The mature and responsible Misha put aside his grievances, and for almost an hour, he played house with little Vanessa. He poured invisible tea into an empty cup and listened to the nonsense the girl spouted. She talked about their inexistent children and how cute they were. They also had a dog named Pudding. Later on, the dog became a cat, but it was still named Pudding.
Misha almost lost his temper a few times, especially when Vanessa called him "wife" to attract his attention. Whenever he heard that nickname, which she said in an affectionate tone, he felt like throwing the tea set across the room. Thankfully, Misha always regained his calm just in time and refrained from breaking the toy into thousands of pieces.
Well, if he was honest, playing house with Vanessa was much better than keeping the old lady company. Once the thought crossed his mind, Misha became oddly obedient. Still, it was torture.
When Vanessa proposed to play together, Misha thought he could take the opportunity to ask her if she had a few pranks up her sleeves. Unlike Dereck, an honest boy at heart, she had always been mischievous and thus should be able to come up with one or two interesting ideas. However, he couldn't find the right time to ask. That girl was talking non-stop, and it was hard to interject.
As an adult, Vanessa understood that she couldn't monopolize the conversation, but this was a foreign concept for the child that she currently was. Hence, she was a chatterbox without an off-button. She clearly had inherited her great-grandmother's bad habit....
An hour went fast, and Alexy came to tell them that time was up. Misha heaved a sigh of relief while Vanessa made a pout, cutely pursing her lips. She still wanted to play! But that man wasn't like her father and didn't waver despite her teary eyes. Instead, his face became icier.
In the end, Vanessa could only accept her fate and tidy up, putting back the tea set into the box. She dragged her feet out of the playground, glancing back at the door every two seconds until they reached the elevator.
Soon after they went back to the room, Vanessa and her father had to leave. They had to drive quite a long distance, and the man worked the very next day. Thus, they couldn't stay for long.
At first, Misha wanted to ask Vanessa for her contact information. However, they lived far away from each other, and the present technology wasn't convenient to keep in touch; the phone bill to make a call between the two countries cost an arm and a leg. There was no way his father would allow him to use the phone only to call an unknown little girl who lived in the USA. To top it all, for Vanessa, he was only a playmate she met at the hospital, a kid like any other kid, and she'd soon forget him.
"It was nice to meet you!" Vanessa giggled. "Bye-bye!"
"Bye-bye," Misha waved at the girl. And as he watched her small back disappear into the corridor, he silently added, 'See you in fourteen years.'
After her eighteen birthday, Vanessa would be back in Canada. Her father was born in Toronto, and that was also where he had met Vanessa's mother. However, Dean went to America for his job after his wife's death. Later on, he decided to live there for the rest of his life. The rest of his family also followed him, and some already lived in the area of Buffalo.
Even though Vanessa loved her life in America, she never felt at home, always thinking of her mother's homeland. So, the moment she was of legal age, she left to study in Canada, where she also struggled to find a job and met the father of her daughter.
That was all Misha knew about his friend's past. Even if Vanessa talked a lot, she was still secretive about her private life. She loved to brag about her daughter, but Misha knew nothing of the child's father. Well, he also never asked. Misha wasn't the kind to dig up skeletons. If Vanessa didn't talk about something, he wouldn't delve deeper into the matter.
After the father and daughter duo left, the room fell silent, and Misha, who was extremely tired after listening to Vanessa's nagging, went to bed. Perhaps, the pain throbbing in his head would have lessened after a good nap—hope springs eternal, as they say.
***
When Misha woke up a few hours later, his fever was gone. There were still some aches and soreness left, but Misha didn't feel like a car had run over him anymore; it was a significant improvement from his previous painful state.
A smile bloomed on his face, and he called the nurse over asap, telling her that he was now feeling wonderful. Unsurprisingly, she didn't believe him. However, his bright eyes made it impossible for her to refute him heartlessly, so she still decided to play along and take his temperature. To her surprise, the fever was indeed gone.
