Bad Influence

Come Back To Us

Chapter 16! Thank you to everyone who is still here!

Hinata woke up from her place beside him as usual. She sat up and stretched, only to softly shove herself from his hospital bed. She made her way to the closet in the corner of the room, her fingers delicately feeling for the edge so she could open it. She pulled the ebony rabbit from the top shelf and she smiled at it softly. Her thumbs brushed up over its ears and she smiled to herself. She reached up into the closet and grabbed her perfume. She spritzed the perfume onto the stuffed rabbit and she rubbed it in.

If you hadn't seen her do this day after day, you wouldn't understand the relevance of it. she rubbed her perfume over every inch of the bunny, only to then make her way over to the hospital bed and set the stuffed animal in the bed beside Madara, but right on his shoulder because of how small it was. The nurses would never touch the rabbit, not even if they had to move Madara, not if they had to dress him; and even if the rabbit did somehow end up moved they would rush to put it right back where it was. There was absolutely no reason they would move the stuffed rabbit. They understood the relevance of the small rabbit.

However, when Hinata had first started placing the rabbit there, they had removed it. They had continued to move the small stuffed animal time after time until they realized why it was there. One day they had removed it and the tears had begun to fall once more. That was hardly the worst of it, to be honest. After the rabbit had been moved so far from her, his heart had begun to race, and his tears had begun to fall faster.

They hadn't understood the relevance of the small doll until Hinata had begun coming around less and less, which triggered his panic attacks. Hinata had actually been called in one day, they thought he was going tachycardic because of how fast his heart was beating. She had rushed in, despite having at work and had laid next to him, tears streaming down her face in her worry.

The moment she had crawled into the bed with him, his heart rate had begun to normalize, and from that moment on, she had begun to leave the small rabbit sitting on his shoulder drenched in her perfume. It seemed to calm him, but he was never as calm as he was when she was lying next to him. When she were laying right beside him he seemed so content. She figured it was her perfume keeping him content so she decided on what to do.

Hinata placed a kiss on Madara's forehead as she made her way into the bathroom and showered and got herself dressed. This was her daily routine now. She would get up, shower, get dressed, then go to work. All after she would say her good mornings and goodbyes to him of course. She couldn't leave without saying her greetings to him. She towel dried her hair, which was now about jaw length. She walked over to Madara and brushed her fingers over his cheekbones as she brushed her teeth using the other hand.

His hair grew much slower than hers did, and she guessed it was because he wasn't as healthy as he once was. "Time for physical therapy, Hinata." The nurse called and Hinata nodded with a small smile. She wanted him to be as close to the shape he had been in when he had come in as possible. she brushed her thumb over his cheekbone one last time before she made her way out of the room.

She pulled on her apron and tied it in the back. Her eyes were dull but to everyone else they seemed bright. She knew she needed to smile more, but she just didn't feel it in her to smile at the moment. Five months... five. It had been five months since she had heard his voice say her name. She caught her lip trembling and she bit down on it as she slipped into his car. Her fingers brushed over the steering wheel lovingly and she closed her eyes as she took a deep breath. The car still smelled just like him, and she supposed that was because she hadn't started using it until lately.

Aurora and Tajima were slightly put off by the sight of her using his car and not her own. She supposed they thought it meant she was giving up. She wasn't. She was not going to give up on him. She pulled up into the bakery parking lot and a small smile settled on her lips. She parked his car out front and made her way inside. "Good morning Hinata." Samui said and she smiled at her.