Games of Hearts and Diamonds; Chishiya x fem reader

11. Together again

The first shorter draft took me no more than a day to finish, it covered all I knew about the others, both what they had told me about their life back in our world, as well as our experiences together. It made a nice enough little adventure story, that would be enough for most of them, I thought.

Which left me with the more challenging one. In a way it was easier than I thought, pouring all my love, my hopes and fears into the story, tears flowing steadily the more I wrote, my fingers flying across the keys like my life depended on it. It didn't of course, but my heart and perhaps my sanity did. Editing it took forever, as I kept second guessing almost every word. What if I forgot to mention some crucial piece of information? What if there was a certain word, a specific phrasing that would unlock his memories, and I missed it? I read and reread the text a million times it seemed, until my eyes were red and swollen, not only from tears but from strain.

Finally I managed to drive all the what ifs from my mind, and pressed the print button. Munching on cookies from a familiar yellow bag, I stared like hypnotized at the printer as it slowly spat out page after page. The small machine finished and I assembled the papers in five neat piles, one almost twice as thick as the others. Each pile went into one of the beautiful gift boxes I had bought on my way back from the hospital, and I attached the handwritten cards I had prepared earlier.

Now, what? I checked the time, I had been working through the night, and it was still early in the morning. Sleep was out of the question, so instead I took a long shower, reveling in the sensation of the hot water on my body. How I had missed this, I thought, letting out a pleased sigh as my tensed muscles started to relax a little. After the shower I spent even longer time carefully applying makeup and fixing my hair and going through my small wardrobe. In the end I chose the outfit that most closely resembled what I used to wear in the other world, a tight fitting black dress, paired with short leggings. If you're heading out to mess with people's minds, risking their sanity, as well as your own, not to mention almost certainly making an utter fool of yourself, you might as well look your best while doing it, I thought as I studied myself in the mirror. I grabbed the list of names and addresses I had made, picked up the big bag with the manuscripts and went outside to find a taxi.

– – – – –

As I rang the first doorbell, my heart was beating faster than it had during any of the games. I heard footsteps approaching and nervously repeated the little speech I had memorized, clutching one of the gift boxes to my chest. The door was opened by a young man who was not Arisu, and we both stared surprised at each other. Perhaps this was the brother he had mentioned?

'Er, hi,' I said a bit uncertain, 'I'm looking for Arisu, Arisu Ryohei. Does he live here? I have something for him.'
I held up the gift box like it was important evidence. He looked between me and the box, then thankfully nodded.

'Yeah, I'll see if he's up. You a friend of his?'

'Yeah, you could say that,' I said as he disappeared back into the apartment, leaving me standing at the doorstep seriously rethinking my decision to come here. It didn't take long before Arisu showed up, his hair was as untamed in this world as it had been in the other, I noticed.

'Hey, I remember you,' he said, 'you're the girl from the hospital, aren't you? The...'

'...crazy one?' I finished his sentence for him. 'Yeah, that's me.'

'I was going to say, the one with the cool theory about us being in the Borderlands together. Come inside.'

He led me to his room which was more or less as I had expected. He cleared a space on his bed for me to sit on, and placed himself in the chair in front of his computer.