Let Me Help You - Natsuki x Yuri

Chapter 2

Natsuki groaned to herself and let out a wince when she took a breath, a sharp pain in the right side of her chest making her wake up pretty fast as she stopped moving to rub her eyes. Opening them very tiredly and still in pain, her eyes stung too and her voice was just a little hoarse after all the crying and screaming she had done the night before. She rubbed all the sleep from her eyes that she could before slowly and carefully turning onto her stomach and getting up.

No matter how slowly she moved, it still really hurt, the abused pinkette getting up and standing in front of the sink, she looked at herself and gasped. She was a mess, her eyes had bags and were a little bloodshot and she had some dried blood on the corner of her lip as well as a pretty bad looking bruise on her face. And if she thought that was bad it only got worse when she looked down at her leg that had been stepped on by her father.

As she had thought it didn't just feel bad, but it looked worse too, a deep dark purple shade that went from her ankle nearly up to the spot behind her knee! There was a bit of blood on her leg too, her father had probably broken some skin when he had twisted his heel into her leg.

"Holy shit... s-shit no way I..." she gulps and turns her attention to her chest next, she's terrified to lift her shirt up to look, "How am I going to hide all of this? This is too much I-I can't go today..." she mutters not sure what she's going to do.

Deciding to look at her chest first, she cautiously lifted up her shirt. And she was right to be scared to see herself. Her stomach on its own was bad, her ribs visible... But the massive, almost black bruise on her side nearly made her faint. It ran from the side of her chest to the direction of her starved stomach. Like her leg there was a smear of dried blood. Honestly, she was astounded that nothing was broken.

She lets her shirt drop and takes another painful breath in before leaning against the sink. How can she have survived any of that last night? With the state her body is in, she shouldn't even be standing at this point, but she is.

"But... I can't stay here, I really can't I-I..." she stops and stays quiet when she hears a door open, looking over to the bathroom door which is still closed and locked.

Listening to the sound of what surely is her father's footsteps as he passes right by the door, a few bangs follow shortly after as her father is once again drunk. Even if he does go to work today, Natsuki just couldn't bring herself to stay here, this house is nothing but a place of horror to her now. Nothing was here for her at all, but there was at least something for her at the literature club.

Deciding to do what she can to hide her injuries as best as possible, she waits a little more until the house is entirely quiet before finally unlocking the bathroom door. Leaving the safety of the bathroom, she goes down the hall where her "room" was, looking at her dresser and grabbing the longest pair of socks that she had. It wasn't much but it was better than nothing. She slipped them on, the socks barely going up just past the bruise.

If anyone decided to look, they might be able to see a bit of the bruise, but it was enough for now. Her face on the other hand...

"What about this bruise though..?" she wondered, looking at herself in the mirror and searching the cupboard where her father kept his own toiletries like his hair dye and moisturizers.

There was a very old bottle of makeup in the cupboard, it was something she got years ago when her mother was still around. It would have to do for now, at least until the bruise went away, hopefully soon. She hadn't put makeup on in a very long time, it didn't really look good but like everything else in Natsuki's life, it would have to do.

Leaving the bathroom, Natsuki walked down the stairs carefully, her leg still in excruciating pain. The tsundere looked at the clock in her living room. Thankfully, she still had a full hour left till school, as she wasn't sure if she could walk properly at this point.