Danny sat in a tree, trying to shake off a drug someone slipped him. He opened his eyes, feeling groggy and slow. Slowly his memories came back to him. He’d been sleeping when he felt a dangerous aura nearby, jostling him awake. Just as he woke though, he felt a pinching sensation in his arm. Someone had shot a drug into his system, forcing him into a type of comatose.
He’d been fighting off the effects of the drug for some time, for how long he didn’t know. He yawned and stretched, still feeling the effects of the drug. He could also feel the excess of some Lori aura. It was potent and powerful, but the Lori had been killed. Good, someone killed it, thought Danny as he lay back down, the drug still muddling his thoughts. It took a few moments, but the implication of the situation hit him. Drea! She must’ve killed it. He reached his mind out to find her, to make sure she was alright, but couldn’t feel her, and there was no response. What if she’s hurt? He frantically jumped from the tree to her home, stopping in the open window.
She wasn’t in her bed and he didn’t feel her anywhere in the house, which meant she must’ve gone off to kill the Lori. His eyes widened, fear racing through him. Drea wasn’t an experienced fighter and didn’t even have her weapon. I have to find her, he thought as he jumped towards the direction of the excess aura. She had to be there, but he couldn’t feel any of her aura. That wasn’t a good sign.
His heart raced as he rushed to where he thought she was, moving faster than he had in a long while. He felt guilty. This was the second time he wasn’t there for her, something he would never be able to forgive himself for, whether she was ok or not. He’d always felt guilty for what happened to her brother, and now it was the second time he’d let her down. He knew he couldn’t let another person die, or why her death would mean so much to him, but he had to make sure she was alright.
Danny was getting closer to the spot as he moved with unexplainable speed. I can’t let her get hurt. Not again. After what seemed like forever, he touched down in a clearing. Buildings dotted the area with a few trees spread around. One street lamp shown under the full moon, providing illumination under the shadows of the trees. There so much aura in the air it was almost intoxicating.
Danny looked around for Drea, his eyes stopping on an unmoving figure lying near a tree. His heart beat faster.
“Andrea!” He yelled her name as he ran over to her lifeless form. When he knelt down beside her, his worst fears came alive. She was bleeding profusely in a few different places, the blood pooling around her. Danny’s heart almost stopped. He moved some of the hair away from her peaceful face as his contorted in fear and sadness. Slowly he reached out and touched her neck for her pulse. She was breathing, but it was labored and slow. Most of her aura was depleted as well, but she wasn’t dead. He let out a sigh of relief. He’d have to heal her or she’d bleed out. “I won’t let you die Andrea, hold on.”
Danny got to work, removing the bandages he had tied around his arms. The cut on her shoulder was pretty deep, and the stab wound on her thigh went all the way to the bone. The thigh was the worse of the two though, so he decided to fix it first. He knelt next to her for minutes that were hours in his mind, using his aura to heal her wounds. Slowly the bleeding stopped and the skin reformed over the opening. Danny ripped off the rest of her pant leg to cover the wound with his bandages, and removed the fabric on her shoulder to cover it as well. In inspecting her ribs, he found that a few of them were broken. He slowly repositioned them with his aura, being careful of her lungs.
When he finished, he was exhausted. He’d healed people who were half dead before, but the drug was still crawling around in his system, making it harder. Danny sat back, staring at Drea’s serene face in the moonlight. She was beautiful.
I wonder, he thought, what she means to me. He lowered his eyebrows, as if thinking. Have I fallen for her? He didn’t think it was possible. Danny had only met her a few weeks ago, he couldn’t be truly in love with her, nor could she be with him. He narrowed his eyes. It must be nothing, he thought, yet he still couldn’t explain his feelings.
After a minute, he rose and picked her up in his arms. He was exhausted, but he carried her back to her room and lay her down on the bed. He felt guilty and sad when he looked at her, for even if it was indirect, he was the cause of her pain. All the guilt and sadness practically hit him in the face for not being there a second time. He wondered if she’d forgive him.
