primavera + peter parker

Awakening

The last thing she remembers is the slickness that clung to her skin as a deafening crack rang out, like the sound a tree makes just as it's about to fall. She thinks she hears her name being called but her vision blurs into darkness before she can respond. In the split second before her mind ceases all thoughts, it whispers comfort to her. Inexplicably, calm washes over her and she lets her body go limp. The next second, she is drenched in panic.

The first thing she registers is the flexible tube inserted into the back of her hand as the erratic beeps of the heart monitor alert of her awakening. Her name is called by several unfamiliar voices from people she doesn't recognize but it feels like she should. She only recognizes one of them. "M-Mom?"

Teary green eyes not dissimilar from her own stare at her. Her mother smiles shakily, reaching out a hand to smooth down her hair mussed from days spent on a hospital bed. "Sakura… We've been waiting for you." Her mother says.

Sakura shifts her gaze to the others in the room. There is a man with dark brown hair cropped close to his scalp and an angular mustache with sideburns. He is familiar but at the same time not. Beside him is a pre-adolescent boy who is a stranger to her, but the way he looks at her suggests she meant more to him.

It takes her a while to identify the man. His hair may be different, but those eyes and the way he said her name tells her that he is her father. She blinks in confusion when she is suddenly engulfed in arms smaller than her own. The boy is silent as her parents gaze warmly.

"Who are you?" She asks.

The boy freezes, pulling back immediately. His eyebrows furrow as he gapes at her. "Are you serious right now?"

"I'll call the doctor," says her father, shock evident on his face as he hurries out of the room.

Her mother bursts with a steadier stream of tears. "Sakura, honey, this is your brother," her mother tells her, "Don't you remember him? Daiki, your brother?"

Daiki chokes down a sob. Sakura lifts her hand to comfort him, but he pushes off of her and runs out the door. "My brother?" Only then does she realize that although she clearly had no trouble communicating, she wasn't speaking in her language. So she does, in rapid succession: "Where am I? What happened? Why - Why can't I remember… This can't be real, it must be a genjutsu."

Mebuki looks at her daughter in devastation, swallowing harshly. "Let's wait for the doctor, dear."

Sakura brings her hands up to her face and sees soft hands. These were not her hands. This was not her mother. Her breath quickens.

Her father, Kizashi, soon comes back with a doctor. Her supposed brother lingers behind the doorway. He hides when Sakura turns to look at him. The doctor starts speaking, but the only words that resonate with her were coma and retrograde amnesia.

The rest of the day is spent with her parents attempting to reassimilate her on all that she has missed, but it did little to help her connect what memory she had to her reality. Now and then, she would get flashes of what seems like two different sets of memories.

She is released from the hospital just a week later. Her memories are foggy, and some of them seem so wrong. Daiki remains his distance from her, but the way he looks at her makes her feel guilty.