dude he's like in a coma

[tenwholeryou]

Characters: Kotarou, visitors
Format: any
This log is: open
Location: one of the infirmary rooms.
Summary: After this battle, Kotarou is transferred to the infirmary to recover from his Exaclan-induced coma. This log covers the three days he's out, and his waking up after that. Depending on 'when' you visit, he might not respond, but feel free to mingle around the unconscious kid.
Warnings: moar trauma. Copious angst. Possibly people will get punched.

The room is small, one of the minor rooms set aside for students who aren't in the infirmary for a scraped knee or a cold. There are several metal chairs scattered around the room, as well as a single table and a curtain that can be pulled around the bed if need be. The bed itself swamps the boy lying in it, with white sheets and a faded green coverlet; a monitor is within reach on the bedside unit. It beeps every minute, on the dot, to let the nurse know his charge is still alive. Despite this and the drip in his arm, visitors are assured that he will wake up with no negative side-effects within a few days.

Comments

[tenwholeryou]

Kotarou squinted at them both, not awake enough to process what they were telling him beyond the basics.

"Suzaku's here," he looked between them, then down at the covers. Wait, if he was there, who was missing? A battle... they'd been in the middle of a battle! His head snapped up again, the sudden movement greying out his vision for a second, "Broke-- Does that mean Ichi lost? You were fighting each other..."

His immediate thought was just that, if Suzaku had won, the annoying black-haired guy he used as a weapon was never going to let Kotarou hear the end of it. His second was that Ichi wasn't here. "What happened?"

[allurprincess]

There has to be a way to make everyone aware of the dangers of the weapons, Sora thinks. Can she just tell everyone? Would that stop the damage? She's not sure, and that train of thought is severed when Oichi lurches towards the bed. Yes, she's acting oddly, but that isn't strange to Sora, she recognises despair when she sees it.

So, naturally, she gets between Huashi and Oichi, going down to one knee to try and reassure the monkey-tailed girl. She doesn't know Oichi well, but that's never stopped Sora from believing in someone before.

"She won't hurt him, I promise. What happened back there, his weapon--" she swallows, and glances back at Oichi, "It's painful for everyone. She didn't know this would happen. None of you did, and we should have told you all sooner."

[themouthofhell]

Oichi opens the door, closes it behind her and promptly drops the croissant she had been holding. It was just her luck that the moment she left the room to go get something to eat-- her stomach twisting itself into knots in its hunger-- Kotarou woke up.

In her haste to make her way over, she steps on the bread, trips and ends up on her knees by the head of his cot. A tear drips down her face and she slowly gets to her feet once again.

"Kotarou," she says. "You aren't dead..."

[monkeystail]

Huashi'd hoped Ichi wouldn't be back so soon. How is she gonna have the chance to ask Kotarou what she's been thinking of, with all these people here?! And Ichi... Huashi gives the woman a narrow stare. She still smells, and she knows it's not due to some physical disease. It's something else, and it makes her really, really unsettled.

"They fought. She got confused. Your pendant broke," Huashi explains as shortly as she can, but she's not sure why she doesn't say that Ichi threw it.

[monkeystail]

"If she'd listened to him--!" Huashi almost shouts, but lowers her voice. Sora kneeling in front of her isn't distracting her from keeping an eye on Ichi. And she doesn't believe Sora. Not hurt him? When she behaves like that, and that smell!

"Really? What's with... with... that then?! HUH? And she smells. Bad. Sweet. Like rotten fruit." Huashi doesn't really care about Ichi's intentions, really, because she's sure (she thinks) Ichi didn't 'mean to' hurt Kotarou by fighting with his pendant. No, it's Ichi's behaviour she's zeroed in on.

[themouthofhell]

Oichi doesn't respond to any of the things Huashi says; just steps forwards more, in her usual way, until she is at the head of the cot, close enough to touch Kotarou's sleeping face.

She sees his chest rise and fall and the tears that had gathered fall now. "Ah... he isn't... he's not dead..." she manages after a beat.

[veepofchess]

But there was another player still to come. Lelouch let himself in quietly, his demeanor appropriately solemn and serious. In his hand was the Exaclan manual. But Suzaku and Kallen would recognize the air of command around him. As though he would have something for them following paying his respects.

"The Exaclan manual states that just this sort of thing can happen if a Weapon is severely damaged or broken," he said. "He'll awaken in a few days, and be himself again after a few more." He sounded a bit cold, but since he hadn't been surprised by the reaction, it stood to reason. "It's all a part of the programming of this school."

[monkeystail]

"Of course he's not dead!" Huashi doesn't shriek, exactly, but it's close enough (because while he's not dead right now, maybe he'll just not wake up and be dead later), and Oichi is too close. Huashi snarls and jumps, landing on the other side of Kotarou's bed, slapping Oichi's hand away.

"No. touching," she hisses, because she's not gonna let a woman like that touch Kotarou, even if he likes her.

[swordofzero]

Suzaku looked round to see Oichi and stepped back slightly to let her see that Kotarou was alright. He nodded at Huashi's words but kept quiet and to the back not wanting to smother the child and knowing that it was more important that Kotarou saw his friends than him. He waited quietly for him to be ready.

