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After a long day of work, Hiiro, Taiga, Kiriya, Emu, and Poppy sat in the break room ready to finish up for the day and go home.
"Hey doc, the rest of us are going out to get something to eat you want to join us?" Kiriya asked him putting his arm around Hiiro's shoulder.
Hiiro looked at Kiriya's arm in announced, and pushed it off him. "I already have arrangements for the night, although I still need to take care of a few last minute details." He said. He looked at his watch, then rubbed his eyes in annoyance. "I'm going to have to hurry if I want to make the arrangements I had set up before." He said.
Taiga looked over at Hiiro and smirked crossing his arms. "Since when do you ever have any arrangements?" He asked.
"Ooh does the doc have a hot date he's not telling us about?" Kiriya asked him.
Poppy giggled slightly in excitement. "Aww Hiiro you don't have to be nervous around us we're all friends here." She said.
Hiiro sighed in annoyance standing up from his seat. "First off friends is not a word I would use to describe anyone in this room, and secondly I do not have a date of any sort prepared. Now if you'll excuse me I must take my leave." He said before heading out of the break room to exist the hospital.
As soon as Hiiro exited the room, the rest turned to look at each other. "So we're going to be following him right?" Kiriya asked them.
Taiga smirked once more. "If it means getting to embarrass him then I am more than willing to join along." He said.
Poppy clapped her hands together and nodded her head. "I bet anything it's one of those nurses that he's always with. Why else would he try so hard to hide it from us unless it was so he could try and stay professional about their relationship." She said.
The three looked over at Emu who nervously played around with his hands. "I don't know maybe we should respect his privacy." He nervously answered.
Kiriya smiled widely and wrapped his arm around Emu. "Come on do you really want to miss out on this?" He asked Emu. "The rest of us are going." He whispered into Emu's ear.
Emu squirmed slightly unsure and uncomfortable with the idea. "What about our plans to eat? We don't want to leave that behind now do we?" He asked them.
Poppy held onto Emu's hands and lifted them up. "Emu come on it'll be fun." She said still bouncing with energy.
"Maybe, but what if he catches us. He already keeps to himself a lot, and this won't help us out." Emu trued to argue.
Taiga took off his doctor's coat and hug it on the nearby rack. "You two can keep trying to convince him, I'll be making my way to catch up with Hiiro before we lose him." He said heading out.
Kiriya and Poppy looked at each and rushed out to chase after Taiga accidentally knocking Emu down in the process. Emu sighed and stood up shacking off the slight dirt that had fallen onto him. "I might as well join them just to make sure they don't go too far with this." He said. "I was really looking forward to that meal too." He added in disappointment.
Hiiro walked down the street in a hurry trying his best to arrive at the florist before it closed. He looked over at his watch again and picked up the pace he was walking at. When he arrived, the head florist was just about to close up the shop.
"I had an appointment to pick up a set of flowers today." He said.
The florist looked at him and shook his head. "Sorry, but we already closed the back inventory where it would be stored. You'll have to come back in the morning." He said.
Hiiro clenched his hand in a fist angrily before releasing it and lowering his head respectfully. "Please I need you to make an exception. I can pay you extra whatever the cost, but I need those now." He said.
"Sorry, but I can't help you out here." He said.
Hiiro maintained his composure, but looked up glaringly. "Do you not own this place? What good is it if you can't help me when I require those flowers?" He asked.
"If you wanted them that badly you would've been here on time." The florist told him not budging at all.
"I was busy saving lives so forgive me if I arrive a few minutes later than you would have liked me to. However, I am still here before the closing time of your establishment therefore I am requesting you to hand over the flowers that I ordered and paid for." He said raising his voice to an almost yell.
"Fine no need to get aggressive here. I'll get you your flowers in a second, but I won't make an exception next time you're late." He said.
While Hiiro followed him inside to receive his order of flowers, the group following from behind began to whisper among themselves.
"Did you see how angry he was?" Poppy asked them. "This must be an important date considering how much he wanted those flowers." She said.
"That florist is lucky that he didn't have his gashat with him or we might have had a different story right now." Kiriya laughed.
Emu looked at them and shook his head. "Hey now we all know that Hiiro wouldn't do something like that." He said.
Taiga chuckled in disagreement. "That's exactly the kind of thing he would do if he was angry enough." He said.
