-Chapter 23: Heartfelt
I open my eyes and sit up, looking around the room. "Where am I at right now? This is the second time I have had to go through this.
"You're at Seito University Hospital," Hiiro says, glaring at me as he positions a chart against his stomach. He looks down at it and looks back at me. "What is wrong with you? When that Black Rider arrived you started acting strange. What is up with you?"
"I have no idea."
"Do you know who the rider is?"
I shake my head. "No, it was...I don't know what was going through my head. I wasn't thinking at all. I guess I'm no good at being a Kamen Rider."
"Kara, are you alright?"
I look over at the door as Dan walks in, holding a briefcase. He places it down against the door and rushes to the side of the bed, staring down at me. He looks away, looking behind himself. He grabs a chair and pulls it over. He sits down on it and turns his attention back to me.
"I'm alright."
Hiiro eyes us, giving us a cold stare. "Do I need to leave you two alone so you can have some privacy?"
"We don't need any privacy, Hiiro," I say, answering his question. Is he implying that I'm with Dan or something? Nothing is going on with us at all anymore.
"Hiiro, I think you should go. I have some things to discuss alone with Kara. Please shut the door," Dan orders and Hiiro nods, turning away. He grabs the doorknob and closes the door behind himself as he walks out. "Kara, you could have died."
"I know, I know. I'm sorry."
"Don't lose focus when on the job. You can ignore certain things, okay?" I can't ignore him being there! I'm afraid something is going to happen to him for some reason!
"I can't help that I did, okay? Why are you making this my fault? You did this to me!"
"Did what?"
"Nothing..." I look away, not staring at him at all. Not even in his direction.
"Kara...do you worry about me?"
I look at him, opening my mouth to speak. I shut my mouth and look away, not able to come up with something. I am pretty lame sometimes.
He leans closer, placing his hand on my left hand. "Kara, you're allowed to have feelings for someone even if others see it as wrong. You have the right to your own opinion."
"I don't want to feel anything towards you, okay? Is that so wrong?" I ask him, looking at his hands on my one hand.
"Kara, that is wrong to do because then you're forcing yourself to feel something that you don't feel. You simply can't pretend to be someone you're not." Sometimes he can sound really intelligent. Who am I kidding? He almost always sounds intelligent!
"I'm sorry..."
"I thought I was going to lose you earlier. I know we're nothing exactly but I really do care for you and I find your actions reckless. I'm not worth dying over."
"What do you want from me?"
"I only want your love."
"Well, my boyfriend has that."
"Obviously, he isn't the only one. We can have an open relationship. He can learn how to share." Is he actually suggesting a way for us to be together? I can't date my friend's father!
"We shouldn't be talking about this here. Someone could hear," I tell him.
"Are you afraid of that?"
"I don't need anyone knowing what we did together." It was one of the best moments of my life but that doesn't mean I want to sit there and have people hear about it. I usually don't have hot men pining over me.
He sighs heavily. "Do you regret it that much?"
"I regret cheating on someone who has done nothing wrong to me. That is what I'm regretting, Kuroto." I can't believe I betrayed my boyfriend's trust! He's probably going to want me to get infected with the Bugster virus now!
"I just suggested a way we can be together, okay? Just suggest it to whoever you're with and then it'll be all better."
"Are you even hearing what you're saying right now? He isn't just going to be like 'Sure, let's do this thing!' and let me hop into his arms and ride off into the sunset, okay? Gosh, you're not thinking right now! If you were, you wouldn't be pining over me. I'm not worth it. Meet someone else, okay?"
"I don't want anyone else, Kara."
"What?"
"I only want you. I don't feel the same way towards everyone else. You're one of the only people I actually care for in this world." Is he lying right now to make me feel special? Is he trying to win me over by manipulating me into thinking he cares for me only for him to use me and toss me out like I'm trash?
"Kuroto..." I shake my head. "No...you're lying! You must be lying." I nod my head. "I'm sure of it. You're definitely lying."
"Why would I lie about that? You know it is true."
"I can't believe this."
"Why not?"
"Why should I believe it? Huh? You're after the others."
"But I'm not after you. What happened earlier was because of the other rider. I was really concerned about you so I made sure to get away as soon as possible to check on you. I'm glad Taiga Hanaya decided to jump in and make sure that you're alright. You could have gotten a game over and I'm seriously glad that you didn't. Kara, I mean it when I say these things, okay? You're special to me and very important to me." I'm still not trusting him on this. I doubt Kuroto Dan can love someone.
"Fine."
"Do you believe me?"
"Yeah, I do." I nod, looking him in the eyes to make it seem believable that I believe in his words.
"So?"
