Living A Dead Dream (Baji x OC)

19

A couple of days had passed and it was November third now. No one had died, so what was originally called Bloody Halloween, was just the Halloween Confict now. 

"Knock, knock," Danny said as she walked into the hospital room. She gave Baji a grin as he moved his arm off of his eyes. He gave a tired wave, still groggy from the medicine he had gotten earlier. She took a seat to his left side as she set a gift bag down on his bed, earning a raised brow from the male. "A little birdie told me it was your birthday and that you liked cats," she said as he sat up, ignoring the dull pain in his side.

He opened the bag and pulled out an angry-looking crocheted calico cat that was about the size of his forearm. The yarn was soft and the plush itself was sturdy. "Thanks," he said as he set it to the side.

She nodded with a smile still on her face. He didn't outright say it, but he really liked the gift. She could tell by the look in his eyes. 

"How's your hand holding up?" he asked as he looked at her bandaged hand.

"Eh, it's unusable for the time being." She shrugged. "The bat was a lot worse than this."

A bit of an amused smile spread its way across his face at the memory. That rumor had been the reason he had even taken any interest in Danny. And when they first met, he knew that they'd be good friends, though he wouldn't admit it. He was too proud to do that. "Sorry..." he muttered, his smile dropping.

She chuckled, catching his attention. "You have nothing to be sorry about. You didn't want Kazutora to carry the burden of another death. You were just trying to help your friend. ... In your own... weird way."

The sound of the door opening caught both teens' attention. "Hey..." Kazutora stood a bit awkwardly near the doorway as he looked down at the floor. He wasn't wearing Valhalla's uniform anymore, instead wearing a similarly-styled grey jacket, a black graphic t-shirt, and black pants. He stared at the tiled floor, not sure exactly what to say.

"Come on, grab a seat," Danny said, making him raise his sandy brown eyes to look at her smiling face. 

With slight hesitation, he grabbed a chair and sat off to Danny's side. "I'm..." he started after a bit of silence, "I'm sorry..." Tears brimmed at the corners of his eyes as he stared down at his hands that were balled into fists. "I... I..." He couldn't get the words out. Then, he felt warmth on the top of his head. He looked up from his hands to see Danny with a soft expression.

"Everything turned out fine," she said as she crouched in front of him with a small smile after she had removed her hand from his head. "It wasn't anybody's fault, okay?"

Baji was taken aback by Danny's behavior. He... acted so much like Shinichiro. There had been plenty of times when Danny simmered down and acted nice, but at this moment, as he comforted Kazutora, Baji could almost see Shinichiro in his place. 

"Now that I think about it, you know what I've never done?" She stood up and looked at Baji with a bit of a mischievous grin. "I've never set a car on fire."

Baji emulated her grin with his sharp canines showing. "We'll have to fix that once I get out of this dump."

~

A little over a week went by and Baji was out of the hospital and tonight the three of them had plans on burning a car. Danny was excited, seeing as she never got to catch much on fire aside from paper and candles. She never really had a pyromaniac side of her when she was this age, but she was excited nonetheless.

"Where are you going?" Takemichi asked as he entered her room.

"To commit arson with Baji and Kazutora," she replied with a grin as she slipped a crocheted black poncho over her head.