Atrocities

Chapter 5

Maki rang Shuichi's doorbell in hope that he'd answer. Busy or not, she just wanted him to help her get the fight off her chest.

"Hello?" Shuichi said opening the door. "Oh, hi Maki!" he said sweetly. "Come in."

Maki sat on the couch, and rubbed her temple with a sigh. Shuichi came back with a tray of cookies and cups of tea. "I didn't know you'd be here," he said. "so you can take Kaede's cup if you want. I'll just make her another one."

Maki smiled at the kind gesture. "It's fine. I just wanted to get something off my chest."
"Really?" Shuichi said, sitting down next to her. "What's happening."

Maki sighed. "Do you really want me to break the news to you?"

Shuichi gave her a comforting grin and took a bite of his cookie. "Tell me anything."

Even though it was Shuichi, Maki still felt she couldn't tell him. "Kaito has cancer."

Shuichi's mouth gaped open as he dropped his cookie. Tears swelled in his eyes. "Cancer?"

"Yeah, cancer." Maki said, fighting back tears. "We got into an argument because he told me he couldn't tell me because I'm too 'overdramatic.'"

"Well, I don't think you're being overdramatic. I think you're doing the right thing by looking out for him." Shuichi said, sweeping up the cookie crumbs.

"I tried to tell him that!" Maki exclaimed, choked up. "But he thinks that I'm throwing a tantrum! Then after we fought, I told him I wouldn't care if he died. You can't get over that guilt in just of couple of minutes!"

Shuichi was quite enraged by Maki's previous statement, but he didn't wanna yell at or scold her. Instead, he just rubbed her back. "While what you said was completely unnecessary, I understand you weren't thinking. I think the best way to apologize and act like it never happened is to just head home and state your regrets."

Maki smiled and nodded. "Thanks, Shuichi. I can always count on you."

Maki headed to the car, and drove home. She thought of what Shuichi said about acting like it never happened. But the truth was, she didn't want to forget what happened. She wanted to remember it so she could see how much her and Kaito grew as people.

Maki threw her keys onto the kitchen counter as usual, and walked in to see Kaito sitting on the couch with his head hanging down.

"What's the matter?" Maki asked him.

Kaito looked up at her.

"Where were you."

His purple eyes narrowed.

Maki just furrowed her brows and crossed her arms. She dealt with quite enough attitude. "I was just with Shuichi. I needed to cool off ever since... y'know... our little argument."

Kaito didn't seemed convinced she was at Shuichi's. He probably thought she was dumping every photo of him in the Towa City Landfill.

Maki rubbed her arm. "Look, I'm sorry for lashing out on you, and saying I wouldn't care if you died and stuff. The truth is, despite being an assassin, I actually can't handle death. I can't handle the pain of losing someone. I can't handle watching innocents get brutally murdered, and I especially don't know how to move on."

Maki's confession led to nothing but a beaming Kaito. He shook his head and hugged her. "I can't stay mad at you for too long."

Maki wrapped her arms around Kaito, submitting herself to his warm embrace.

The precious moment was ruined by another one of Kaito's coughing fits. This time, it was a little different.

Maki's eyes widened I'm horror.

"Kaito..."

"Yeah?"

"You're... you're coughing blood..."

Kaito looked down at his quivering hand, seeing nothing but bright neon pink liquid dripping down his fingers.

This alluded to the one thing Maki didn't want to go through again.

Another hospital trip.