Who knew a battle could lead to happiness? (a ghost blossom fanfic)

aftermath

[Hilda's POV]

I wake up in my house. Dawn shines through the windows. The sunlight shines on my wrecked furniture. There's no tellin' how much it's gonna cause to fix this mess. I don't know how long I was out for. It feels like I just slept through a day.

I start grab the broom from the kitchen and start to sweep the broken glass in the living room. I don't know where else to start with cleaning this mess. I him a tune to a dance so that it doesn't feel as much as a chore.

I hear a knock on the door. Dammit. I don't want anyone seeing my house like this! Maybe if I just crack the door it'll be fine. Right? That way they can't see anything.

I go with that and look through the crack. I make sure to arm myself with Scissors... I can't risk another soul collector.

"Hello?" I ask

I recognize the fella at the door. It's Spector. I sigh in relief and drop the scissors. They clatter on the floor.I open the door more but not enough so he can see inside.

"Hits! Um... I don't really know how to put this but uh... Cagney's in the hospital. I figured I'd let you know. You two are close after all" he nervously says

A normal friend would panic, but I know cagney. I'm honestly surprised he hasn't gotten in the hospital sooner. He's always doing reckles stuff. When we were kids he'd jump off brigdes into rivers. He'd pick lots of fights and he'd even run across buildings.

"How bad is it this time? What'd he do? Jump off a skyscraper without his parachute? " I ask in a sarcastic tone

"No... He kinda got the shit beat out of him by king dice" he says in a serious tone

Oh. Oh no. I knew he was reckless but damn. That's too much even for him.

"I can take you to the hospital he's at. I'll explain what happened on the way ok?" He says.

I nod and follow him.

~~~~~~~~~~~~
[Cagney's pov]

The boss visits me. I don't know how he found out what happened but he knows everything. He seems proud that we freed everyone.

"So how'd ya get so banged up?" He asks

"Well I fell unconscious after using the beast. That was a stupid decision on my part. King dice found me and took me into the boiler room. I woke up all sorts of bound up. I tried to escape and he threatened me. I didn't know how long it'd be for the rest of the crew to notice I was gone- we *were* split up after all- so I decided to risk it. He noticed and got mad and came at me with a metal bat."

He's pissed. That's not good.

"I... I know I'm not one to tell you what to do but he's not someone to mess with. He's beyond skilled. He's precise with the card blades and he has eyes like a hawk." I say

"Why would he use a bat? He could've killed you if he wanted to. He went easy on ya." The boss thinks out loud

"You don't think he-" I stammer

The door slams open scaring me. It's Hilda and spec. Hilda is practically bursts into tears when she sees me. I can't tell if he's upset because of the situation or happy to see me.

She hugs me. I guess that means she's happy to see me. I grown in pain because like spec, she hugs tight. She takes notice and lets go.

"I'm so glad you're ok!" She smiles through her tears. I grab tissues off the night stand and hand them to her. She sits in one if the chairs and wipe her face.

"My apologies, where are my manners haha" she keeps her smile but I can tell she's emotional

"It's fine." I reassure her

I look at the boss and spec. Those two seem to get along well. I'm glad that's the case. I think they're talking about me but I'm not gonna butt into it.

"So what exactly happened?" Hilda asks

I explain everything I can to her. It only worries her more.

"Hilda I'll heal. I'll be fine. It just-" I explain

"That's not the point!" She shouts

The room falls uncomfortably silent. The only sound is the fan and background hospital sounds.

"You need to be careful ok? You're not immortal! Just because you can heal after a while doesn't mean you should dive into danger. You need to use your head and think ok? Getting hurt this much is not normal, and it's definitely not ok. If you keep banging yourself up everytime you turn around, you're gonna end up to hurt to recover. We don't want to lose you... Alright?" She states in a very emotional tone

The silence returns and I feel everyone staring. I hate the pressure. I understand what she means but I don't know what to do. My job is dangerous. The fact I'm a debtor is dangerous. There's not much I can do about it.

"I understand that but, I can't promise anything. I'm sorry" I say.

"I'm going home" she says as she puts her bag back on.

She leaves the room and the door closes behind her. I upset her. The sound of the closing door crushes my soul.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
King dice's pov:

The blood loss made me loose consisness. It's been awhile since pain was an actual inconvenience.

"Sleeping on the job?" Wheezy asks me as I open my eyes

"Hard to stay awake when you're loosing blood" I smile

"Good thing Pachi found you when he did then huh?" He nudges Pachi.

Pachi is reading some sort of paper and directing some imps around. I think he's trying to heal the wound.

"Where is everyone?" I ask

"Cleaning. Those fuckers made a mess. The crew suffered inconvenient injuries at most" wheezy explains.

"Chips broke his "shooting hand", mangosteen's shell has a few deep scratches, pirouetta sprained her ankle and had scars from shrapnel and Mr. Wheezy nearly-" pachi lists

"I'm fine now" wheezy grumps.

"That's good to hear" I smile. "How's boss?"

"He's in his office. Grumpy as shit."

"About the souls?"

"About the souls."

"I'll see what I can do" I sigh.

I enter the boss's office. I fully expect him to snap the moment I open the door.

However he's just a crying drunk mess.

"Boss?" I nervously touch him.

"Dice...?" He lifts his head of the desk a bit so he can see me. "You ok? I heard you got shot."

"I'm fine just a limp. It's quite inconvenient" I say

"You don't have to act tough around me" he says

I pull up a chair next to him.

"Well it seems like you got enough to stress about. I don't want to worry you with my problems." I say

"I have every right to worry about you. If something-" he starts

"Just worry about business. Keep your emotions out it" I interrupt.

"There's more to my life than souls and a casino you know" he shouts

I grab the hankershef from my pocket and hand it to him.

"Clean yourself up. Moping around won't get anything done. And if you wanna get drunk do it after hours." I say in a half disgusted tone.

Typical boss.