Danny wasn’t about to simply leave her, so he sat in her windowsill to make sure she’d be alright. The sun would rise soon. It was a good thing it was a Saturday, otherwise he knew she’d have a hard time explaining why she couldn’t go to school. Hopefully that also meant her parents wouldn’t check on her.
He sat and stared at her kindly, his emotions spinning in his heart. He didn’t know what he thought about anything, especially about her. After a little while, the exhaustion overcame him and he fell asleep, wishing he could discover the source of his confliction.
* * * * *
Drea woke with a headache. She could hear the birds outside and felt the warm sun of her face. She lay on something soft. She tried to go back to sleep until she remembered what had happened the night before. Drea rose with a start, feeling the pain spike through her body. I was knocked out… She touched her shoulder and leg, they were bandaged, and her ribs felt like they had been fixed.
She looked over to her window and saw Danny sitting in the windowsill, sleeping calmly. Drea knitted her eyebrows. Where was he last night? He healed her afterwards, but he wasn’t there to help her. She reasoned that something had happened to stop him.
Drea got up from her bed slowly to avoid causing herself any more pain. She looked down to see that she was in her Kaienshi uniform, except it was a little torn up, or well maybe a lot torn up. One pant leg was missing and the opposite shoulder was torn off. She would’ve changed back, but didn’t feel up to it.
She looked over at Danny on the window. Somehow he was sleeping there without falling, looking peaceful. Maybe he didn’t want to leave her side. Drea blushed and looked away. He certainly seemed kind, but she hadn’t known him for that long, and she was just unused to a guy paying so much attention to her. Besides, even if she did like him, he’d have to go home anyway. At this point, she honestly wasn’t sure of how she felt, she just knew she’d miss him when he was gone.
She looked at the time. It was only six o’clock on a Saturday morning. Nobody would be up yet, so she’d be able to hobble around without arousing suspicion. She waved her hand over her head and changed into her school uniform. With a sigh, she walked to her closet; now she’d still have to change out of that. She changed in her closet into a loose pair of sweats and a tee. She didn’t want anyone to see those bandages.
Danny was still sleeping when she came out. He must’ve used up a lot of energy healing her, so Drea decided to get them both something to eat. She walked downstairs quietly, but slowly, happy that no one would question her just yet.
Danny opened his eyes not long after she left. As he looked around, he saw that Drea wasn’t there and panicked. Where could she have gotten to now? He stretched out his mind, only to be met with a wall. He blinked in surprise.
In a moment, the door opened and Drea walked through slowly, carrying a plate holding two cups and a few waffles. “Jeez, calm down I was only downstairs.” She bumped the door closed with her foot and walked towards him. It was kind of funny to see the look on his face in reaction to her false annoyance.
She looked up with a smile. “I thought you might want something to eat when you got up.” Drea placed the plate down on the bed and handed him one of the cups. It was orange juice. “Here,” she said and handed him a waffle. They ate in silence for a few minutes. It was nice, homey; a feeling Danny didn’t get too often in his hectic life.
“How are you doing?” asked Danny after he had finished.
“Better, thank you.” Drea smiled.
“For what?” His tone was one of guilt. “I couldn’t protect you. You wouldn’t have gotten hurt if I had been there.”
“What happened?”
“I was drugged. It put me to sleep for a while.” He looked at her sadly. “I didn’t come until after you’d killed the Lori.”
He closed his eyes for a brief second. “It’s the second time I let you get hurt, the second time I let you down.”
Drea lowered her eyes and got up. She moved herself so she was close to Danny, facing him. She never knew he still felt so bad about what happened to Kevin after his confession to her earlier, or even remembered his remorse for that matter, but just looking at him, she could tell that day never left him. And now he felt bad about the fact that he failed again. Danny was so sweet to want to look out for her, but he needed to know it wasn’t his fault.
“Danny, all those years ago,” she paused. It was hard to talk about that day. “It wasn’t your fault. All you did was help me. I would’ve died then if you hadn’t shown up.” She met his eyes. “And last night wasn’t your fault either. There was nothing you could’ve done. Besides, after you leave I’ll need to fight on my own. I can only hope I won’t get hurt when you’re not around.”
