Between the Curtains
Fandom: Katekyo Hitman Reborn!
Pairing: Xanxus/Haru (X86)
Summary: She was the reason he fought the disease...and the reason he wanted it back. AU. ANGST.
Written for: 10_dates || prompt: Birthday
Between the Curtains
He was ill. That was what he grasped from the way his parents had looked at him with sadness and pity. It was annoying, really. After all, everyone gets ill and even if he was strong and fierce just like the other kids in school tell him so, he's not that invincible.
The only problem was, his illness doesn't have any cure.
"The cancer's terminal." He heard the doctor say in a whisper. "Xanxus should stay at the hospital and undergo radiation therapy. His body would be the only one that could say whether or not he would live, but as far as the stage is concerned, there's a high percentage of him going through it."
And that was it. His parents left him at the hospital with sad glances, his mother huffing in a burst of tears. He only scowled and rested his hands under his shoulders, he didn't need their pity. He was now left alone, the nurse tending to the IV tubes that will be placed on his body later.
"Hahi! You're new here?" Xanxus ground his teeth in annoyance.
"Why do you fucking care, girly?" He turned to the bed beside him and glared.
It was a young girl, barely fifteen in fact. She has a bonnet atop her head, no hair visible from the sides. Tubes wired up her arms and her skin was ghastly pale, her lips thin and cracking...blue from the lack of blood.
If she weren't blinking or smiling at him, Xanxus would have mistaken her for a corpse.
"Well, don't call me girly! My name's Haru." She smiled again. "What's your name?"
He didn't know why he told her his name, or why he didn't even shout at her to mind her own business. He must have felt a bit of pity towards her, after all, she experienced what he was about to experience nine years earlier than he did and that was something even the most cold-hearted bastard would feel pity for.
"Xanxus."
He just disregarded the churning in his stomach when she smiled and began talking animatedly, the ghastly color of her cheeks now rosy and alive.
-o-
The tubes hurt. He couldn't move. He felt helpless and stupid and weak and angry--
"They paralyzed you, didn't they?" She was hovering over him, her brown eyes playful amidst the pale color of her skin.
Xanxus merely glared and scowled, his body feeling more and more numb.
"It's standard procedure." She grabbed a grape from the fruit bowl Squalo, his best friend, sent him. "Don't fight it."
He watched her as she ate, his glare still holding its place. She was holding the entire bowl in her small hands, the juice spilling on her hospital gown as she ate like a starved animal.
"It's better when they inject the anesthesia." She licked her lips and wiped her juice-filled fingers against her gown. "It really hurts when the tattoos come." She smiled.
"I don't care." It was good that they only paralyzed his body, he could still speak. "This makes me feel helpless--"
"It doesn't." She frowned at him. "It makes you feel nothing. And sometimes, nothing is better than pain."
The doctors came and marked him for the therapy and Haru drew her curtain close. The anesthesia took effect and he didn't feel a single thing, even when they pricked him for the permanent marks.
-o-
He woke up...and she wasn't there.
"Where is she?" Xanxus glared at his nurse and grabbed her wrist, panic rising in his chest. "Where the fuck is she?"
"X-Xanxus-sama...I-I don't know who you're talking about..." The nurse was fearful under his gaze and his grip tightened.
"Haru...where is she--"
"Hahi?" Xanxus let go of the nurse and sat up despite her protests. His eyes landed on the girl on the wheelchair, her eyes tired and her cheeks hollow. "Really Xanxus, you're being loud...Haru just got her treatment..."
She yawned and was transported to the bed and Xanxus watched her in his heated glare. She was fragile, like a broken doll, unlike the cheery version of herself all those weeks ago.
For the first time, Xanxus saw her after a treatment...and he didn't like it.
-o-
"What's your cancer?" She asked him with a smile, earning a glare from him for disrupting his reading.
"Lung." He resumed reading, not seeing the scowl now etched on her face.
"You smoked?" Haru was glaring at him and he smirked, apparently amused with her sudden flare of anger.
Haru scoffed upon seeing him smirk. It pissed her off that he regarded his habits as if they weren't the cause of his predicament today...and that the particular kind of cancer he had was something that was on top of the mortality rate.
Just the thought of him dying was making her heart clench.
Haru frowned when he didn't return the question and pulled her curtain close, succumbing to the white sheets that had been her sanctuary for a year and a half.
She didn't see the slanted eyes that followed her every move.
-o-
"We need a donor." His parents were talking to the doctor, their eyes radiating the same intensity of pain and melancholy. Xanxus merely scoffed.
The doctor had told him that his lungs were infected with too much cancer cells and that radiation therapy wouldn't be the solution for his growing pain. He started having seizures at night, often finding the tear-stained face of Haru hovered above him, her thin hands clasped tightly against his wrist.
