The Only One to
Turn to…
Yoji walked around in the almost
completely quiet Garden. It was her second day at
Sure, she wasn’t the type of person
who had a hard time making friends, but the students in the Garden usually
asked her how she was and what had happened in Balamb. That always brought out
her bad side.
She had had an extremely bad day
today, when some guys were trying to be ‘nice’ to her and help her ‘forget’
about what had happened in Balamb. Yoji had ended up sending one of the guys to
the infirmary and the others had gotten a fat lip and a black eye.
Yoji herself had gotten detention
for a week, but she could care less about it right now. Her new roommate hadn’t
shown up yet, so she had the room to herself so she didn’t have to socialise if
she didn’t feel like it.
However, right now she just wanted
to kick some monster ass. She wasn’t supposed to go into the TC yet though,
since she hadn’t had someone explain the rules in there yet. But in her current
mood, the rules could go and screw themselves.
The now green haired girl made her
way down the corridor to the TC and yawned. She was a bit sluggish due to lack
of sleep. She hadn’t really slept for 24 hours.
She entered the TC, walked about,
and was amazed at how it was built. She walked into the warmer part of the
centre and ended up sitting down on a big rock, looking out over the TC. She
sighed, and took out her disk player and put the headphones over her ears,
forgetting where she was for a moment, and therefore just zoned out with the
music.
That hadn’t been a good idea at
all, because before she knew it a really big Cactaur
had snuck up behind her. She was staring blankly in front of her when a really
nasty looking shadow appeared. Yoji turned around, fell backwards off the rock,
and lost her breath.
The Cactuar was glaring down at her
and sent a shower of needles at her, she was lucky that she had been able to
shield her face and eventually turn around, in a sitting position, so that she
wouldn’t get hit in the eyes. When the shower of needles ended, she stood
wobbly and had started lashing out at the monster, which eventually ran away.
Yoji had needles sticking out
everywhere, and they were not small. She started making her way back towards
her room and left a small trail of blood after her. She refused to go to the
infirmary. She wasn’t even supposed to go to the TC,
if she had gone to the infirmary she would be in even more trouble.
It was painful to move, Yoji had to
clasp a hand over her mouth not to cry out her pain. She eventually made it to
her door and all but fell through the doorway when she got the door opened.
Once inside and with the door shut tight she let out some pained sounds as she
started to pull the needles from her arms. They sat pretty deep some were even
jammed into the muscles.
She glared at her arm and the
painful needles there, she had gotten some of them out, and now there were
gaping wounds there staring up at her. The needles were rough and tore flesh
from her arms when she pulled them out. But she refused to scream, she would
whimper and tears were starting to form in her eyes, but she didn’t scream.
“Stupid fucked up cactuar...” She mumbled and pulled the last needle from her
left arm. Her arm looked horrible; she was sitting in the bathroom, not wanting
to get more blood on the floors then necessary. She staggered to her feet and
winced as the needles in her back brushed against the wall, she didn’t look
forward trying to pull them out. She walked over to the cabinet, fetched a
couple of potions, and then made her way back to the shower to sit down to
continue to pull the needles out. However, before continuing on her right arm,
she poured one of the potions over the open wound on her left arm. She watched
as the skin started to knit together and let out a soft sigh. Now she just had
to work on her other arms and thighs.
It took her over an hour to pull
all of the needles out from her arms and legs. But now came the tricky part,
trying to pull the needles from her back out.
She tried to pull one out, but
ended up tearing open a nasty wound on her back. She dropped the needle on the
floor and brushed the tears from her eyes away. She would need help. Yoji got
to her feet, but almost fell down again. She was getting really dizzy, and in a
really bad way. She grabbed at the doorframe and almost missed it. She cursed
at her situation then continued on her way towards the door leading out into the
dorm corridor.
There was only one person she could
turn to right now, and she didn’t feel that good about
it. However, she had the only real option- in her mind anyway.
She started making her way towards
room number 655 and at that moment, it felt like miles away.
It was around 3
in the morning when Yoji knocked on Marcus’ door, and at this point she just
wanted to go to sleep, it was the pain that kept her awake.
