𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐓𝐢𝐦𝐞 𝐨𝐟 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐂𝐡𝐞𝐫𝐫𝐲 𝐁𝐥𝐨𝐬𝐬𝐨𝐦𝐬 | Shizuo H. x Reader

『Chapter Nine』

"Since when?" I asked after Shizuo's tears stopped. The sun was setting now, leaving a beautiful orange color to the city sky."A long time ago." He answered. "I think it was fourth grade." I laughed. "Isn't fourth grade a little too young for love?" "Yeah, but I meant it was fourth grade when I started to care about you, I suppose." I paused, trying to process that. "What did I do to make you... 'care about me'?" Shizuo was silent for a while, then he smiled. "You were just being yourself: caring for others." I was puzzled because I didn't really 'care for others' unless it was a matter of life and death.

Shizuo saw my perplexity and rolled his eyes. "I had a broken leg that day, and when I was walking down the stairs, I lost balance. You were walking up the stairs and jumped in front of me to be a cushion. You broke your rib doing that." I blushed, not believing he still remembered that. I had been worried about him that day and the week before that when he had a broken arm. "Can I ask you something, Shizuo?" Shizuo nodded. "Why did you... reject me at middle school?" "I told you to not like me because," Shizuo said. "I was afraid I might hurt you... physically." Suddenly, the door opened and Mikado and Sonohara Anri came in. Mikado blushed, seeing that he had interrupted a conversation. Anri just bowed as an apology. "Sorry for intruding." Mikado said. "But we just wanted to visit. The nurse didn't say anything about Heiwajima-san being here..." "It's alright." I said. "I think Shizuo won't mind. Right?" Shizuo shrugged. I took that as a no. Mikado and Anri sat down on the other side of the bed. "Are you doing better, Sensei?" Anri asked.

I smiled. "Of course. I hope you are since you were caught up in all that mess, am I correct?" Anri nodded. "Well, everything's better now, right?" I said, trying to cheer up the mood. Everybody was silent as if they didn't want to talk to me. There was something wrong. What were they hiding? "Okay, what is it you guys aren't telling me?" I finally said after what seemed to be like 10 minutes. Mikado and Anri gave each other the "should-we-tell-her" look. Shizuo got up and stood by the window. After what seemed to be like an hour, Shizuo spoke. "(Y/N), look at your arm." I looked down and saw a half of my right arm gone and bandaged.

[Time Skip]

The doctor came into my room later that evening and explained everything. They said that by the time I got to the hospital, my arm was in terrible condition. They found part of the radius stabbing through and almost cutting my whole arm in half. They had no choice but to amputate half of my arm. I sat there, trying to process everything I had just heard. My hand. Gone. How was I going to teach the students art? Would I have to quit? Questions raced through my brain but I kept quiet.

After the doctor Mikado and Anri left the first thing Shizuo did was hug me. I put my other arm around him, still trying to let all the information sink in. After we pulled apart, I finally understood why Shizuo was crying. He knew my arm was gone, and he didn't want to tell me. I stayed at the hospital for another two weeks. Erika and Walker visited me every other day, bringing me chocolates instead of flowers. They told me they felt kind of felt guilty because they were in the van the whole time since Dotachin didn't let them out. "We could have saved your arm." Walker said. "It's fine." I said. "All the Yellow Scarves would probably be dead if you two went in that warehouse." "But they should all be murdered for what they did to you and Masaomi!" Erika said. I smiled and told them, "Nobody deserves to be murdered."

[Time Skip]

I breathed in the fresh air as I left the hospital, Shizuo standing next to me. Shizuo had gotten some extra clothes for me, even though I didn't know Shizuo knew where I kept my underwear. I looked at him, thankful that there was someone in this city as gentle as him. His brown eyes were covered with his sunglasses, but I could still tell his eyes were swollen. "What are you looking at." Shizuo said. "Just thinking about you." I said, smiling. Shizuo blushed and turned away. "Um... remember that restaurant you were talking about? Up in Sunshine 60?" "Yeah." "Well, I got a reservation there so... Wanna go eat there tonight?" Shizuo's face was bright red.

I felt my face get warm. Me, eating at a fancy restaurant with Shizuo? That sounded like a dream come true. I smiled and kissed Shizuo. I placed my hand on his warm face as he kissed back tenderly. We pulled apart only to look at each other for a second. We kissed again, a longing kiss. A kiss that seemed to spill all our emotions out for each other. Shizuo's arms wrapped around my body, making me feel warm and protected. His tongue entered my mouth without warning, but I accepted. Our passionate kiss lasted a while until we finally had to separate for breath. A string of saliva connected our lips, so I kissed him gently again so the saliva would be gone. We pulled apart, staring into each other's eyes. "I take that as a yes." Shizuo muttered.