Visitations and Stuffed Animals

Gemma wanted to scream--but she knew better than to do that in a nice, mostly quiet hospital. The tubes stuck in her arms put her on edge from the moment she'd woken up. She didn't like feeling trapped; she wanted to be free and run around and go get some candy...

Ugh, candy. The mere thought made her want to vomit again.

She sighed and rested her head back on her pillow, too tired to do anything but lay there (as much as she wanted to rip these tubes and needles out of her skin). The sound of knocking startled her and made her cough. Her eyes moved to the door, hopeful, just waiting for her big brother to come in and cheer her--oh. Oh.

It was Shiro. Gemma's lips tightened before she could even think to stop them. She couldn't deny how awkward and exposed she felt despite being burrowed under several hospital blankets. How could they just walk in here like that? After everything that...

"It's fine..." she mumbled, looking away to stare out the window like one of Nova's cliche K-drama characters. "I'm um...better. Why are you here?"

Gemma grumbled to herself and picked at the threads of her hospital sheets. Her heart rate monitor produced a steady beep--not. She wished. The quick and somewhat erratic beeps made her want to rip these cords right out of her skin so it'd stop betraying how utterly dumb she was. Of course, that would've brought nurses out the wazoo in a huge hoopla, so she settled for staring hard out this window and hoped to God that Shiro didn't notice anything.

"I'm fine, thanks...All I've been doing is reading stuff when I don't have visitors anyways. It's different when you have to read it so you don't go bored out of your mind." Gemma's tail flicked under the bed, and she shifted around to get into a position where she wasn't crushing it. A soft, sighing mew escaped her when she was comfortable again.

"Thank you--for coming, I guess. I didn't think you'd actually care," she said quietly, snaking her pinky through the loop of thread she'd pulled free. It was hard finding things to say. "Um...How've you been? Shiro?" Dumb. That sounded so dumb. She thought it'd be better to add his--her name onto the end, but she'd hesitated a moment too long. Her brows furrowed in a little scowl that looked unnatural for her face.

It almost offended Gemma with how calm Shiro was. Was she the only one bothered by everything that happened? Was everything that happened just some dream that she mistook for reality? She started to feel even more dumb for taking it so seriously, and she could already hear Callum's voice in her ears telling her that no one should make her feel like she's this dumb. Maybe she should just...act like it never happened, too.

"Maybe...I've had a lot of people visit me so far. It's nice." Her eyes moved from the window to the gift baskets sitting on her bedside table. There were lots of flowers and a couple of beanie babies and other small stuffed animals. The yarn doll she'd acquired that day in the center sat at the forefront. Some of the baskets held food, which always made her nauseous to look at despite how tasty it all was. The scent of lavender filled the room, stemming from a gift basket full of lavender-scented spa products. "It's like a very, very...vomity, headachey birthday. A hospital Christmas with an extra helping of vomit."

She glanced over at the mention of more presents, confused yet curious. Her eyes were trained on the...bat-cat? Which she gently accepted and hugged close to her chest. "Thank you," she said with proper eye contact before looking away again. "It's cute...I didn't know they made things like this. Where did you get it?"

"I don't usually name my stuffed animals..." Gemma murmured, pulling the toy back to stare into its eyes. Her nose twitched. She set the bat-cat next to her pillow and stared hard towards the window, but not out it. She had had enough of this useless small talk. She was just frustrated now. Her blood felt like it was boiling yet at the same time running through her veins in frozen rivulets.

After several moments of silence on her end, Gemma let out a loud groan and jammed her fingers in her own hair to mess it up. She flipped over, nearly ripping out some of her patches in her forceful twisting. Her blue eyes trained on Shiro.

"Why don't you like me?" she asked very firmly and carefully, so that if Shiro didn't hear her it was because she knew they were deaf. All Gemma had done the entire time they knew each other was keep her mouth shut and look where that got her. Why keep her mouth shut now? It was the perfect chance, wasn't it? They were alone, abracadabra.

"Why did you lead me on and make me think that you did? Be. Honest!"

Gemma sighed and collapsed back against the bed, rubbing her forehead with the heels of her palms. She had a headache, and she couldn't tell if it was because of the food poisoning or this situation or both. Probably both. They're messed up? That was the best answer she was going to get? Why couldn't Shiro just say 'I don't like you like that' so she could stop wondering about it so much? This was just confusing her even more.

She let her hands drop back down to the bed and turned her head to look at Shiro when she asked about asking her something. Gemma looked confused at first, but her expression quickly turned incredulous and she sat sharply up, leaning over the edge of the bed towards Shiro with her hands tightly gripping the sheets. The cords attached to her pulled and protested her movements, but she ignored them.

"Of course I am!" she said with a hiss, then softened a little and started to look sad, hurt. "Of course I'm attracted to you, you big dummy. I like you for you, idiot. I don't care about your gender..." Gemma groaned and pulled back, readjusting her cords so the nurses wouldn't run in to sedate her or whatever. "Not that it even matters now..." she mumbled with drooping ears. Her eyes were glassy, on the verge of tears, but she tried to ignore them as she fiddled with her patches.