Clueless - Health and Hospitals

[Otto's POV]

A while later, Otto was sitting on a bench in the shade of a large tree in the middle of the shopping district. She was holding a delicious-looking sandwich so large that she most probably wouldn't be able to finish it.

"Hmmm!" she hummed in delight as she took her first bite and savoured the taste. It was strange how her earlier fright had vanished entirely. She felt reborn! Honestly, it had been ages since she'd felt this... relaxed?

She frowned at her own thoughts.

Relaxed? Was that really the word she was looking for? It made her sound like a worry wart. Or even worse, a control-freak. Which she was not! Not at all!

Yet, she had felt so safe when Alex had held her close, hiding her shameful tears from the world. If he'd said in that moment that he'd never let anything bad happen to her, she would have believed him. But he hadn't said anything. He'd just held her close, gently stroking her back, until she'd calmed down.

She felt the heat creep up on her face at the memory. Jeez, what must bypassers have thought? Alex didn't seem to mind though.

She secretly glanced sideways at him. Alex was sitting next to her, his gaze was flicking from one place to another. He looked a little haunted.

"What's wrong?" she asked, successfully breaking him away from his thoughts.

"Hmm? Ah... yeah well," Alex stammered and sighed as he collected his thoughts. "Damn it, Otto! You really cursed me! Did you have to tell me about the extremely-handsome-thing? I can't help but notice people giving me funny looks now."

Otto giggled at how he wrinkled his nose in dislike.

"Aha, so you finally started noticing it yourself."

"Has it always been this bad?"

"Ha," she laughed dryly. "So I take it you really never have noticed all the swooning girls at school?"

Alex cringed.

"I think even that older woman from that shop earlier was trying to impress you," Otto continued.

"Sabine?" Alex laughed. "No! She's probably after my dad."

"Your dad?" Otto asked surprised. She did recall Sabine mentioning him.

"Yeah, he's probably worse than I am," Alex said. "People constantly act starstruck around him. I never knew why though. Until now."

"That's really hard to believe," Otto said while thinking of her own dad.

She didn't get to think about it for long as her attention was drawn towards a beautiful girl around her own age, with long dark brown hair wearing an elegant green knee-length dress and black ballerina shoes. She was openly staring at Alex while she walked by, clearly liking what she saw, until she noticed Otto sitting next to him and glared at her angrily.

"What the hell was that?!" Alex asked wide-eyed.

"She was interested in you, until she saw me and assumed you were taken," Otto laughed sourly, even though his surprise softened the sting. Alex blinked as he thought about what she'd said. Perhaps he'd even memorised the way the girl had looked at him.

"How do you know these things?!"

"It's common sense," Otto deadpanned, making Alex shrink in shame. "I barely know the basics! It surprises me no-one has ever told you any of this before?"

"Hmm... so it's strange after all," Alex mumbled, more to himself than to her and then concluded: "I guess it was inevitable."

"Hmm? What was?" Otto asked.

Silence fell as Alex seemed to be lost in thought. Otto didn't dare to ask any further. Had she stepped on a personal landmine of his? Had she hurt him by asking?

"I used to be this really frail child," Alex said calmly. "I practically grew up being hospitalised. It wasn't until I was six years old that my condition was stable enough to go to school for the first time."

Otto quickly held a hand in front of her mouth as she gasped.

"And around that same time, my dad took on this project that needed to be researched in a secluded place for safety reasons. Let me tell you, the rules of society work very differently in a place where everyone knows everyone by name," Alex said as he looked up at her and only then noticed her expression.

"Don't give me that look!" he said, sounding annoyed. "All of that was a long time ago, and everything's okay now, so there's no need for pity!"

"But, six years?!" Otto asked, feeling her throat squeeze tight. "That's awful!"

"It's not that bad," Alex said as he raised an eyebrow at her. "Because it happened when I was that young, I hadn't even missed anything important at school. If anything, it made me more determined, you know? Grab every chance you get and live to the fullest!"

Another silence fell as Otto processed all the new information.

"That's really praiseworthy," she said, still feeling shaken. Alex released a strained chuckle.

"Thank you," he said. "You know, I've never told anyone about that before."

"Really?" Otto asked. Alex had been explaining in such a neutral and steady voice that she'd thought he was used to it. She tried to read his expression but the only word that came to mind was "guarded".

