Advent '09 [15/25]
Advent 09
December 15th - 10 days to go
Kanae had been waiting for this for two days now. She was finally getting to see Kyoko since she had been brought in.
Kanae wasn't a fantasising sort of person but during the long hours of last night she had been thinking about how Kyoko would react when they finally met up again.
It was to imagined smiles that Kanae opened the door that lunch time.
She had not imagined Kyoko to be staring in horrified curiosity at a clown at the bottom of her bed.
Kanae's eyes widened. She was debating whether to turn and just leave when the door shut behind her frozen form with a loud click and the clown turned to look at her.
Kanae swallowed, don't let it see the fear in your eye, she thought to herself.
The clown beckoned her over, speaking in rapid Italian. Kanae edged around it until she was standing by Kyoko, who was propped up on a mound of pillows.
"Kyoko." Kanae hissed quietly. "What is that?"
"It's a clown." Kyoko hissed back, shooting a look at Kanae that told the other girl that she thought she was slightly stupid for not knowing.
Kanae went to roll her eyes at Kyoko's idiotic-ness when the clown flourished a bouquet of fake flowers under her nose.
Rule One, she thought, NEVER take eyes off the clown.
Hesitantly she took the flowers, trying to suppress the shivers of horror at being so close.
The clown beamed at her and said something else in Italian.
Kanae thought it looked like it wanted to eat her face.
"What's it doing here?" She asked quietly.
"It's for the kids ward," Kyoko said, tilting her head - as if it would make the balloon animal shape make more sense. "My door was open and it saw me on its way past.
"It came here to cheer me up."
"They send clowns to the kids?" Kanae asked horrified, "Why would they do that?"
Kyoko shrugged. "Some people find them funny."
Kanae shivered and pressed back a little further against the wall she was leaning against. A thought made her frown. "Hey, hang on a moment. How do you know all that? You don't speak Italian."
Kyoko just looked at her, "Well what else would it be doing here?" She asked, "Unless it was really a murderer that was scoping out the weakest patients so he knows which to target first when he goes on a mad killing spree tonight."
There was a pause as both girls thought over what Kyoko had just said.
"Oh my God." Kanae said a little faintly.
Kyoko nodded in agreement with wide eyes, "Yeah, I think I just crept myself out with that."
The clown made one last grand flourish and bowed.
Kyoko, whose upbringing had taught her that politeness was key in any situation, clapped as the clown walked out the door, leaving an array of balloon animals behind him.
Kanae let out a breath of relief and collapsed in the chair by Kyoko's bed.
"Let's hope you get out of here by tonight, eh?"
-/-
Kanae had talked with Kyoko for over an hour about what had been happening whilst she was stuck on the mountain. After that though, both of them were extremely bored.
Really, there's nothing much to do in a hospital room.
Eventually, after five minutes of looking around the room, Kanae picked up the remote control.
"Oh hey, look! We could watch T.V.!" She said brightly.
"Yeah!" Kyoko responded with equal enthusiasm.
They both settled down facing the television, glad that they now had something to take their minds off the boredom.
The first channel had a programme about clowns. Kanae pressed the button to change it so hard that the remote gave an ominous crack. She ignored Kyoko's look of disbelief.
"What?" she asked defensively. "I think we've both had enough of clowns for today. Oh look!" she said distracting Kyoko, "You're on T.V.!"
"Kanae," Kyoko said slowly, "I'm an actress. Of course I'm on the television."
Kanae glared at her. "No. I meant that you're on television here."
Kyoko turned swiftly to look at the T.V. where, sure enough, it had pictures of Kyoko and Sho being loaded up into the ambulance and driven off.
"I didn't even know there were camera crews there." Kyoko said.
Kanae shrugged. "Well, it was a pretty big snowstorm and you two were the only ones lost in it. It was probably just a local news team but when they realised who you were it got sold on to the bigger stations."
"...It sometimes scares me how much you know."
"Hey!" Kanae said defensively, "I have to know these things. This is my livelihood we're talking about."
Kyoko sighed, "Oh! They're saying something! Turn it up."
Kanae gave her a weird look but did as she was told, immediately rapid Italian filled the room. Kyoko stared at the screen for a moment.
"That was a little stupid of me, wasn't it?" she asked.
"Yes." Kanae said shortly and turned the volume down again.
"So what do you think they're saying?"
Kanae studied the small pictures that were being shown to the right of the drama. "Well, I think they're explaining who you are...and what you're working on. Look, that's a media picture of Dark Moon.
"Oh! And there's Sho. Hey! I didn't realise he had a song on that soundtrack. Did you know?"
"...He may have mentioned something along the lines, yes."
Kanae turned back to the screen again. "Aaaaaaand...that's the shot of you when they found you. Ooooh. That's embarrassing."
Kyoko groaned and covered her face with her hands. "I can't believe I looked like that!"
"Well," Kanae said slowly, "You had been trapped on a mountain for two days."
"You think that the audience back home will forgive me for looking like that then?"
"No."
Kyoko groaned again.
"You've just got to hope that they never find this piece of footage ever."
"...That's never going to happen is it?"
"...No."
"Is there even a good side to this?" Kyoko asked exasperatedly.
"Um..." Kanae thought, "You probably made the local station very rich when they sold this piece of embarrassing and career destroying footage."
Kyoko turned to her best friend. "I hate you, you know that right."
Kanae grinned.
-/-
It wasn't until Kyoko was eating her tea that the Doctor showed up and started checking her over, marking things down on her chart.
"So, Doctor, do you know when she can get out of here?" Kanae asked.
The doctor looked over the notes again. "Well, it seems that Ms. Mogami has responded well to the treatments," he flipped a page, "and that there were no complications last night."
"What does that mean?" Kyoko asked.
"I mean that I don't see why you can't leave here without the proper instructions." The doctor turned to Kanae, "If you could contact your guardian and tell him to ask for me then I will give him instructions on how to handle Ms. Mogami's care."
Kanae nodded, "I'll do that."
The doctor smiled at Kyoko. "I hope to not see you again, Ms. Mogami. And do try to take care on the mountains the next time you are up there."
Kyoko nodded and watched as he left the room.
"Well," Kanae said, "that was easier than I expected."
"Don't jinx it!"
Kanae grinned. "I'll go phone President Takarada now."
-/-
It was barely an hour later that Kyoko found herself packed and ready to go.
"I've booked rooms at the hotel near here for tonight." Lory explained as he ushered them through the corridors, Kyoko being wheeled along by Kanae because it was painful for her to walk.
Kyoko looked at him in confusion.
"I didn't think it was a good idea to go straight back up the mountain to the mansion." Lory said, "If something went wrong then it would take a long time to get you back here. Your safety is my number one concern right now.
"So for tonight we'll stay near the hospital and then we'll move back home tomorrow."
Kyoko nodded. "Thank you."
Lory chuckled. "It's no problem Kyoko-chan. Just think of the paperwork if you died!"