Promises\\ Bittersweet Blip

1. Loneliness... Year 6

"Normal" = English
"Italic" = Chinese
"Italic underlined" = Spanish
'Bold single quotation' = texting (language unspecified)
-
Maria was 6 this year. Yao and Antonio taught her Spanish, Chinese, and English. She hadn't gone into school yet.
Yao had managed to stay sane to raise her so far. However, his boss had started to call him back to China for business meetings. As the meetings became more and more frequent, he began to realize that Maria was the only thing keeping him from his old feelings of despair and sadness.
It was on one of these trips that Yao found himself lying awake in an empty bed, staring at the ceiling and wishing that he could die. He had never felt more alone than in this moment, in his empty bed, in his empty house, with no one coming to him. He knew he wasn't stable.
He couldn't help himself as he reached over to take a pocket knife out of the top drawer of his night stand. Just a little. He just needed to let it out a little. It wouldn't be deep. Just enough to relieve his mental pain.
He pressed the blade into his wrist and dragged it across an inch or so. Then he did it once more. He didn't pay any attention to how deep it was.
That was the last thing he remembered that night.
--
Yao woke up, light spilling through the window. His first thought was that his arm hurt, intensely. He slowly realized, piece by piece everything that was happening. He couldn't move his left arm past his elbow. There was blood pooling on his sheets. His phone was ringing incessantly.
Antonio was calling him. He panicked. He pushed himself up with his right hand, and picked up his phone.
"Yao, where are you?"
"W-what do you mean?"
"We've been waiting at the airport for hours, Yao, where are you?"
"Air-? What time is it?"
"Almost five pm. Did you just wake up?"
"他妈的鸟." Yao hissed. "I'm so sorry, Toni. I don't know what happened."
There was a short pause.
"Look, I'll figure something out."
"It's fine, Yao. Just hurry, because Maria is getting impatient."
Yao's breath shook as he hung up before Antonio could say anything else. He had no idea how he had managed that conversation.
Yao called Kiku.
"Hello?"
"K-Kiku- I-"
"Yao? What's wrong?"
"I- I... C-code red."
"Oh! Do you-" He was cut off by Yao.
"Please get here! Now!"
"Yao, just calm down. Where is 'here'?"
"My house, please Kiku!"
"Alright, just try to stay calm. I'm on my way, it shouldn't take more than 10 minutes."
-
There was a sudden knock at the door. Yao ran to open it. Kiku was there, and his eyes widened when he saw how bad the wounds looked.
"Yao." He said slowly, "When did you do this?"
"L-last night, Oh god. I think I was unconscious. Kiku, I messed up! I c-can't move my hand!"
Kiku gasped lightly. "Okay. Okay, I'm taking you to the hospital."
-
Yao couldn't quite remember everything that happened at the hospital. He knew he had gotten stitches to close the cuts he had made, but when he woke up, he panicked.
"Kiku?" The younger man looked up from his chair next to Yao's bed.
"What is it, Yao?"
"I- I need to call Antonio. Give me my phone."
"I thought you might want to. You were supposed to go home today, weren't you?" Kiku answered, handing Yao his phone.
Yao called Antonio, with some difficulty, as he could only use one hand.
"H-hello?" He asked.
"Yao, Did you find a flight yet? Maria! Put that down"
Yao paused, hearing Maria laughing in the background. "Um... No."
"Oh?"
"I, um, I can't find any good flights for almost a week."
Kiku looked up. Yao closed his eyes.
"Wow. Okay, That's too bad."
"I'm sorry. I... I'll keep looking." He heard Maria again and cringed.
"Okay. Te amo, Yao"
"我爱你." Yao responded, and hung up.
"Yao." Kiku said.
He gulped.
"You should have told him what happened."
"I just couldn't. I- I was going to... And then I heard Maria..."
"Well, I guess I'll have to do it then." Kiku said, standing up and taking out his own phone.
"K-Kiku, no, please!" Yao pushed himself up, frantic.
"He has to know." Kiku said and, for Yao's sake, left the room to make the call.
"Hello?" Antonio answered the phone.
"Antonio, I have news for you."
"Bad news, I'm guessing from your tone?"
"Yes, unfortunately."
"What happened?"
"Yao is in the hospital."
"What?! But I just finished talking to him!"
"Yes, I am aware of that."
"What?"
"He hurt himself very badly, and I expected him to tell you when he called you, but it obviously didn't go that way."
There was a long pause. "Okay, so how long does he have to stay there?"
"He will be discharged tomorrow morning, since it's really late here anyway, but he needs to stay in the country for at least a week so he can come back to get the stitches taken out."
"I should be there."
"Yes, that would be a good idea."
"But..." Antonio lowered his voice. "What do I tell Maria?"
Kiku thought for a moment. "You could say something like, 'Yao is hurt, so we have to go visit him at his house in China'?"
There was a noise, and Kiku heard Antonio's muffled voice for a moment before...
"您 好!" Kiku smiled, realizing that Maria had taken the phone from Antonio.
"My, hello little one. Remember, when you answer the phone you say '喂，您好', not the usual hello. Now will you give the phone back to your papa?"
"Awww, that's no fun." There was muffled noises as Maria gave the phone back
"Okay, I guess I'll work on the flights then."
"Thank you."
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