cw: mention of male genital (only once)
As the ambulance arrived at the hospital, Ai was surprised to see that the rest of the Toman members were there as well, not missing her brother's dyed blue hair as he stood out from them. When he turned around and their eyes landed on each other, she smiled meekly at him.
"Ai!" Hakkai shouts, immediately rushing to her side and clutching on the steel handles of the stretcher bed. "What happened to you? Who did this to you?!" Hakkai kept shouting despite Mitsuya trying to pull him away.
"Lower your voice! You're scaring your sister!" He scolded him. Hakkai softened at Mitsuya's words, dropping his shoulders.
"I'm sorry, Taka chan" Hakkai says before lifting his head up again to look at Ai. "I didn't know you were at the festival. Why didn't you tell me? And who were you with? Who did this to you?"
"One by one, nii san!" Ai says, gripping her hand around his forearm as they take her to the examination room, Hakkai and Mitsuya following her suit. "Yes I was the festival today and I didn't know who they are...all I know is that they wore the same uniform as yours." She says, slowly sitting up from the bed.
"Ai's talking about Kiyomasa and his group." Mitsuya spoke, clenching his fists as he closes his eyes. "I'm guessing they used her as bait." Mitsuya sighs, opening his eyes "I'll go to where Takemichi is. I'll ask how Draken's doing." He bids before walking away.
A few seconds after Mitsuya left, Kokonoi and Inui came into the room. However, when they saw Hakkai, the looks on their faces gave her the hint that they would start ripping each other's necks.
"Please don't fight." Ai spoke quietly. Hakkai took a sharp inhale before looking away, Inui still held a piercing look at Hakkai while Kokonoi clicked his tongue.
"I will kill them for hurting you." Hakkai says, slowly his eyes darts to her bruised and swollen ankle.
"Ai you're-"
"Do not mention it to Taiju." She spoke, clutching onto his forearm tightly. "I'll hold myself accountable for what happened to me." She raises her head to make their eyes meet. "I don't want to see you or Yuzuha getting disciplined for my sake." She says, smiling a little.
The two younger siblings hugged each other tightly as they promised each other. They only parted when a doctor and nurse arrived to check on her left ankle.
"I've given your sister an orphenadrine for muscle relaxation. Though it'll wear off after four to six hours, resting and ice compression will help relieve the bruising and swelling. Although, with a minor sprain, it'll take her two weeks to recover." The doctor spoke, handing to Hakkai packets of advil into his hands. Before the doctor leaves, Hakkai and Ai bowed their heads.
"Please don't mention this to Taiju. I don't want him blaming you two as well." She spoke towards Kokonoi and Inui.
"You can't keep protecting us from him, you know." Kokonoi says, averting his look away from her.
"I can and I will." Ai smiles tiredly, nodding her head a little.
As Hakkai helped her get up, Ai had requested to see Draken at the emergency room. Kokonoi and Inui had left as well due to Taiju's meeting at their hideout. And as Hakkai was agreeing to her request, they went over to the other side of the hospital. But once they got there, a sight unfolded them.
"Snap out of it, Mikey!" Mitsuya shouts.
"You don't understand!" Punch!
As Peh yan and Takemichi tried their best to pull Mikey away from punching the wall, they couldn't. Not especially when he kept punching the wall until his knuckles were bleeding.
"Mikey?" Her soft voice reaching his ears made him stop from punching the wall. Turning his head around, his eyes widens at her disheveled state and a bandage around her left ankle. Immediately, Mikey turned his feet around and brought her body closer to his, hugging her tightly to him.
"Are you hurt anywhere?" He asks, the tone of his voice quiet.
"I only want you." She whispers. Mikey's insides started to feel warm as he heard her words, his heart beating crazily inside his chest, nuzzling his face on the crook of her neck. As the two of them parted from the hug, Ai took out her handkerchief from her pouch and began to dampen the wet cloth onto Mikey's bleeding knuckles.
. . . . . . . . . . ♡
"Can we draw on your ankle brace? Pretty please?" Nami asks as both her and Kairi clasped their hands together.
