He who was living is now dead
We who were living are now dying
With a little patience
===
"Minako?" Katarina asked quietly.
Katarina's bathroom was the only room in her corner apartment that didn't have a window to the outside, and Minako kept the lights off as she balled in the corner, wrapped in a bath towel and little else. The bathroom stank, even with the fan buzzing in the ceiling, and she leaned her head against the cool tile wall as she listened to it and the cold water that ran into the tub only to be immediately sucked down by the drain.
"Minako. You've been in there for three hours. Are you all right?"
The afternoon replayed in Minako's mind. The date with Alan, a long walk in the park as she twisted the strap to her purse in her hands and stared at the dirt. The fight, a youma with painfully accurate kicks, one after another, until she was crumpled against a building and watching Interpol officers, Katarina included, shoot it until she could use her Cresent Beam. The clean bill of health she'd been given by the officers at the scene.
Coming into the dark bathroom and closing the door.
"It's flu," she murmured quietly, closing her eyes. "Just flu."
"Do you want to come out? Should I call your parents?"
Minako shook her head. She remembered the way Alan had asked the same question - "Are you all right, doll?" - with his quiet smile and unintentional ease. She remembered nodding at him - "Hmmm? Oh. I'm fine." - and sliding her arm in his.
"Minako."
"I'm fine."
"Are you - "
"I'm fine," she repeated. "Just... Give me a little while. To be alone."
The silence was broken only by the water flowing into the tub.
"I'll check on you in another hour."
It wasn't until Minako heard her footsteps move away from the door that she slid down the wall to lay on the floor and cry.
