Ch. 4

The next morning, Hana’s life went back to the normal morning routine of a hospital. The nurse had just taken away her breakfast tray when her parents showed up for a visit on their way to work. “Good morning, darling. You’re looking good.”

She smiled in greeting. “Morning Mama. Hey Daddy. Yeah, I feel great.” Then a memory struck her. “Oh, by the way, if you haven’t gotten around to asking about Sabishii, don’t bother. He came by last night and we.... worked everything out.”

Her parents exchanged looks with each other, and Hana could easily read the meaning behind them. She rolled her eyes. “Oh guys, please! It’s not like that at all. He’s very sweet and would never do anything to hurt me. He cares about me.”

Not wanting to upset her, more out of habit than anything else, they dropped the subject. “Of course he does, Dear. Well, Mama and I had better be on our way or we’ll be late for work. We’ll stop back tonight, ok?”

“Ok. Have a good day at work you two.” They came over and kissed her goodbye, then Hana was left alone. She lay there for a while trying to wrap her head around everything that she had been told last night, and trying to make sense of the dream she thought she had had. After a while, she gave up because it was starting to give her a headache and turned to reading instead.

She was so deep into her book a few hours later that she didn’t even notice when Sabishii came into the room, stopping just inside the door. He had to clear his throat to get her attention, and when he did, she jumped. He smiled a bit, embarrassed. “Sorry, Dear. I didn’t mean to frighten you.”

She smiled in response. “Oh, it’s fine. I just get so wrapped up when I’m reading a good story that I sometimes kind of lose touch with reality.”

He shakes his head sadly. “I’m sorry you got so bored. I had stuff to take care of this morning.”

She raises an eyebrow. “Now who said anything about being bored? I love reading. Besides, Mama and Daddy stopped by on their way to work, so I wasn’t alone the whole time. Even so, I’m used to being alone.” She looks down at his hands and points at the grocery bags.       “But I see you have been busy this morning.”

“Yeah, a little. I figured I’d give you a break from hospital food and bring you some breakfast.” He walks over and sets the bags on the foot of her bed.

She snorts a little. “Wow, your clock is off. It’s half way to lunch time already. I had breakfast hours ago. But let’s see what you brought anyway.  I could do with a little between meal snack.” She sets her book aside and drags the bags up on her lap and starts pulling out the contents. “Hmmm, sliced ham, cheese, bread and chips. Not exactly what I call breakfast food, but ham sandwiches make pretty good snacks.”

Sabishii blushes as she starts opening packages. “I’m sorry. I suppose I don’t have a normal human meal schedule, and don’t really understand why certain foods go for certain meals. I’ll try and do better from now on.”

Hana looks up from the sandwich she’s nearly finished making. “Oh don’t worry about it. It’s not that bad.” She lifts the sandwich to her mouth and takes a bite. “Mmm, actually, it’s pretty good. Some of the food here is alright, but the sandwiches are one thing that I’ve never liked too well.” As she opens the large bag of chips, she examines the food spread out around her. “You know, there’s more there than I can eat. If you want some, help yourself.” She thinks about that for a second. "Can you eat? I mean, human food? Or are you strictly on a liquid diet?"

Sabishii pulls up a chair to the side of her bed, sits down and grabs a hand full of chips. Looking her in the eye, he stuffs them in his mouth and smiles while he chews. "I can. It's not as nutritious for me as for you, but it helps me fit in." They eat on in silence for a few minutes, then he turns to look at the discarded book. “So, what are you reading that you found it so enthralling?”

Hana blushed scarlet and nearly choked on a chip. After a few hard coughs, she caught her breath. “Ummmm..... hehheh. It’s ahhhh, Breaking Dawn by Stephanie Meyer.”

Sabishii raised an eyebrow. “You mean the last book in the Twilight series? I hope that’s not where you got all your knowledge of vampires from.”

Hana was both embarrassed and defensive. She thought it was a great series, no matter what he had to say. “No. I know classic vampire mythology as well. I used to watch Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel when they were on TV.”

Sabishii shook his head with a look of mock disgust. “I see we’ve got a lot of unlearning for you to do.”

Hana narrows her eyes just a little. “Well then Teacher, start teaching. You told me last night about the whole ‘burning in the sun’ thing was a myth....”

He took a bite of sandwich as he sat back and considered where to begin. “Well, garlic and crosses are myths. We don’t particularly like garlic, but that’s because we’ve got more powerful senses than humans and that stuff has a strong odor. We don’t much care for onions or other strong smelling stuff either.

