To Wait For You- Komaeda Nagito X Reader

Chapter 4: And thus they part

"Hey..."

A clear voice resonated in the dull, hospital room, breaking the comfortable silence that had allowed itself to spread between the room's two occupants.

"What is it?" The boy hummed in reply.

"Sometimes, I wonder... How do you look like? Where are you from? Who... who exactly are you?" The girl voiced, and she sighed. Her statement full of questions took the boy by surprise. She didn't make a habit out of asking him questions. They usually spent their time chatting about random topics, completely unrelated to her predicament. He had gathered enough from her mother's conversation with the doctor.

"And... Sometimes, I wonder... Will I ever be able to see you? To touch you? To feel you?" She continued, her gaze turned to the view of the vast sky outside the hospital room they were stuck in. A faint memory tugged at the back of his mind - cumulus clouds, that was what they were. They looked like delectable candy floss, waiting to be eaten. The cerulean blue sky shone like a lapis lazuli stone, and the sun decided to gift the land with warmth.

It was a gorgeous day, and yet, [Name] looked melancholic; gloomy, even.

"...I don't know. Though, I wonder why someone as hopeful as you will want to see trash like me." Komaeda answered honestly. The latter was a slip of the tongue, but the girl was too occupied with her own thoughts to process his statement. Honestly though, He didn't know why - how he even ended up like the way he was; he didn't even know how long he would stay like that. He didn't know - would he ever die? Would he have to watch as [Name] did and as he continued being like this?

"...[Name] ... What are you thinking about right now?" He asked, brows furrowed uneasily. He really didn't know what to
make of her expression.

"I... I've been considering." She paused, like she wasn't sure she should tell him what she considered saying.

As a silence spread, he was made to relive the tense, suffocating atmosphere that ensued on the first day they had met. But only, worse. He wanted to say something, anything. But he couldn't. It felt like the silence took a physical form, hands with long, slender fingers that wrapped around his neck, rendering him breathless.

"Maybe... I should go for the surgery, after all?"

Komaeda, at that moment, could only stare at her. He wanted to say something, but he didn't know what to say. He wanted to do something, but he couldn't do anything without the physical body. He could only stare at her. Like she was the only thing that mattered. The only thing that existed.

And, at that moment; she was.

His mind wandered back to time before he first set foot into the room.

"She may not be able to hear again if she does not go through this surgery, you must understand, Ma'am."

"You can't expect me to put my daughter - my only child- you can't expect me to put her life at risk!"

He was certain, she knew how her life was on the line with this surgery. He was certain, that she had spent a lot of time considering it.

He was certain...

''You're scared, aren't you?"

Her eyes widened for a fraction, before promptly returning to their original size. She let out a small smile, along with a sigh. It was shaky.

"No... Of course, not-"

She knew that he didn't believe it. Not one bit. And he knew-

-She didn't, either.

~*~
"Don't be scared. I will be with you every step of the way."

"I won't ever leave you. So, you must try hard, and not leave me, either, okay?"

"You'll make it."

Komaeda stared at the woman who held [Name] 's hand in hers as she uttered consoling words she knew she couldn't hear. She said them like she believed them. She said them like they were true.

She said them like she was consoling herself.

She probably was, he concluded.

He wanted to say everything he had to say to the girl, but as he looked at her before she entered the operation room, he couldn't. The only things he could find it in himself to utter was-

"...I'll wait for you."

And then where she had been a moment before, the door closed.

And he could only find it in him to ignore his gut; to hope for the best.

That was the only thing he could do.
~*~