Cough.

In a slight sway back and forth, [Name]’s tiny hand covered her mouth as the breaking cough that sounded like her lungs burst in two, followed a light moan of satisfaction. Finally a cough decided to break up what was sitting on the bottom of her lungs and dwell in her cavities with is mutanist decay. Just the feel of it becoming lighter than it’s before heavy slumber caused her to blush and that hand that covered her mouth went to lightly cup her cheek as she hummed. The sheer hope that she was finally getting over the cough that was keeping her awake and causing her to be so lethargic that she could only get some shut eye if she hugged the back of the couch and slept sitting, was finally leaving her. Having herself sitting on that couch that only gave her a piece of mind and subtle happiness the very moment her lungs jump up into her throat, she started to clear that throat with a hack which then lead to a spit in a tissue of everything nasty that almost started to settle in the back. With a happy smiling sigh as she threw the tissue among other scrunched up pastel pink ones on the coffee table, her mother dashed out from the kitchen behind her fixing the necklace she was so hard trying to place right.

“[Name], are you alright?” Her mother almost tripped in her frenzy on the couch of the corner and went to stand in front of her daughter to get a good look at her face.

Her mother had this tendency ever since they returned back from the hospital to run to [Name] every single time she coughed, which by now was getting very irritating and to the point that it wasn’t necessary to be done anymore. She hasn’t died yet from coughing so harshly. Nor will she. In fact, it felt lovely to get rid of all that disgusting matter the doctor said she would be coughing up the next couple of weeks. Rolling her eyes before her mother could see them be rolled in the first place, [Name] nodded and pointed at the tissues scattered about in a mountain pink pile that was strangely grotesque if you actually thought about what lied within each tissue.

“It was just another cough that cleared my lungs, mom.” [Name] threw her tired hand under and it rolled on its wrist clamp as it lay flat to limp in seconds turning it over. Darn it, just moving her arm to show something made her tired, again. Cursing herself lightly as the light headedness returned in a wave that was not wanted, she closed her eyes and groaned again, but this time in the annoyance of two things that were constantly bothering her. The last bits of this aftermath needed to leave, now. She understood full well her life left this world and she then returned. For that she was very grateful. But in the end, she just wanted to be normal… Well normal enough that she could breathe and sleep. In a sigh, her mother finally got her necklace placed around her neck with a clasp and as her hands fell to her side, her shoulders fell in yet another no need to worry disposure. As that sigh escaped her lips, [Name] turned her head on a grind against her neck that made the smalls her shoulders connecting her suppleness twitch and let that heavy head fall against the back of the couch, where that solemn peace hugged it kindly telling her to sleep yet again. Her eyes falling onto her mother, she smiled a bit. She was beautiful this evening. Dressed up in those high fashion clothes she hardly got to wear anymore and a necklace and earrings that would most likely cost the amount of a plane ticket and a trip to the Caribbean, she shinned in the dim lighted living room as her freshly curled blond hair bounced on her shoulders against the hard curves features of her cheeks. With a shift in her knees, [Name] tucked her legs underneath herself and in the twist of her body; she once again hugged the back of the couch as she brought her arms up and around, rolling her head against the left corner of her elbow. “You look beautiful.”

Shocked at hearing her daughter’s words, the hands that were placed on hips in the process of standing their dazed and worried, shot up and cupped cheeks that were blushing. Laughing softly at the sight of her mother acting like a teenager, the moment [Name] showed her light through her smile and a light nudge of her head into her elbow, her mother laughed in unison while saying she hoped [Name]’s father would think so too and her thank you by kissing [Name]’s forehead.

Tonight was the first night in a long time; [Name] was going to be left alone in the house. Her father and mother were invited to a business party in a farther away city and were forced to stay the night to her mother's displeasure and her father's over confident significance. The two of them had been arguing about going or not for the past couple of days due to [Name]’s sick state, but presumably deciding it was best to go for her father's status in the current company's CEO chair and knowing that [Name] was now getting better without any threat, they decided to go.

