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Post by Hotaru King on Jul 4, 2012 1:40:49 GMT -5
It was clear Hotaru was having a nightmare. From the outside on her hospital bed she'd kept tossing and turning and clutching anything her hand brushed against in the process. Her red hair(which was still an awful mess of unevenly cut lairs thanks to her little episode) covered her face every time she'd whip her head in a different direction.
The nightmare in question though, it wasn't really one particular thing. A series of scenes that she'd seen during her time in captivity, when Jack and Eva had come to save her(hopefully that part hadn't been her imagination), and the familiar voices of people that she couldn't quite name off at the moment, all saying different things and either sounding extremely upset or just plain numb. It wouldn't go away, and despite her sleeping she could feel her head aching more with each passing second.
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Post by Jack King on Jul 4, 2012 1:47:56 GMT -5
Jack hadn't wasted much time after getting himself checked over and stitched up. The second he was given the all-clear to see Hotaru he had gone over to see her, only to find his girlfriend (and hopefully soon-to-be fiancee) trapped within the throes of a nightmare.
He was by her side in an instant, gently shaking her shoulder. "Ruru... Ruru wake up..." He urged gently, moving some of her hair out of her face.
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Post by Hotaru King on Jul 4, 2012 2:01:36 GMT -5
At the sudden feeling of weight at her shoulder, the redhead sprang up from her sleep, slapping away the hand that had touched her before she could see who it belonged to. She was panting as she looked around at where she was. Oh no, oh no not one of THOSE dreams again! The ones where she was 'safe' right before waking up to that hell on earth she'd been for god knows how long, she couldn't take those anymore!
But then she noticed something: she wasn't strapped down.
Hotaru didn't waste a second to attempt to escape the room. She scrambled to get out of the bed and on her feet, but the moment her feet touched the floor her legs gave out from under her. No no no, she had to get OUT of there and AWAY from Archer!!
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Post by Jack King on Jul 4, 2012 2:07:43 GMT -5
Jack jerked back as his hand was slapped away. Of course Ruru wouldn't react well to being touched! How had he been so stupid? He was out of his spot in a split second as Hotaru collapsed, stooping next to her but not quite touching her. "Ruru!" He tried again. "Ruru, are you okay!?" He WAS worried though, the fall had looked pretty damn painful... And after all she had been through it was just compounding miseries...
His hands hovered near her but he wasn't willing to make the same mistake twice, no matter how much he wanted to gather her up in his arms and never let her go again...
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Post by Hotaru King on Jul 4, 2012 2:22:05 GMT -5
Hotaru's breathing had gone heavier at the fall, not gathering enough strength lift herself up, but enough to curl herself in a ball. She hugged her knees to her chest, her body trembling. "Gotta get away..." she moaned. "He's here, A-Archer... G-gotta get away..."
If he came in and saw her on the floor like this he'd drug her up again and strap her down more so she couldn't move at all, and he might even do something with that scary color she use to like and she didn't want to do that anymore it wasn't fun! No matter how many times Archer would laugh or grin SHE never found it funny, just scary scary scary and she HATED it!!
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Post by Jack King on Jul 4, 2012 12:59:09 GMT -5
Jack couldn't stop himself from gently taking Ruru's head in his hands and tilting her face up to look at him. "Ruru, it's me! It's Jack." He kept his voice gentle and soft but the worry was creeping into it bit by bit. "Come on Ruru... Look at me..." He brushed the hair out of her eyes. "You're safe now... Archer's gone and I'll never let him near you again." He supposed Archer was the Kuma... Well, now he could put a name to the face of the man he planned to strangle.
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Post by Hotaru King on Jul 4, 2012 13:32:28 GMT -5
Hotaru looked up at... Jack? Could it really be him, or was this really a dream? One of her hands found its way to his cheek, like she was testing the authenticity of it all. "....Jack?" she asked, somewhat cautious. She frowned at what she was about to say. "I can't tell if you're real..." she trailed off. Hotaru didn't wanna go through this again, she wanted to be positive this was real before she started believing anything.
