Shiro & Clarice, backdated to Wednesday afternoon

[x-sanfuaiyaa.livejournal.com]

When Shiro goes to visit a recuperating Clarice, he learns things he rather wished he didn't.


Of all the difficult decisions Shiro had made in the past few months, deciding what to wear to visit Clarice in the medlab should not have been one of them. Maybe Alex really had turned him gay, he thought wryly. But then, why would he even be facing this decision if that were true? With an exasperated sigh, he settled on an old, faded pair of jeans and an uncharacteristically colorful shirt that Clarice had bought him years ago. He tried not to think about how it hung so loosely on him; Kick and Alex had eaten away at a noticeable amount of mass, and clothes that he should have outgrown or comfortably fit into were now too big.

He quickly and sloppily tied his hair back as he entered the elevator down to the infirmary, and took a deep breath before knocking on Clarice's door. There were two ways this could end, he concluded, and he didn't know which was worse.

Clarice was sitting in bed futzing with her wig in the mirror. It looked weird. Perhaps even weirder than being bald, she was having trouble deciding. Either way the wig was black and her hair, while dark, was not black. It was purple. She really didn't like it, no matter how nice it was. Making a face in the mirror she fluffed the bangs. Maybe that was part of the problem. She didn't normally have bangs either. This really sucked. "Can I please go upstairs now?" she whined at no one in particular. She'd insisted on being properly dressed for Valentine's Day, and they had agreed, but it wasn't V-Day yet.

"Can you even walk yet?" replied Shiro, still standing awkwardly in the doorway. "You are looking well. I, uh, like the hair." Not really, but it seemed like the right thing to say. "You could probably highlight it."

"I can walk!" she protested, her voice going shrill. "Just not run a marathon. That's next week," as was her normal modus operandi, she ignored his discomfort. She hadn't forced him to come visit her. evem though it was nice that he had, "It's a wig, Shiro. You can't highlight a wig. Dead hair does not take dyes particularly well," at least according to the instruction booklet that had come with it.

"Oh." Shiro wiped sweaty palms on the sides of his jeans. How did she always have this affect on him? "I wanted to get you a card, but Hallmark does not have a 'Sorry I did not block you from the nuclear explosion' cards. Nothing else would have seemed right."

Clarice laughed, "It's the thought that counts. And when someone asks me what I learned as an X-Man I can say 'not to block the radiation with my body. Leave that to Shiro."

"I'm useful," Shiro teased, and visibly relaxed. "And you have bad luck. First the leg, now radiation? You are going to lose your health insurance if you continue."

Making a face, Clarice gestured towards the single chair in the room, "And you're any better Mr. Addict? What is it now? Tic tacs?"

Ouch. Shiro hesitated before coming in and sitting down. "Therapy, and lots of it." Like that's a great conversation topic. "Trying not to completely lose it. The usual."

She hadn't meant such a low blow, backing off that topic she replied, "Wow. Your life sounds like my life. Sucktastic. Note to Shiro and Clarice: stop fucking up. No love, us."

"Yeah." It was now or never, he realized. "Clarice, I was thinking . . . If you are not busy tomorrow night and you are feeling well, would you like to, uh, get dinner? Just us, ne?"

Clarice didn't even try to keep the shock and surprise off her face, "Shiro!" she said, lacking anything remotely reasonable as a reply on her first attempt. There was just no good way to reply, even if she was as nice as possible, "I'm dating Kyle, Shiro. Sorry."

Well. That was not at all what he was expecting. He got up. "O-oh. Sou ne. I am sorry. I did not mean to" - make a complete ass of himself - "Be so presumptuous."

"Um," she really felt bad now, but they hadn't hid that they were dating and Shiro had dated Alex after they had broken up, but oh shit. "Fuckaduck," she muttered, pulling the wig off harshly. Anything for some sort of movement. "We can hang another time? As friends?" she really hated his wounded puppy face.

"Of course." He managed a weak smile. It wasn't fair of him, he knew. He'd had someone after they'd broken up, so why couldn't she? But still. Kyle? "I-if you do not mind my question, but . . . how?"

"Um? How?" what exactly was he asking? "He's a boy, I'm a girl...that's typically how my relationships work," and now that she was thinking about it, both her current and her ex had dated men as well. Not while dating her, but in general. Huh.

"Anou, that is, why him?" It came out a little more accusatory than Shiro had intended, which he immediately regretted. Shit.

Glaring, Clarice countered, "Why Alex? Why NOT Kyle? Hmm?"

"Alex is one of the first people I met here. My first friend, and for a time, my only friend." Shiro frowned. With Alex gone now and him continually screwing up any chances at mending things with Clarice, he didn't even have that. "But Kyle is so . . . Kyle."

"Yeah, he's Kyle. So? Nothing wrong with that," that was part of his appeal actually. Neither of them were particularly interested in something long term, but they were having fun and that was good. They had no plans to get married or anything like that, even accidentally like Terry had. Which still boggled Clarice, but whatever. "He's sweet."

"Sou ne. Enjoy your Valentine's Day, ne? Jaa ne." Shiro left with just a half-hearted wave. As the doors hummed closed behind him, his clenched fists burst into flame. "Chikshou," he hissed, resisting the urge to punch the wall.