My Sunshine

My Miserable Valentine's Day - Haru / Haru's Response - Iruka

Haru returned to the living room with clean towels in her hands when she found him unconscious on the floor.

"Iruka! Iruka!"

She shook him gently, trying to wake him up. She pulled his vomit covered body into hers as she took his ponytail out and cradled his head, keeping pressure on the back with a towel.

This was a terrible Valentine's Day... not that she had anything else to go off of. She went on a date with a man she had no interest in. She arrived home to find Iruka being shitty, only to tell her that he loved her. She was lost in the park in a snowstorm, like what the fuck? He fell finding her, she was covered in vomit and now he was bleeding and unconscious.

Why in the fuck couldn't one thing in her life be normal? Why couldn't she have gone to dinner with Iruka tonight? Why couldn't he have told her that he loved her over dessert at a decent restaurant, like in the romance novels? Part of her felt a little cheated by him for that.

She sighed deeply, talking to him although he was out cold.

"Come on, let's get you cleaned up and stitched up."

She couldn't move him by herself, so she settled with stripping his clothes off until he was down to his boxers: the only piece of clothing he had on that was not bloody. She placed the towel under his head as she got up, retrieving a basin of warm, soapy water and a clean washcloth, some bandages, and a needle and thread from the side table.

Sitting in front of the fire with him, she felt her skin burn, apparently coming back to life from the cold. The bleeding had mostly clotted. After cleaning the wound, she gently but quickly stitched the back of his head. 

Poor guy, she thought. He's going to feel like shit when he wakes up. 

When she was finished, she stretched the bandages out and wrapped his head neatly.  Unfortunately, she had enough experience to know what she was doing.

"There.  Much better."

Putting him on his back again, she pulled the waistband of his boxers down a little, peeking at what appeared to be a bruise on his side.  It was, and it was much worse along his hip bone and the top of his thigh.  She sighed.

"Well, there's nothing I can do about that.  I don;t even want to put ice on it since we were out in the cold for so long."

She went back to her room and grabbed her pink blanket that was in a pile on the bed, returning to him. She covered him with it and tucked in the sides.

"See?  I like you so much that I don't care if you bleed on my blanket.  Even though you were a jerk to me tonight."

She guessed that if he was a real jerk, he wouldn't have come out in the snow to find her.  Still, she was salty about the events of tonight.  She laid down next to him and spoke softly into his ear, even though she knew he couldn't hear her.

"You hurt my feelings, you know that, right?  You're my best friend, and you hid such an important secret from me.  That's why things have been different between us, isn't it?  You love me and I told you that you were my best friend.  But, I've never had a best friend, so it means a lot more to me than it does to other people.  You mean a lot more to me, Iruka.  I wish you would've done this differently.  Not in the middle of a heated arguement.  I don't hate you.   Not even a little bit."

She leaned in and gave him a small kiss on the cheek before getting up.  She quietly turned out the lights and returned to his side.  Grabbing her book from the coffee table, she leaned against the couch and started to read in the light of the hearth, waiting patiently for him to wake up.

***

Iruka woke on the living room floor, his head throbbing. The lights were off and he was tucked cozily under Haru's pink blanket.  The fire was still crackling in the hearth.  If he wasn't in so much pain, and hadn't felt so sick over her date with Kata, and extremely embarrassed, it would have been quite comfortable.

"Hey."

He looked over slowly to find Haru curled up against the couch beside him, reading a book.  She looked up, closing her book.

"How are you feeling?"

"Awful. And very embarrassed."

She gave him a small smile.

"It took seven stitches to close the back of your head. And your waist to your thigh is purple. You must've hit the ground hard."

"It didn't matter, I had to find you."

She sat next to him silently, which was uncomfortable.

"You're welcome to sleep in my bed, of course. I'll stay here on the floor. I don't think I can get up anyway."

His face was burning with embarrassment now. He shouldn't have let that thought slip. Closing his eyes, he wished this was all a nightmare. He whispered out loud to no one in particular.

"Can we please go back to before I said that?"

More silence. He wanted desperately to roll away from her; he couldn't bare to see the look of unrequited love on her face.  Instead, he closed his eyes.

"No."

He began to cry silently. He felt her warm hand on his bare shoulder.

"We can't because I'm in love with you, too."

He looked over at her, not sure if he had misheard her or if his concussion was distorting his reality.

"Really?"

"I do love you, but I'm still not happy with you right now. I certainly don't hate you.  Not even a little.  This was a miserable Valentine's Day. I deserve better than how you approached this."

"You deserve better than me-"

"Stop. Stop saying that."

"I encouraged you to go out with Kata because there are so many incredible people out there."

"I know. I go out with my friends, I go to work, I go to the market without you, and I talk to people. I live my life mostly normally now. I'm with you so much because I like being with you. You're my best friend and I love you. I'm not still here because I'm scared, or because I don't know any better. I'm still here because there's no one else I'd rather come home to."

She brushed her hand over his head gently, which was absolutely throbbing in pain.

"Come on, sit up and take some medicine.  I'm sure your head hurts.  Then get up on the couch with me. I'll keep you off the back of your head."

She helped him sit up and take a few pills with a cup of water she held for him.  Helping him to his feet shakily, she laid on the couch first, she pulled him gently on top of her.  He was shaking so hard that his teeth were chattering.  He wasn't sure if it was the trauma that had happened in the park or Haru's response to what he had said earlier.  She gently cradled his head against her shoulder, his face buried into the crook of her neck.  He felt her reach down, and then the blanket was thrown over his back.   She tucked in the sides and rubbed his back with gentle hands.

Even though he had ruined her Valentine's Day, he felt guilty that he was having his best one yet.