She had opened her eyes after the meteorite impact a couple of days before meeting Alex… for the first time?
Seeing her brother and sister by the bed, Cass hadn’t thought anything at all. Just normal day, like any other, in which they had all stayed at Andro’s place (Hércules had roommates and Cass lived in a small studio apartment) and the middle García sibling had been the last to wake up.
Nothing out of the ordinary.
But, if that was the case, why were they crying?
They had explained. The day they had all met for coffee, a meteorite had struck Shibuya. Hundreds had died. But not them. However, while Andro and Hérc had been more or less okay, except for a few ugly bruises, three days in a comatose state and their heart stopping for a minute, Cass had all that plus a very disgusting-looking wound in her abdomen (something – she didn’t want to ask what but sharp and pointy – had ripped her skin undoubtedly leaving a nasty scar) a broken, purple, bloated lip (hey, at least I now don’t need plastic surgery! had been her way of making her parents feel better about it) and what most likely would end up being an addiction to morphine; the first days, they had her high most of the time. She didn’t quite know what they were giving her or why, but apparently she had required a few minor surgeries and…
It was during one of those days, that she had sneaked out of her hospital room. Cass had heard something outside: a conversation between her mother, María, and the doctor. They needed to perform a few blood tests, to check the levels of blahblahblah because it could be an indication of God knew what. And no. She refused. They had finally stopped giving her the medication intravenously, which meant: time for her escape plan.
Grabbing her mother’s fancy coat and hat, she had ran away of her room. She hadn’t thought much about it; she only knew that, for whatever reason, she wanted a pizza, sick to the core of hospital food, and to try and find a Halloween store, to check out some masks. The masks were really important, and apparently she had been telling absolutely everyone everything about them. In particular, she wanted a mask with six eyes, with a red sigil, with beautiful and intricate decorations of the same color. A mask that meant something, that symbolized some deity, but none of any religions she could think of.
Barefoot, she wandered around the hospital, tipping her hat to whoever she came across, like someone from the medieval ages. Sir, Ma’am. Cass was about to make a turn in some corridor when she came face to face with her doctor, a man in his 50s that went by the name of… actually, she didn’t remember. So she did what anybody else would.
She entered the patient’s room closer to her, pretending to be some visiting family member.
‘Hello, dear! How are you? Are you feeling better?’ She cheerfully and loudly asked the person laying down in the hospital bed, closing the door behind her quickly. ‘Ufff, that was close. So sorry to bother you but they want to take my blood and I think it belongs in my body!’
The person in question was a man, one who had the top half of his face, except for his eyes, covered in bandages. She could see nothing but his mouth, jaw and neck, but Cass found herself staring. There was something about him… ‘You are so handsome. Well, so handsome. Like don’t get me wrong, you probably are, I just can’t see you! But you feel so handsome. I just… woah. My name’s Cass. I was attacked by a meteorite. Not like personally. I just…’
‘Alex.’ He said, apparently not bothered at all by the fact that she wasn’t making any sense at all. He even was smiling in her direction and his voice sounded… relieved, maybe? Anyway, heavy with emotion. Alex, Alex, Alex.
Cass was about to say something else when the door opened again. She was expecting a nurse, maybe. She could deal with that, use her charms to drive them away. But nothing could have prepared her for coming face to face with Andro, whose arms were crossed above her chest and whose eyes were mostly white. She was rolling them towards the ceiling, as she took a deep breath.
‘Cass! You were supposed to get your medical tests done and…’
‘No, Androoooooooo. Andro, please, I don’t want to. I’m so tired, look at all the bruises in my arm from them poking me with needles. Like plim, plim, plim. No, pleeeeeeaaaaaase.’
Her sister’s tone admitted no reply. Cass sighed, finding herself absolutely defeated.
‘But I made a new friend?’ The tone was slightly interrogative, because they had after all exchanged literally a thousand words on Cass’ part and one on his, but one look at Alex and the blonde woman knew. They were friends. Or would be friends.
