Silence Chapter 9
Previous Chapters: 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1
Silence
Chapter 9
By Tiger Dauthi
It's been a long time, yes. Can I ask you to forgive me? To make up for it, I've written as much gooey Mia/Isaac and as long of a chapter as I deem suitable.
"Miiiiiiaaa!!"
The voice echoed through the thin white walls. A girl of about sixteen was sitting on a pinewood stool, hands spread out over a woolen blue blanket. A small lump in the blanket indicated that a person lay under it, though thin and frail.
A young child with a map of brown hair rushed in, shoes slapping against the dirt floor. Water dripped from his body, and when he gestured wildly it flew everywhere.
"Mia! Mia! There's a man who's collapsed at the entrance!"
The teengaer rose up, startled.
"How is he?" she asked quickly.
The child trembled.
"I don't know, but he looked blueish!"
The wooden stool toppled over in Mia's rush to get to the door. "Take care of Elder Strr, okay?" she called out behind her back to the boy, who nodded vigorously.
A second later, all that could be seen was the swinging door, creaking with each revolution.
The first thing Isaac did was wiggle his fingers. They seemed to be wrapped tightly in some sort of gauze, and itched horribly.
He tried to sit up, eyes still squeezed shut, but footsteps clattered across the ground and a hand pushed him down.
"You haven't healed properly yet!" A light feminine voice told him sternly.
The hand moved to his forehead.
"And you still have a fever!"
Isaac cracked open his eyes to see who was talking, but shut them immediately again when a raging headache accosted him. He groaned.
A long period, filled with strenous breathing, passed before further movement came from the room. A wooden stool scratched against the ground as the person stood up, preparing to leave. Isaac's hands shot out in the blind panic of being left alone, and found a dainty hand which he gripped hard.
The person wrested her hand out of his crushing grip, but then clasped his fist with both hands. Isaac felt a light touch on his forehead as she kissed it.
"Don't worry, I'll be back in about five minutes. If you need anything, just call my name, okay? It's Mia."
Isaac's eyes shot open at this, and he kept his eyes open even though the pain rushed into his head and made his vision swim. A faint outline of a figure in blue showed up in his blurred vision, surrounded by a dim halo.
The person could be anyone, of course. Perhaps the desolate iceland he'd wandered into was filled with people who had blue hair. But the moment Isaac set his eyes on her, he was sure.
It was her.
"Mia..."
The word came out of him unbidden. It was so soft that even he almost didn't hear it, and the voice was raspy from more than a decade of disuse. Isaac dropped his head into the pillow, exhausted, out before he realized he'd spoken.
Somewhere, a bronze seal rumbled. A crack split it wide open, and it tremored for a bit. Then it seemed to groan loudly. A moment later it shattered to thousands of metal pieces.
The first seal was broken.
Mia regarded the blond teen before her. The icicles his hair had frozen into had melted, and the fine yellow threads spread out around him, splayed out to give the appearance of a lion's mane.
He's handsome.
Alex was prettier.
Mia winced as she thought of the long-haired man who'd promised her empty promises, then left abruptly for gods-know-what, leaving her nothing. She harbored no anger at him, just hope that he would find what he was searching for, pity for his eternal unrest, and a sort of wistfulness for the days gone by.
And love, of course.
She cast her eyes away from the snoozing patient in an attempt to push out the melancholy thoughts that invaded her mind, but no matter what she did, her eyes would travel their way back to the boy's face.
Mia's face scrunched up as she tried to recall the boy's name. Any passerby would've been unable to describe it as anything but cute. Her nose wrinkled a tiny bit, and her light blue eyebrows knotted together as she rested her chin on her hands.
Oh, right. The guy had obviously been too weak to tell her what his name was - he hadn't even been able to open his eyes. Mia sat back and sighed softly, knocking herself lightly on the head. She chuckled to herself.
The chuckling stopped abruptly as she froze, horrified at where her hand had traveled. It was now resting on the boy's cheek, pale skin against even paler skin. She marveled a bit at how nice it looked like that, but quickly withdrew her hand as if burned. She muttere incoherently to herself as she started fleeing out of the burgundy room, shaking her head.
A scream behind her caused her to pause and spin around. The patient's needs were more important than her own. She reached the edge of his bed just as the boy started arching and writhing, screaming insensibly.
