One Shot: Somehow a miracle (Part 3)
When they've entered Keiko's room she was already awake and lied in her bed, playing with the stuff animal Kame brought her.
At her sight Jin started to tear up again and Kame had to pat his head. “Don't cry in front of her you idiot. She will be sad.”
She was looking confused at her two dads at the door and wondered why her dad was crying. She felt her tears rising inside her eyes and cried out.
“Dad!”
When Jin heard her call him for the first time he rushed to her side and held her in a soft embrace. “I'm so sorry Keiko. I'm so sorry.”
He continued crying and Keiko didn't stop either. Instead she stretched out her other hand towards Kame and called him. “Daddy!”
Kame went over to the bed and kissed her head softly. “Don't cry sunshine. Everything will be alright.”
They stayed like that for a long time before both Jin and Keiko fell asleep exhausted.
~♥~
Kame informed the others about Keiko's state and the next day they all came to visit her.
“Hey little princess, how are you doing?” Koki asked as the first person to arrive. “I bought you some crayons. I heard you like drawing.”
“Koki!” she called his name happily and he started to attack her with kisses all over her cheek.
“Since yesterday, she was on a speaking spree,” Kame explained to him. “I don't quite understand why now all of a sudden but she says all kind of things.”
“She's such a cute girl I want to stuff her into my bag and carry her home,” he said and pinched her cheeks.
“That's called kidnapping baldy,” Jin said and dragged him away from Keiko.
Ueda and Nakamaru came into the room that moment and were glad to see such a happy atmosphere in the room despite the unpleasant news.
“Hey Keiko-chan,” Ueda greeted the girl and gave her a CD. “I'm sure you'll like it. I picked it out especially for you.”
“Bo!” she said and the whole room started to laugh out loud.
“Where did she learn that?” Jin was laughing hard. “It must be because Koki always calls you Uebo.”
Ueda joined their laughing session and Kame thought that the doctor was right. He really wanted to give Keiko some last happy memories.
“I bought you a new drawing block because your old one is already full,” Nakamaru said and gave the girl the present. She smiled happily and thought about his name.
“I think your name is too long for her,” Jin teased him.
“Maru!”
Everyone looked surprised to the two of them.
“See! She knows my name!”
“Only because you are teaching her your name since the first time you met,” Ueda told them. “I always heard you saying to her 'Ma-ru. Try saying Ma-ru'.”
Nakamaru's face turned red and everyone laugh at him.
“I'm sorry I'm late!” Taguchi burst into the room. “Keiko-chan! I was buying her a present that's why I was late.”
He quickly gave her the game boy he had bought her and smiled happily. “So one day we can play together.”
She nodded and put it to the other stuff she got.
“I think Taguchi's name is even more complicated than Nakamaru's,” Ueda said and everyone laughed.
“What? Did she say your names?” He turned quickly to Keiko and knelt in front of her. “Try saying my name as well Keiko. Jun-no.”
But she only pursed her lips and looked apologetically at him.
“I told you, your name is too difficult,” Ueda said again.
“Jun-no. Try it!” he tried again.
“Chi!” she suddenly said and smiled brightly, causing everybody in the room to laugh.
“I guess that's a start,” Taguchi said and patted her head.
~♥~
She was allowed to leave the hospital a few days later. Jin placed her on the wheelchair and tried to explain to her that she had to sit on the chair from now on.
“Your leg is broken and you can't walk anymore so whenever you want to go somewhere you have to sit on this chair. Understood? No walking or standing.”
She nodded as a reply that she understood and together they made their way home. Kame cooked dinner for them and Jin played with Keiko in the living room.
“Do you want to be an artist one day? You really draw pretty pictures,” Jin asked her and she nodded. “Give your best then ne.”
That moment Kame called them for dinner so Jin carried her on his arm to the dining table. They talked happily and sometimes, Keiko would throw in a few words causing Kame and Jin to laugh.
After dinner, they settled down on the sofa to watch a film. Like always, Keiko fell asleep during the film and Jin carried her to her bed.
He joined Kame on the sofa afterwards and wrapped his arms around his boyfriend. Kame welcomed the embrace and leaned against Jin's chest.
“Should we tell her about her disease?” Jin asked Kame.
“I think it's better when we don't. Let’s just give her happy memories and let her go then,” Kame replied and Jin nodded.
“It's kind of scary isn't it? To imagine that in 3 months this apartment will be so quiet.”
Kame turned his head up to look at Jin's face. “We still have 3 months so don't think about it yet. Enjoy the days we still have with her. We don't know when it might be over.”
Jin tightened his hold around Kame and pulled him closer to his body until Kame was practically sitting on his lap.
“We'll go through this together right? Don't abandon me half way,” Jin pleaded him with a serious face.
“I would never do that. I'm here with you, until the end. Even if you don't want me here, I'll stay. I'm not going to leave you alone,” Kame replied and kissed him, soft but long.
“I would die without you Kame,” Jin murmured between their kiss but Kame shut him up again when he caught Jin's lips in another longing kiss.
