Chasing Dreams (Dropped)

Chapter 140: The Things We Do For Family

"Erica..."

"Oh quit being a baby I'm almost done." Erica insisted. For the past few minutes Erica was trying her best to fix Natsumi's nose. Originally she had no intention to do so, but after seeing how much it was bleeding Erica couldn't resist the urge to help.

"Tsk..." Natsumi hissed feeling the pain rise and spread all over "It's not that, it's-"

"Hold on hold on." Erica interrupted pushing the final gauze into her nose. "If you keep on moving imma have to start all over again." Natsumi frowned internally fighting the urge to argue back, she knew if she did it'd only get her nowhere. "Fine..."

Erica gently wiped the remaining blood with a medical wipe, only to notice Natsumi wince once again. "You know, for someone who talks so much smack you really can't take pain all too well." Natsumi only strengthened her frown "Shut up..." she growled. "Oh what it's true, you keep on fidgeting and hissing like a little baby. Nah not even like a baby, because my darling Nyssa never was this jumpy."

Natsumi felt her brain pop from Erica's tirade of insults, comparing her to a child over and over again. "I'm not a baby. I'm not a child. I'm grown so stop mocking me." Erica tilted her head and gave Natsumi a long stare as if considering it. "Nope..."

"Huh?"

"You still act like a child." Erica sighed straightening out Natsumi's shattered nose. "Ugh..." Natsumi felt the pain spread like wildfire causing her to lash out "I think you've done enough..."

"Oh shut up." Erica continued ignoring Natsumi's discomforting pleas. "I just need to patch this part up." Erica took a series of bandages and propped up the nose and properly bandaged it. "See wasn't too long was it?"

Natsumi took out her phone and looked at herself with her camera. Some of the skin surrounding the nose was beginning to bruise, but outside of that her nose looked like it had been attended to quite well.

"Surprised?" Erica asked with another tilt of her head. Unable to hide her admiration Natsumi hesitantly complied "A little...where'd you learn how to do this anyways? You kinda seem like a pro at this type of stuff."

"Hm... well when you have kids you don't really know what to expect so you kind of have to be prepared for everything." Erica locked eyes with Natsumi for a moment, immediately seeing that Natsumi understood where she was coming from. There were times when Natsumi had to do the same, mainly when she stopped living at the Lupus headquarters. Since she didn't want Ren to be involved with Lupus, Natsumi couldn't use the doctors at Lupus whenever Ren did get sick or hurt. So she had to learn how to handle those things on her own, either by spending a little extra money buying over the counter medicine or by hand making remedies that would cure minor illnesses. Natsumi even went as far to learn how to stitch up wounds by using her threads.

"I hope you aren't saying that as a sly way to refer to me as a child again." Natsumi sneered "I'm almost 28 you know. I'm definitely not a little kid anymore."

Erica let out another sigh and scooted off the bed "Your age doesn't really matter you and Ren will always be little kids in my eyes."

"Eri-" Natsumi stopped herself, feeling the strong urge to lash out but also understanding where Erica was coming from. It was perfectly normal, it was the same way any mother would view their children no matter how old they had gotten. Natsumi felt the same way with Ren and Jack, she knew even if they were in their 30s and had children of their own she'd still baby them as if they were 5.

"Whatever..."

"Natsu, you were trying to say something before. What was it?" Erica suddenly asked widening her eyes to make them appear as clear as glass. "Oh that..." Natsumi wasn't sure if it was still worth mentioning. She rubbed the back of her head sheepishly before easing into it "It was just about the whole, being even thing..."