Chapter 5: Let the healing begin

'Warm…' that was the first thought that went though Masaomi's mind as he awoke, and the first thing he felt as well. Warmth, comfort, security, things he hadn't felt for what seemed like forever.

Caramel eyes cracked open blearily, not really wanting to leave the comforting oblivion of sleep, to view the ceiling of the small guest room. The first thing Masaomi noticed was that the room was far darker than her remembered, someone must of turned off the lights.

The bleach blonde turned his bandaged head to the side to take in the sleeping visage of the raven haired boy beside him. Mikado looked content in his slumber, a small hint of a smile on his lips. Masaomi couldn't help but let a smile come to his own lips at the sight, remembering all the times he'd slept over at Mikado's house in the past, almost always waking before the blue eyed boy.

Masaomi slowly lifted his hand from where it lay atop Mikado's bandaged one, and lightly brushed the soft raven hair with his fingers, tracing his hand along a large bandage on the raven's cheek. Bronze eyes examined the body laying beside him. From the bandaged brow and neck, to the bled through wrappings of Mikado's hand, laying across the boys body which looked scarily small and frail under the heavy comforter, all the way to the casts imprisoning Mikado's legs.

This is all my fault…

All my fault…

Mikado…

It's all my fault…

Just like before.

Masaomi felt bile rise in his throat as unwanted memories rose in his mind, and he wasn't even aware he was clinging to the boy beside him until the unconscious teen stirred, slight murmurs and groans signaling his awakening and alerting the blonde boy laying beside him, who turned his honey eyes to the other boys face just in time to greet the sleepy blue ones that slowly fluttered open.

Mikado didn't seem to notice him for a moment until her blinked the sleep from those big blue eyes and finally focused the other teen.

"Masaomi…" just like before they had slept, Mikado's voice was strained, scratchy and barely above a whisper.

"Morning Sleepy head," Masaomi said with a half-forced smile as he sat up, never once breaking eye contact with Mikado, "How do you feel, you want anything?"

Mikado paused, thoughtful for a moment before choking out another word, "Water…"

"Gotcha," the blonde replied, sliding his legs off the bed and turning on a lamp that stood on a table beside the bed. He was about to get up ad go to the door when he noticed a large water bottle and two plastic cups sitting next to the lamp. He briefly thought that Anri or the Black Rider, Celty he mentally corrected, must have left it for them, as he opened the bottle and filled one of the cups before turning back to his injured friend, cup in hand.

"Try to sit up a little," Masaomi spoke softly, moving his free hand to help carefully move the other boy into a more favorable position, however the instant he head a murmur of discomfort from the raven, he stopped the motion, deciding Mikado was upright enough, and brought the cup to the boy's lips, Mikado's uninjured hand coming to hold the cup himself as he gulped the water down gratefully. The whole cup was drained in a matter of seconds and Masaomi lay the blue eyed teen back down with a slight smile.

"Better?" the blonde asked, setting the cup back on the side table.

"Yeah…" came Mikado's voice, still quiet and horse, but clearer and all together sounding much better than it had a moment ago. Mikado's blue eyes darted around the dimly lit room, taking in the unfamiliar surroundings, "Where are we?"

"The Black rider's place, apparently" Masaomi answered quietly, pouring himself his own glass of water that he quickly downed.

"Celty-san's…?" Mikado trailed off

"So you know her name too huh? Guess that's to be expected" Masaomi said as he turned back to his friend with a half hearted chuckle, only to notice that Mikado was staring at him with unreadable blue eyes, "Something wrong?" he asked.

Mikado's only response was to reach up to Masaomi with his uninjured hand, and gently brush his fingers over the bandages wrapped tightly around the blonde boys head.

"You're hurt…" The raven trailed off, a concerned look on his face, cerulean eyes locked with Kida's bronze orbs.

"Horada threw a crowbar at me…" The blonde said nonchalantly, putting on another half forced smile, trying to lighten the situation.

"A Crowbar!" Mikado rasped out with all the volume he could muster (still not much), his eyes widening as he sat up from the bed, only to immediately regret the action and let out a decent gasp of pain. Masaomi immediately moved to his ailing friend, his hands coming to rest gently on the other teen's shoulders.