There was no answer. She knocked
again, a little harder this time.
“Marcus... ya
in there?” She asked through the door, her voice didn’t
really sound like her own. It was drained of everything.
~~**~~
The day before had
been bit of a boring one… Science class had been his last class, and
Marcus really didn't have an appetite for lunch or
dinner that day… His dorm was as silent as usual and almost dead. The TV was
the only thing in the room that could be considered alive and it was currently
on, but put on mute. The only sound that could be heard was the humming of the
refrigerator.
His small black drawstring gym bag
lay on the centre table in the living area, his notebooks scattered around it,
a pencil lying next to an unfinished sentence in his homework. A plain white
t-shirt was thrown over the armrest of the couch, adding a bit of untidiness to
the atmosphere.
The door to his bedroom was
slightly cracked, the stereo was on, and some alternative rock was playing on a
low level of volume. On his bed, a muscle shirt lay on the edge, almost sliding
off, and with his head under a pillow was Marcus, currently resting- and had
been for a couple of hours now. He had been up late studying and preparing
himself for his first test that would be next Friday.
He stirred a little, the result of
the knocking at the front door, but resisted… he was having such a good sleep,
and rarely slept as good as he was… Suddenly, he jerked up in a push up
position, loud knocking now taking place.
He let out a soft sigh, got out of
the bed, and walked towards the noise, opening his bedroom door in the process,
rubbing his left eye with his left hand in the process for a couple of moments,
then reverting to scratching his bare chest, to rid himself of a slight itch.
("Wonder who could it is at
this time of night…") he thought as he stretched out a hand towards the
doorknob, only to step to the side as the door opened from the other side.
He had left it unlocked...
~~**~~
Yoji was standing outside the door,
becoming more and more dizzier, and then suddenly she became aware of that
someone was making their way down the corridor towards her, and that made her
nervous.
If it were some sort of patroller,
she would be in big trouble.
“Come on Marcus... open the door
already...” She mumbled.
When the sound came a little bit to
close for her liking, she decided to try the doorknob, and to her relief the
door opened.
She quickly made her way inside and
closed the door behind her, resting her forehead against the now closed door.
Marcus regarded the person who had
entered his room. He cocked an eyebrow at the familiar green haired girl who
stood leaning against his door.
"Yoji?" He asked in a slightly
sleepy and surprised voice.
Yoji startled a little when she
heard Marcus voice behind her and turned hear head a little to look at him but
winched in pain. She twisted her body slightly away from Marcus, so that she
could look at him. She forced a small smile and waved a little at him, trying
to act like normal. It wasn’t an easy task when your
back was bloody and pierced with needles.
“Hey Marcus... Sorry for waking ya at this time, but I have a minor problem that I could
use some help with.” She said in a slightly pained voice, and pushed off the
door as she had been leaning on it.
Not really processing what the girl
said Marcus just yawned and nodded. He was surprised that the girl in front of
him even remembered where his dorm was. The first day they had been here, she
had just been there for a few minutes to get some notes.
“Yeah, sure... go have a seat or
something.” The dark haired boy said and let out another sigh while walking
over towards the light switches and flipping them on, the silent and dark dorm
room seeming to awaken to life.
When he had done that, he turned to
look at Yoji, his eyes and brain becoming aware of her 'little problem'.
She stood besides the couch, her
back clearly visible to him. It was a shocking sight to say the least. The
green fabric of her shirt was dark with blood and sticking to her back and many
nasty looking needles were sticking out.
"Whoa whoa
whoa!?" He shouted and
waved his arms trying to tell her not to sit down.
Yoji looked at him a bit startled
by his outburst. She had not intended to sit down on the couch to begin with. The
needles in her back were more then enough indication that it would be a really
bad idea.
“What happened to you?” He asked in
a slightly concerned voice, walking a little closer to the dazed looking girl.
On closer inspection, he saw newly healed wounds. There was
several small white dots that ran along her arms. He also noted that she was
paler then usual and there were smudges of blood on her face.
The green haired girl smiled a
little again and waved a hand at him, in what should have been in a dismissing
way.