‘I’m so sorry she bothered you.’ Andro began. Her older sister was not speaking to Cass anymore, but to Alex, who had propped himself up on his elbows and shook his head.
‘She didn’t bother. At all.’
Again, that warmth. That feeling of acceptance, of belonging. Maybe she was still high, no, certainly, she was. But Cass had never felt this before, and she would fight for it. By pouting and pleading. ‘Please, I don’t want to go!?’
Uh oh. Andro using her full name meant trouble. With a defeated sigh, after a battle she would later remember as fierce and fiery, she waved Alex goodbye and blew him a kiss, before her sister took her back to her room, where an evil person would steal her precious blood.
‘I know it’s unorthodox, a man and a woman sharing the same room, but she absolutely refuses to agree to any medical procedure unless she can be with you...’
The doctor was explaining as Cass walked in, carrying a couple of stuffed animals in her arms, running excitedly towards Alex with the brightest smile, one that made her whole face shine.
‘Hi! I convinced them to let us share a room if you wanted to. I guess you agreed because if not I wouldn’t be here. Cool, huh!?’ She exclaimed, standing beside his bed, smiling even more although it didn’t seem possible when she saw that he was happy about it, too.
She didn’t take as much pills now, her mind a lot less foggy, and would have apologize for her erratic behavior from last time, but when she tried to do it, he immediately cut her. There was nothing to apologize about.
That night, none of them got much sleep.
She sat at the foot of his bed, with her chin placed on top of her knees, her legs against her chest, her arms around them. Cass laughed more than she had in her entire lifetime as they shared anecdotes from their lives. Funny and happy ones, before switching to sadder ones, because they wanted to tell the other person absolutely everything. No secrets, not now, not ever. One in particular was harder than others, because it had marked a before and an after in Alex’s life: his parents falling into a coma after a car accident.
Cass had simply extended an arm, grabbed his hand. Held it hard as he told the story. And then, brought it to her lips, softly kissing his fingertips, sweetly.
His expression told her that she had done something right, something that had evoked deep feelings in him.
She had refused to go back to her cot. She hadn’t wanted to, and Alex didn’t seem like he wanted to let go of her, either. So she had simply laid beside him, until Sleep had taken both of them with Her to her realm, softly caressing his jaw, his neck.
Even if the doctor had scolded her the following morning, it had absolutely been worth it.
And she had kept doing it, night after night after night.
They could talk for hours, or stay in comfortable silence. Cass would paint him. Alex would sing to her. They would watch shitty movies on the TV in their room and she would let the doctors perform each and every test they wanted on her, as long as he was holding her hand.
When they had taken the bandages off of his face, she had been there, next to him, knowing that whatever he looked like wouldn’t change how she felt about him. Because Cass was in love, completely and absolutely, with every single part of Alex.
‘So, I was right the first night, you are devilishly handsome.’ She had declared, after he had stood still for a minute or two to let her examine his features, before finally closing the distance between them and kissing him.
Cass was discharged before Alex. Weeks before.
But there was not a day she didn’t come visit after work, bringing food from the outside; bags full of takeaway, little snacks, things that he had mentioned he liked or things that she had commented about and wanted to share with him.
Between colorful wrappings of cookies and chocolate bars, more stolen kisses. Shy, at the beginning. Passionate, as time passed.
New lovers were supposed to be clumsy, but their bodies knew each other perfectly – from a previous life, maybe, their lips moving in perfect sync.
The doctors and nurses still got mad at her and her mischief; but they also just left them alone more times than not by that point, maybe slightly moved because out of the horrible natural disaster that had been the meteorite crashing in Japan, something as beautiful as their love story had been born.
It didn’t surprise anyone, when they made it official. When they started looking for a place for both of them, after merely months of dating. They were moving fast, yes, but why wait when they were made for each other?
This was Eden. Paradise. Mutual respect, acceptance and love. A sacred connection, and they were just pawns following one mandate: to be together.
In this universe. And all of them.
