Forgetful Days (Past)

[Old Man Grimm]

Forgetful Days, page 6

[Mandaz]

“Well yeah. A burning building practically fell on you. It’s a good thing you inhaled a lot of that smoke actually, it probably was responsible for you crawling out like you did. Dulling a lot of the pain you should have been feeling…”
She trailed off from there, realizing just how lucky Daniel was. That damn building. Why did she even drag him down there? He could have been killed and it was all her fault. She hung her head low, realizing just how stupid of a move it was. She had endangered the lives of innocent humans, even the congregation who were just blind. Worst of all, she didn’t even have any new information regarding her quest. It was an all around waste that Daniel was in this state.

But then again. He couldn’t have been feeling that bad.

“Yeah. Yeah. I guess after all those other lies we can be incestual too. Why not?” Everett rolled her eyes and laid the sarcasm on thick. She then gave him a rather straightforward stare before ruffling his bangs in her fingers, smirking a bit at his ramblings.

[Nayt]

Really? We could?

For a second there, Daniel had taken Everett's words seriously. They trumped her reference to a building practically falling on top of him. Granted, that was still pretty important, but Daniel had certain priorities. Girls just so happened to trump talking about past dangers that might have possibly killed him. For that brief second, Daniel had envisioned he and Everett leaving the hospital, Everett helping him along by holding onto his chest from the side, Daniel with his arm around her. They nearly reached the light at the end of the hospital, when she gave him a kiss of gratitude.

It was a boyish fantasy interrupted and shot down when Everett ruffled his bangs and smirked. She was just joking. He threw around several curses in his mind, all at the situation only. A dream was a dream, then. Though, it had been extremely strange. Daniel couldn't remember when he started to have daydreams like that about Everett. Had that just been a recent development? And he realized that he basically called her cute moments earlier . . .

"Aw, bugger," replied Daniel with a failed attempt at pouting, "You had my hopes up, too."

[Mandaz]

“Ha!” She snorted at Daniel’s pout. “Don’t get too excited now, you’re not so protected from your wandering imagination here.”

Everett leaned back in her chair with the smile still plastered on her face. Knowing Daniel, it would take him a minute to figure out what she meant. In fact, she was almost positive that he wouldn’t get it at all. It seemed he had yet to realize how naked he was, and how the only thing keeping his boney flesh from exposure was a warm hospital blanket and a few choice bandages. Everett was naïve, but she knew a little about the male anatomy, and how boys got when they fantasized, or even thought of things they shouldn’t have been. With all of the recent passes on the girl, she could only assume he was setting himself up for embarrassment. But at this point she wasn’t really offended by it, and just allowed him to mumble to his hearts content. He was injured after all; she could beat him up properly when he was released.

“Ya need anything? Three days without food has probably left you hungry.”

[Nayt]

And the boy from Ulster was blissfully unaware of his own lack of clothes. Everett's words confounded him; he didn't understand what she meant, and had to take it at face value. It was pretty clear what he had said, or at least implied. Any reference to a particular fantasy or daydream was left out, though. Daniel wasn't sure that Everett could be remotely close in knowing what he was thinking whenever one happened to pop up. Actually, there had only been a total of three up to this point--the first one out of pure reluctance, so it really didn't matter much in the first place. Because of this, Daniel watched her as she reclined in her chair, his expression contorted in confusion.

What did make sense was the notion of food. He had been out of it for about three days, and though he was hydrated well enough during this time, nutrient intake was probably at a minimum, at least in regards to a fifteen year old boy. A new priority came to mind, spawned by Everett: Daniel was starving.

"You know, something to eat would be awesome," he replied, trying--and failing--to hide the fact that his newly realized hunger pains were influencing him, "I am pretty starved . . ."

[Mandaz]

It was sad; he was really trying to understand her. It was actually kind of cute the way his eyes looked puzzled, like a puppy or some other sort of small, cute animal. Though Everett liked the puppy idea the best, considering she made another dog-related comment about his hair earlier. She didn’t notice it then, but now, in the way his hair fussed from freshly being freed from the pillow and how the light seemed to catch each twist and turn in his locks. He really did look like a lost little dog. Everett wondered if all humans were like that in some way, just Daniel a bit more than most.