"Take it easy, it's not that bad," Kida said, even though he had no idea of the actual severity of his injuries. But aside from his sore abdomen and a slight headache he really felt fine.

The blonde let his bronze gaze fall away from his friend, and let his hands fall into his lap for a moment, "Besides… compared to what you went through, a couple bumps and bruises are nothing."

Mikado let his blue eyes fall to his bandaged arm, sitting useless in a sling against his chest, and finally noticed the casts on his legs. His eyes darkened for a moment, unreadable.

"Still… you got hurt…" Mikado said, his vision blurring as he felt tears coming on, "for my sake… and-" he broke off his sentence when he felt a warm hand on top of his own and turned to look at the blonde sitting on the bedside, who locked eyes with him, dropping all fake smiles and looking into Mikado's blue eyes with an unreadable expression.

"Mikado…" Masaomi's voice sounded far off, but serious, "do you remember the day we met?"

Mikado blinked, a small smile coming to his face, "of course I do, how could I forget…"

"Then you should also remember the promise I made you."

Mikado paused, unsure of what to say or do to respond to that, as Masaomi raised his hand to cup Mikado's bandage studded face.

"I promised… that I would protect you, no matter what," the blonde's voice was firm as a small, sad, but genuine smile spread across his lips, "I've never forgotten that promise Mikado, and I never will," Bronze eyes went glassy with regret as they cast a glance over the battered body of the teen beside him, as the smile fell, "though, I guess I was a little late this time…" Masaomi trailed off, having run out of words, and turned his eyes back to Mikado, putting a sad smile back on his face as tears pricked in his honey orbs. His voice lost, all the blonde could do was look to Mikado for a response to what he'd said.

Mikado stared at his best friend, blue eyes wide and unreadable, and for a moment that seemed like an eternity, silence dominated the air.

Then all at once, tears welled in bright blue eyes, lips tightened into a line, and the next thing Masaomi knew, Mikado's crying face was buried in his own aching chest, the raven haired boy's unhurt hand clenching at the back of his shirt.

For a few long moments they stayed like that, Mikado trembling and crying in the arms of Masaomi, who wasn't able to do much other that return the other boy's embrace, until the blonde managed to find his voice once more.

"Mikado…"

"I-I was s-so sc-sca-scared…" Mikado said through the tears and hiccupping sobs, "I-I was so sure that… I th-thought… that I w-was going to…" Neither boy even wanted to think about the possible end of that sentence as the brunette trailed off, burying himself deeper into Masaomi's embrace with another incoherent sob.

For a moment, Masaomi was silent, as if he was unsure of what to do. But the act of comforting his best friend was not at all unfamiliar, though it had been quite some time since he'd needed to fulfill the long forgotten duty. But within the course of another moment, Masaomi fell into the familiar motions, once reserved for driving away tears caused by petty school yard bullies.

One hand fell to the small of Mikado's back, gently pressing the boy closer, as the other hand came up to pet Mikado's raven hair. The blonde gently traced soothing, barely there circles on his friends back, mindful not to agitate the brunette's injuries.

Neither boy knew how long they sat in that embrace, the room silent save for Mikado's crying and Masaomi's comforting whispers into his best friend's Ear.

"It's okay…"

"You're safe now… you're alright…"

"Everything is alright…"

Anri sat outside the door separating her from her friends, knee's pulled to her chest, quietly resisting the urge to enter the room as she listened to the muffled, almost barely there sounds of crying coming through the walls.

Anri buried her face in her knees, trying to block out the sound. Though she knew this was a futile effort. Even if she was able to block out the sounds of her injured friends distress, the maddened chorus of 'Love', 'Cut' and other incomprehensible insanity would never cease. And honestly, it was hard to decided which as worse: the maddened chorus of nonsense that filled her own mind, or the muffled, broken sobs drifting through the door.

A sudden touch on her shoulder pulled the bearer of Saika from her reverie. Red brown eyes looked up hesitantly, into the worried expression, or rather, lack there of, of Celty, who raised her PDA into Anri's field of vision.

[ Are you going to be okay Anri?] The concern in the words was obvious even though the Dullahan had no voice to speak them.

