Cells Work, Love Doesn't (Cells at Work!)

01: Questions

"Hakkekkyū-san!" AE3803's face lit up at the sight of the neutrophil. "It's nice to see you again."

He looked back at her. "Sekkekkyū. Are you alright?"

She stared at the disembodied germ in front of her, not even a small twinge of fear evident in her expression. In front of her stood U-1146, busily phagocytosing the remains of the now nonliving intruder. She had grown accustomed to his job, and she had never forgotten to thank him for his efforts, even though she still often struggles to remember the pathways throughout the body.

She stood upright, smiling. "I'm fine! I should be asking you that question, you know."

"Of course I'm fine. It is my job after all." He brought himself up, dropping the remains of the germ that he held in his arms. He attempted to wipe the corpse's cytoplasm from his clothes, but to no avail. "Thank you, anyway."

"You're welcome! Would you like some tea?"

He slightly beamed. "Sure, I would love to--!"

As if on cue, the neutrophil's receptor rang, his body tense and his hand tightly gripping a knife out of habit. AE3803 let out a soft laugh; she understood perfectly what it meant.

"Stay safe, Hakkekkyū-san!!"

"You too, thanks."

She watched as he ran away, attacking the next set of bacteria that spawned nearby.

Letting out a sigh, the erythrocyte focused on carrying her box of oxygen towards her destination. Though she did her task as a red blood cell with as much confidence as possible, her efforts in suppressing the thoughts that lingered in her mind--whatever those thoughts even meant--deemed futile.

AE3803 had just exited the heart and was on her way to a cell near the stomach. Right now, she was surrounded by a bunch of other, mostly common cells, all of them seemingly at ease as they worked (at least for now). Some lingered by their stacked apartments, while others walked around, wandering about as they waited for their regular dose of oxygen.

The blood vessels were at peace, it seemed. Today, though she had hoped she wouldn't get lost around the blood vessels again, the familiar but overwhelming train of emotions had slowly creeped inside her mind once more. 

She sighed and shook her head. She had been irritable ever since she started struggling with intrusive thoughts a while back. It wasn't detrimental to her self-esteem or to anything in general, but she couldn't pinpoint the reason behind the sudden changes in her mind.

It would often start with a sense of yearning, looking for something at specific times during her day. She would suppress it, but that only made it worse. She would describe it as a feeling she couldn't comprehend; it was another problem piled onto the list of her endless troubles.

She had to be directionally-challenged, and she had to be bad at running away from foreign invaders--now she had to be awful at handling her train of thoughts. Cool.

She stopped in her tracks as she noticed those thoughts echo in her head once more. Her sight out of focus, her legs visibly shivering, she recalled the events from earlier today: the white blood cell she knew had left to handle another ordeal.

Oh.

Hakkekkyū-san.

It was all too familiar. She finally understood.

Her mind yearned to drift towards thinking about him. If she could physically slap herself in the face right now, she would. 

Question after question ran through her head. She was fuming; her left foot slightly stomped the ground, enough to show that she had embarrassed herself in her thoughts, but quiet enough for no one to notice. At least, that was what she had hoped.