Only she could decipher faintly what he was saying - "Mia! Mia! Miaaaaaa!!"
Mia froze, perched at the head with a wet towel in her hand. The boy's eyes shot open, and glazed ice blue eyes stared back at her own. The yelling stopped, and the guy smiled softly for a moment.
"Mia..."
His hand rose up to touch her cheek, resting in the same manner as hers had only a few minutes before. His eyes were still unfocused though, causing Mia to wonder whether he was really seeing her.
The guy's fingertips barely grazed her cheek before they fell and splashed into the basin of cold water at the head of the bed. His eyes had closed again, and apparently he was unconcious.
Trembling, Mia reached out a hand to determine his temperature. Her eyes widened, and she stood there, frozen in shock for a few moments. Quickly she ran some glowing spells over him and gave him a full diagnosis. Finally she sat back, breathing heavily and staring at him in mute wonder.
His fever had gone down, his wounds had healed almost perfectly - in fact, he seemed in almost perfect shape.
Shaking her head, Mia walked out of the room.
Isaac thought it was rather funny, really. Now that he'd gotten better, they'd moved him to a soft fluffy goose-feather mattress; originally he'd gotten a cold hard lump that was only a little bit better than a rock.
A knock against wood brought his attention to the blue-haired girl who stood in the doorway. They stared at each other, the awkward silence stretching in between them.
"What's your name?"
Isaac thought of how to get himself a sheet of parchment, but he surprised himself by replying easily, "Isaac."
Did I just... talk?
Mia was smiling at him, he realized, and he flushed. This must be a dream.
But it wasn't, for she strode over in graceful steps and placed her hand on his forehead. He felt the cool fingers slightly frosted by the cold air outside, tapping lightly on his face.
"You seem well," Mia remarked.
He stayed silent, shock still written all over his face.
Mia raised an eyebrow at him, but didn't ask about it. Instead she fussed over him, patting him down and muttering to herself. Isaac felt his face begin to flush as she continued touching his chest, but he willed himself to stay still. At length Mia paused for a second, straightening back up, and he took this opportunity to fling his legs out of bed, ignoring Mia's worried protests.
A painful crash onto the floor told him he should've listened to Mia. His legs felt like they were on fire and his kneecap jutted out of his skin. The muscles had really atrophied, and he winced as pain shot up his entire body. The fact that he was feeling tired after only this brief encounter dismayed him even more.
Arms encircled him from behind, and he whipped around on instinct, ready to assault the assailer. The mere effort of reacting made him unable to do much more than feebly hit Mia though, and he was thankful for that, however angry he was at his state of health.
"I told you so," her condensending voice said to him sternly in his ear. Mia's hot breath tickled on his ear, and Isaac quickly felt himself becoming flushed again, wondering why the girl made him so uncomfortable. Isaac was dragged up onto the white linen sheets, and Mia drew the covers of the blanket over his thin frame, her face scowling yet worried.
She's worried for me. No one had ever worried for him except his mother.
"Rest," she said softly. Isaac pouted at that, which caused Mia to grin at his cute face. He really did look like a child, face puckered up and eyes filled with innocence. His face was too thin and a dark glimmer in his eyes hinted at a not-so-innocent past, but if Mia ignored that, the soft golden hair framing his face really did make him look like a child.
"Awww, does ickle Isaac need a goodnight kiss?"
Isaac instantly stopped his pouting, his face turning a bright red instead. He averted his face, and Mia realized what she'd just said. Horrified, she quickly stammered, "I was just joking, j-j-joking." Her cheeks burning, she cast her face down, and mumbled, "I'll just leave now, ok?"
She turned around, about to leave, but heard Isaac stutter softly, "I-I-I wouldn't m-mind."
Mia froze, unsure of what to do. On the one hand, he seemed kind and entirely unlike the type of person to take advantage... on the other hand he was a man, and...
Alex.
Mia rose abruptly and almost ran out of the room.
Mia didn't come to visit Isaac for days. During this time Isaac thought incessantly about her, worried that he had offended her and that he wouldn't be welcome here anymore. Meanwhile he was tended to by a little pig-tailed girl who called herself Jo and caused him to smile when she tried to adopt a stern tone with him.
Being still a child, she didn't think of Isaac as too strange when his words slurred and he mispronounced things, a thing Isaac was thankful for.