“Hmmmm, about the only real way to kill us is a steak through the heart. But then again, ripping and burning would probably work too.” He glances at the book with a smile as Hana blushes again.

“Well, I may not be a doctor, but I think either of those things would kill just about anyone, don’t you?”

He chuckled. “Yes, you’re probably right. Anyway, let’s see..... Well, as far as I know, vampires can’t reproduce.”

“Can’t reproduce? That’s.... kind of sad. I mean, if you can’t have children, are there only a set number of vampires in the world, or is there some other way that you can make more of your kind?”

"Yes there is. It’s somewhat like a shortened version of the bonding process. It only requires a vampire to bite the person that’s going to change and then that person has to drink the vampire’s blood.”

Hana shivered a little bit at the thought of blood drinking.... and decided to change the subject. “So, ummm, what you got planned for the rest of the day? Work?”

“No, I’m off for the day. I decided I’d come spend the day with you. If you’re feeling up to it, maybe I’ll even take you out for dinner tonight. If you want to, of course.”

Hana smiled. “That sounds wonderful. It’s been almost a year now since I’ve really gotten to get out of this hospital. It’ll be nice to see what’s changed out in the real world. My parents said they’d come back after work, but I can get them to leave pretty fast. All I have to do is tell them I’m tired and want to get some rest. They’ll leave in no time then.” She smiled a devious smile, feeling a bit bad about tricking her parents, but not too bad. “So, when are you ‘picking me up’ and where are we going? Or is it a surprise?”

Sabishii chuckled as he leaned forward and kissed her forehead. “I’ll pick you up around 7. As for where we’re going, it’ll be a surprise if that’s alright with you.”

Hana pouted a little. “Oh, alright. I suppose I won’t die from suspense in just a few hours.”

Sabishii laughs at her. “Of course you won’t, Dear. But if it’s alright with you, I have some more things to take care of before our date tonight.”

Hana’s pout deepened. “I suppose so.”

He chuckled and grabbed her book off the table. “Here. You can drool over a different vampire for a while. Think Edward can keep you company for a while?”

She reached for the book. “Actually, in some ways I think I like Carlisle better. Don’t get me wrong, I love Edward, but Carlisle is.....” she trailed off smiling and blushing a tad.

“Well, ‘Bella’, you take whatever Cullen you want. Just remember that most of them are married. So unless you want to be fighting off a very angry immortal wife, I’d be careful.”

Hana rolled her eyes, grabbing the book away from him. “Ha ha, very funny. Smart Alec. Well, if you’ve got stuff to do, then you’d better get going, shouldn’t you?”

“Yes, I should.” He stood up and gave her a kiss. “I’ll be back for you at 7. Make sure your parents are gone by then, unless you want to try and explain all this to them.”

“Huh, don’t worry, they’ll be gone.” She returned the kiss.

Chuckling, Sabishii left, and Hana went back to her book. After a few hours, her eyes were starting to get tired, so she decided to take a break. After a short nap, Hana got up and decided to pick out what she was going to wear. “Hmm, I wonder if I actually have anything here that’s decent to wear on a date.” Going over to the closet, she pulled out the few dressier items she had brought with her to the hospital. She studied the outfits, but wasn’t entirely satisfied with anything she saw. “Well, these are alright, but.....”

Pushing the clothes aside, she sat on the edge of the bed and picked up the phone. After dialing, she listened to the ring, waiting for an answer. “Hey Mama. No, I’m fine, promise. Yeah, I just wanted to ask a favor of you. I was wondering if you could stop home before you come here and pick up some clothes for me? Yeah, I know Mama, but I have a specific outfit in mind. I want that cream sweater and the long light blue skirt. What for?” She cursed herself for not having thought about that question before. She certainly couldn’t tell her mother the truth.... Then she remembered seeing a flyer tacked to a bulletin board the other day. “Um, there’s a poetry reading tonight at the coffee shop across the street from the hospital. Yeah, the doctors said it would be fine. It’s just a quiet little deal, I can just sit around, have a cup of tea and listen to the readers. I know Mama. I’ll take it easy, promise. Ok, thank you. I’ll see you later.” She hung up smiling contently.

She hated having to lie to her mother like that, but she remembered the looks her parents had shot each other when she had just said that she wanted to talk to him, that he was a friend. If they knew she was going on a date with him... forget it.