A/N: honestly, I dunno how to classify this one-shot. You all be the judge.
Funny how this is stocked in my iPod for 3 weeks and here it goes!
I dedicate this to winnie-chan ;) hope this atleast pull a heartstring or two? Hehe:)
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Arigatou: Teppei x Reader
Life in America. Boy, it sure was hard.
It's not about the places you don't know. Or the language. Either the climate.
It is that you felt alone, different from others.
"Maaaan, I am booored." You looked down at your hand as you were on the hospital garden, trying to pass some time. "Would these hands even heal sooner or no? Am I just giving myself false hopes?"
You tried to move your fingers on your right hand (or your dominant hand) like before, but a sharp pain shot throughout your body. "Tsk." You just went back inside your hospital room.
Plopping yourself down on bed, you buried your face on the pillow and muffled your scream of frustration. Until the door is opened by a nurse, with a big man in a wheelchair that she is pushing.
"Morning (your name)~!"
"Morning Nurse Stacy. Another room mate? I hope he lasts a day without requesting to be transferred to another room."
You were known actually in the hospital to make the patients so irritated of your cold treatment as they would sooner or later request to be transferred to another room.
And this giant goofy faced man you think won't be an exception.
"Awww, don't be like that! Mr. Kiyoshi here is a good catch you know."
You just rolled your eyes at the nurse. "Whatever Nurse Stacy. Just fuck with your boyfriend."
She helped the man up on his bed and tucked him in. "I was about to, thanks for reminding me anyway." Her and her perverted as remarks that could make you smile.
Until the she closed the door and you were once again alone with your new room mate.
"Ugh...what the fuck. New person to deal with." You muttered in your native language.
"Excuse me. What did you just say?" He uttered in some cu- broken English.
"Nothing, just shut up." And the day end up quietly.
--
Until the next few weeks.
"Come on (Your Name), let's play some cards!"
"Tell me something about yourself!!!"
"Can you teach me English?"
"What treatment are you here for?"
He kept asking questions still with his broken English. He was so persistent, you were quite surprised that he haven't requested to be transferred yet even how shitty you treat him.
He almost did anything possible inside the hospital room just to make you loosen even a bit to him
"Can you like shut up for a while? Can't you see I'm trying to read?!" It was just a few minutes before your physical therapy, and you can't help but act grumpy about it, this venting up your frustration on the poor boy.
"O-oh...sorry."
"Tsk."
Your eyes landed on the canvas leaning on the wall adjacent to you. Why would your mom even bring that here?!!! Aren't they even considering your day about even seeing anything related to paintings?
Sure, painting are important to you. You are happy when you draw and paint. It was basically your soul's food.
But everything changed after a faithful day.
Thirsty, you got up from your hospital bed and grabbed the glass of water on the small table. But suddenly, a jolt of pain coursed through your hand and that made you let go of the glass.
"(Y-Your name)! Are you ok?" He went down on his bed and wore his slippers.
But you heard nothing from him. What you're focused on is your feet impaled by some shards and the bigger shards lying on the floor with the water mixing with your blood. You don't usually wear slippers in your room.
"Hey! Your foot is bleeding! Come on, be seated there, I'll call someone to clean this." He tried to pull you away from where you are standing.
But all you did was to push him away. Slowly, you knelt down on the floor as those shards seems to call for you.
"Pick them up, wound your hands, they're already useless anyway!" A hidden voice behind your brain tells you.
Of course, what is your use as a painter of your very own paintbrush is rendered useless?
Unconsciously, you picked up a shard and held it close to your face. "I'm useless. Do you know how stupid it is to loose the thing that practically makes who you are? Why of all things..." You asked no one in particular as you gripped the shard so tight it embedded deep on the flesh of your hand.
It's one of those one summer holidays you spend with your family. Playing in a field of grass and flowers with your younger sibling, a nearby stack of round wooden post rolled down at you.
There was no choice and the only action you could think of is to cover your sibling with your body. And so you do.
You suffered injuries, but the worst was those in your hands. Doctors told that everything about you would heal. But your hands? A different matter.
This snapped Kiyoshi out of his trance. "H-Hey! Throw that away!" Quickly, he carried her away from the place and placed her back on her bed. "Keep yourself together! Don't do this to yourself!"
Frustration. Failure. Guilt. Feeling useless.
That is just some of the few emotions you're feeling.
To sum it up, you felt like nothing anymore.
No purpose.
People would ask. "It's just painting. What's with it if you can't draw anymore? You can learn other things, right? Is a hand injury even legit with a painter?" And they'll finish it with mocking laughs.
"(Your Name), look up to me." The boy lifted your head to make you look directly at his eyes. "I may not know everything about what you're going through right now. But this I assure you."
It was noticeable that with how slow he talks and thinks of what English words he shall say, his efforts were there. Not the effort to talk in English, but the effort to help you.
Why is this man even tolerating you? Haven't he seen how gruesome and weird you can be? He would leave you like everyone else, right?
"I've felt the same way before. I fought, but halfway I would give up. I came here not even 100% sure my knee can be reconstructed. But you know what made me push through?"
"Stop...I don't need pity...You shouldn't even waste your-"
"Because I know someone, someone out there cares. (Your Name), I know this would sound weird coming from me, but even if you won't be able to meet me, someone, atleast someone out there cares for you." He grabbed a nearby towel and wrapped it around your hand. He quickly pressed the emergency call button in the wall.
You have nothing. You have nothing to lose. But why is he so persistent to let him inside you? Who would want to share a world as dark as yours?
"If you're feeling unsecured. I am here. We may not be the same and don't knew everything about each other. But as people on the same boat, let's have each other, shall we?"
Well, it might not be too much if you open yourself, even for a little, right?
"I-i guess so..."
Kiyoshi exhaled a breath he never realized he was holding for a long time. He felt relieved. He managed to make you, open up. Even now, if it is just a bit, he still did. And he knows for sure, you would get by and be back to the way you were before.
Is it bad if he feels great to have known of your dark sides? He thinks no. Besides, he still needs to know a lot about you.
Nurses came in with a relived sigh as Kiyoshi told them that it was just a cut would in your finger.
He was gestured to step back as the nurse attended to your wound.
At the corner of your eye, you saw him, observing you with a smile, of relief and genuine concern.
Would this man really this kind to even try and understand how broken you are?
Well, as he said, we both have something in common. And he understands where I am coming from, even just a little.
But the effort was more than enough.
"Teppei?" You called him just as the nurses finished tending to your wounds and cleaned the mess. The nurse are now out.
Your voice calling his name was truthfully, a songbirds chirp to his ears.
You never once call him by his proper name until now.
"Arigatou."
For the first time after that dreadful incident destroyed you and made your world dark, your smiled again.
You smile for the man who once again, opened the curtains to your dark abyss.
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A/M: this one-shot, I have difficulty in writing this for some reasons. Maybe it was me solely focusing on some other character that I am about to write that I don't know if would get Kiyoshi's personality in atleast an OK manner.
I hope I made atleast an ok impression.
May 15, 2015