It was pathetic that she would see him so vulnerable, so weak. It was pathetic that she was the one providing him strength when she barely had any left.
"Lungs are fairly easy to find." She was eating his apples and he looked at her. "Unlike brains, a surgery with lung cancer often results to--"
"Brains?" Xanxus scoffed. "What the fuck do I need brains fo--"
His eyes widened and he sat up on his bed, his eyes narrowing towards her small frame.
"You have brain cancer." It wasn't a question. He was sure of it.
Haru blushed and smiled sheepishly, all the while biting on the lush apple on her hand. She began blabbing about how insignificant it was and that she was fairly sure that at the pace of her treatment, it would be no time until she was healed...
"Shut up, kid. Brain cancer has the highest mortality rate." He glared at her, his knuckles white against the edge of is bed. "For someone so smart, you should know that--"
"O-Of course Haru knows that!" She glared at him, the same flare of anger she had when he told her about his cancer. But this time, he was the least bit amused. "H-Haru knows that she will die! H-Haru knows that she won't survive...e-even with the t-treatments...H-Haru knows..."
Xanxus watched her cry with a straight face. It was the least comfort he could do to her--at least he let her accept the fact that she was a lost cause.
-o-
"Voi kid!" Squalo loudly exclaimed upon visiting, his feral smile directed towards Haru.
Xanxus glared at him intensely. Squalo had his fair share of warnings from the hospital staff about keeping his voice down, but he wouldn't budge. He was still loud and obnoxious, apparently happy that he was causing a ruckus just because of his volume.
Haru, however, doesn't seem to mind, at all.
"These are for you." Squalo handed her a basket of strawberries, not even glancing at Xanxus. "Xanxus hardly eats the fruits I give him so I decided to give them to someone who appreciates it." Squalo glared at Xanxus.
"Hahi! I love strawberries!" Haru smiled brightly and Squalo, for the first time, blushed. "Thank you, Squalo-san!"
Xanxus watched with reserved anger as Squalo eased his way in towards the young girl, talking animatedly like a hormonal sixteen-year old.
After that, Squalo was admitted at the hospital, as well. Sporting a broken arm and nose.
-o-
"Xanxus..." Xanxus yawned and looked at her smiling, yet pale, face. She was thinner than usual.
"What?" He just received his last treatment. The doctor said that they had already found a donor and a surgery was to take place a week after.
"Haru's birthday is in a week!" She wasn't wearing her bonnet and Xanxus could see that she was frailer and lankier. "Celebrate it with me!"
Xanxus scowled. He hated going outdoors. Once, Haru asked her nurse to lead her out with Xanxus only to get rid of the gut-wrenching smell of the hospital. They stayed at the garden and he was sore afterwards...he never wanted to do that again.
"No." He said.
"But--"
"It's my surgery." He reasoned out. "I can't go with you."
Haru pouted and bowed her head low. Xanxus scowled and groaned, apparently feeling shitty about what he just did.
"Fine." He glared at her as she jerked her head upwards. "But only here. No gardens."
Haru smiled at him affectionately, her once frail and lanky frame now looking vibrant and alive. It had been a while since she sported such happiness and the mere thought of it made Xanxus feel surprised and...needed.
"T-Thank you..." Tears rolled down her cheeks and he scowled. "H-Haru is thankful..."
-o-
"She has a week..."
"Poor girl..."
"Does she know?"
"The doctor told her last night--"
"SHUT THE FUCK UP!"
Xanxus glared at the gossiping nurses and pulled his curtains close. He slept soundly, not hearing the whispered sobs on the other side of the curtain.
-o-
"Xanxus-sama, we need to get ready."
Xanxus looked at the nurse and nodded. Haru merely watched, a half-eaten strawberry on her hand.
"I'll be back." He looked at her from his wheelchair, taking note of her dark eyes and gaunt cheeks, her sad smile and her bald head. "Wait for me."
Haru merely nodded and ate her strawberry. She cried as he was brought outside, cradling her small body in her bed.
"H-Happy birthday to me."
-o-
Thirteen hours later, the operation was a success.
An hour after that, Xanxus woke up and demanded that he be brought back to his bed.
A few arguments, some foul words, threats and thirty minutes later, he was back...
"Where is she?"
But she was nowhere to be found.
Her nurse looked at him with tear-stained cheeks and cried once more, all the while watching his stoic face crumble upon realization.
"S-She died last night, X-Xanxus-sama..." The nurse cried and Xanxus felt limp. "H-Haru-sama said that she was s-sorry--"
"What the fuck was she sorry for?!?!" He was livid, his voice raw from the operation and his sudden burst of anger.
"She was sorry...t-that she couldn't wait for you."
The nurses left him and he stared at her bed. Lying there was a rotten strawberry, half-eaten and dead.
end.