In the time of a subtle serenity that wasn’t disrupted, a mother sat down beside her daughter and felt that forehead lightly with her freshly manicured fingernails. The two sat quietly whispering that only the dust particles floating in the setting orange sun heat could overhear, when a light bellow from a stern man standing in the door way interrupted the peace. It was at that moment in the quick stance of the mother and a nod of the father, the two took their place to leave. Shuffling quickly about for the things a mother would simply need over a single night, a kiss goodbye on [Name]’s cheek and the two were outside the door, gone in a cab. Still feeling the light pick her mother left on her right cheek, the soft warmth only a mother would leave; [Name] dwelled on the words she heard before the door shut gently behind them. In the stupor of sleep that was leaving a fuzzy light in her eyes and a rushing whirling buzz in her ears, she could have sworn she heard a deep compliment of "You're beautiful," from her father and the playful giggle before the light smack on the man's chest from her mother. So different when he’s alone with her…

Moments after she heard the last bit of the cabs engine rumble in the deserted street leaving an echo that disrupted it all. In the moments after she heard the light creak of the cab frame shifting on its metal joints from the movements of going forward. For the last single moment that electric hum of the cabs final leaving finally disappeared without a trace. [Name] was left alone. All by her lonesome in a house too big for one. Pushing all the feelings of isolation aside, there was when she sighed to herself and her eyes sunk to close a sense of contentment. Not a single creak in the house. Not a single shout. Not even a single mother would run to her side when she coughed. Nothing but herself and her empty shell that felt absolutely nothing but a single beating heart and the pure blood flow through her veins. In the phenomenon, of leaving and returning back from a land vast and far that she could not even remember a lick of, everything inside her body decided to disappear. No more pain. No more inner screams. No more skirmishes that made her bones creek. In fact those trains were silent.  She felt the need to speak to herself out loud, because those moments the quiet allowed her to sleep, left alone those thoughts for once of her own, it was just far too quiet that she was used too. Much as it may be the coming forth of a sickness that almost took her from the world her mind created the calmness in her providing an air that she never knew existed. It was like a solemn subtle fog lain thick over her valleys and corrupted the feeling of heaviness blinding her in a sink of a warm blue sea by the tips of her toes. It was most alive she has ever felt. The missing pain seemed to not bother her. In the deep depths of her mind echoed a worry that it was too good to be true, but as she retorted with a nonsensical lame in her happy shame, her head sunk into the abyss of a happy calling and at the bottom of her blue sea that hugged her warmly, dreams of a boys smile filled her mind that was the only true one that made her blush.

...MERRVVV… MERRVVV … MERRVVV …

Hearing a buzzing noise in the back of her dark mind, a disturbance in the times she thought was silence for the abrupt flashes of nothing, her eyes shot open and stared at a vibrating phone whose face was illuminating the small port of the coffee table. A now almost fully setting sun with its boundless strains of light peaking over the last bits of the houses ahead and reflecting its last bit of hope on the windows creating the hundreds of suns that led the straining eyes to focus on their blinding just of presence. What she thought were simple seconds of her being alone with her eyes closed, actually seemed to be hours in the real world she felt that she wasn’t a part of. Lifting that sleepy bemused head of hers and the back of her hand to rub against the numb cheek that squished on itself that captured an imprint of the couch, she sat there for a couple of seconds recognizing the world rushing its like in her arms turning over the sleeping death to breathing life in her head. In the shift of her twisted hip to a kneel on her knees, before the phone call would end in the next couple of seconds and almost falling over with a face plant into the coffee table corner, [Name] grabbed her phone with shaking hands. That screen that teased her for ending as she looked at it, it cleared the fog out of her eyes by shinning its synthetic light almost creating a small headache that she moaned to and caused her to answer without knowing who it was.

