Silence.
An Epilogue.
For L, who did not understand before but does now.

***** ***** *****

She stood over the hospital bed, then sat suddenly, on the space beside the slim legs of her friend's unconscious form. The heart monitor beeped sullenly beside her, and she glared at it briefly, taking her friend's hand in her own, and caressing the back. A brief tear formed along her cheek, adn she did nothing as it drop the splatter on the limp, calloused palm. She spoke, her throat tight and threatening to break into sore sobs. "They said you should be fine, if you just wake up. You're mostly healed, except for the broken arm, and while there'll be some minor scarring on your face and limbs, I don't think you'll mind too much. You still look good."

"You know, you always did. You knew too much, and maybe that's why you were beautiful. Sometimes it seemd that you knew everything about me, and it scared me because it was everything I'd hoped for. But you were you, and that wasn't possible to me. It hurt me to see you shove aside your own feelings, even though I rarely noticed, just for my friendship."

She laughed shortly, a hoarse, bitter chuckle. "You have really bad timing, you know? I was all set to tell you, and I mean everything, then you got hit by that guy, and now you're here. I waited all day for you, and the only reason I was awake to recieve your call was because I'd been calling your house every hour to see if you were there, and your mother finally took pity on me, when she got home from the hospital, and called me back. It was one in the morning. I actually stayed awake that long, despite the sleeping stuff, just because I was so worried!"

She closed her eyes, and sighed, "I don't even know if you can hear me. The doctors said it might help. I didn't say anything for a while at first, because they thought you were just unconscious, and I didn't want to wake you up. Then once they realised you were comatose...I just didn't know what to say. But I'm here, I'm talking now. I just wish you were here too. I have a lot of things to tell you. If only you'd just wake up..."

The girl grimaced, and dropped the hand she was holding as tears began to slide from weary eyes. She scrubbed at them painfully, her cheeks reddening as drops splashed across the thin hospital blanket that lay over the overly thin body of her friend. A short croak interrupted her tears, and she turned, her eyes wide and frightened as fingers twitched against her thigh.

She cried again, as eyes watched with surprised mirth from the bed, then a tear slipped from the green set also. She sniffed, and reached out a shaking hand, then brushed the offending liquid away. Her friend sucked in breath, and stared up with scared, large green orbs as she leaned forward, resting her head on her friend's chest. A broken arm clunkily set it's cast about her waist, and she smiled, then squirmed upwards to look in her friend's face.

"I missed you," she whispered painfully, then dropped a small, chaste kiss against her friend's lips.

***** ***** *****

Owari.

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