She smiled sadly at him, realizing the implications of her words. She wasn’t ready for him to leave just yet, especially after what happened last night. Despite that, she put on a smile to reassure him. Drea hated seeing that look on his face.
Danny narrowed his eyes sadly; he seemed to feel her sadness, but didn’t say anything. They continued to eat in silence for a little while, absorbing the beautiful morning. “You look exhausted,” said Drea after a while.
Danny took his attention off of the trees and looked at her.
“Why don’t you get some rest? Unfortunately I don’t think we’ll be doing too much training today.” She made a good point. He really couldn’t show her the next weapon today, and he wasn’t really sure he wanted to.
“Alright,” Danny responded.
The two of them relaxed for most of the day, until Drea had to go out with Jackie for a little while. She wasn’t feeling up to it, but she’d have to go if she wanted to avoid suspicion. Danny had gone back over to his tree earlier to get some rest; he must’ve still been sleeping.
Drea picked up a sweatshirt and walked out with Jackie; they had to go pick up something for their mom, and of course Jackie couldn’t go alone. She tried to walk as normally as possible, but every step sent shudders of pain swiveling through her body. Jackie seemed wary of it. She kept looking over to Drea, asking her questions about her “after school projects.” Oh I really hope she doesn’t know anything, Drea thought worriedly. Jackie didn’t need to know about her being a Kaienshi.
Once they picked up the oil for dinner, they were on their way back. That’s when Drea heard Danny say, You know it’s probably not a good idea that you’re out walking.
I know, but I couldn’t get out of this one.
From what I can tell, you’re in a lot of pain, he said smartly.
She chuckled to herself. Yeah I am. Well how are you feeling? She said sarcastically. You’re the one who’s been sleeping for hours.
Better. He paused. You know it might take a few days for you to be well enough to train.
Yeah, she said sadly. It always felt natural to hold those weapons, it was a feeling Drea liked. We’ll see what happens. Thanks.
“Drea?” Jackie was looking up at her.
“What is it?”
“Are you ok? You’ve been acting really strange lately.”
Seems like Jackie had noticed. “Yeah,” said Drea with a smile. “What would make you think I wasn’t fine?”
Jackie looked up at her, anger gleaming in her eyes. She stopped walking, forcing Drea to stop as well. They were right in front of the house now. “Well for one reason, you lied about your wrist. I know what I saw. And you weren’t here last night. I heard that window open. And,” She grabbed Drea’s sleeve and pulled it down, exposing the bandages, “I know you got hurt again.”
Drea didn’t know what to say. Her sister had been keeping closer tabs on her than she thought, but now wasn’t the right time to start something. She was determined to keep Jackie out of this, no matter what she thought she knew.
Drea looked at her sister with level eyes void of emotion. “I pulled a muscle in my shoulder, and last night I just went for a walk. It was a full moon and I wanted to see it. I didn’t want to wake anyone up.” She walked to the front door, but before opening it said, “Don’t go around accusing people Jackie.”
She walked in without waiting for her sister and went to her room. No doubt her parents would be up later to see these bandages, but hopefully she could take them off before then. Drea lay on her bed, looking at the ceiling. She fingered her golden necklace, remembering Kevin. She hated lying to her sister like that, but she had no other choice. She only wanted to keep Jackie safe, but these questions were hurting both of them.
Drea started to cry as she remembered that night. It’d only been recently that she’d discovered what really happened, but it still hurt to feel his loss. She couldn’t help but to wonder what her life would’ve been like if Kevin was still alive. About twenty minutes later, she heard Danny say, Andrea… Are you alright? He seemed timid, almost afraid to ask. He knew what a touchy subject it was.
She sniffed. Yeah. Of course, I just need to rest a little.
Danny didn’t say anything more, but she felt the sadness in his aura. He sympathized with her and wished he could help. Right now though, Drea just wanted to be alone and he could see that. She was just happy he didn’t see her crying again. She didn’t want anyone to see her so vulnerable.
She cried for a little while in her room, thinking about what her life had become as of late. She missed Kevin dearly, more than she could’ve ever thought possible.