“Hello?” Lifting the phone to her ear, her voice cracked under the tired muscles that didn’t exactly want to work in her neck. She covered her mouth in a hush and cleared her throat to remind those strands to tighten back up and talk for her so she wouldn’t have to control them. Closing her eyes gently in a tight enclose because that screen continued to burn her retinas with that hated the light. She moaned against its spears as her body slumped onto itself, enfolding all her insides into tiny knit fields causing her all almost fall sideways and sprawl onto the couches hug.

“… You sound like you just woke up.” A subtle tease on the other side of a mysterious chime vibrated in her eardrum and caused her to shiver. She hummed against the voice of reason as if to justify their conclusion a truth while she rubbing her eyes with relaxed fist. As her small created purr that suddenly turned into a yawn exited before she could stop it, a laugh caused her to open her eyes and felt a heat skip across her cheeks. “You sound cute when you’re tired.”

The moment that suppressed voice hummed itself and rolled in its masculine moan of wanting that was trying so hard to conceal itself, her spine shot forward and ricketted on its metal beams of structure. Her shoulders built up into her ears making her no longer wanting to fall over, but more wanting to run about the room and hide under the piano. “Ma-M-Makoto!” That blush on her face was indescribable. The more her face felt the need to melt off her bones and leave to her meatless, deepened into her ears and neck the moment Makoto decided to laugh at her sudden realization out of her sleepy stupor. “I-Um-Ah-I-.” In fact the more she stumbled on her words triggered Makoto’s calm down and finally hum his own tune which made her stop completely in her tracks and freeze, as her words tightened in her throat making it feel like she was choking. The truth was, they haven’t spoken to each other since the fateful day of her almost passing. He stuck by her side with his head hung low, holding her hand, light tears falling down his cheeks and not speaking a word. Though the moment she fell asleep again to rest her sunken head, she woke that morning to find him not there. The last week or so had been not quite for her liking. She missed his voice and the texts he usually sent first thing in the morning proclaiming she was the first thing he thought of when he opened his eyes. But yet hearing his voice now, all she wanted that was missing, was causing her whole body to shake and breakdown completely just for him. She never realized how much she in fact missed that laugh, that smile, those eyes that caused her to think crazy things. It was no wonder when her parents ripped her from him that first time, she completely lost herself inside her own and let all the danger seep into her soul. “What-? Ah, um. What ar-?”

“Well I was wondering something,” At the moment he cut her off with the softest retort from him yet. A reply tender enough to cause her to function once again and breathe out all the stones so she could fly again. Putting aside her noticeable internal struggle that he was displacing for an excitement that he enjoyed to hear, changing the subject for her made the sound of his smile over the receiver very clear that it gave her chills. A slight static rustle and a possible sound of a greeting person that was passing him as he walked was picked up by the warping sound in his phone and he breathed out loud before he continued his ponder that was leaving her hanging on her own wandering thoughts. “Would you like to go out with me, tonight?”

The moment the question hung there between her ear and a speaker that seemed to whisper his words to her enticingly, she could have sworn she heard a hesitation pull on his words which caused her to stiffen. But the question itself was making her internally scream. Be... with him... tonight? That is all she wanted in the whole wide world at that very moment, but the sudden realization of her situation made her groan something grotesque. “Oh gods, I would love to,” The words coming out of her mouth felt like poison to her. It was worse than the reoccurring pain that used to be settled into her bones and crushed her on their daily basis. Worse than those stares of a father who was just too overbearing for anyone to be able to handle. So much worse as the word ‘NO’ yelled in her head. “But I can't tonight.”

“Oh.” The silent pause that stood between her words and his, was just so hurtful it made her heart drop into her stomach. The light walking wind she could hear through a transmitter as he was traveling to somewhere, had to stop with a blank slate of emotions as it washed over her while the anxiety swept in behind it. “Well alright then. Another time-.”

