Zorome X Miku: The Forgotten Plantation

12: Injured But Awake

"Miku, wake up."

Groggily, Miku opened her eyes and sat up. Looking down from her bunk, she saw that Ichigo was standing there. Nobody else was in the room. 

"What's up?" Miku asked as she rubbed the sleep from her eyes. She felt extremely tired and burnt out after the events from the day before. Outside, she could still hear the sounds of pouring rain, though it appeared that the wind had decreased since she'd last been awake. It was pretty dark in the room without any lights. 

"Zorome's awake," Ichigo told her. "Hiro says that he's well enough for you to visit."

Miku immediately climbed down from her bunk. "Thank you! I'm going to give that jerk a big talking to about being so idiotic and getting himself hurt!" As she ran past Ichigo to leave the room, she heard her let out a little giggle.

She ran down the hallway at full speed. Just as she reached the corner, Mitsuru stepped out in front of her and she was unable to slow herself down. She collided with him before she could stop herself.

"I'm so sorry!" Miku blurted as they both recovered from the collision. Her head had smacked into his chin. "Are you okay?"

"I'm fine," Mitsuru assured her. "Don't worry about it. I know you're coming to see Zorome. I'd probably be running like that too if Kokoro got hurt." He walked past her with a smile on his face.

Wow, Mitsuru's really changed! Miku thought as she walked down the hallway, feeling rather dazed from crashing into her friend. She rubbed the top of her head where she'd hit his chin. It was crazy to think that he was the same boy that would've probably angrily snapped at her for running into him not so long ago.

The door to the room was open when she got there. Futoshi and Hiro were both in the room, standing beside Zorome's bed. Miku walked into the room to join them. To her amazement and relief, Zorome was sitting up in Futoshi's bed. His hair was ruffled and messy and he had dark circles under his eyes but he looked fine.

"Oh, hey." Zorome looked at Miku as she went to stand at his side. "The guys told me what happened. It was, uh, intense, huh?"

 Without thinking, Miku lunged forward and hugged him tight against her chest. "You stupid idiot! What were you thinking? That was one of the dumbest things you've done yet!" She let go of him and glared sternly at him with her hands on her hips. Her worry was mixed with relief and anger now. She was furious with him for having almost gotten himself killed. If he had landed the wrong way...

"Ack, quit yelling in my ear!" Zorome snapped as he shifted closer to the wall. He winced as though the movement had hurt him. "I was just trying to prove I could climb it, that's all. And I did climb it!" 

"Yeah, but then you fell!" Miku pointed out exasperatedly. "Futoshi and I had to drag your dumbass back here! I was so worried...we all were so worried!" She was trying to stop her voice from shaking. She was just incredibly glad to see him awake. 

Zorome looked down at the blanket, which he was fiddling with between his fingers. "Yeah, that was pretty stupid of me, huh?"

"Yep! Stupid and reckless!" Miku huffed and puffed out her chest a bit. She wasn't sure whether to go on a rant about how happy she was that he was okay or to berate him for about an hour about not doing reckless stuff by himself like that. As much as she loved him and his traits, she felt that his impulsiveness was one of his worst flaws.

"Sorry," Zorome mumbled as he continued to look down at his blanket. His cheeks were beginning to turn a very warm shade of pink. 

"We're just glad you're alright," Hiro told him sympathetically. "Are you feeling any better than you were a few minutes ago?" 

"Not really. My head feels like shit and my leg hurts!" Zorome touched his temple with one of his forefingers and winced. 

"Ikuno and Ichigo are going to check on you after breakfast, I think," Hiro told him. "They want to better assess your injuries and then decide what the best course of option would be to help you recover."

"Breakfast! Do you guys mind if I go eat?" Futoshi asked sheepishly.

Hiro chuckled. "Go right ahead. I'll go down to fetch some breakfast for Zorome in a few minutes." He turned to look at Miku. "Ichigo told me she'd let you know that Zorome's awake but she also said we should give him some space. I offered to care for him until she and Ikuno can check him over again."

"I can make my own choices!" Zorome protested. The other two, of course, ignored him. 

"Oh, sure," Miku responded to Hiro. "I'll check up on him later again to see how he's doing." She was a little bit annoyed that she couldn't spend time with Zorome but she was also extremely relieved to see that he was awake and back to his normal self again.

Miku swiftly exited the room. She trusted Hiro a lot and was glad that Zorome would be looked after by him. He wouldn't let him do anything stupid and was overall one of the most responsible members of the squad. It was hard to believe that at one point everyone had worried he wouldn't fit in due to the difficulties he'd had when piloting the FranXX. She understood why Ichigo had so much trust and faith in him and why she'd wanted him to be the one to lead the squad. 

It was easy for Miku to eat breakfast and do her chores for the duration of the day now that she had seen Zorome awake and well. She hoped he didn't have any other injuries that Ikuno and Ichigo hadn't spotted. Once he's better I'm going to make him do double chores for worrying me half to death!