For a long while Anri just sat there, staring up into the bright screen with a blank face, as if she couldn't read the words in front of her, before finally answering with a slow, sorrowful shake of her head and a whisper, "I don't know…" Her gaze returned to the floor and a long, empty silence passed between the two, only broken by the slowly quieting, muffled crying from the room.

It surprised Anri to feel the burn of tears behind her eyes as she sat, listening to every sob, wail and hiccup, even as the sound became unbearable through the walls. She had long since thought she had no tears left to shed…

But this clenching in her chest at the very thought of her two dear friends…

The raven haired girl cast another saddened glance at the door before shutting her eyes and burying her face in her knees.

"This is… all my fault…" these words fell from Anri's lips softly, almost inaudible. As she cursed herself, Saika, her delayed actions, her parasitic nature, and her inability to even take revenge on the man who orchestrated her friends' misery. And even now she hated herself for not knowing what to do. She pulled her legs and arms closer, trying to shut out the cruelty of reality.

There was little Celty could do other than put down her PDA and carefully, gently, embrace the girl. She Irishwoman couldn't help but wish she had a voice to comfort the girl at this moment, to tell her everything would be okay…

The road to recovery looked quite long and hard for all three of the children. Long and difficult.

Celty could only pray that they were strong enough to pull though.

Masaomi let out a breath he didn't know he was holding, relief washing over him as Mikado's crying finally wound down to small, quiet sniffles and slow hiccupping breaths. The raven haired boy lay slack against the blond, hand still clutching Masaomi's shirt as the other boy continued to rub comforting circles on Mikado's back.

"Better now?" Masaomi said with a small, quiet smile. He felt Mikado nod against his shoulder before the black haired boy finally raised his head from the bleach blonde's now damp shirt. Blue eyes now rimmed with red turned to look up into Kida's clear caramel eyes. The dark haired boy opened and closed his mouth, trying to speak, but all that came out was a hoarse cough, followed by a hiccup.

Kida smiled sympathetically at his friend, and gently eased the injured boy back into a comfortable lounging position against the pillows. The blonde poured the last of the water bottle into one of the cups and brought it to Mikado's mouth, helping the boy drink before settling the blue eyes boy back onto the waiting pillow and pulling the comforter up to his chest once more.

"there we go," Kida said with a quiet smile and he gazed down at his friend, "you alright?"

Mikado, still not trusting his voice, nodded slowly and tried to smile at the blonde, who looked at him with worried bronze eyes. Kida sat down on the edge of the bed and gently ran his hand through Mikado's black hair.

"Do you want anything else?" Masaomi found himself saying, "I mean… are you hungry or anything."

Mikado made a move to shake his head, only for his stomach to answer for him rather loudly, making Masaomi smile and Mikado blush and try to bury his face in the pillow.

"S-sorry…" the dark haired boy croaked out, "I… I haven't been eating… very well lately…" he trailed off awkwardly with another cough.

Masaomi struggled to keep his smile on his face, and resisted the urge to say he hadn't been practicing healthy habits lately either.

"Well then, Masaomi said standing up, "I guess I should go look into getting us some food." the blonde made to move towards the door only to find a hand tugging on the back of his oversized shirt and a pair of frightened blue eyes looking into his own confused caramel orbs.

"Please don't leave." Mikado said in a trembling voice. Masaomi's stunned look softened instantly and he kneeled by the side of the bed and took Mikado's hand in his own, giving it a reassuring squeeze.

"I'm not leaving silly, I'm just going to the other room," Mikado just looked at him pleadingly, making Kida feel guilty for even thinking of leaving the boy's side, but alas, it was necessary. He ran the back of his hand over Mikado's forehead and cast the boy his own pleading look. "You should try and get some sleep." the blonde said this with no room for argument, "I'll leave the door open, so if you need anything just call okay, I'll come running, promise." and with those words Kida stood up and headed for the door, opening it and exiting the room.

Mikado was left all but trapped on the bed hands trembling from the loss of warmth.

End chapter 5

AN: funfact, the name of this chapter was changed from "Reconcile" to "let the healing begin" due to the fact I decided to split up the planned scenes into more chapters. Stories can mess with their writers that way.

this didnt turn out as good as i thought it would