“Oh you know me, can’t stay out of
trouble.” She staggered a little and had to grab a hold of the couch to keep
her balance, and the smile turned into a pained sneer.
“To be honest... I haven’t slept
for over two days… I snuck into the TC and ended up zoning out while listening
to music, and got ambushed by a Cactuar... I looked
like a hedgehog when I got back to my room...” She sat down on the floor and
squeezed her eyes shut.
“I can’t go to the infirmary
because I shouldn’t even have been in the TC, and it’s after curfew... I
couldn’t pull the needles in my back out on my own...” Yoji’s
voice was filled with anger and pain, then she let out
a heavy sigh and some of the anger drained away from her voice.
“I didn’t have anywhere else to
go...”
Marcus started to make his way
closer to the injured girl, his face deep in thought as he was thinking of a
way to go about and handle the situation at hand.
"Hey whatever you do, just
don't pass out on me ok?" He said, half jokingly, half seriously.
Yoji smiled a little through the
pain.
“I don’t have any plans of passing
out, but I can’t promise ya anything.” She said and
drew her legs up close to her body, resting her forehead against her knees.
Marcus looked less amused at what
Yoji said and hastily made his way to the bathroom, grabbing a towel, and then
made his way over to one of the kitchen cabinets, pulling out a couple of
potions.
"In order to make it heal
faster," he said, putting the last potion in between his arm and armpit.
"We have to pull out all those
needles." He said as he made his way over to Yoji and positioned himself
to sit behind her, her between his legs as she sat on the floor.
She actually laughed a little at
the pulling out all the needles part, but regretted it instantly as pain shot
up her back.
“I really don’t want any of these
sharp painful things in my back any longer than necessary. Just pull them out
and get it over with...” The fabric of her shirt stuck to her back in a really
uncomfortable manner. She had a feeling she should have been really
glad that she didn’t have to look at it.
"Geez,"
Marcus said after getting a closer look at her back.
"What did you do to him? Cut
off one of his legs at least I hope." He said, trying to cheer her up in a
serious, half jokingly manner.
“I didn’t really do much to that
fucked up Cactuar... it just attacked me, and I’m just glad that I’m not worse
off... if that’s possible. I prolly look like a hedgehog or something.” She
mumbled bracing herself for what to come, remembering how painful it was to
pull the needles out of her arms.
He chuckled at the hedgehog
comment, but decided not to comment on it, or admit that she rather did. Marcus
began to remove the needles from her back, pulling them out in quick clean
swipes. There were a lot more than he had noticed on his first glance.
Yoji just kind of twitched when
Marcus pulled the needles out. She refused to cry out, but tears started to
make their way into her eyes.
"So," he said, pulling
out a needle, "How did you manage to survive?" he then pulled out
another, "I hear 1,000 needles is a pretty painful attack… I had a
friend-" he had attempted at snatching another one out with ease, however
only managed to pull on her skin a bit, and finally pulled it out with a tug,
"Sorry bout that." He said with a light chuckle.
The green haired girl couldn’t help
but let out a small pained cry when Marcus didn’t quite get the needle out. It
hurt like crazy and she wanted to hit him for it, but didn’t. He was helping
her.
"Like I was saying, I had a
friend that survived one of those… he had a bandage over his eye for a
week."
Marcus had begun to develop a
certain rhythm to the 'pulling out the needles’ in Yoji's
back. It was a simple, breath, swipe, pull, drop, rhythm that had a certain
relaxing effect upon him.
She thought a little when he asked
her how she managed to survive the attack. She tried to relax the muscles in
her back when she felt him grab one of those needles that were sitting a little
deeper than the others were.
“I guess... I was just lucky. Most
of the needles missed. My arms and back took the worst hit. And ya know me, I’m not the person who would just lie down and
die...” She hissed in pain when he tried to tug one needle that was jammed into
the muscle, it took a couple of tries to get it out and Yoji was biting her
gloved hand so much it actually hurt.
“Next time I see one of them I’m
going to throw a really big rock at it and squash it...” She grumbled and
twitched every time a needle was pulled out.
Marcus chuckled again. "I'll
remind myself never to even go near one… I really don’t want to come out
looking like you."