“Alright, kiddo, what would you like? I guess I could get something for you, but don’t think this makes me your servant or anything!”

She sneered and crossed her arms, now standing at the foot of his bed impatiently tapping her foot. Her scowl seemed to permanently be fixed on her face, the fact that she was smiling earlier was nothing short of a miracle or freak occurrence.

[Nayt]

"Kiddo . . .?" Daniel felt a twinge of annoyance.

Everett was clearly younger than him, at least by a few years. Not too young for it to be creepy for him to call her cute, but still younger than him. Twelve, maybe? That's what Daniel was guessing. Twelve or thirteen at the very least. That meant that Daniel was two or three years older than her, totally removing all rights she had to refer to him as a kid! Strangely, that felt like a conclusion he had made before, though he couldn't remember if he had or not. His annoyance was voiced, too, at least in his tone. Everett's sneer was returned with Daniel looking away and grumbling.

"I dunno . . . some koinda sandwich, I guess . . ."

Daniel--and probably Everett, too--wasn't/weren't aware of how much this request made up for Everett calling Daniel a kid . . . again. It was like a thing of beauty, this particular spite, made even more so since Daniel wasn't even doing it intentionally. There were few things more demeaning than that.

[Mandaz]

Everett twinged her eye at Daniel’s request. She wasn’t sure why, but there was something deep inside of her that did not like the idea of fetching him a sandwich. Some deep seeded almost instinctive need to rage and rebel against his wishes when asked for that simple food item. Why? She had offered to get him something, would she have been this angry if he had asked for soup or ice cream? With a huff she stormed off, leaving the boy alone with his nakedness and hunger. She wasn’t going to be quick. Partially out of spite, partially out of complete lack of direction for the maze of a hospital they were in. Whether he liked it or not he would be a lone for a while. Left to brood or think or whatever it was that people like Daniel did when alone.

[Nayt]

Strange, for as Everett felt extremely discontented by Daniel's request, Daniel felt particularly content with it, almost like he had won some sort of argument or competition of sorts. How, he didn't know; it just felt that way--he didn't necessarily need to describe and ruin a perfectly good feeling.

Especially when there were other things that could do that. For example, Daniel realizing that he wasn't wearing any pants at the moment. It had been a dreadfully slow realization, but it came eventually . . . and with great potency. First, he had doubted that he was wearing pants, thinking that was wearing underwear. Then, upon checking under the covers, he not only found himself sorely disappointed with himself, but shocked that he was completely lacking in the category of pants or underwear. He was naked. Completely naked. The only thing on his body were these bandages.

By the time Everett came back, Daniel was sweating bullets--paranoid now that maybe everyone in the hospital had sneaked a peak under his blanket. What if Everett had? That'd be the worst! She'd be able to pick on him forever if she did--wait . . . if she did, then he'd have an excuse to coerce her into nudity with the classic, "you saw me, I should be allowed to see you." This, of course, came to mind, but only for a very brief moment. Daniel didn't want to embarrass himself anymore than he already was. Before asking about his exposure, Daniel needed to know one thing:

"Wh-where did my pants go . . .?!"

[Mandaz]

It would be a while before Everett returned. In truth it was only a half hour, but it must have seemed like twelve days to someone in Daniel’s position. In truth, Everett really had no idea where she was going or how to maneuver through the labyrinth of sickness and death. But when she finally did find her destination, the new problem of finding her way back with the food had come up. It was a long and perilous journey, but she did eventually return victorious, though not unscathed. A stain could be seen on her tank top, a reddish blotch running right down her white shirt, still a bit moist from whatever had bled there. If one were brave enough to be close to her, it would smell of cherry sauce. On a tray clutched tightly in her fists sat a rather lopsided looking sundae, a small plate of steamed vegetables, and a glass of ginger ale. There was another place on the tray, though this one was empty, filled only with small crumbs.

