Akane's eyes opened slowly; the light of the setting sun, which shone right at them, was enough for her to shut them again. Still sleep-drunken, she rolled onto her other side and scratched her tummy while disappearing even further beneath her comfortable blanket. Now that the sun didn't flashbang her the moment she merely thought about opening her eyes, she reluctantly forced her eyes, which were stuck together from the stuff that had collected in their corners.
Right in front of Akane was the same mundane wall she saw almost every morning when she woke up; however, the question of why she wasn't on the ground but instead neatly tucked in her bed only arose once she noticed that her by now scrawny-looking coat had been replaced by her purple nightgown. "Hmm," she groaned as she slowly sat up in bed and tried to recall her memories. It was no use; the entire last night remained a blur, only fragments periodically coming back. But one thing she knew for certain, her head felt like it was about to explode.
She grabbed her phone off the nightstand while rubbing her eyes with the other hand; the display showed it at 100% charge. Then, she saw the clock. Her face turned pale as her mission came back to her mind — find Aqua. "4:37 pm," Akane muttered in disbelief as she realized that she had just slept for over 12 crucial hours. Her hands began to shake ever so slightly as she put her phone back down atop the nightstand. "That's not good at all," Akane said to herself as she finally got up out of her bed. Her knees still hurt, just not as badly as they did yesterday. "I slept like a rock."
She took a few steps towards her door, just when she was about to reach for the handle. "I thought you'd never wake up." She heard a voice, coming from about where her PC stood. Goosebumps invaded her entire body as she whipped her head around. On her office chair, face slightly dipped in shadows, was her mother. She silently watched over Akane for god knows how long. "I took the liberty to get you out of these ripped and dirty clothes." The voice of her mother sounded cold — or perhaps she just did her best to make it seem like that.
"Mom?" Akane sounds like a child who was just caught stealing from their parents, this, alongside a hint of confusion. "Why are you here?" Akane toyed with the handle of her door for a moment; then she pulled her hand away from it and sat down on her bed. Her mother did the same, sitting down on the other side of Akane's queen-sized bed.
"I am keeping an eye on you, waiting for you to wake up. I have a lot of questions. Starting with why the hell you're tumbling through the house in the dead of night, making it sound like someone is robbing our house," her mother said.
Akane could, even when the sentence had ended, still feel the gaze of her mother bore into the back of her head, making her freeze like she had just looked at Medusa. "I- I was drunk," she stuttered out. "I'm sorry, but I have to go now," She added while hurriedly standing up and grabbing her phone, while her other hand had already darted towards the doorknob again.
"LIAR!" Her mother's shout made Akane freeze in place. Her hand was almost at the knob, while the other hand remained buried within the pocket of her nightgown; she had just put her phone in.
"You didn't smell like alcohol when I found you… You also didn't smell like alcohol when I got you out of your dirty clothes… You also didn't smell like alcohol when I cleaned you… And you also didn't smell like alcohol when your dad and I carried you to bed."
Even though her room wasn't particularly hot nor cold, sweat had begun to form on the back of her neck, while her fingers felt like they were about to fall off from frostbite.
"So tell me the truth, Akane." Her voice was quieter again. "What is going on with you?"
Akane's hand fell from reaching for the knob to once more, hanging limp beside her body once more. Her heart beat all the way up in her ears as they listened to the grandfather clock in the hallway, quietly letting the seconds pass through. "You're right. I wasn't drunk, just tired. But for now, I have slept enough." She attempted to sound optimistic, but her body language told a completely different story.
"Akane…" Her mother's voice cracked slightly, "I know you were tired. But the question is, why were you this tired to begin with?"
The clock ticked quite a few times before Akane spoke. "I- I- Uh- Uhm- Uh- I-" She made a pause and sighed, even she was unable to come up with an argument for it. "Aqua… you remember him, right? He needs help, a lot of it. And I am the only person who can help him."
"Aqua? That boy again? He seems to be a real pain. Why do you even keep up with his shenanigans?" Her mother's words felt like a punch in the gut to Akane as her eyes mirrored the disbelief she had rarely ever felt before. "Keep up with his shenanigans?… Do you even know what he did for me? He would die if I didn't help him… God damn it, Mom, I love him. I can't jus-" Akane's words were abruptly cut off as she felt her mother hug her from behind.
"It was hard for you, wasn't it?" Akane's mom whispered into her ear.
"You have no idea," Akane quietly admitted. Her mom's embrace made her feel a special sense of comfort she hadn't felt in weeks. It wasn't quite what she wanted her payment to be, but for now, it was sufficient as a reward for all the deliberate hardship she had gone through over the last days.
"And how much do you love this guy?" Her mom's voice was quiet yet gentle as she kept pressing Akane for more information. Originally, Akane wasn't too big a fan of sharing, but that had changed. She saw what it did to Aqua, and she knew how she felt when Aqua didn't include her once again, so she just tried it. Instead of pulling away from the hug, she melted into it as best she could and replied, "Really much…" She trailed off after no more than a few words in, thoughts about Aqua, about his smile, about his ways, about his smell invading her brain.
These thoughts were memories Akane always held dear, but they were like a drug; the more she thought about them, the less she liked them. Ignorance is bliss isn't just said because it sounds cool; his smile, his smell, and even his characteristics, were they genuine or just a facade, after all. Akane had always thought about the possibility of them not being real; that's what overthinkers like her do, but the more she found out, the more certain of it she became of it.
But does it really matter? What decides who we are, when we wear a mask 24 hours a day, why isn't that mask who we are, after all?
"But it's not only because he saved me…" she continued," It was that at first, but it's not anymore. Over the past months, I've found out so much about him… Stuff he wanted to keep a secret… Time on time again, he helped his friends. He did it even when it hurt him; he never even took any credit for it… And now that he needs help… None of them are there for him… It's just so sad."
Her mother embraced her even tighter. Even she started to feel bad for Aqua as she listened to her daughter's words. "So you want to see him happy… The only question that remains is: Do you want to see him happy, or do you want him to be happy with you?" She knew she had hit the mark when she felt her daughter's heartbeat increase beneath her palm she had tightly pressed atop her chest.
The gently ticking of the clock moved to the foreground once more; then Akane spoke, her voice determined. "I wanna be with him."
"Then go and help him…" Akane's mom said as she let go of her, "And don't forget, I want at least one boy and one gi-"
Akane interrupted her mom, raising her hands in front of her bright red face. "Mom! Stop it…" Akane lowered her hands again as her cheeks began to pale back out. "... But thanks."