Chapter Seven: Twister

*They had been sitting in the stuffy office for almost two hours. Carl was frustrated. He had never had anything this bad happen between two patients before. Once in a while he had a patient who lost their temper and took a swing at a nurse, or insulted one, but never had two patients fought the way Hiiro and Serena had. He had ended up canceling his daily meetings to deal with the two. But they had been silent since they had been brought in, something that did not bode well for him.

“One of you needs to speak to the other sooner or later. We can’t have you two arguing around here the way you have been the last two days. It’s disturbing to the other patients and disrupting both of your healing processes.”

“I hate to break it to you doctor, but I really can’t get along with him. He’s a prick in general. Can’t you just separate us?” Serena begged, breaking the silence.

“No. Serena, if I do that, you’ll never learn how to get along with other people you don’t like in the real world.

“Bull.”

“Serena. You don’t have a choice. You and Hiiro need to learn to get along. Hiiro?”

“Hnn.” As far as he could see, he had followed the doctor’s orders and nothing had happened but what he had expected. He would need to learn to re-harness his emotions, or else he would hurt more people. Well, that’s what he got for trusting a doctor. Besides. He wasn’t going to let Serena get to him any more. He just wasn’t.

“Very well. How about a friendly game between you two to call it even?” Carl suggested. “Teamwork will help bring you two together to at least tolerate each other.”

“Aren’t you worried about hurting our sensitive psyches by forcing us together?” Serena asked, trying to turn the doctor’s words on him.

“No. Sensitive as your psyches are, I feel it will be good for the both of you to have this experience. You need to begin practicing how to rebuild your relationships in life.”

“Bull.”

“You have a new favorite phrase today Serena.” The doctor smirked and watched as his patient frowned and mimicked him. “Now that you’re finished making faces, Serena, I’ll leave you two to your game. Play nice now.” And the doctor stood and left, locking the door behind him from the outside.

For a moment there was silence. Neither Serena nor Hiiro moved, taking in everything their situation could offer. Hiiro was nearly sure he had heard the door lock, and Seren could swear the room was suddenly getting smaller and smaller. As the atmosphere became tenser, each of them looked for a way to diffuse the situation.

Serena, for her part, looked longingly at the small garbage can beside the fine mahogany desk. It was so tempting, just sitting there, practically empty. And she felt so gross and fat, almost dirty because of the food she had been forced to eat earlier in the morning. That, plus the stress of this whole situation…

Hiiro watched her eyes fluttered between the garbage can by the desk and herself and wondered. What was she thinking? He knew she wouldn’t pick it up and hit him. From what he had observed, she didn’t have that many violent tendencies, and this was not a situation that would push her to them. Not yet anyway. Still, what could she do with a- he watched as she moved towards the can and bent over, making sure to hold he hair back out of her face. Hiiro watched her heave for a moment, then realized what was happening.

“Stop.” She surprisingly did.

“Why’s that?” She wanted to know.

“Don’t you feel gross and empty after you throw up?” His own question surprised him.

“I feel gross and full now. At least if I throw it up I’ll stay thin.” She told him, as if it were obvious.

“But it’s not healthy.”

“Way to sound like that damned shrink. And anyway, why do you give a damn? Keep your nose out of my business. Why did you think I was here, on a vacation?”

“Crazy.” He answered simply. She stared at him, stood, and slapped him.

“Keep that mouth of your shut.” Maybe he had been wrong about those violent tendencies?

“Hnn.” He grumbled. But the doctor had given an order. Mission parameters, if he was to take it as a mission… “Mission parameters state we are to play a board game and get along.” She snorted.

“Mission parameters? What are you on soldier boy? LSD? Is that why you’re here?”

“No.” Hiiro had the decency to blush very lightly. “I do not use drugs.”

“So you’ve always hallucinated you were a soldier. Great. Even I don’t have this many issues.” He growled.

“I do not hallucinate. I was part of the Eve Wars. I’m here for a routine check in my mental well-being.” Well, it was partially true. And anyway, she didn’t need to hear how truly mental and insane he was- it would ruin his image.

“Well, well, well. Fine Mister Perfect. Get your damned game and we’ll play. The sooner we get this over with, the sooner we leave.” She sighed.

“Fine.” Hiiro moved to the bookshelf on his right and opened the cupboard doors below it. There was a stack of classic inkblot cards, as well as a few empty manila envelopes. The shelf below it had a stack of puzzles and a game of dominos.

“Dominos?” He asked her. She shook her head vigorously.

“Not a chance. More black and white? You’ve got to be kidding me. Pick something with color Mr. Yui.” He said nothing, but his eyes sparked briefly.

