings

"Why do you refer to yourself as "Fuuko" instead of saying 'I' or 'me'? You know, pronouns?"

I held Fu-chan from behind, with my arms around her waist and my hands on her stomach as she leaned back against me while working on her blanket. It was hard to do while sitting in desk chairs, but we managed it. The other girls had long since cleared out, leaving just the two of us in the warmth of the afternoon sun. A nice break from the stress of late.

Fuuko paused her sewing and sighed. The party hat on her head somewhat offset the seriousness of her expression.

After about a minute, she decided: "Fuuko doesn't know."

I mulled over her answer for a minute. "Hey, Fuuko?"

"Fu-chan," she corrected with a blush.

"Huh?" Up to this point I inwardly thought of her as 'Fu-chan', but had been calling her 'Fuuko' out of respect for her space. "All right, then; Fu-chan?"

"Never mind; Fuuko," she corrected again, her face even redder.

I chuckled softly. "Could I get off of this merry-go-round? I have a question for you, whatever you want to be called."

"Okay."

"They might sound stupid, but please treat them seriously, okay?"

"Okay."

"Do you consider yourself to be Fuuko?"

She paused in her sewing. "Yes."

"What about the girl lying in the hospital bed? Is she Fuuko, too?"

Fuuko's hands stopped working, and she seemed to be thinking hard. "Yes."

I wanted to carefully phrase my idea. Fuuko went back to work as I retreated into thought again.

"Fuuko? I think you refer to yourself by first name because your body is far away and you're…acknowledging the distance."

"Huh?"

"So, maybe when you recover, you'll start referring to yourself as 'I'. I mean, you're the same age as I am, and your sister never mentioned any problems with your learning ability, so you must have been able to use pronouns before the accident, right?"

"Done!" she cried out, standing and holding up her finished product to show me. She had created a blanket large enough for a large bed. Starfish filled the visible side of it, so many that the background color could barely be seen.

I nodded approvingly, putting the rest of my thoughts aside. "Looks good. And warm. You'll sleep well from now on, won't you?" I gave an impish grin. "Just don't look at the top of the blanket; I'd hate for you to be stuck in Eternal Bliss Mode."

She giggled; a rare treat. "Don't worry; Fuuko knows better now." Having been given a starfish while facing a clock, she finally accepted her tendency to 'space out' when admiring starfish. I was relieved; I'd hate for something bad to happen to her during one of her episodes, and I had even told her as much.

"But," she continued, "this isn't for Fuuko." She rose and walked over to me, folding the blanket and placing it on my lap. "It's for Tomoya-kun."

"Th-thank you." Truth be told, I still wasn't into starfish. But, she went to all the trouble to give me something that she had worked hard on and meant a lot to her so… "I'll take good care of it."

She smiled awkwardly while shifting her weight from foot to foot. "C-Can Fuuko have a reward for the hard w-work?"

I smiled broadly. "Sure."

I reached over and patted her head. She smiled blissfully, then abruptly stepped back, shaking her head. "F-Fuuko likes that, but was hoping for…for…"

I stared at her somewhat blankly. "For what?"

She glanced at me several times from under her eyelashes before stepping forward again, almost cautiously, avoiding my hand as I tried to pat her head again. "No."

I watched her silently as she moved even closer and leaned forward. Without warning, she darted her head toward mine. I reflexively closed my eyes and, at that moment, felt a soft pressure against my lips. My eyes flew open and, sure enough, she was kissing me!

I pulled my head back in surprise, but she followed, and I felt her hands on my shoulders and her lips still pressed to mine. Before I realized it, she was sitting in my lap and I was returning her expression of affection, my eyes closing and hands holding her waist.

The kiss ended with a gasp; Fuuko suddenly pulled away. I opened my eyes to see her sitting on the floor with an expression of surprise.

"Why are you so surprised?" I asked, still feeling a bit disoriented. "You're the one who… Fuuko, what's wrong?!"

Her eyes were open but unfocused. She rose unsteadily to her feet and backed away as she started breathing heavily with her hands against her chest.

I bolted from my chair. "Fuuko? Fuuko!" I reached out and took hold of her shoulders. "Fuuko! What is it?!"

Her panicked eyes focused on my face. "FUUKO'S-!"

She vanished.

My knees buckled, sending me to the floor. What had happened to her? She looked so afraid of something. I ran to the doorway and looked around quickly to see if anyone might have seen us kissing; that could have scared her off.

But the hallway was empty, as expected. School was out for the day, after all.

I stumbled back to the desk and fell into the seat. What could have scared her like that?

To my surprise, a voice sounded from the PA system; it never occurred to me that anyone would be at the school today. "Okazaki Tomoya-san, please report to the main office for a phone call. I repeat: Okazaki Tomoya-san, please report to the main office for a phone call. Thank you."

A chill ran down my spine; the call had to be more than just a coincidence. I grabbed the blanket and ran to the office.

"Okazaki-san?" a secretary asked while holding a receiver and a disapproving look; the school was technically closed, after all.

"Yes, ma'am." I gave an apologetic look to the secretary and took the receiver. "Hello? This is Okazaki."

"Tomoya-san?" came the agitated voice from the other end. The owner sounded out of breath.

"Kouko-san?"

"Yes, it's me. Can…Can you come to the hospital?"

"What's going on?"

"It's Fu-chan…"

My stomach slithered to my shoes. "What about her? Is she okay?!"

A long pause. I could hear a choked sob. My heart sank. "Kouko-san?!"

"She… She's asking for you."

I burst through the door to Room 225. "Fuuko?!"

"Tomoya-san!" I looked over to see Kouko-san rising from a nearby chair. "You're here!"

"Tomoya…" croaked a familiar voice from the bed. The mass of medical staff surrounding the bed was hard to miss.

I ran to the bed, pushed a doctor out of the way, and took her hand. "Fuuko…" I couldn't believe it! Her eyes were open! "You're back…."

She smiled weakly. "Hi, Weird Guy. I'm sorry if I worried you. I was surprised, myself."

"Are you okay? I mean, are you going to be okay? I mean-"

I felt a hand on my shoulder. "Excuse me…Okazaki-san, yes?" It was one of the doctors.

"That's me," I replied. Why was everything going so slowly? "Is she okay? Is she going to live?"

He chuckled kindly. "She's fine, and she will be fine, as far as we can tell." He looked over to her, and I reached out with the hand not already holding hers and started caressing her hair as she smiled weakly at me. "We still need to do some tests, and she'll need physical therapy, of course, since she's been immobile for so long, but otherwise…" He trailed off with a soft smile.

Fuuko was whole again. Fuuko was whole again! I brought her hand to my lips and kissed it over and over again. At some point, someone handed me a tissue, and I dabbed at the stream that flowed from my eyes. I looked to Fuuko to see a nurse dabbing at her face with another tissue. I quickly stopped her, took the tissue, and started wiping away Fuuko's tears myself, ignoring my own.

I felt a hand on my shoulder and turned to see Yuusuke-san. He looked directly into my eyes, serious expression as always, and nodded solemnly, masculine approval evident.

I smiled and nodded before turning back to Fuuko, pressing her hand against my cheek. "Welcome back, Fuuko."