"We're not dating though. I don't want to date anyone but my boyfriend. He's the dreamiest guy in the world and there is nothing you can do to replace him. So, you're going to have to go to the back of the line and wait for us to end, which isn't going to happen by the way, okay?" I'm being super harsh with him right now but I have to be brutally honest. Nothing can happen between me and Kuroto. He's daughter is my best friend and he is the Black Rider. Nothing is allowed to happen.
"Alright." He gets up. "I'm going to grab something to eat. Do you want anything?" Is he changing the subject?
"Umm...some cake."
"I'm going to get you some cake now."
~.~
I step onto the rooftop, body still aching from getting my butt kicked, as Parad looks up from his handheld gaming console. "Hey," I say, voice sort of hoarse from crying after Kuroto Dan left me alone in my hospital room. I shouldn't even be up on the rooftop right now but Parad wanted me to meet him up here.
"Hey," he replies, grinning. "How are you feeling?"
"I'm feeling alright after getting my butt totally kicked. How about you? I'm sorry you have to see me like this. It isn't a pretty sight," I answer, moving closer to him. He gets off the ground and teleports to my side. "I almost forgot that you can teleport."
He laughs, sounding absolutely cute. "Did you now? Oh, I'm doing great now that you're up here. I sent Graphite off to do some infecting. He needs to start spreading the virus more so we can start building my Bugster kingdom here on Earth. I'm still going to make you the Queen of it."
"I don't think you want to do that, Parad. You're going to hate me for something." I need to tell him about what I did with Dan. If I don't, I'm going to regret it later and he is just going to be even more upset if I hide it.
"What would make me hate you?"
"I slept with Kuroto Dan."
He looks at me with a serious expression and starts laughing. Huh? Why is he laughing about it? It isn't even funny! I didn't tell a joke!
"Why are you laughing? I'm being serious right now! Parad, answer me!"
"Sorry, I just find it funny that you think I wouldn't know about that." He holds his side. "Oh, Kara! I can teleport and see all kinds of things. That is one of things I actually saw about to happen and I allowed it to. I thought it was clear that this was sort of an open thing."
"You never said we were being open!"
"Well, I thought you would know since I am a Bugster and I'm never going to be a human. Let's be honest, okay? I'm not going to be able to marry you unless I get a fake ID."
"True."
"And a few other things but forget that. We're open because I need someone to take care of my Princess until I can rule the world."
"Why couldn't you say that before? I was freaking out!"
"I thought you would know."
"Dude, I'm clueless!"
"I can tell. Anyways, feel free to date him. I don't really care what you do with him honestly. Relationships are so hard to manage. I didn't know I had to be clear on the details of it."
"Of course you have to be clear on it! I thought I was cheating on you with him and I truly wasn't this entire time. I even told him that I couldn't be with him because I thought we were exclusive. I was ready to totally cut him off and make him beg." I would actually love to see him begging on his knees with a dog collar on. That would actually be sort of sexy and I'm so kinky. I love it.
"Well, I'll be sure to start explaining how our relationship is going to be. But yeah, go ahead and apologize to him for making him think you two can't be together. He's rich so he can obviously take care of you. And he gets to see you a lot and can please you for me."
"But you're pleasing enough."
"But you love the danger he is providing you, right? I can feel it when I see you two together. Boy is dangerous," Parad states. Does he know something I don't know exactly? Is something really dangerous about Dan?
"Well, I'm going to go and apologize to him tomorrow. I'm going to be discharged by tomorrow so I can buy him a cake and write on it." And he's totally going to punish me for turning him down. What if he turns me down for turning him down? He might be totally into revenge.
"What about me? Do I get a cake?"
"Do you even eat?"
"I'm pretty sure I can if I try. I am in a human body even though it is more of a form," Parad answers.
I laugh. "You look wonderful right now. Even if you weren't in this form, I would still want to be with you. I can ignore how different we all because we feel a lot of the same things."
He moves closer to me and leans in, placing a gentle kiss on my cheek. "I'm glad that you don't hate the idea of being with someone who has two different forms to walk this world in. I will continue to use this form though. I have my reasons to."
I smile. "Parad, I think we're going to have a great time together."
"We always do. I actually enjoy talking to about whatever Humans tend to do with themselves. It is really exciting to hear all kinds of stories about life."
"And your life isn't that exciting?"
"It is very exciting. I play video games all day."
"That is actually really cute and a normal person wouldn't play games all day. They eventually get bored of it."
"Why is that?"
"Our attention span."
"Ah."
"Yep." I wrap my arms around him and hug him tightly. Even though my body is screaming for me to not move around too much.
He hugs me back. "Kara, are you sure you want to be moving around?"
"I'm fine," I answer. "Don't worry about me, okay?"
"But I have to worry about you."
"Parad, let's just focus on what we all need to do."
"Alright."
"How about you show me your skills for Mighty Action X?"
"I can do that."
Of course.