They continued on in silence, him
pulling out the needles, and her letting out a sigh, or a sucking in a deep
breath through clenched teeth. Ten minutes had passed by, and lying beside Yoji
was a small pile of needles on a maroon towel.
Marcus sighed and leaned back a
bit, the lower part of his back beginning to ache from crouching over.
"Well, I think I got all of the ones that I can. I see some others, but I
can't grab them through your shirt." He said in a comfortable manner,
knowing he wasn't the one who was going to have to help him with those ones.
"Is your roommate up? She could help you out with those."
The dorm room had gone silent
again, let alone for the humming of the refrigerator now as its coolers turned
on.
Yoji relaxed a little when he
stopped pulling the needles out. She let out a deep sigh, she could still feel
some needles in her back, and that was not good.
She thought about what he said then
turned her head a little to glance at him for a moment, then turned her head
back and sat up a little straighter.
“I don’t have a roommate yet...”
She said and scratched the back of her neck, she let a frustrated sound and
started to take of her shirt and then winced.
“I kinda
need some help; the needles are stuck in my shirt...” She said through clenched
teeth.
“We’re friends right? So this is no
big deal, if we were out on the battle field we could get in this situation...
and I trust ya, and it’s not like I don’t have a bra
on.” She said and turned around a little and stuck her tongue out at Marcus.
“So just help me out will ya?”
Marcus cocked an eyebrow at her,
and then sighed. He didn't really like being in these situations… It was like
fighting an unknown opponent, which he was always slightly uncomfortable doing.
He wasn't scared or anything… … was he? He had never
been around many girls in his life… his mother being probably the only one. He
now concluded that he was always somewhat awkward in the presence of the
opposite sex.
"Funny." He said
half-heartedly, "They say it is always a stranger that teaches you more
about yourself than you think you know about yourself…" he whispered to
himself.
Marcus then leaned forward and
reached out to help her with her shirt, "Just relax ok?"
Yoji raised an eyebrow at what
Marcus mumbled but didn’t think much of it, then twitched a little when Marcus
took a hold of her shirt and told her to relax.
“Easy for you to say...” She said through
clenched teeth again, and then cursed under her breath. At
the moment she really didn’t enjoy having an almost skin tight shirt and
it being soaked in blood didn’t really help either.
After a lot of struggling, they
eventually got the shirt off. Yoji shivered a little, she felt even colder then
she did before. But she figured it probably was because of the loss of blood
and maybe a little shock even.
Marcus bit at his bottom lip, an
uneasy feeling in his stomach beginning to raise... it was as if his stomach
was trying to fly out of his body, trying to escape. What did his mom used to
call this feeling? … … Butterflies?
Yes, that’s what it was-
butterflies, a result of hesitation and nervousness. But
he rarely ever got nervous, so why now? Was it him? Or
was it just the fact that Yoji was in his dorm, sitting in front of him…
without a shirt on…
But wasn’t that a bit
childish? Marcus was damn near a man; he could handle this right?
The green haired girl glanced back
at Marcus and asked him in a tired voice.
“How bad does it look? Really bad or just kinda bad?”
“Ummm…
It’s… it’s not really bad or kinda bad…” he said
making a few ‘uncertain’ facial expressions. “Just really kinda
bad I guess.” Marcus answered and began to scan her back for the littler ones
that he was unable to get to when she had her shirt on.
Truth be
told… he never had been around a girl… He had never bothered with them… It wasn’t like he was bothering with Yoji but… What was this
pestering feeling in his stomach?
Yoji let out another sigh; she was
tired and very light headed. She drew her legs closer to her body, resting her
head on her knees, while Marcus started to work on the smaller needles in her
back.
“Really kinda bad?” She smiled at that then twitched just a little
when Marcus pulled a needle out.
“What does ‘really kinda bad’ look like?” Her voice was starting to become
thinner, like she was about to fall asleep. Her back had gone numb, so she
barely felt any pain any longer. Her face scrunched up in confusion and she
raised her head glancing over her shoulder at Marcus because she wasn’t really
sure if he was done or not.
“Ya
done now? Cos I kinda don’t
feel anything any more...” She put a hand to her face and rubbed her eyes.