“Hey, Hero.” Everett called, mustering up as much enthusiasm as she could despite the situation. “Hope you’re hungry.”

[Nayt]

Daniel had been extremely nervous by the time Everett got back, but before he could say anything about his current state of nudity under the blanket, she had come baring a plate of food and spoke before he even got a chance to. This left Daniel to nervously stare at her, while his features became more and more confused. What she had brought for him was a psychotically different array of food; steamed veggies was a dinner food, ice cream was a desert, and ginger ale didn't go well with anything. That didn't mean he wasn't thankful, though . . .

"Th-thanks," with a nervous laugh and cheery, embarrassed tone of voice, Daniel contnued, "Heh-heh . . . I-I'm starving, actually . . ."

There was no sandwich here, potentially out of spite. This failed to get to Daniel, however, for two important reasons: first and foremost, the gloriousness of a delicious sandwich was replaced by the awesome of ice cream; secondly, Daniel was too dense to recognize spite and (most forms of) sarcasm, 'less they were punching him in the face.

The tray, placed over his lap and setting perfectly upon the elevated side bars of the hospital bed, was a perfect mechanism in providing extra cover the region of his crotch. Now, he had a blanket and a tray over him. This was a good development; the adolescent felt a lot less nervous, now--but that may have also been a downfall. Before he could start eating, Daniel noticed a couple of things that were a bit . . . off.

"Were they all out of sandwiches or somethi--?" Daniel started to ask, before he was prompted to lean closer to Everett--closer to her chest, in fact; probably closer than she would have liked. He was trying to get a better look at something. Had that been there earlier? Daniel couldn't really be sure. "Oi, you have something on your chest . . ."

[Mandaz]

“Why don’t you paint a picture?!” Everett huffed, smashing her palm into Daniel’s face to push him out of the immediate area of her chest. Such things made her uncomfortable, but then again any girl would have probably done the same in that situation. She made sure to push him hard enough to get him back into his bed, but not so hard as to harm him any further than she had. Truth was, Everett felt extremely guilty about Daniel’s position, and blamed herself entirely for his injuries. She was trying to be nice to him to make up for it, but he made it extremely difficult not to harm him.

“I dropped some cherries on my shirt getting your ice cream, if you must know.” Everett responded to his inquiry by folding her arms over her chest, becoming a little self conscious over the stain. She had managed to convince herself that it wasn’t noticeable until he pointed it out. Now it was all she could think about, and her cheeks flushed red with embarrassment as she realized just how ridiculous she must have looked.

As for the sandwich question, she wasn’t going to dignify that with an answer. Truth was, after the long journey to find the cafeteria, and about half of the journey back, she realized just how hungry she was, and how she had neglected to get something for herself. When all hope seemed lost, she collapsed in the middle of one of the endless hallways, panting and dying as if stranded in a desert. With little to no hope left, she took what seemed to be the most expendable on Daniel’s tray. He would have missed the ice cream too much, and he needed his vegetables for strength, and there was no way she would stomach something as foul as ginger ale. All in all, the sandwich was sacrificed for the greater good. But Daniel would never know this story.

[Nayt]

"Owowowow~!" Daniel winced as Everett pushed his face back roughly. He was inevitably put back into place, left to mutter under his breath, "There's not really a lot there to paint . . ."

Though Everett could be unreasonable and irrational sometimes, she was cute--Daniel thought that much, especially when he glanced over to find that she was blushing. It was always times like that when he just couldn't help but think it; though, he did usually consider her to be cute. She was just cuter when she blushed . . .

Strangely, that alone excused her actions. Daniel habitually forgave attractive women of every sin but hurting someone he cared for. Hurting him? That was fine. He could deal with that. Hurting one of his friends? That, Daniel couldn't deal with. As he began to eat, he didn't give that much thought, but the fact still remained: Everett had justifying qualities that ensured that Daniel was going to willingly hang around her, no matter how irritating, angering, or irrational the girl could be. So long as she had those qualities, Daniel was going to be absolutely fine with her.

"Well . . . thank you--" Daniel regained his mild capabilities of politeness, "--Everett."