Marionette

Skies, Chapter Twenty Seven - Kitsunetousagi [キツネとウサギ]

NOTE: This Chapters Authors Note is IMPORTANT so please don't skip the end of this chapter!

There wasn't very much that Amaya really remembered about the rest of that night.

Apart from the silent walk back to her apartment and the immediate events afterwards, Amaya's mind drew a blank for nearly the whole night.

Reiko had been in a fit of tears upon seeing Amaya's pained form when she returned, though she calmed down once she'd ascertained that Amaya was okay. Isogai and Maehara had disappeared not long after, and then the rest was a blank.

The only thing that truly stuck in her mind was that the pain-relief medication the hospital had administered really was working despite how much it didn't seem like it at the time.

She knew, because she woke up almost screaming from the pain when she'd moved wrong in her sleep.

It was almost a miracle that she hadn't.

There was two or three times throughout her struggling sleep that she felt someone check up on her, though she had opened her eyes to find herself alone in her room each time.

Come morning when she had enough of trying in vain to sleep at all, she had no choice but to agree with Karma's seethed words when she'd woken up in that cubicle.

She wasn't 'fine', in fact it was completely the opposite.

If smacking herself over the head with a frying pan would give her some relief from her pummeling, she was sorely tempted to make it happen.

She'd eventually reemerged from her room to slump face-down over the kitchen counter, just letting the cool countertop soothe the tender bruise over the side of her face. Her arms were lying limp in her lap, the only position it was remotely comfortable to have them in.

There were few sounds within the apartment at eight in the morning - It appeared that Reiko was still asleep, and of course Yuta wasn't here.

The ticking of the clock, the tense breaths that escaped her as she remained slumped over the counter, and the faint humming of sounds from the other apartments in the building, muffled by the walls.

Although, there was the faint sounds of footsteps - She'd just disregarded them in her pained state.

It was the sound of a familiar voice that informed her that she wasn't imagining it.

'You're obviously feeling better.' Karma's voice spoke up, from the direction of the bathroom if her ears weren't decieving her.

Amaya contemplated ignoring his remark, for she certainly did not feel any better.

'... What gives you that impression?' She mumbled, though she didn't lift her head to look at him.

There was no immediate response, though she was sure he'd heard her.

Though she could hear a great deal of ruffling, like a towel of some sort.

'Because the way you're sitting hardly looks comfortable.' He responded, his voice echoing from the other side of the counter this time.

Amaya mentally groaned at the remark.

'I can't sleep...' She mumbled, though to her it sounded more like a whimper.

Karma was silent at first, though she couldn't claim to really be all that focused on what was going on around her.

The medication the hospital had given her did nothing, she was sure of it - Their only purpose seemed to be to leave a bitter aftertaste in the back of her throat, not numb her down from pain like they were supposed to.