[swordofzero]

Suzaku turned from where he was knelt at Kotarou's side. It was Lelouch and his calm, authoritive, almost cold, tone cut through Suzaku's panic and confusion. "It says that in the book?" He asked dully. This place expected things like this to happen, so much that there was a section in the rule book about it? Well that was just wrong....

He clenched his fists slightly, "Who are they? How do we bring them down?" It was more to himself, he knew Lelouch didn't have the answers but he was angry and upset.

[tenwholeryou]

"Dead?" He repeated, glancing to Huashi for some kind of explanation beyond that, "But... Ichi was the one fighting."

He frowned down at the covers again, then shook his head violently to try and make some sense of his thoughts. It was becoming obvious that his memories of the battle were patchy at best; he seemed more worried that Oichi was crying. It's time for some bluster. "Of course I'm not dead, Ichi! Didn't I promise?"

[themouthofhell]

She pauses then, looking from Huashi to Kotarou very slowly, brows furrowing just slight. A tear rolls down her face but she doesn't shake anymore. There is a certain amount of clarity to her movements as she goes to brush Kotarou's bangs out of his face, hands cold.

"It's Ichi's fault... that Kotarou is here... Ichi... is sorry." And like that, she shakes again.

[monkeystail]

Huashi keeps from sighing in annoyance, just barely; admitting guilt is all fine and well, but this whole thing could have been avoided if she'd just listened. It may have been different if Icho had only had Kotarou, but she hadn't.

Huashi frowned hard at Oichi's hand, but didn't do anything. She still didn't like Ichi touching Kotarou. There was something wrong with her and Huashi didn't trust her. Well, she could do the first part of her plan...

"Suzaku! Do you have to be a Player's Weapon to have a Player buy you things?" Huashi looked over Oichi's head to Suzaku, frowning. It didn't really matter either way at this point, but the description in the book confused her.

[swordofzero]

Suzaku blinked when he was spoken to. "No, in the manual it says that only players can use the machines but you can buy things for anybody they don't need to be your own Weapons. I think… Did you wish to buy some things?"

Talking of things that had been bought he brought the things he had bought for Kotarou out of his pocket and moved closer to the bed again, kneeling at the side. "Here, apparently these rings will make your weapons stronger or give it abilities, and here is a memory charm." He gave a tiny smile; he really hoped he had been of some use though he knew it couldn't make what he had done any better.

[tenwholeryou]

Kotarou bore the tidying of his hair silently, his eyes almost crossing to follow her hand. The moment she'd finished and pulled away, he ran his fingers through it and messed it up even worse than before.

Of course.

"Didn't I say it was okay? Geez, who's gonna take you seriously if you apologise this much, huh?" He didn't mean it, his smile was only half-hidden as he sat up to catch her hand before it dropped to her side. "Just be careful next time, and I'll forgive you!"

He'd tuned out Huashi and Suzaku until then, but when a handful of jewellery was held out to him, he belatedly started listening.

"For me?" He didn't release Ichi's hand just yet.

[themouthofhell]

Oichi squeezes his fingers just slightly, pausing at his words. Someone had said that to her before; she doesn't know who did, just that it happened. How odd, how very odd. It strikes up a feeling of near nostalgia in her, and just as quickly as the feeling comes it goes, carried away by a breeze. She won't make the same mistake twice.

She nods, murmuring to herself: "It does no one any good to cry like that..."

Then, audible, in response to the rings and charm: "So pretty..."

[monkeystail]

Huashi nods in answer to Suzaku's question, and sqiurms. She's not sure she want to ask this with Ichi and Suzaku here. What if Kotarou'd prefer to not do it? ... Well, she decides with a frown, then he just would not prefer it that way. That was all right.

Right?

She wasn't sure why she felt uncertain, all of a sudden.

"Kotarou... I was thinking... Would you like me to get a Link Charm for us?" She has to really, really, control herself to look at Kotarou. Daddy'd said you should face your fears, and Yu Long had said something about taking rejection gracefully. She would look this in the face.

[swordofzero]

"Yes, for you," Suzaku gave Kotarou a small smile and handed over the charm and rings. Then he stepped back a step when Huashi spoke to Kotarou, he would be happy to use the booths for her so that she could by a Link Charm for her and Kotarou if they wanted.

[tenwholeryou]

"T-thanks..." A slow blink before it clicked; he finally looked down at the jewels and flushed. It felt a little dishonest to be taking something for... but it was a gift, and the knight didn't seem to mind. Wasn't he friends with a lot of people? He could afford this. That must be it. His fingers closed over them with much less reluctance, and he nodded once, almost into a bow. With these, he could be a lot more reliable.

Which left:

"Us?" Kotarou stared at Huashi, wide-eyed. "But I can't fight."

[monkeystail]

Huashi shook her head and grabbed the hand that wasn't holding all the new gifts.

"Doesn't matter! If you want to, I'll teach you to fight with a staff... and a sword, too, but I only know swords that are closer to what Ichi's is. But you don't have to, if you don't want to." She paused here to stare at him. She knew how to fight, had trained long and hard with several different weapons, but that was not for everyone.

"If you don't want to, you don't have to, but I... I'd like it if you wanted... To be linked with me," Huashi said quietly, keeping the nervous smile that wanted to erupt under strict guard. Kotarou would do as Kotarou wanted, but she hoped he wanted to be linked.