Pairing: Xanxus/Haru (X86)
Summary: She was the reason he fought the disease...and the reason he wanted it back. AU. ANGST.
Written for: 10_dates || prompt: Birthday
Between the Curtains
He was ill. That was what he grasped from the way his parents had looked at him with sadness and pity. It was annoying, really. After all, everyone gets ill and even if he was strong and fierce just like the other kids in school tell him so, he's not that invincible.
The only problem was, his illness doesn't have any cure.
"The cancer's terminal." He heard the doctor say in a whisper. "Xanxus should stay at the hospital and undergo radiation therapy. His body would be the only one that could say whether or not he would live, but as far as the stage is concerned, there's a high percentage of him going through it."
And that was it. His parents left him at the hospital with sad glances, his mother huffing in a burst of tears. He only scowled and rested his hands under his shoulders, he didn't need their pity. He was now left alone, the nurse tending to the IV tubes that will be placed on his body later.
"Hahi! You're new here?" Xanxus ground his teeth in annoyance.
"Why do you fucking care, girly?" He turned to the bed beside him and glared.
It was a young girl, barely fifteen in fact. She has a bonnet atop her head, no hair visible from the sides. Tubes wired up her arms and her skin was ghastly pale, her lips thin and cracking...blue from the lack of blood.
If she weren't blinking or smiling at him, Xanxus would have mistaken her for a corpse.
"Well, don't call me girly! My name's Haru." She smiled again. "What's your name?"
He didn't know why he told her his name, or why he didn't even shout at her to mind her own business. He must have felt a bit of pity towards her, after all, she experienced what he was about to experience nine years earlier than he did and that was something even the most cold-hearted bastard would feel pity for.
"Xanxus."
He just disregarded the churning in his stomach when she smiled and began talking animatedly, the ghastly color of her cheeks now rosy and alive.
-o-
The tubes hurt. He couldn't move. He felt helpless and stupid and weak and angry--
"They paralyzed you, didn't they?" She was hovering over him, her brown eyes playful amidst the pale color of her skin.
Xanxus merely glared and scowled, his body feeling more and more numb.
"It's standard procedure." She grabbed a grape from the fruit bowl Squalo, his best friend, sent him. "Don't fight it."
He watched her as she ate, his glare still holding its place. She was holding the entire bowl in her small hands, the juice spilling on her hospital gown as she ate like a starved animal.
"It's better when they inject the anesthesia." She licked her lips and wiped her juice-filled fingers against her gown. "It really hurts when the tattoos come." She smiled.
"I don't care." It was good that they only paralyzed his body, he could still speak. "This makes me feel helpless--"
"It doesn't." She frowned at him. "It makes you feel nothing. And sometimes, nothing is better than pain."
The doctors came and marked him for the therapy and Haru drew her curtain close. The anesthesia took effect and he didn't feel a single thing, even when they pricked him for the permanent marks.
-o-
He woke up...and she wasn't there.
"Where is she?" Xanxus glared at his nurse and grabbed her wrist, panic rising in his chest. "Where the fuck is she?"
"X-Xanxus-sama...I-I don't know who you're talking about..." The nurse was fearful under his gaze and his grip tightened.
"Haru...where is she--"
"Hahi?" Xanxus let go of the nurse and sat up despite her protests. His eyes landed on the girl on the wheelchair, her eyes tired and her cheeks hollow. "Really Xanxus, you're being loud...Haru just got her treatment..."
She yawned and was transported to the bed and Xanxus watched her in his heated glare. She was fragile, like a broken doll, unlike the cheery version of herself all those weeks ago.
For the first time, Xanxus saw her after a treatment...and he didn't like it.
-o-
"What's your cancer?" She asked him with a smile, earning a glare from him for disrupting his reading.
"Lung." He resumed reading, not seeing the scowl now etched on her face.
"You smoked?" Haru was glaring at him and he smirked, apparently amused with her sudden flare of anger.
Haru scoffed upon seeing him smirk. It pissed her off that he regarded his habits as if they weren't the cause of his predicament today...and that the particular kind of cancer he had was something that was on top of the mortality rate.
Just the thought of him dying was making her heart clench.
Haru frowned when he didn't return the question and pulled her curtain close, succumbing to the white sheets that had been her sanctuary for a year and a half.
She didn't see the slanted eyes that followed her every move.
-o-
"We need a donor." His parents were talking to the doctor, their eyes radiating the same intensity of pain and melancholy. Xanxus merely scoffed.
The doctor had told him that his lungs were infected with too much cancer cells and that radiation therapy wouldn't be the solution for his growing pain. He started having seizures at night, often finding the tear-stained face of Haru hovered above him, her thin hands clasped tightly against his wrist.