He completely agreed with her. More black and white indeed. But he couldn’t see anything but puzzles or the dominos. The puzzles would take forever to put together- the smallest one had eight hundred pieces- plus he was sure she wouldn’t appreciate them much either. Finally another colorful game caught his attention. Dragging it out, he shuddered.

“You can’t be serious!” She began backing away and holding up her hands. “Not that. Anything but that.”

“Rather spend hours putting together a puzzle, play dominos, or this, you decide.”

“But we’ll have to touch!” She shivered and crossed her arms in front of her, as if the protect herself.

“You did ask for color.” He pointed out.

“I don’t want you near me. No touching. We’ll put a puzzle together.” She decided.

“Fine.” He muttered. She paused.

“You’re agreeing with me?”

“Yes.”

“No. You can’t. That’s against the rules.”

“What rules?” Now Hiiro was confused. He couldn’t place her. Forever, as long as he could remember, he had been able to at least get a sense of a person’s personality and character. But this girl kept changing so fast that as soon as he had categorized her, he needed to begin again. He had thought she was harmless; she had gotten him in trouble. He had thought she was nice enough; she had not only flipped him, but slapped him. He had thought she would want him to agree, and now here she was, telling him it was against the rules. What rules! Where was the justice in her? Where was her darned sanity!

“The rules!” She rolled her eyes. “Don’t you know anything?” She sighed.

“I know enough. But this? No.” He smirked.

“Well, for someone who thinks he’s Perfect, this is a big surprise. Look, There are certain ‘rules’ that people play by in the world. We can’t agree to disagree, we need to stay fighting until one of us wins, at which point the other can back down and leave the winner in peace.”

“I never heard of those rules.”

“Where’ve you been living your life?”

“In an MS.”

“Whatever. Fine, we’ll play twister. Just don’t you touch me!”

“It’s twister.” He stated blankly.

“Yes?”

“Touching may be required.”

“And I may be required to slap you again if you touch me.” Hiiro growled, but didn’t reply. The thought of another slap made him angry for some reason. She thought she could get away with that attitude? Very well. He wouldn’t touch her. Avoiding her piercing, gaze, he set up the game.

“Spin.” He ordered. She looked at him as though she was about to say something, but pulled short and spun.

Serena had been tempted to tell Hiiro to spin, therefore start another argument, but she stopped in time. She would let Hiiro have his fun. She would humor him and see if he could really play without touching her.

Taking the spinner from him, she flicked the arrow and watched it spin. It landed on left hand, red. Quietly she placed her hand on the red spot and let him take the spinner from her. He flicked it and watched as it landed on right foot, yellow. This would be easy; they were completely separated from each other.

A full hour later they found themselves in a very different position. Over the course of the game Serena had managed to have her left hand move to blue, to have both her left and right feet on yellow, and her right hand on green. She was, more or less, stretched across the mat. Hiiro had much the same problem. He was next to Serena, stretched out nearly identically except for his right hand, which was on red, and the fact that his stomach was facing the ceiling of the room. Both had long ago given up on the no touching rule- both wanted to win more than they cared about touching. But now they were also both physically exhausted.

“Give…up…Yui. You’re not going to beat me.” Serena grunted lightly.

“Hnn.” Hiiro had never thought a game like Twister would be able to drag him down. How wrong he had been. “Just spin.”

“Fine.” She grumbled. Reaching over, she barely managed to spin the arrow. It read left foot green. She groaned in disappointment. Serena lifted her leg and slipped it under his body and tapped her foot down.

As he leg shifted, Hiiro tensed. Any slight weakness on his part could cause him to lose the game. What he hadn’t counted on was her smooth, bare leg brushing against his own leg and moving across his back. For a moment he could feel his arms wobble and his skin burned from the sensation. She shifted one more time, trying to get somewhat more comfortable in her awkward position, then stilled.

“Your turn.” She passed the spinner.

“Hnn.”

“All that grunting is really getting annoying you know.” Hiiro looked up at down at her. Was that so? He felt good. He felt… evil. And he smirked.

“Hnn.”

“You did that on purpose!” She accused.

“Hnn.” And he spun, fully aware of the disbelief on her face. The arrow had landed on left hand, red. He strained to look over at the red circles. It would take a quick move to flip so his belly was facing the floor and his left hand would be able to reach the red circles, but he thought he could manage it.

Serena watched carefully, knowing full well what Hiiro was thinking. He would have to turn and keep his feet and right hand in the same place, as well as put his hand on the red. He was going to have to flip and land perfectly. There was no way he could make that move! She was going to win! He would fall, and it would all be over. It served him right!

“Oh Mr. Perfect?” her sweet voice rang clear as a bell in his ears, breaking his concentration. “You’ll never make it.” *