"Shush he's coming back out." Poppy told them seeing Hiiro exit with his bouquet of flowers. It was a rather large assortment built with a variety of flowers arranged together to create a beautiful scenery. "Wow!" She yelled out in amazement seeing it.
The other three all shoved their hands to try and quiet her as well as push everyone out of sight. Hiiro turned around looking back and forth, but shrugged upon not seeing anyone there.
"Little quieter next time." Taiga told Poppy.
"Sorry." She sheepishly answered back.
Hiiro's next stop was at a bakery. Unlike with the flower shop, he had no difficulty at all getting the mini cake that he had requested. Before he stepped out of the bakery however, he felt his stomach begin to bother him, and checked his watch.
"I can spare a few minutes, but I will have to be fast about it." He said to himself before going up to the baker and ordering a slice of strawberry cake for himself. He sat down at the nearest table and began to enjoy his delightful pastry.
"You think he'd wait until the date to eat, but then again he can never resist snacking on sweets in between." Taiga mocked.
"I'm more concerned about the cake that he bought for his date. It's so small he's going to finish it by himself without leaving any for her to enjoy." Kiriya said pointing over at the relatively small box that Hiiro had next to him.
Poppy sparkled with excitement again and gasped. "That means he must have bought it for her. He must really be interested in this girl if he's willing to buy an entire cake just for her and not even eat any of it himself." She said.
"Okay we've seen enough clearly this means a lot to him so why don't we go eat ourselves and let him enjoy the rest of his day." Emu said.
The three looked at Emu and laughed trying hard not to attract Hiiro's attention from the laughter.
"You really want to stop when it's just getting good. Come on there's no backing out now." Kiriya said poking Emu in the stomach.
Hiiro finished his slice, gratefully thanked the baker, and walked out checking his watch to ensure that he was still able to hit his final stop in time. Luckily for him, the final place that he needed to visit was a book store across the street from the bakery that he was currently at. He walked in and smiled at the employee greeting him.
"I heard that you had a book here I have spent a great deal of time tracking down." He told her taking out a folded up paper from his pocket and showing it to her.
The employee looked at it before nodding. "Oh that's a very popular book, but I think we should still have one left in stock. Come follow me." She told him.
"How nice of Hiiro to gift a book for the first date." Emu said smiling softly.
Poppy shook her head in agreement. "It makes sense that any girl he'd end up dating would be interested in books. That's just his type so it really is a romantic gift." She said clapping her hands together.
"So flowers, cake, and a book. It does seem standard for a first date." Taiga said putting together what they had so far.
"Now all we need to do is follow him to see where the lucky girl that's waiting on our doc is at." Kiriya said.
Emu looked over at them once more and stood firmly. "We cannot follow him to his date. We don't even know if it's a date at all since he told us that it wasn't, but if it is then that's just going past his privacy. How would you like it if we followed you on a date?" He asked.
Kiriya smirked at Emu. "I don't know I'd like that quite a bit." He teased. "Besides if you don't want to join us we can always ask Parado if he wants to follow along instead, and you know how he is." He said.
Emu tried to stay calm, but relented shaking his head. "You always know exactly how to get me to go along with your wild schemes you know that." He said.
Kiriya laughed putting his hand on Emu's head. "Well that's because you make it easy." He said.
Poppy giggled before turning her attention back to Hiiro who was putting his bouquet, mini cake, and book together into a gift bag. "Let's go our final stop is coming up soon." She said.
Hiiro walked much calmer now having managed to acquire what he needed. He looked at his watch for what felt like the millionth time since leaving the hospital. The sun began to set, as he entered into an cemetery. He very briefly spoke with one of the groundskeepers, nodded in agreement on something, then proceeded to head down an empty path and sat down in front of a grave isolated from the rest.
"Hello Saki, it's been a while since the last time I visited you. You aren't even here this is an empty grave since there wasn't anything to bury, but the sentiment remains the same. I apologize for how long it's been, but ever since the last time I saw you in life I've dedicated myself to reviving you." Hiiro said.
His voice began to crack slightly and tears fell down his cheek. "I... I am so close to finding something that will you bring you back. Maybe some other world has the answers I need, or maybe there's more to the research I have't found yet. I'll find the answer... I have to. I'm following in your hope to become the world's greatest doctor. I'll do it all soon... I'll do it for you." He cried out.
