Seven Weeks: A Seven Days Fanfiction

WEEK SIX: Sunday (Yuzuru)

A ringing phone at three twenty-seven in the morning was never a good thing. My sleepy discontent iced over in an instant as I stared at my phone screen, glowing insistently in the dark.

"Mm, what's going on?" Seryou shifted in my arms, the warm length of his body moving like satin against me.

"It's the hospital," I whispered. They wouldn't be calling this early unless something had happened.

Seryou popped onto his elbow beside me, his hand coming up to cover my frantic heart. "Oh."

I couldn't move. If they were going to say Mom had died... Bile rose in the back of my throat. The phone started shaking in my hand.

"I... I can't," I choked, tears burning my vision until the bright numbers on the screen were blurring together. "Seryou, shit, I can't—"

"It's okay, I got this." He took the phone from me gently, tapped the green icon and held it to his ear. His other hand stayed put on my chest, and I swear it might have been the only thing holding my rioting heart in place. "Hello?"

I struggled up next to him. There wasn't enough light in here, I could barely make out his expression. But his fingers on my chest tightened a little, and his fathomless black eyes sought mine in the darkness. "We'll be right there. Thank you."

He lowered the phone.

"Don't tell me," I said quickly, before he could speak. My chin had started quivering. I was going to lose it. "I don't wanna know—"

His hand moved up to stroke my face, and I caught a flash of his white teeth. "She's awake, Yuzuru-san. Your mother just woke up."

The news swarmed over me in goosebumps, from my neck to my feet. The paralyzing effect lasted only a few seconds. Then I sprang out of bed and started for the door, shouting my sister's name.

"Yuzuru-san!"

Something soft and heavy hit me between the shoulders, and it was startling enough to make me turn around. Seryou had thrown a pair of his sweatpants at me.

"You really want to barge naked into your sister's room?" he asked, laughing.

As I hurriedly stuffed my legs into the pants, which were plenty long but awkwardly tight around my hips, the bedside lamp switched on and one of his t-shirts landed at my feet in a similar fashion. I pulled that on too, never mind that it was like trying to unroll an uncooperative second skin down my torso. I got it past my nipples and decided that was good enough.

Seryou's chuckling followed me down the hall as I burst out of his bedroom and down to Yuriko's door. I beat the door a couple times with my fist, then wiggled the handle impatiently. She'd locked it. "Yuriko!" I bellowed, pounding the door some more. "Get up! Get up, we gotta go!"

Damn it, this was going to take too long. I was about to run back to Seryou's room to get my phone so I could try calling her—maybe that would rouse her lazy butt out of bed—but the door opened and Yuriko stood there in her pajamas half glaring, half rubbing her eyes.

"Yuzu-nii, you jerk, I'm gonna kill you. What the hell?"

"Mom's awake!" I grabbed her by the shoulders. "Come on!"

Yuriko's squeal filled the whole hallway. "Oh my god! Okay, okay, lemme get dressed."

"Never mind that, just come the way you—" Crap, she'd closed the door. I was wrestling with the handle as Seryou's voice sounded behind me.

"You should get some real clothes on too. It won't take that long."

I turned to see that he'd already put on jeans and a pink pullover hoodie that complimented his sleek black hair. His gaze roved appreciatively over my midsection, where his t-shirt was too tight for me to pull it down all the way. My stomach was exposed from sternum to below my belly button, like some girly tween model in a crop top.