“...I’m...kinda
dizzy...” She swayed a little and blinked a couple of times. The room was
becoming hazy and it felt like it was spinning.
Marcus began to grow a little
worried from what Yoji was saying. The last thing he wanted was for her to pass
out or something. He began to ponder the idea of him being caught with a girl,
sleeping in his dorm… That wouldn’t look good on his record at all.
His eyes scanned over her back that
was quickly becoming a surface for dried and crusted blood, searching for a
needle, if any. He finally found one and had to lean in even closer to see it,
his warm breath blowing over her back. After a few moments, and a bit of failed
attempts at pulling it out, the needle was thrown into the small pile with the
rest.
“There,” Marcus said assuredly and
quickly got up, “don’t move or anything, I’m gonna go
fetch some stuff to clean you up a bit.” he stated as he walked from the living
room area to the bathroom.
Yoji shuddered when she felt Marcus
breathe against her back, she could dimly feel how he was trying to get the
last needle out of her back, but things started go get even more fuzzy.
When he spoke to her, she only got
every other word of what he said. Then he got up and left to get something. She
hugged her legs closer to her body, with her forehead still resting on her
knees.
He was back as quick as he had
left, with two towels in hand, one wet and warm, the other dry.
“Okay.” He said in a lower voice,
as if he was trying calm himself down in some way.
She had a strong feeling that she wouldn’t be able to stay awake much longer, she heard Marcus
return and lifted her head to look at him. But she found it very odd that there
were four of him. She blinked a couple of times to get rid of the doubles, but
it only resulted in her vision going darker.
“...This...ain’t...goo...” She wasn’t able to finish
the sentence as darkness completely clouded her vision, and fell to the side.
Marcus immediately jumped up and
grabbed her to pull her up off the ground. “Yoji!” he yelled, shaking her
lightly to try to stir her awake. However, to no avail, she still lay
unconscious.
He looked around his dorm
frantically for a few moments and then hoisted her up onto his shoulder.
“Just the situation I need to be
caught in.” he complained and then sighed, carrying her off into his bedroom.
Two Hours later… 5 am
Yoji lay on her stomach, her head
on a pillow and her arms spread out over the bed. Her back, once dirty and
bloody, was now clean, small white spots scattered over her back where the
needles’ wounds once were. Three empty potion bottles lay on the floor next to
the bed. She was half covered with a bed sheet, covering her lower back and
legs.
Marcus rested on the floor, his
back against the bed, his arms crossed over his chest, and his chin resting on
it as well. He breathed lightly, a red stained yellow towel beside him, and
another one with light red splotches over it next to it. He had spent almost
the whole night tending to Yoji, making sure she was ok, and had barely drifted
off to sleep a mere half hour ago.
Yoji turned over on her side in her
sleep, and hugged the pillow close to her and burrowed her face into the soft
fabric.
She felt a bit cold, and she had an
itch on her back that was crying out to be taken care of. Her eyes twitched as
she came to. Yoji looked around, feeling a bit groggy then took care of that
annoying itch, but had to sit up to reach it.
The green haired girl jumped a
little when she spotted Marcus, not remembering where she was at first then
smiled softly at his sleeping form. She noted how he was sleeping and raised an
eyebrow at him. It had to be uncomfortable.
She knew that there was no chance
in hell that she would be able to get him on the bed without waking him, so she
settled for something else. Since the floor was covered in some kind of carpet
it wouldn’t be extremely uncomfortable, at least his neck wouldn’t be stiff as
wood when he woke up.
She placed a pillow on the floor,
then crept off the bed then gently and slowly made Marcus lay down on the
floor. She grabbed the comforter of the bed and laid it over Marcus, tucking
him in. She smiled down at him and brushed a few strands of hair away from his
face.
“Thanks for the help...” She
whispered then got up on the bed again, not really feeling like going back to
her room just yet, and Marcus’ bed was really comfortable. She spotted a muscle
shirt at the end of the bed and picked it up. She looked it over then smelled
it, it didn’t stink of sweat or anything so she pulled it on and laid down
using her arms as a pillow and drifted of to sleep within minutes.