~♥~
They took a 3 months leave from work, explaining things to Johnny and Yamada-san. They agreed to give them some time off so that Kame and Jin could take care of Keiko.
They went with her to all possible places; park, amusement park, cinema, Tokyo Dome, Tokyo Tower and everywhere else she wanted to go.
They've noticed that sometimes she had troubles breathing especially in her sleep. Their door was always wide open so that they heard her if she needed anything. Sometimes they would leave her alone to give her some space. Kame told Jin that he would suffocate her when they were always around.
Jin would write songs during these times and Kame would do all sorts of housework, as long as there was anything he could do.
~♥~
Weeks passed by quickly and weeks turned into a month and then into two.
Keiko was weak, she was tired when she woke up in the morning and she wasn't the cheerful child she once was anymore. She spent a lot of time sitting on the sofa reading a book or drawing.
They would go out with her to a park sometimes to let her catch some fresh air but when she sees all the children running around and playing, they caught sadness in her eyes and would immediately head back home.
“Hey Keiko, don't look so sad. One day you will be able to play like them again,” Jin lied but he couldn't bear the sight of her sad face anymore. She gave him a weak smile back and Jin kissed her forehead.
“Do you think she knows what’s going on with her?” Jin asked Kame one night when they were lying on bed.
“I think she feels that something is wrong. I don't know though if she already knows the meaning of death.”
“I hope she will leave without feeling any pain. It would break my heart having to watch her being in pain.”
“Me too Jin. Me too.”
~♥~
Kame often read a fairytale to Keiko before she went to sleep. She really liked the story of “The Sleeping Beauty” and Kame would read it to her whenever she wanted him to.
“Once upon a time there were a king and queen who said every day, "Ah, if only we had a child," but they never had one.” Kame continued reading and Keiko was listening attentively. She would gasp whenever the thirteenth woman came into the castle and cursed the princess. “And, in the very moment when she felt the prick, she fell down upon the bed that stood there, and lay in a deep sleep.”
She tucked on his sleeves causing him to stop reading and looking at her questioning. “Sleep … long?”
“Yeah, she will sleep for a very long time.”
“Dream?”
“Dream? Yes, in her sleep she will have a lot of beautiful dreams; of the beach, the sea, her parents and everything she likes,” he told her.
“Happy,” she said and smiled.
He kissed her head and continued reading the story until the end. “And then the marriage of the king's son with briar-rose was celebrated with all splendor, and they lived contented to the end of their days.”
She clapped her hands cheerfully and Kame tucked her under the covers.
“Go to sleep now Sleeping Beauty,” he told her and switched off the light.
“Daddy,” she called him before he left. “Everyone has happy ending?”
“Yeah,” he said. “Everyone has their own happy ending. You will have your happy ending one day, and I as well.”
She smiled and closed her eyes to go to sleep.
When Kame returned to his and Jin's room, the other was still showering so he sat down on the bed and wiped away a few tears.
“Why are you crying?” Jin asked him when he stepped into the room.
“Nothing. It's nothing,” he lied but couldn't stop his tears from coming back again and again.
Jin went to sit beside him and kissed his hair. “What's wrong love.”
“It's just … she is so young. She's not even 4 years old. She only started her life,” Kame cried onto Jin's chest.
“I know, I know,” Jin said with a soothing voice to calm Kame down.
“If I could I would give her the rest of my life so that she can still experience going to school and her first love and everything she won't be able to experience.”
“That wouldn't help Kame. I don't think I could go on without you and she would definitely be sad as well. She needs her Daddy.”
Kame nodded and Jin laid him down on the bed, tucking him under the blanket and hugging him close to his body.
“We will manage somehow Kame. We have to, for her sake.”
~♥~
One day when Jin went into her room to wake her up, she didn't open her eyes. And he knew she would never again.
~♥~
Her funeral was two days later. The words 'Keiko Akanishi, 08.08.2010 - 02.05.2011, You were the missing part in our life, you were the gift from God, you will always remain in our hearts until the day we meet again' were written on her gravestone. The day God brought her into their life and the day God took her away from them again. It wasn't even a year they were allowed to spend together.
Kame took Jin's hand as they both stood in front of the gravestone, listening to the prayers of the priest next to them.
Their minds were both thinking that Keiko was in a better place now, no more pain, no more sadness.
~♥~
They didn't touch anything in her room for weeks. When they pretended, they could still see her sitting on the sofa drawing pictures. But in the next moment the sofa was empty and cold again.
Every morning they woke up and waited for her to jump into their bed, shaking them, kissing them awake but every time the only thing they received was the suffocating silence in the room.
Jin avoided Kame, too scared that he would break out into tears when he would look at him. Kame left Jin alone the first days, only kissing him on the cheek occasionally or brush his hand when they would pass each other in the apartment. But when Jin became more and more distant he didn't know better but asked him.
“Jin. It's been 2 weeks now and you're still avoiding me,” he cornered Jin one night when they prepared to go to bed. “Talk to me Jin. Scream at me, cry, whatever just do something.”
“I'm sorry,” Jin just replied and looked away.
