𝐏𝐀𝐑𝐀𝐍𝐘𝐌𝐏𝐇 || ʜᴀᴡᴋꜱ

52 ➟ In which we go dress shopping.

   It had been three days since Rin was brought into the hospital. He still hadn't woken up and I still refused to leave his side. He was stable, he still showed no progress of getting better, but showed no sign of decline either. That was better than anything.

If people had come in, I couldn't remember much of it. I hadn't even realised how many days it had been until Hawks had come in the other day. He only sat next to me for a few minutes, saying something about Rin and then something about the doctors. Nothing about the wedding.

The first time I heard about the wedding after Lelija's abrupt proposal was today. When Lelija's burst through the door once again, I half expected her to propose to me with the amount of enthusiasm on her face. Hawks trailed in behind her, a solemn look on his face as he looked at Rin, still in the hospital bed. Still asleep. He then looked at me, an apologetic look on his face that I didn't quite grasp until it was too late.

"[Y/N]," Lelija jumped in front of me, blocking my view of Rin, "you're going to come with me and choose out the dresses. It's your maid of honour duty and your distraction for the day. You can't just sit here looking miserable."

I finally looked up at her, meeting her lilac-shaded eyes, "That's nice of you, Lelija, but I'm not going to leave him here."

"[Y/N]" She stared me down, "It's not like he's going anywhere." I stared at her, unable to come up with any kind of response, instead just looking at her with a dumbfounded expression on my face. Lelija simply sighed, giving me a pitying look and holding out her hand, "Come on, you need a distraction," She turned to look at Hawks, her fiance, "Kei, doesn't she need a distraction?"

He looked as if he was coming out of a daze at the sound of his name, or nickname, looking away from the constantly buzzing monitor beside Rin's bed. "Uh, yeah." I gave him a frustrated look to which he tilted his head, a pitying look on his face, "I'm sorry [Y/N], but she is right, you need to take a break."

A break? I'm sitting, the least strenuous activity I could possibly be doing, why would I need to take a break? Before I could actually voice these concerns, I was already being pulled out of the room, Lelija's grip on my wrist decidedly strong, nails digging into my wrist, as she put a lot more effort than she would've needed into lifting me out of my seat and dragging me along behind her. She refused to let go of my wrist even when we were in the elevator and I, literally, could not go anywhere, it was as if she was scared I'd disappear at any moment.

It only occurred to me when we made out way into the parking garage, that I'd never seen her car before, I was under the impression that she must've been air-carried to every single area she appeared. But it was a nice, small Figaro, with a light, pale mint green paint job. They usually fetched quite a decent price on the market, not in high demand, but it wasn't like there were a lot of them available for purchase. I didn't think about where she had got it, but she was obviously waiting to tell me, as she held the door open for me and ushered me in, "Kei bought it for me." She flashed a sickly sweet smile, that under any other circumstances I would've regarded as cute and becoming, before slamming the door shut and making her way to the driver's seat.

I'm not good at reading people, never have been, nor am I good at getting an understanding of what someone is like from the first few meetings and as I sat in that car and Lelija turned up some song a radio station was playing in the background, I felt as if I were really beginning to understand what Hawks had said in the Comission building the other night. The car journey felt horrifically uncomfortable. I couldn't quite seem to get myself to relax, every muscle in my body feeling tense and rigid. Lelija made small talk and I did my best to reciprocate, but everything felt like I was on a mission. In the office with Clover, at the speakeasy with the Librarian. They were all gone now, the Commission was taking care of them, but I couldn't quite dismiss the sinking feeling in my chest that something bad was going to happen.