Sharing

Mizuki returned home Sunday night. Although she still regretted the awkward end to her job, she reluctantly acknowledged that she might still have been contagious during her last scheduled shifts. This was the first day she had felt entirely recovered.

Her family gathered for one last meal with Shizune and Shinichi that night.

Shizune explained with enthusiasm, "We found a housing development project! It's situated on the hill between a nice park and a grade school that we used to compete with, and usually lost to."

Shinichi added, "I finally persuaded her to go for a customized place after she visited a dozen of the best compromises I could find."

Shizune flushed as she admitted, "I think it will be worth the wait to be able to have everything that we each wanted, although the expense…"

Shinichi interrupted, "It's worth it. The delay shouldn't be a problem as long as it's still okay for us to stay here if it isn't finished before the baby is due."

Junshiro assured them, "There's no problem with that."

Minori added, "Mizuki can sleep out here in the main room."

Mizuki frowned at her parents, but immediately nodded when Shizune eyed her nervously. "If I haven't already finished moving in with Sora by then, I don't mind giving up our room early."

"Don't forget to invite me to your wedding," Shinichi insisted laughingly.

"Like I could leave my family out of it," Mizuki muttered, while Shizune gasped and poked him in the side.

Shinichi just laughed.

Monday morning while she was at school, Shinichi and Shizune returned to the island.

Mizuki's third term started out normally enough, although she soon discovered that Tooru had finally admitted to his friends that he hadn't ever done it with her. Despite his fears they hadn't shunned him.

She didn't expect that it would improve her own reputation, and there wasn't much reaction among her classmates. However, Tooru's friends treated her a bit more respectfully than they ever had before. She messaged Katsuji about the improvement, and he immediately responded that it was about time.

A second rumor that took a bit longer to circulate had more impact. The students who had known him began to whisper that her ex had raped a girl at his workplace. No one seemed to realize that it had been Mizuki. But between that and Tooru confessing, a lot of people suddenly started talking to her again, although most of them only said hi.

In a way it was nice that people were daring to talk to her at all, but it left her feeling bitter, especially when Tooru tried to patch things up. It seemed cruel if she didn't respond, so she did her best. She even made an effort to reply to their greetings, but it made her feel rather tired and cynical.

--

Sora caught her cold. He didn't get sick until the middle of the week, and when Mizuki found out that he was sick enough to skip work on Thursday, she got her parents permission to skip school Friday and go see him. She took the train that night.

When she exited the subway station near his apartment a couple of guys barely older than she was, if at all, tried to approach her with cliche lines.

The tallest cooed, "Come play with us for a while little girl? I'll make sure you feel really good."

The other laughed and complained, "Dude, you're killing our chances with that kind of talk. Ignore him sweetie, we're just bored, and you're really cute."

Mizuki ignored the lines and firmly marched forward, ignoring the way the two of them pressed closer as though they intended to grab her.

She was startled when Sora snapped, as she rounded the corner with both of them on her heels, and found him approaching, "Get the hell away from my girlfriend!"

They both jumped and stepped away from Mizuki, who gasped and ran forward to meet him.

"Sora!" she scolded. "Why are you out of bed?"

He hugged her against him and replied stuffily, "It's a good thing I got out of bed to come meet you."

"I was fine," she replied quickly. "Neither of them touched me, they're just talking crap and acting like kids Sora," she insisted anxiously.

"Sorry," one of them mumbled.

"Just being friendly," the other added sheepishly.

After a moment Sora shrugged and told her plaintively, "It makes me nervous, I'm sorry. Why did you decide to come early? What about school tomorrow?"

"I don't want you to be sick alone," she replied promptly. He wavered and she tucked herself against his side and coaxed him back up the block toward his building.

"I'm okay," he insisted.

Mizuki eyed him anxiously as he swayed while opening the door and told him sharply, "You don't look well Sora, you seem sicker than I was."

He was pale and tired looking, in addition to being unsteady.

--

Sora refused to let Mizuki go to the store alone, and they argued.

"It doesn't seem safe for you to go out alone! What if I hadn't walked down to meet you earlier?" he demanded.

She protested angrily, "They didn't actually try to hurt me, they were just being annoying! You are being ridiculous Sora, and I don't want to fight with you like this when you're sick!"

He put a hand to his head and replied tiredly, "I don't want you to fight with me like this when I'm well either. Let's move to a better area Mizuki?"

She stared at him helplessly and then told him unhappily, "I don't want you to go out when you're this sick, and you won't let me go out alone. Can you call Takumi-san and ask him to get things?"

"Sure," he agreed after a moment. But then he complained, "You didn't answer."

"I'm not going to until you feel better either," she replied grumpily. "You are definitely not allowed to go apartment hunting until you're well Sora. And I want to talk to you about money later too." He looked at her with a worried expression, and she added quickly, "It's okay, don't worry, I just didn't want to do it by message."

--

Takumi quite promptly dropped off the requested groceries and medicine. He was wearing a mask, and set the things he carried down outside their door with an apologetic, "Sorry, I don't want to risk carrying this cold back to Eri."

"It's fine, thank you very much Takumi-san," Mizuki assured him.

Sora nodded and called out a creaky, "Thanks," from where he sat on his futon.

--

Sora took the medicine and drank the tea without complaint but he complained about the leek porridge. "Porridge should be sweet! If you had to feed me leeks, couldn't you have at least made it into a soup?"

Mizuki sighed and ruffled his hair. She asked surprisingly patiently, "Can you just eat it for now, and then tell me what you would like to have next? You said you didn't care when I asked before, and it's something I could make in the microwave."

"Sorry," he replied after a moment.

She leaned in and kissed him lightly. "Would it be any less awful if I feed it to you? I'd just get rid of it, except that Takumi-san only brought one leek."

"He knows I don't like leek flavored things when I'm sick," Sora admitted. "But he still insists I eat some."

He stared at the bowl and sighed. Mizuki took the spoon and ate a bite, then fed Sora the next bite.

"Eat half?" she suggested.

"Okay" he agreed.