A chilling gust suddenly rushed in, nipping at his toes as he scrambled to cover his wool blanket over his exposed feet.
A tiny cough brought his attention back to the person who had entered the room.
Mia was standing there, with snow flakes peppering her cerulean hair. Isaac's breath hitched for a moment, and he felt himself going red for reasons he couldn't explain.
Her head was bowed down low, and her eyes flitted from side to side as she mumbled out something incomprehensible.
"Er, I'm sorry?" Isaac asked.
Mia sighed and threw her head back, raking a hand through mussed up blue hair.
"I-I don't know why it's so hard." She raised her eyes and stared directly at Isaac with such an intensity that Isaac felt the need to avert his own eyes.
"Look, I'm just, I'm sorry, alright?"
Isaac blinked.
"What?"
"You know, the other day, when I ran out of the room? I'm sorry, ok?"
An image of Mia leaning closer and closer to him popped up in his head, and he felt his cheeks flame. Ashamed of himself he looked to the side and mumbled, "Er, yeah. It's alright. Wasn't nothing big."
There was a sudden cooling sensation on his forehead, and his eyes popped open in surprise. Mia had rushed over and was currently gauging his temperature, opening his mouth, lowering her face nearer...
With a cry Isaac scrambled back from her. The pained look on Mia's face made him instantly regret it, but he couldn't be too close to her. When she was close, with her pretty sky blue colored eyes and hair that smelled like strawberry despite the bitter outdoors, Isaac couldn't see straight, much less think straight.
An awkward silence stretched for what seemed like hours after the debacle. Finally Isaac inched closer to Mia again, and said quietly, "I'm sorry. Th-that was rude of me."
His eyes were stilled averted, and Mia couldn't help but be relieved at that fact. When he focused his ice clear eyes on her, Mia felt a warmth within her belly that made her feel immensely uncomfortable.
"It's alright-" she started.
Isaac cut her off, hurriedly saying, "No, no, I shouldn't have done that. I am really, really sorry."
The terrified expression on his face was so cute that Mia couldn't help but chuckle a little, but her throat closed up again as his gaze focused on her again. As their eyes made contact, Mia wondered how his eyes could be so clear and yet so dark at the same time, deep blue orbs that were electrifying in their gaze.
After a moment she couldn't stand looking at him anymore, and she broke off eye contact, saying in a too-cheerful voice, "Let's see if you can walk now, Isaac!"
Isaac's face (she could've sworn it had dimmed since she'd stopped looking) brightened up considerably, and he exclaimed in a happy child-like voice, "Ooh, I can get out of bed!"
With a flourish, he attempted to get out of bed fancily, but when he sprung from his back he overbalanced and collapsed on the floor.
Mia was at his side in a moment, cradling him in his lap, anxiety written all over his face.
A sudden strange urge struck him and he grinned goofily for the first time, then pushed himself to his feet.
"See? Alright."
Mia looked at him strangely, but the thoroughly disheveled look he had coupled with the idiotic smile plastered on his face had her grinning herself.
"All righty then," she said. "Last checkup, and then you're good to go." Her smile faltered a little bit as she said this, but it was imperceptible to all but the most observant.
If nothing else Isaac was most definitely observant from all the time he'd spent in silence, but he said nothing.
Mia patted him from top to bottom, checked his eyes and mouth and heartbeat, then cheerily said, "Seems you're perfectly fine!" Then clearing her throat, she asked, an awkward stilt in her voice, "Would you, ah, like to have a tour around the village?"
Isaac felt himself go red again, a funny feeling in his stomach. "S-sure."
Mia smiled bashfully.
"Ok then, get dressed, and I'll see you in a bit."
She bounded out of the room, and Isaac sat down heavily on his bed. Things had changed so radically. But then, Isaac was used to radical things in his life. And this was definitely one of the better changes.
His life was finally looking up.
Ok, this chapter basically has no closure, but I had to end it here because if I dragged it on any longer, it would be uninspired and ridiculously long. My original idea was to cram the Mia/Isaac meeting into one chapter, with them continuing on, but then I spent an enormous amount of time away(heh, 3 months... >_>) and so I tried to write more about them to compensate... Except that didn't work too well. So what was originally one chapter has been split into two, with a huge amount of Mia/Isaac in each. Okie dokie. Pweese don't kill me for having to wait so long! ;-;