“Do you need time on your own? I could go back to my apartment for a few days, give you more space,” Kame suggested though he didn't feel comfortable with the suggestion.
“I think that's a good idea.”
Kame nodded and changed into some other clothes in their bedroom while Jin brushed his teeth in the bathroom.
“I'm leaving then,” Kame told him and Jin nodded. He kissed Jin's cheek briefly before he turned around and left.
When he heard the front door falling into the lock Jin sank to the floor and buried his face into his hands.
~♥~
Kame was waiting for Jin to come. But as days passed and days turned into weeks he gave up the hope and tried to continue with his life as much as he could.
He knew that her death was breaking Jin. He knew because it was breaking him inside as well. But he also knew that Jin was feeling a lot worse than himself. He long ago accepted it because he wouldn't have known another way to deal with this but the older man was different. Jin wanted to believe every day that she could live on but reality was different.
Kame didn't know what he could do. He wanted to help him but Jin didn't let him be close to him. He was slowly closing his heart for anybody who wanted to enter.
Kame kept his promise and stayed away from Jin to give him time. He would drop some food in front of the door whenever he thought Jin's fridge might be empty.
He persuaded the others to look after Jin whenever they could but they weren't more successful than he was. He was worried but there was nothing he could do. Jin had to accept this on his own.
~♥~
Jin was sitting in front of Keiko's room the whole day. Whenever his stomach needed attention he would grab something from the fridge without really caring about the taste and would return to his position in front of her door.
He was waiting for her to open these doors and run into his arms with a cheerful smile but she never did.
When the bell to his door rang he opened it and carried the bags of food inside, placing the food absent-mindedly into the fridge and returned to Keiko's door. He knew it was Kame who left the food and he knew Kame was worried about him but he didn't know what to say to him. There was nothing to say to him.
One day he found the CD Ueda gave Keiko while she was in the hospital behind the sofa cushion. He remembered how Keiko listened to the CD whenever she was drawing and the first smile since a long time found its way to Jin's face. He opened the jewel case and put the CD into the music player. All of a sudden, a paper fell out of the case.
Jin picked up the piece of paper and opened the folded piece. His eyes were filling themselves with tears when he read the messy handwriting.
'I love you Dad and Daddy.'
~♥~
Kame came home from the convenience store when he found Jin sitting in front of his door.
“Jin? What are you doing here? Why are you sitting on the floor?” Kame knelt down next to Jin on the floor and placed his hand worriedly on the other's shoulder. “What's wrong Jin?”
“I miss her Kame,” Jin told him with teary eyes and all Kame could do was wrap his arms around the other and whisper words of consolation into his ear.
“I know Jin. We all do. But I'm here for you. I just want to help you,” Kame said while caressing the other's back.
“I miss her so much.”
“I know Jin. I know.”
~♥~
“I found this when I wanted to listen to her CD,” Jin said and gave him the piece of paper. “It made me realize that I wasn't the only one in pain. You are in pain. And she is probably as well when she watches us from above.”
“I'm glad,” Kame just said and smiled at the piece of paper.
“Will you come back? To my apartment?” Jin asked Kame hesitantly but Kame made all his worries fly out of the window when he leaned towards Jin and kissed him.
“I've been waiting for that.”
~♥~
Kame found another note from her one day when he took out the book about “The Sleeping Beauty”. It was a picture of Jin, Kame and her in the amusement park. When Kame showed Jin the picture Jin immediately rushed into her room and looked through the book of “Cinderella”, her second favourite book and he found another note with the words 'Dad must always love Daddy'.
He broke out into tears again but this time Kame was there and put a comforting arm around his shoulder.
“I think it’s her way of telling us that she will always be here.”
~♥~
With time they found more and more notes whenever they opened a book, a jewel case, even under the sofa or the bed, in cupboards, everywhere.
After 6 months, they've found over 100 notes from her distributed all over the place. They were simple notes telling them that she loved them and a lot of pictures she drew. Whenever they found a new note they would smile at the sight and remember the happy times they were allowed to share together.
“I think she knew that her time was limited and still she drew all of this for us and placed it around the apartment,” Kame said one evening when they looked through all her notes.
“She was an intelligent child,” Jin answered. “She was our child.”
“Do you know the meaning behind her name Jin?” Kame asked him. “Keiko means Blessed Child. When I first looked into her eyes I knew that she was a blessing from God.”
“That's a nice meaning. It fits perfectly.”
Jin placed the notes back into the box and put it away under the table.
Two notes remained unread though because they still wanted to have notes from her.
They always wanted to have something they could cherish for the rest of their lives. And with Keiko, it all became possible.
Those memories, those troubles, and all those happiness, it was definitely worth it.
******
So how did you like the story? It's kind of sad considering that it is my last fanfic. But maybe someday (in the far far future) I'll come back with a new fanfic but for the time being this will be the last.
Please leave a comment and tell me what you think about the story ^^
Also I've written down a few ideas for Akame stories I didn't have the chance to write yet. Check them out here if you're interested and tell me which one you like, maybe I will consider writing one of them :)