American Asia

Araiah's House of Pain and Medicine

I sat in shock for the rest of the ride. Well, most of it. Carter was sleeping on my shoulder, so I nudged her off. Her head hit the window and she bolted upright, eyes wide and mascara-smudged. Just about then, Callista hung a hard left, throwing the two of us both into the window, and screeched to a halt, sticking us to the back of her seat. I sat up groaning. Helix had the nerve to laugh at me, so, I reached through the space below the headrest and pinched the vulnerable spot in the crease of his collarbone and his neck. He slumped down so his chin touched his chest. I smiled with satisfaction, Carter cracked up, and Callista just opened the car door, but I saw her grinning in the rearview mirror. Completely forgetting about Helix, whom we left in the car, we walked behind the leading Callista, who seemed to storm instead of simply walking. She dragged Brei Ida to the door, kicked it open with one high heeled boot.

"Hey Callie, how's it-" the young man at the counter began cheerfully.

"Save it, Takumi, where's Araiah? I'm kinda in a hurry." she snapped, hefting her sister into his view. He raised his eyebrows as Helix burst through the door, looking quite annoyed, rubbing his shoulder where I had pinched him.

"Um, she's in the Pain hallway right now, but she won't take long as long as I tell her it's you. She's taken a liking to the four of you. Apparently now the six of you." he added, looking around, taking in all of us: Helix, rubbing his shoulder with an honrey look on his usually pretty face, Selina, slanting her eyes at everyone else in the lobby, Carter, who was cleaning her talon-like nails, to Callista, carrying Brei Ida and looking extremely worried, and finally his gaze fell on me and his eyebrows shot up. Helix, done with giving himself a massage, narrowed his eyes and moved protectively behind me. I elbowed him in the stomach, tossed my blonde hair, and followed Callista to a vacant room, where she threw Brei Ida onto the bed. Moments after I had settled myself down into a lumpy armchair, the door flew open and a tall, skinny woman wearing a lab coat and a smile. Her nametag read; "Hello, my name is I despise nametags." I raised an eyebrow at Helix, but he just shrugged, now giving himself a stomach massage.

"Well, it's always nice to see familiar faces. And new ones too, I suppose," she added, eyeing Carter and I, "Now, miss Ryota, whatever did you manage to get yourself into this time?" she said, as if scolding a naughty puppy.

"We don't know!" Callista snapped angrily, out of sadness rather than bitterness, "She was attacked alone, one throwing star to the chest, no unfixable damage done, no vital organs hit, now get her to surgery, take that stupid thing out and make sure she lives!" she hissed, drawing the woman up so close to her face that their noses were touching, her fist clutching the front of Araiah's spotless lab coat, when she let go, the collar was crumpled and wrinkley. Araiah looked scandalized as she straightened out her coat, then huffed and called, "Tsumi, Yin, come here. And bring a stretcher." her eyes landed on me and her nose wrinkled.

"We don't take foreigners." she said shortly, looking pointedly at Callista.

"I'm not vouching for her or anything, but Helix says she's native to China, so... yeah, don't touch her." Callista muttered.

"Thanks a bunch, Callie," I rolled my eyes, "Wow, Helix. Smooth." I chuckled, and a pale tinge of pink appeared at his cheekbones.

"Yeah, well, I do care about you. It's not like I especially wanted to leave in the middle of the night. I can't help that some psychopath attacked Brei Ida and managed to actually get a hit. Mind you, she doesn't usually get hit. Last time was three years ago. Anyway, I'm off topic. I don't want you to not like me because one of my friends was injured." he was ranting now. I looked at Selina and Callista for ideas. They just looked at each other. Then Callista acted out pinching Selina's shoulder, just like I had earlier.

"Look, Helix, I don't not like you," I said calmly, like I was trying to train a cat to roll over, "In fact," I moved closer and closer until I was face-to-chest with him, "I love you." I finished, and then squeezed that crease on his shoulder and he crumpled, a look of surprise and happiness frozen on his face. I looked up. Callista, Selina, Araiah, Tsumi, and Yin were all staring at me.

"What? I had to get his attention somehow." I excused myself. Selina snorted. Araiah rolled her eyes and gave a nasty sniff.

"Yeah right." Callista coughed. Both boys just stood there staring at me like Medusa victims.

"Snap to it, boys!" Araiah clapped her hands twice and they snapped out of their dazes, loaded Brei Ida onto the stretcher, and rolled out of the room, eyes still trained on me as they left. Callista led us back to the lobby, where she asked Takumi for a large guest room. We trudged to a far back room. Once inside, I didn't even bother going to a bed, I just collapsed into a plushy armchair.

"Wait. We're missing someone." Callie said tiredly.

"We left him in the other room." I groaned and rolled over. She sighed and left the room, closing the door with a snap. She returned about three minutes later, dragging Helix behind her. His head hit the door frame and he jerked awake.I barely saw him as he lifted me from the chair and set me down on a bed. After that, I was out like a light.