A Broken Man

Chapter 43: She's Up

It was after midnight, the moon was still up, Kawaii-Chan's eyes shot open and gasp as she sat up. A sharp pain shot through her chest and wrapped her arm around her chest shortly after. She looked down and saw the bandages on her chest, she gently followed where the dry blood on the bandages starts and where it end, remembering what happened a few days ago and she started t breath heavily, tears forming in her eyes. It wasn't a dream, this actually happened, Dante let part of the Shadow Army in and she took the hit for Zane. Kawaii-Chan was about to cry and scream, till she felt something moved on her bed. She looked over to see Nekoette, fast asleep and curled up next to her. She also saw Zane and Dmitri, sound asleep as well. She calms down seeing them all with her, she gently strokes Nekoette's head and held Zane's hand as she gently lower herself back down, trying not to wake them or have another shot of pain shot through her body. When the sun was up, Nekoette woke up before the others, she looked over at Dmitri, giggling a bit that he said he was going to stay up all night to watch over everyone in the base, but he fell asleep himself.

Nekoette: " Dmitri. Dmitri."

Nekoette claim down and poked her slightly older brother, causing him to slid down and jolt awake.

Dmitri: " Am Awake! I Always Been Awake! I Was Just Resting My Eyes.."

Nekoette covered Dmitri's mouth, she didn't want to disterved Zane or Kawaii-Chan. Zane just groan a bit and slightly opened his eye after Dmitri screamed in his ear, but he slight shifted his body before closing his eye again. Nekoette then took her hand off of Dmitri's mouth and told him an idea she had for a while.

Nekoette: " You know what we should do? I was thinking, maybe we can make Zane his breakfast. To thank him for taking care of us and being there for Mama once in a while."

Dmitri: " I don't know. You kinda have trouble making food on your own."

Nekoette: " Then we can ask Aphmau to help us. Come on."

Nekoette skip over to the exit, Dmitri chuckled a bit before following his younger sister down. Zane opened his eye, he didn't actually fall back asleep, he just closed his eye for a bit and heard everything the two said.

Zane: " Heh. So, they're going to make MY breakfast today, huh?"

Zane stretched out a bit and yawn, he then felt something slowly reach over and touch his arm gently. He whipped his head around and he felt his hear skipped a beat seeing Kawaii-Chan holding his arm. She was awake and looking up at him with her golden caramel eyes. She had a weak smile, but it warmed Zane up like it usually did.

Zane: " N-Nan... Kaw-Kawaii-Chan..."

Kawaii-Chan: " Hi Zane."

Zane fell off his chair a bit, his legs felt numb a bit, Kawaii-Chan slightly chuckled seeing him stumbled back a bit. Zane rushed over to her bed while he was on his knees and gently placed his hands on her face. Zane got a bit teary eye and gently wrapped his arms around her neck, giving her a hug and tears rolled down his face, happy to see Kawaii-Chan finally awake. Kawaii-Chan smiled and gently patted Zane's back, her body still let out some shocks of pain through her body, it was the only thing she could do that didn't hurt that much. Zane placed his hands on Kawaii-Chan's face again before resting his head on hers. The two stared in each other's eyes, both were full of a few mixed emotions, but had a ton of happiness and love in them.

Zane: " D-do-don't scare us like that again... I thought I.. We..."

Kawaii-Chan: " Shhhh... I know, but I didn't really have a choice. I couldn't let him hurt you."

Kawaii-Chan slowly reaches out and place her warm hands on Zane's face, wiping the tears out of his left eye. She slowly leans over and closed her eyes, kissing Zane. He flinched at first, but melted into the kiss shortly after. They broke the kiss and Kawaii-Chan actually licked his face a bit, her sandpaper-like tongue tickled a bit, but Zane let her do it. Kawaii-Chan started purring and kissed Zane all over his face. Lucinda leaned against part of the trunk of the tree in the base, crossing her arms with a big smudge smile on her face.

Lucinda: " Well, well, well. I should have known you two sparked something inside of each other. After all, you know when a man falls in love that they drop anything they're doing and spends all their time with the things they love."

Zane and Kawaii-Chan turn bright red, they pulled away and looked at the Witch with embarrass looks.

Kawaii-Chan: " I-I-I... We... Kawaii-Chan and Zane weren't..."

Zane: " I wasn't kissing her! I was just....Whispering something to her! Y-yeah!"

Lucinda: " On her mouth?"

Kawaii-Chan/Zane: " Sh-sh-shut Up!"

Lucinda just shrugged with a smudge look.

Lucinda: " All jokes aside, it's good to see you up again. Everyone will be glad to hear you're up."

Kawaii-Chan: " Th-thanks Lucinda-Chan. How is everyone?"

Lucinda: " Alright I guess. We been repairing a few things that the Shadow Army left after the battle. No one else was hurt."

Kawaii-Chan let out a sigh of relief and lay back. Lucinda had a big, smudged grin on her face.

Lucinda: " Alright, I'll leave you two love birds alone now so go back to your make-out session. *laughs*"

Zane: " GAH!! SH-SH-SHUT UP!!!"

Kawaii-Chan chuckled a bit, she looked down at her bandaged-up chest and back at Zane.

Kawaii-Chan: " Zane?"

Zane: " Yeah?"

Kawaii-Chan: " Do you... Think it might... I don't know, look bad when it's fully healed?"

Zane: " What? You mean if your gash turns into a scar?"

Kawaii-Chan: " Yeah.."

Zane: " Kawaii-Chan... Of course not. Who cares about some scar, you're still your sweet and loving self. Besides... Some people respect scars, at least that's what I hear Emilia told me a few times. You know, scars mean you been through something rough in the past. Survived it and came back stronger. And you definitely have one Hell of a story to tell when others see it."

Kawaii-Chan looked away, blushing hard, Nekoette poked her head out and lit up seeing Kawaii-Chan.

Nekoette: " MAMA!!! Mama, You're Awake!!"

Nekoette ran over to Kawaii-Chan's bed after pulling herself up from the entrance of the base. She climb on her bed and hugged Kawaii-Chan, it hurt a bit, but she fought through the pain to hug her daughter. Zane chuckled a bit.

Dmitri: " Kawaii-Chan! Psh.. I wasn't scared for a moment at all."

Zane cross his arms with a smirk, Kawaii-Chan also chuckled a bit. After the two half-siblings told Kawaii-Chan everything that Zane done when she was resting, Kawaii-Chan smile and purred after hearing how much Zane was taking care of both Nekoette and Dmitri while she was healing. When Dmitri and Nekoette left, Zane was about to leave himself when Kawaii-Chan stopped him.

Kawaii-Chan: " Thank you. For everything. For watching over them, helping around and taking care of me a bit."

Zane: " Of course. I did promise to be with you no matter what, and I promised to be there for them when they needed someone."

Kawaii-Chan: " Zane... You can call me Nana if you want. Just.. not in front of other please."

Zane just smiled and nodded, as Zane left, he couldn't stop smiling. His face was warm and the smile kept coming back to his face even when he tried biting his lip or the corners of his mouth. He tried to cover his face with his hand, trying to hide his smile and the blushing on his face. Kawaii-Chan did the same after he left, the two really did love and cared about each other dearly.