Rooftops At Sunrise

19

They're back on the road again, and Lucas is trying to bargain with Aoi so that she will try something other than her medical food.

"What about a piece of bread?" he pleads. "Just one tiny, tiny piece of bread?"

"Leave her alone," Damian tells him, with an exasperated groan; he is not the one being pestered, and yet, the way Lucas is acting is getting to his nerves.

"Well," Aoi stretches her arms up to the sky on her bed of pillows—she is glad Damian agreed to give her a whole lot of them, for she is persuaded her bones would have ached without the aid.

The young woman hums. "Maybe, I should try," she says.

Damian freezes. His head snaps her way. "Sorry, what?" He cringes, then lowers his voice, in hopes that Lucas will not hear. "I don't want to have to bury your body in the middle of nowhere if you die on us...a-also, if I let you eat that bread, I might be accused of murdering you. S-so—"

"Relax." She frowns, and waves his worries away. "I'm not... feeling as bad as before. And I'll only do it once we're near a hospital. Not..." Aoi looks around, at their surroundings, which consist of empty fields after empty fields. "Not here," she mutters, as a shudder causes her to hug her elbows, her neck, to retreat back into her shoulders. "Geez, I might be sad, but I'm not suicidal, man."

"You're better?" Damian perks up. He raises a brow. "Really? How can you be sure? I thought—"

"I'm not better," Aoi corrects him. Their eyes meet. "I'm just..." she glances away again. "Less worse..."

"Great," he scoffs. "That's reassuring."

From the driver's seat, Lucas forces a smile and calls out to them. "Hey, my friends! Is there something I should know about, perhaps?" He tilts his head and lets out a chuckle that sounds anything but natural. "You're talking a lot about death and dying back there, couldn't help but notice that!"

Damian raises a brow at Aoi.

Aoi turns away from him and sighs. Her shoulders deflate. "Okay, fine." She rolls her eyes. "Fine," she echoes, with a defeated huff. "I'll tell him."

*

By the time Aoi has explained everything to Lucas, Lucas is running around his van and hiding every single pastry or sugary treat he can find. "I'm sorry!" he wheezes, as he continues to dash around the parked vehicle, that is now right outside the next town's biggest hospital. "I'm so sorry! If I had known, I wouldn't have tried to make you eat—"

"You didn't know." Aoi's head falls back against the wall. Her shoulders deflate. She glances up to the ceiling, then sighs. "You didn't know," she echoes. "And I don't care."

Damian stops reading the random book he found in the back of Lucas' van. He glances over to her and clears his throat. "Come on, you do care a little."

Aoi shoot him a discontented glare. "A little isn't enough for me to make such a big deal out of it. Anyway," she motions at the cup of rice noodles that she'd gone into a convenience store to buy earlier today, back when they first arrived here. "Can we heat up some water? I'd like to give this a go."

Lucas freezes and observes the scene in silence.

Damian gulps. He snatches the cup away from its plastic bag and reads the back of it. "I don't know, Aoi..." the young man cringes. "There's, uh... a lot of stuff in here."

"Good, I should hope so."

"Aoi, that's not what I—"

She crosses her arms, then rises to her feet. Outside, the sky has deteriorated into a strange, faded mixture of orange and dark blues. "Give me that." Aoi grabs the large, carboard cup and whisks it away, out of Damian's sweaty hands.

Like Damian had done minutes ago, she fiddles with the cup until she finds the list printed in black letters across an off-white sticker. "I mean," Aoi shrugs. "It's vegetables and rice. Look," she points toward the expiration date and shoves the cup into Damian's face. "It's pretty fresh, too, that's why there aren't any additives. I should be good." A laugh escapes her. "If the meds are working like we think they are."

"I don't mean to bother you," Lucas scratches the back of his head. He takes a step forward, in between them both. The van rocks sideways. "But... why not wait until the end of this trip to test this?" He clears his throat. "We still have a little over five days. Is it urgent for you to—"

"Lucas! You love food, right?" This time, Aoi waves the soft, cardboard cup before Lucas's eyes.

He squints. His shoulders tense. "Y-yes?" He replies, a tad confused. "Of course, I do?"

"Then," the young woman takes the cup away from him once more. "Imagine, that you spent around nine to ten years without getting to eat anything but those"—Aoi points at her medical food, that is stashed inside her partially-open luggage—"monstrosities," she says, before she takes a deep breath, then huffs. "How would you feel, Lucas? Would you want to wait another freaking week, to try something you might actually digest, thanks to your new treatment?"

"Okay." Lucas sighs and falls to his knees. "You win." His head hangs low. "I'll go... boil some water. Just," his gaze wavers between her, and then falls onto Damian's figure. "Make sure your cell phone is fully charged, yeah?" He glances at Aoi once more. "Remind me again, what the worst thing that could happen to you is?"

Aoi stares up at the ceiling. She cringes. "I mean, there's always a small percentage of chances that my throat will swell up and I'll die if I don't get the right treatment in time—but even a regular person could technically choke on their food, so, I try to see it like that."

The two young men stare at her in bleak silence. They are slightly horrified at her indifference, then think in unison: It's not like that at all!

"Most likely," Aoi hums, "I'll just end up in a horrible amount of pain though. Maybe I'll puke. Maybe I'll have a migraine and go blind for a few hours. Maybe my limbs will get inflamed and my muscles will ache for a day." She shrugs. "I don't know, honestly. I can't tell you in advance of my body will do. I can only guess. It's kind of like... entering a lottery—except all the prizes are bad, and I never signed up."

"That's..." Lucas bites his lip. "Gloomy..."

"Could be worse." Aoi covers her mouth as she yawns. "I could be dying. I could have cancer!" I could be dead, she thinks these words, though, she does not say them. "Anyway!" The young woman springs up into a straighter, much more motivated stance. "Let's get that water started," she tells Lucas, with a brief, shake of her head. "Shall we?"