You Are My Miracle

Chapter 12

For AnnMarieThrush

FunNikkieFact #8: I get sick very easily and spent most of my childhood in the hospital. But I have gotten better. Even if I get sick for weeks on end.

"How you feeling, baby?" Mitch turned around in the bed so he was looking at me.

"I'm feeling great. Honestly." I put my hand to his forehead. There was no unnecessary heat coming from his body. He smiled at me. "See? I told you." I brought him closer to me and made my forehead rest against his. "How are you?"

"I'm good." He laughed weakly.

"No. Don't lie to me. Tell me what's wrong." I sat up.

"Nothing is wrong." I got out of the bed and went over to our luggage sitting on the dresser.

"Scott-"

"It's nothing!" I didn't want to talk about the fact that he was dying. That he was completely okay with the fact that his breathing might stop at any moment. I held myself up on the solid surface in front of me. I could feel my tears starting to surface. "I'm sorry. I didn't mean to yell." It was quiet for a long time. I heard Mitch shift on the bed.

"My parents used to put me to bed every night. Most nights my sister was there too. She would be done telling me stories when they would bring me more blankets." I turned to look at him while he continued the story. He was looking down at where he was playing with his hands. "I knew they were watching us before they came in. I could hear them. And when I was all tucked in, my medicine given to me, I could hear them doing the same thing they did before they came into my room." He looked up at me finally. "Crying wakes me up, Scott. I can't get it out of my head."

"Mitch...."

"I don't want you to cry for me. I want to always see you smiling. I don't want you to think about me dying. It's my problem to deal with." I let out a humorless laugh and looked down at my feet. I crossed my arms over my chest.

"You're my boyfriend. Your problems are mine. It's so....we can deal with them together." I came over to sit on the bed next to him. I held his hands. "We are stronger together. We can beat anything."

"Even cancer?"

"Hopefully." He leaned forward to kiss me. His hand went to hold the back of my neck to make the kiss deeper. I broke the kiss with a smile. "Let's get dressed for the day."

"Okay." Mitch was wearing a light blue sweater and a pair of black tight jeans. It was chilly out. He originally wanted to wear a tshirt but I had to convince him otherwise. It was supposed to rain today.

"Mr. Hoying." I was handed an umbrella when we were leaving. I bowed politely then led Mitch out.

"Mr. Hoying." Mitch said it dramatically. He wasn't saying it to make fun of the man who handed me the umbrella, he was making fun of me.

"You're ridiculous." He held my hand while we walked. The only time it did rain was on the bus. Which sucked for Mitch. That would have been another mark off his bucket list. I took him off the bus after a long ride and pulled him slowly towards our destination. His eyes lit up when he saw it.

"This is-" He was cut off by an excited giggle. "This is Hirosaki Castle! This has the most viewings for the cherry blossoms. You can see Mount Iwaki from the top." I loved that his inner nerd was coming out. This is what Mitch did. He researched the places he wanted to go extremely bad.

"Well?" His smile got even wider.

"Come on. Let's go!" Mitch began pulling me up the trail. I couldn't help my happiness at how excited he was. He was absolutely adorable. He'd point and explain to me what was going on. He was extremely excited when we went over a bright red bridge to look at the mountain and the blossoms. I picked up one of the pale, soft flowers and tucked it behind Mitch's ear. Mitch was holding onto the red railing, looking to the beautiful old-fashioned castle. I wrapped my arms around his waist.

"You look beautiful."

"This place is beautiful." I kiss his cheek. He made me take a cheesing picture with me. When the wind blew, I could smell the sweet essence that was contained in those beautiful flowers. That's what flower Mitch smelled like. A cherry blossom. He turned his head to give me a quick kiss. "This means a lot to me. I just wanted to say thank you. Thank you for all of this."

"It's far from done. And you don't need to thank me. As long as this time is being spent with you, I will travel till the ends of the earth to make you happy." Mitch pushed out of my arms and continued walking down a path. I followed a couple of minutes later. When I caught up to him, he was holding himself up on a tree with his back to me. I heard his soft sobs. I came over to comfort him. He had one hand on his mouth. "Sweetheart...." He took in a shuddered breath.

"It's beautiful, isn't it?" I pulled him into a tight hug. He cried in the crook of my neck. I held him close to me. I never wanted to let this boy go.

"I love you." I whispered it to him. He laughed along with his cry.

"I love you too."

"Come on. Let's go get something to eat." He suddenly switched moods. He was back to being happy.

"Really?! Can we have sushi? I've never had any." I brought his hand into mine.

"Of course. Anything you want." Mitch and I had some lunch were he said he would always want sushi after his first bite. I helped him learn how to use chop sticks too. He was so stubborn that he didn't give up when he kept dropping his food. It was when we were in one of the local shops around our hotel that he kept looking at something. "What's wrong? What do you want?"

"Did you ever watch the movie Kiki's Delivery Service?"

"I think I did once." I went to see what he was playing with. They were temporary tattoos. "Why?"

"I always wanted the cat, Jiji, as a tattoo." His thumb ran over the one of a black cat. "Then I found out my body would reject the ink. It's one thing I can never cross off." I thought for awhile, looking at the themed tattoos. Then I grabbed them and went to talk to the cashier. It was broken English but I got the answer that I needed.

"Let's see how these work." Mitch was sitting down in front of me in our bed. I cut out the fake tattoo of Jiji. I put it on his forearm, pressing the warm wash cloth down on the paper.

"It feels weird."

"They said it shouldn't mess with your skin. Can you cross it off your list?" I peeled the paper away to reveal a black cat on his arm.

"Yeah. Thank you." He leaned across the bed to hug me.

"I hope you know I'll do anything for you." He pulled away to look at me.

"That's not the reason I love you though." I pulled him into a kiss and dipped him back on the bed. He let out a loud laugh when I whispered sweet nothings in his ear. It didn't go further than that. But I didn't care.

This was enough to make me never want to give him up.