Silver Umbrellas

Thirty-Four-- Ohana

She'd been there a second ago, hadn't she?

Then... why were the blankets empty next to him? 

Yao tried to sit up, tried to focus his eyes and see through the thick fog fever had forced onto him, but it was useless to try. All it did was make his weak muscles protest and give up immediately. 

His throat... so dry.

His lungs... engulfed in flames.

His head... spinning round and round without pause.

His ears... stuffed with cotton.

It was impossible to say how much time passed before anything happened, but the passage of time didn't really matter as much when it was hard enough to draw breath without losing it an instant later by coughing. Sounds met his ears from someplace above the water-- he was underneath, unable to breathe and just floating there in the stillness. It was both too hot and too cold. Where was Kiku? Was he here? 'I want Kiku...'

Then someone was calling his name, and a hand on his arm dragged him up, up, up-- his head was above the water! Except now something was in his mouth, something wet and weird-tasting. He tried to spit it out, but he couldn't. It went down his throat, and a warm feeling started to spread outward from his chest. What was going on?

That hand was still on his arm, but then it moved and was on his back, keeping him from falling back. Yao twisted, trying to get away from it, and was stopped by another hand. 

"Yao, it's okay," someone familiar said. "You're going to be alright. Hey, can you look at me?"

Well, maybe that was what he said. He might have said something completely different, but Yao couldn't tell. Nothing seemed to take out the cotton, the earplugs, whatever it was making it hard to hear.

A magic spell was what it took, apparently. Someone farther away, someone who didn't own the hands, spoke up quietly but did her best to project her voice. "Nǐ méishì, Yao. Nǐ méishì."

You're okay, Yao. You're okay.

And he believed her. The "spell" had worked; he heard and understood. That warmth in his chest was starting to spread farther and farther, taking away some of the pain in his lungs and blowing away a little bit of the fog. 

Finland nodded appreciatively when China stopped struggling and seemed to register Alice's words. "Okay, we managed to get here in time. I'll be right back." To Lili's surprise, he opened the front door and stepped out without an umbrella or dome over his head; her warning cry was cut short when nothing happened to him at all.

"The most powerful being in the world, remember?" he reminded her, and with a wave of his hand a giant sleigh appeared in front of the shack. The sleigh was red with gold trim, the seats plentiful enough to easily seat fifteen people. All around the shack, the rain no longer fell. Tino had used magic to actually put a stop to the weather around them for a little while! "You can come out here now, if you want."

"Mein Gott..." Liechtenstein whispered as she carried Alice through the door and outside. "Tino, I can't... I can't believe it!"

He couldn't help but laugh a little bit. Maybe that was a side effect of being Santa Clause. "I should hope you believe. The more you believe, the faster we'll fly."

Two reindeer were standing in front of the sleigh; one looked around boredly while the other was bending down in search of any grass to eat, of which there was none whatsoever. Bells on their harnesses rattled merrily, especially when they shuffled their stances around and tossed back their heads impatiently.