"Yeah, it hasn't come up before," he said.

"I can imagine," Otto laughed. "I have a hard time imagining you as a frail child though. What was it like? Your illness."

"Hmm," he hummed in thought. "To be honest, I don't remember much about it. The few memories I do have, I remember feeling weak and lonely, unable to leave my bed or play in my room. Sometimes I would wake up, and my dad, a doctor and a nurse would be standing around my bed with a defibrillator, saying I had suddenly lost consciousness."

A shiver ran visibly down his spine at that last memory.

"That's... actually really disturbing," Otto said hesitantly, hoping she wouldn't offend him.

"Right?" Alex asked by way of confirmation, not offended in the slightest.

"It's a good thing that you're cured now, though."

"Cured?" he asked as if he was testing the word. "The doctors didn't even have the faintest idea what was wrong with me, not to mention finding a cure for it. The only thing I know for sure is that it hasn't raised its ugly head in a long time."

"So you might have a heart-attack or a seizure at any minute?" she asked in surprise.

"Heart-attack... or a seizure?!" Alex asked, clearly not expecting her conclusion and snickered. "Girl, are you wishing me dead? Do you think I'd be happily prancing around if my condition was that bad? It's nothing that serious, really. I recognise when I'm about to have an attack, and have my dad on speed dial. So there's nothing for you to worry about."

"Why are you making me sound like a fool?!" she asked angrily. "It could happen! You said so yourself! At least tell me what to expect! Just in case things go awfully wrong."

"When things go wrong?" he echoed her words, looking severely unimpressed and heaved a heavy sigh. "A little pessimist, aren't you? Let's see... What to expect..."

He thought for a few seconds as if he hadn't thought about it in a long time.

"Not that much, honestly," he finally said. "I doubt you'd be able to notice anything if it were to happen. I notice something is wrong myself because my whole body suddenly starts to tingle like crazy. You know? Like when your foot has fallen asleep, and you're trying to get the blood flowing again? That. Except for the fact that if the tingling continues for too long, my vision will go black, and I'll faint."

"That's kind of boring," Otto said after a long pause and cringed. That had sounded a lot better in her head! It was meant to be a joke to lighten the mood, but it had come out horribly wrong. She could only hope he wasn't offended.

When she looked his way, she had expected to find an angry face, but instead she found his eyes sparkling with mischief. His mouth was pressed in a thin line, but the corners were turned up ever so slightly. It gave her courage to joke on.

"Well, now that I know what to look for; you can count on me! Mister low blood pressure!" Otto said with a big grin.

"Ugh, you did not just call me that," Alex complained, donning an exaggerated downcast expressions as if her joke had hurt him, but couldn't hide his own grin.

"And what if I did?" she said, getting braver.

"Then you'll have to go buy clothes on your own," he said cheekily.

"You'd ignore the call of a damsel in distress?!" she said in mock-horror.

"My father would kill me if I did," Alex said gravely, suddenly dead-serious. Otto couldn't help but laugh.

"It's true though," he said with a smile, infected by her laughter. "He was already reprimanding me this morning because I had said today would be awfully awkward."

"Yeah," Otto trailed off, thinking about the day so far. "It really has been awkward. But it was fun too. I'm glad that I got to know you a little better."

"Hmm, yeah, I think so too," Alex said. "Shopping with you is definitely a lot more fun than shopping on my own."

"Aw, thank you! That's such a sweet thing to say," she said happily. "Jessy hates shopping with me. She's always accusing me of being indecisive and slow. She'd always be sighing as I couldn't find what I was looking for."

"Ah! Haha," Alex laughed sheepishly. "No, not so much indecisive or slow, but rather clueless."

"Hey!" Otto complained. "That's not true!"

"Yes it is," Alex countered playfully. "You've been living here your whole life, but you need a newbie like me to show you the good shops? You simply don't know where to start!"

"Hmm," Otto hummed in dislike. "I can't deny that. But you're the one who wasn't aware of his looks."

Alex laughed in surprise at her counter. At least he had the decency to look ashamed.

"Touché. Well, then it seems we are both clueless," he laughed. He looked happy. Well, honestly. Otto could feel it too. Something had changed between them, she felt more at ease around him.

Now that they'd gotten to know each other a little, she felt like the mystery around him had cleared. So they continued the playful banter until they'd both finished their pieces of bread and it was time to go home.