Despite the two weeks healing time, Ai still went to school hiding the bandages inside her white socks and tucking it inside the ankle brace. To further hide it, she wore ankle warmers and tried to pretend that she can walk properly, despite putting most of her weight on her right leg.
Yuzuha was even livid when they both came home in the middle of the night of August 3. But despite the circumstance, she too swore to keep Ai's sprain a secret.
Sighing to herself, Ai gave the two colorful markers as they wrote their get well messages and drawings for her inside the classroom.
And while Ai is on her healing period, she filed a sick leave to her instructor. Lying to her how she contracted a viral infection.
Mikey would continue to visit her at school. And whenever he would visit her, Ai would ditch her classes to spend time with him at the school's rooftop. Sitting down on the white bench together and holding hands.
His warm, calloused hands made her feel warm.
"Ai!" Chifuyu greets, waving his hand in the air while Baji follows behind him. "Can we sign on your brace too?" He asks.
Agreeing, Ai gave the two colorful markers as well. And while resting her head on top of Mikey's shoulder, Ai had a feeling that Baji was drawing something funny on her brace.
"There you go. My masterpiece is already finished." Baji says, grinning as he leans away and closes the cap of the marker.
"I have a bad feeling about this" Ai says, chuckling softly until she bent down and saw Baji's writing on her brace.
Get well (insert small penis drawing here)
"What the heck is that?!" Ai shouts, steam coming out of her ears as her face turns into the color red. Baji and Mikey could only laugh loudly while Chifuyu was blushing along with her.
. . . . . . . . . . ♡
"Hello Draken!" Ai smiles as she enters his private room, holding onto a bouquet of white lilies. "I hope you don't mind that I change the flowers." She says
"Go ahead." He smiled, closing the manga book he's holding. "I feel like you're hiding something from me." He says, watching Ai placing the white lilies onto the vase by the window.
"Me? Hiding something?" She asks, lacing her voice with innocence while tilting her head to the other side. "Me and Mikey aren't hiding anything?"
"I never said his name though." Draken grins. "So you two are together now, huh?"
Blushing, Ai nodded her head and sat down on the foot of his bed. "He makes me happy, Draken. Sometimes I can't think straight and I answer differently from the questions they throw at me. Even when I close my eyes, he's all I see." Ai says
"Sounds like fan behavior" Draken deadpans
"It's not like that!" Ai says, blushing furiously. "Mikey...is my first boyfriend."
"You know" Draken starts to say, causing Ai to turn her head to look at him. "What you told me is what he told me before too. Said that seeing you makes him happy and how he can't think straight and how he answers when questions are thrown at him."
Thinking about what he told her, her heart started to beat wildly inside her chest. The idea of thinking the same way as her made her feel happy and giddy.
As Ai bids goodbye, instead of going home, she went straight to the hospital's rooftop, closing the door behind her. Sitting on the ledge, she slipped off her flat shoes and wore her pink pointe shoes again.
Even though she filed her "sick leave", it was only today that Ai would try and see if she can dance again.
Slowly, she tried to stand on her tiptoes, taking baby steps as she does so. But when she felt a twinge of pain from her ankle, stopped and planted her left feet on the ground while her right feet kept up.
And ever so slowly did Ai tried to attempt a few spins with only her right leg. When she got the hang of it, it made her smile. But when she felt the same twinge of pain from her ankle, she lost her balance and fell. Except, she didn't meet the ground. Opening her eyes, she caught the sight of Mikey and his blond hair swaying with the wind.
"The doctor told you to rest but here you are dancing." He shook his head. "My baby isn't listening." He cutely spoke, placing an ice bag on top of her ankle as he removes the ribbons of her pointe shoes, placing her feet on top of his lap as well.
"Where did you get that?" Ai asks
"I may have lied to this doctor and told him I hit my head" He says, not looking at her.
"Dummy you shouldn't have." Chuckling softly, Mikey pouted at her.
"I wanted to take of care my Ai!" He reasons, sulking as he looks away. But his sulking expression vanishes as he felt Ai's lips on his cheeks.
"Thank you for taking care of me. I appreciate it a lot." She smiles at him.
Despite her little action, Mikey couldn't wait to get older and marry Ai already.