It was pathetic that she would see him so vulnerable, so weak. It was pathetic that she was the one providing him strength when she barely had any left.
"Lungs are fairly easy to find." She was eating his apples and he looked at her. "Unlike brains, a surgery with lung cancer often results to--"
"Brains?" Xanxus scoffed. "What the fuck do I need brains fo--"
His eyes widened and he sat up on his bed, his eyes narrowing towards her small frame.
"You have brain cancer." It wasn't a question. He was sure of it.
Haru blushed and smiled sheepishly, all the while biting on the lush apple on her hand. She began blabbing about how insignificant it was and that she was fairly sure that at the pace of her treatment, it would be no time until she was healed...
"Shut up, kid. Brain cancer has the highest mortality rate." He glared at her, his knuckles white against the edge of is bed. "For someone so smart, you should know that--"
"O-Of course Haru knows that!" She glared at him, the same flare of anger she had when he told her about his cancer. But this time, he was the least bit amused. "H-Haru knows that she will die! H-Haru knows that she won't survive...e-even with the t-treatments...H-Haru knows..."
Xanxus watched her cry with a straight face. It was the least comfort he could do to her--at least he let her accept the fact that she was a lost cause.
-o-
"Voi kid!" Squalo loudly exclaimed upon visiting, his feral smile directed towards Haru.
Xanxus glared at him intensely. Squalo had his fair share of warnings from the hospital staff about keeping his voice down, but he wouldn't budge. He was still loud and obnoxious, apparently happy that he was causing a ruckus just because of his volume.
Haru, however, doesn't seem to mind, at all.
"These are for you." Squalo handed her a basket of strawberries, not even glancing at Xanxus. "Xanxus hardly eats the fruits I give him so I decided to give them to someone who appreciates it." Squalo glared at Xanxus.
"Hahi! I love strawberries!" Haru smiled brightly and Squalo, for the first time, blushed. "Thank you, Squalo-san!"
Xanxus watched with reserved anger as Squalo eased his way in towards the young girl, talking animatedly like a hormonal sixteen-year old.
After that, Squalo was admitted at the hospital, as well. Sporting a broken arm and nose.
-o-
"Xanxus..." Xanxus yawned and looked at her smiling, yet pale, face. She was thinner than usual.
"What?" He just received his last treatment. The doctor said that they had already found a donor and a surgery was to take place a week after.
"Haru's birthday is in a week!" She wasn't wearing her bonnet and Xanxus could see that she was frailer and lankier. "Celebrate it with me!"
Xanxus scowled. He hated going outdoors. Once, Haru asked her nurse to lead her out with Xanxus only to get rid of the gut-wrenching smell of the hospital. They stayed at the garden and he was sore afterwards...he never wanted to do that again.
"No." He said.
"But--"
"It's my surgery." He reasoned out. "I can't go with you."
Haru pouted and bowed her head low. Xanxus scowled and groaned, apparently feeling shitty about what he just did.
"Fine." He glared at her as she jerked her head upwards. "But only here. No gardens."
Haru smiled at him affectionately, her once frail and lanky frame now looking vibrant and alive. It had been a while since she sported such happiness and the mere thought of it made Xanxus feel surprised and...needed.
"T-Thank you..." Tears rolled down her cheeks and he scowled. "H-Haru is thankful..."
-o-
"She has a week..."
"Poor girl..."
"Does she know?"
"The doctor told her last night--"
"SHUT THE FUCK UP!"
Xanxus glared at the gossiping nurses and pulled his curtains close. He slept soundly, not hearing the whispered sobs on the other side of the curtain.
-o-
"Xanxus-sama, we need to get ready."
Xanxus looked at the nurse and nodded. Haru merely watched, a half-eaten strawberry on her hand.
"I'll be back." He looked at her from his wheelchair, taking note of her dark eyes and gaunt cheeks, her sad smile and her bald head. "Wait for me."
Haru merely nodded and ate her strawberry. She cried as he was brought outside, cradling her small body in her bed.
"H-Happy birthday to me."
-o-
Thirteen hours later, the operation was a success.
An hour after that, Xanxus woke up and demanded that he be brought back to his bed.
A few arguments, some foul words, threats and thirty minutes later, he was back...
"Where is she?"
But she was nowhere to be found.
Her nurse looked at him with tear-stained cheeks and cried once more, all the while watching his stoic face crumble upon realization.
"S-She died last night, X-Xanxus-sama..." The nurse cried and Xanxus felt limp. "H-Haru-sama said that she was s-sorry--"
"What the fuck was she sorry for?!?!" He was livid, his voice raw from the operation and his sudden burst of anger.
"She was sorry...t-that she couldn't wait for you."
The nurses left him and he stared at her bed. Lying there was a rotten strawberry, half-eaten and dead.
end.