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Post by Jack King on Jul 4, 2012 23:54:36 GMT -5
Jack's face split into a smile and he stroked her cheek with one of his thumbs. "What do I have to do to prove that you're awake and safe and that I'm real?" He asked gently. "Because I can tell you that I will do anything to make sure that you know you're safe right now." What could he honestly do? He could tell her the first song he played for her on the piano, or how she made him feel when she danced. The panic he felt when she was kidnapped? Would telling her about that convince her?
He supposed he would just have to wait to see what she deemed a worthy test...
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Post by Hotaru King on Jul 5, 2012 0:03:03 GMT -5
Hotaru went silent, trying to think of something. It had to be something no one else knew, something Archer couldn't have found out about no matter how many connections he had...
"...Where and when... did I first say that I love you?" It was cheesy, but there had been no one in the room at the time, no cameras, and as far as she could recall no one had really been told. "As much detail as possible..."
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Post by Jack King on Jul 5, 2012 0:15:34 GMT -5
Jack blinked at her then shut his eyes for a moment as he tried to remember... It was almost a good thing they had been in the hospital at the time, the sterile smell was helping him summon it up faster. "It was just after when you first met Aiden..." He said. "We had spent some time at the school since there was a piano and you wanted to hear me play, and you danced for me... We got hungry and went to Freeds and... Aiden landed us in the hospital..." He frowned a bit.
"And since I suck at fighting I was knocked out first, so I don't remember all that much of what happened... but we woke up in the same hospital room, and you and I started playing a weird version of the blame-game and tried cheering each other up." He smiled fondly and opened his eyes, looking into Ruru's own grey orbs. "And you told me that you loved me, and I blushed the manliest blush the world has ever seen." He kissed her forehead. "I love you, Ruru... Do you believe that I'm real yet?"
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Post by Hotaru King on Jul 5, 2012 0:29:28 GMT -5
Hotaru's eyes started to water up. He was... it was... it was everything she remembered. And his voice too, how ever many times she'd dreamed this his voice had never sounded the way it was now, there was just something unmistakable about it that she couldn't put her finger on.
The redhead choked back a few tears and nearly tackled him in a hug, which wasn't too strong considering how weak she was at the time. This couldn't be a dream now! This was her Jack, it was really him!! She was overwhelmed with so many emotions she didn't even notice how much she'd started crying.
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Post by Jack King on Jul 5, 2012 0:35:36 GMT -5
Jack caught Ruru easily, she was so light that there hadn't been a threat of him toppling over, and hugged her back tightly. He stroked her hair, shushing her softly as she sobbed, a few tears were leaking their way out of his own eyes actually... Ruru was back. Ruru was finally back! He was never letting her out of his sight ever again!!
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Post by Hotaru King on Jul 5, 2012 0:46:55 GMT -5
In reality it had been a good while that the two were holding each other, but to Hotaru it had felt like a few short moment. She kept her arms around him as tight as she could, she was too scared of letting him go just yet. "H-how long w-was I gone...?" she asked faintly, voice cracking. She hadn't been able to keep track of the days, and even if she had she probably couldn't remember it... it had felt like an eternity to her, and it might as well had been.
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Post by Jack King on Jul 5, 2012 1:24:47 GMT -5
Jack shifted in Ruru's hold so that the redhead was sitting on his lap instead of on the floor. It was probably a little more comfortable now that she was all skin and bones... "Thirty-five days." He replied. He had kept track, and each extra day had been incentive to get her back. "I'm so, so sorry I took so long to find you..." He managed to say, guilt welling up as he looked back at all the time that had gone by since her capture.
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Post by Hotaru King on Jul 5, 2012 1:58:10 GMT -5
Hotaru's eyes widen a little. Thirty-five days? That was just over a month... She'd really been gone a whole month?
She blinked and looked back at Jack, a couple more tears streaking down her cheeks again when he spoke. "No no no, Jack, it's alright." she pleaded, trying to keep her voice from cracking anymore than it had been. "It's alright now, I'm fine." She lied through her teeth at that last part. She knew she was far from fine, and she knew HE knew, but she didn't blame him, not at all...
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