Afterward, a doctor came by and examined the boy's physical state. He was quite puzzled by the sudden recovery, as nothing had worked until now. To be on the safe side, he decided to observe the child for two more days before allowing him to go back home, putting Misha in a lousy mood. He wanted to go back home now! He had enough of hospital food and weird grannies!
But no matter how much Misha pouted, he still had to wait for the doctor's approval. Once he received it, the whole family came to fetch him. Gabriel was also there, but Misha pretended that he didn't exist. Among the four, only his mother and his sister mattered, anyway.
"Ready to go home?" Gulnas asked when she entered the room, and Misha answered with a loud "Oh God, yes!" before jumping off of the bed.
Honestly, he had never changed clothes as fast. His farewell to his roommates was also very short, consisting of a "get well" and a "goodbye". After that, he dashed to the elevator and pressed the button to go down like a madman. Then, he leaped inside, and after his mother and his sister came in, he repeatedly hit the button to close the doors.
Too bad Alexey and Gabriel still managed to get in.
After the elevator reached the first floor and the door opened, Misha bolted out of the hospital under the incredulous stares of his family. It was as if he had seen the devil.
Finally, he could breathe fresh air! He could see the sky! Feel the sunshine on his skin! Oh God, it felt so marvelous!
Overwhelmed by happiness, Misha ran around wildly, drawing laughter and chuckles. But when he approached the road at full speed, they all stopped laughing and sucked in deep breaths.
Mrs. Brown was about to shout for him to stop when Misha came to a sudden halt, stopping just before the road that separated the hospital from the parking lot. He carefully looked to the right, then to the left. Only after making sure there was no vehicle in the vicinity did Misha sprint toward his father's car. Earlier, he had asked his mother where it was, and she had given him the parking lot number.
Still, it took him a while to find it. And when Misha finally found it, he was heavily panting. He couldn't help but bend down slightly, putting his hands on his knees to rest.
"Tsk. I have no stamina at all," he complained in a hoarse voice. Although he already knew it, he still didn't want to admit it. He sprinted for less than fifty meters! And it felt as though he had run a marathon!
Even if Misha had many complaints in his heart, he couldn't whine for long. There was the sound of footsteps behind him. Slowly, he turned his head to meet their owners.
Gabriel and Masha then entered his line of sight. Contrary to the child, though, they weren't out of breath. The constatation was quite infuriating. He had sprinted, and to follow him, these two had also sprinted, yet they were in top shape! They weren't even disheveled!
Life was unfair!
The moment Masha realized that her brother's attention was on her, she couldn't help but admonish him. "Are you out of your mind?! You were discharged from the hospital only a few minutes ago! Do you already miss your roommates? Or is it the cramped room? Whichever is the case, just tell me if you want to go back so much, and I'll gladly bring you back!"
"Sorry," Misha said in a small voice. "I was just too excited."
Masha sighed before gently flicking her brother's forehead. "Be careful. You should wait a few days before running all around the place, okay?"
Hearing her worried tone, Misha felt a little guilty. Now that he could finally move around, he just wanted to put as much distance as possible between him and the hospital. He didn't think it'd worry his sister this much.
"Yes, ma'am!" Misha nodded with a clumsy military salute and an overly serious face. "I won't do it again, I swear!"
Upon seeing him trying to act like a grown-up, Masha felt soft-hearted, and her worries quelled a bit. Her brother was just too cute for words! Too adorable! She soon forgot about being severe and ruffled his fluffy hair instead, a foolish smile on her lips.
"Come on. Let's go home!" Masha said, opening the door of the car that Alexey had unlocked from afar.
"Yeah, let's go home," Misha repeated as he climbed into the car, an indecipherable grin stretching the corner of his lips.
Now that he was discharged from the hospital, he could finally execute his plan. It was time to take care of Gabriel once and for all.
________________________
Chapter revised on 2022-05-02
Edited by Clozed! ♥
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