“I mean, I would love to. So much.” The anxiety she felt which was making her sweat in her thinned bones, clattered together and scratched their noise into her ears, causing her to ramble upon ramble. She couldn’t handle her mouth that spew the words that charred her lips with a venom she was so unused to. When was it that she turned into a blubbering idiot at the tune of his divine voice? When was the day she turned into the putty that he finally got to get a hold of and make her melt right between his fingers? When was it she finally let herself into that loving grasp of his? Whenever it was, the invading blush that was causing her gag over words that made no sense seemed to not give a single damn about its truth. All it cared about was the unthinkable that was clouding up her mind. Oh, how she wanted to do it all with him too. “But with my parents out of town and-.”

“What did you just say?”

The second Makoto cut her off, her jaw jut out and clenched itself into a painful regret. Making a strong fist and throwing a fake punch into her temple so she could remind her conscience that it should work and not lead her into that bucket Makoto continuously holds for her safety, she just gave up trying after the instant want of abusing herself. Slapping her hand against that temple she wanted to probe for its stupidity, [Name] dragged her hand down her face and groaned. “… My parents are out of town and I really shouldn’t leave the house.” At the end of her sentence, she sighed to relief herself of the tension that was building up into her lower back and shoulders. The single reason she couldn’t leave the house to be with him was making her hate herself a lot more than it should have and the need to punch herself in the gut so she could upchuck the disgusting reason of missing an opportunity with him leave her body that instant made her anticipate more words that would drown her. But instead there was a silence with a flight of disfigured huffs that were making her lift a brow and shift on her knees back down to her hip that had its rest of circulation return after the sleep she just took leaning against it. “Mak-.”

“Can you open the door?” There was a slight crash of metal scrapping against metal and possibly a loud wooden creak that with the sudden question over the phone, lead her to freeze. The question itself was not really a question but a request that she would most likely not be able to pass away as something simple. The crash she head over the phone had also been heard in the distance towards the door and the immediate thought of her gate being thrown open came to mind as she stared at the front door shimmering it's flickering beams of setting sun through the carved stained glass top window that reflected it's glorious colors on the wooden floor. She sat there in the confusion of her mind as she listened carefully to the harsh breaths of a man's breath she thought she wouldn't hear unless the circumstances arose that caused them to link together in harmony. [Name]'s body ceased to function alone on the muscles she did not have and the arm that was holding a phone up to her ear fell as the jello mold shattered and the feeling of elasticity disappeared all its bonds of tightness. If he was really behind that door… If he was really there... Could she even handle it? Could she even wish that such a moment where her Knight has come to her tower to wake her in her slumber and take her to a world to forever forget with all his single kisses? What kind of fairy tales are those? Seriously. But forgetting the sheer fact that her dreams always get shattered and no matter what she dreamed always went the wrong way, she still stood and dashed for that door. Falling over herself as her feet slipped on the polished wood flooring and feeling as if her chest wanted to cave in because she wasn't even breathing but holding that breath there purposely. She could feel the spots she had left to hack away at with her cough and her air tightened and tightened itself in her cavity, but she couldn't lose the hope. The simple factor that he's there for here. That he's here for her. That she will be able to hold him and kiss him with prosperity.

Falling face first over the dip in front of the door, hands planting themselves in place on the lower part of the carved in fancy fake cross of the door, she found her footing just as quickly as she almost killed herself. It was the blank part of her mind that grabbed that door handle and throw that door open, crashing it against the wall beside her, shaking the perfect stained glass that tantalized her. What she found allowed her to breathe. What she found was her dreams did not ruin for once. What she found was a Prince standing in her door way, closing up a green plastic phone, with a growing smile that would be the equivalent of that rising moon in the sky. What she found out almost brought tears.

“Hey... can I come in?” Makoto asked quietly shifting the duffle bag on his shoulder and resisting all urges to hold her in his arms and crumble to the floor.