Hiiro sobbed painfully and collapsed onto the ground in front of him. "When I bring you back I'll be better to you than I was before. I won't let you die again and I'll treat you well I promise." He cried out. "I never deserved having you and I didn't see that until it was too late, but I will fix that no matter how many years it takes me. You'll come back to me and we can have the life you always wanted to give me."
While Hiiro continued to cry in pain and torment for his lost love, the group that had been following sat amongst themselves in shock and guilt.
"I told you that we should've respected his privacy." Emu yelled at them angrier than he's been for a while.
Poppy teared up herself and began to cry. "I'm so sorry Emu I didn't think it would be anything like this." She sobbed. Emu hugged her comfortingly, but remained silent about it.
"I thought he moved on from her after everything that happened. I didn't think he was still blaming himself so hard." Taiga mumbled barely able to understand what he was saying through the guilt he felt.
Kiriya remained silent himself before shaking his head. "I guess she meant more to the doc than any of us ever really guessed. Considering how far he's gone before to bring her back did we really think he'd just forget about her." He said.
Hiiro's sobs began to quiet down and he pulled out his gift bag. "To prove to you that I am determined to make things better I have a gift for you. A gift for what would be our anniversary." He quietly said. "The finest arrangement of flowers from the best florist in the city. It was difficult trying to get a reservation there, and even harder to acquire them, but when I revive you I'll get you flowers every day if I can." He said.
He gently placed the flowers on the ground then pulled out the mini cake. "This is from your favorite bakery. You would always pester me to try some of their pastries, and I would always refuse, but now they've become my most frequent place to visit. I'll take you there to eat as many times as I can." He said.
Finally, Hiiro took out the book and placed it between the flowers and the mini cake. "I still remember that this was your favorite book. I still have the copy that you gave me all those years ago. I wanted to thank you for sharing this book with me, and while I didn't appreciate it at the time it's a story I treasure."
Hiiro stood up from the ground and griped his fists tightly squeezing as hard as he could to avoid crying any further. "I promise you that I will bring you back Saki. No matter how many worlds I have to visit, no matter how many battles I have to fight. No matter how many years I have to wait. I will bring you back to this world and I swear that on my life and on my oath as a doctor. I love you." He said. As Hiiro turned around he sighed in annoyance and looked over at where the group of doctors was hiding. "You can come out now." He told them.
"You knew!" They all yelled out in unison.
Hiiro rubbed his eyes partly out of frustration, and partly to remove the lingering traces of tears left on them. "You are the worst at espionage ever I noticed you were following me from the second I left the hospital." He said. "You're lucky secrecy was never a major tactic we used in our fights, or we would have lost far too often." He criticized.
"But Hiiro if you knew that we were following you why didn't you say anything or try to stop us?" Emu asked him.
"We're really sorry about all of this." Poppy added.
Hiiro held his hand up to indicate he wanted them to stop talking. "Had I not wanted you to see me I would not have let you. However, I have come to realize that part of what led to Saki's fate was my inability to open up around others or let them close to me. So I'm going to change that and not make the same mistake when I bring her back." He told them.
"Looks like you have a soft spot after all." Taiga teased him.
Hiiro scowled at him and grunted. "As if you're one to talk. You haven't been the same ever since that girl started clinging onto you like a lost puppy." He said.
"You want to repeat that?" Tagia asked walking up to Hiiro confrontationally.
Poppy quickly stepped in between the two of them to separate them. "Okay there's no need to fight among friends." She said.
Hiiro turned around and began to walk away. "Once again, friends is not a word I use to describe any of you." He said. "Now if you'll excuse me I'm close to finding a way to contact the other worlds, and if anyone has to answers to bringing back Saki it's going to be one of them." He added walking away.
Emu ran over and stopped Hiiro grabbing onto his arm. "That can wait unit tomorrow, the rest of us have overdue plans for eating and you're going to join us." He said.
"I am far too busy to..." Hiiro began to say before Kiriya cut him off.
"Sorry, but no excuses this time let's go." He said grabbing Hiiro's other arms.
Poppy laughed happily and ran after them while Taiga just laughed at Hiiro following along. Hiiro continued to yell and protest, but was no match for the rest of them pushing him along the way.
In the faint distance, Saki's spirit smiled seeing that after so many years he had finally begun to make friends. Even if he never secededs in bringing her back, she would be able to rest easy knowing that the person that he has become.