If You Try Some Time, You Might Find

Talia admittedly grinned when Cassie referred to Mamouru as you-know-who. Not at Cassie's expense, of course. She enjoyed how little Cassie seemed to respect the smarter Higurashi brother. But the last question made Talia frown. She didn't know how to answer. She still couldn't tell if Cassie was being legitimate or just trolling her. "3 out of 4," she texted back simply referencing the fact that she counted Talia twice. It didn't answer her question. Talia wasn't sure she even knew the answer.

She typed, "Ill probably be gone for good," and hovered her thumb over the send button. Then she quickly deleted it.

"No, 4 out of 5." She responded. Regardless of whether Talia understood or not, that was how she thought of them. "Jocelyn, Dark Angel, Bunny, and then you. Don't forget it."

Talia didn't fight like Dark Angel in that match. Even if her intention was still to hurt Cassie as much as possible, she didn't fight dirty. Rough, yes, she was still brawling like she did before, but if Cassie had lost it would've been a clean win for Talia. Cassie felt a little... good about that.

Talia stared at the response. Her initial pessimistic reaction was that the 'Don't forget it' part was the most significant and hostile part of the text. Talia kept staring though. Cassie did seem to dislike the fact that she had injured that many. Maybe it was just her way of...telling her that she wasn't proud of putting her in the hospital.

She lifted up her phone and bravely texted back, "I never really liked that dark angel girl anyway. She hurt a lot of people including me."

"Me neither. I'm glad she's gone." Cassie replied instantly. She felt a catch in her throat, but she couldn't wait. She wanted to send another before Talia could reply to her, and her thumbs kept tapping away. "I dont know if anything i did was right. I really wanted to do the right thing but i hd to protect my friends and me and i feel so dirty."

She sent it, and put her phone down. She got up and padded carefully out of her room and to the stairs by Akashi's door, and went down to the kitchen for a glass of water. She stared at the floor between sips, at the wood grain lines on the floor, following them end to end.

Talia choked up at Cassie's text. She blurred the lines between Dark Angel and herself. It reminded her that Dark Angel was gone, and she will be too. She rubbed her eyes clean and mustered her fingers again. "I dont think dark angel ever meant to hurt people so much. I think she regrets doing it now. She never meant for it to get as far as it did." The third person thing wasn't really helping Talia's peace of mind too much. She wished Dark Angel could separate from herself entirely. But that could never be.

"Do you think you might ever forgive her?"

Cassie stood still for what felt like a long time, water glass in one hand, resting her elbow on the other, leaning her hip against the counter. The hardest part was still to come, and it weighed heavily on her. She could do it, though. She had to. Maybe she just needed help. She needed her dad.

She set down her still half full water cup and went back up to her room, where she found more texts waiting from Talia. She read them with the sort of detachment that she'd been used to during the whole ordeal, and thumbed out a reply.

"Not today." She sent. "And not on the phone."

She put her phone down again, and got up from her bed, and walked down the hall to Akashi's room. She let herself in and silently crawled into her bed and snuggled up to her in hopes that she'd be able to sleep if only to escape her thoughts.

Talia patiently waited for Cassie's response. When it finally came, she frowned and sighed. Figures. She typed, "k" and hit send before placing the phone on her nightstand and turning her head to try and get comfortable. She didn't look forward to the next day. She'd probably get visits from all sorts of people good and bad. And she didn't want to see a single one of them.

Tatsuki went to the hospital after finally getting some free time in her schedule to get a chance to go and try and visit Talia, she wanted to see her match the second her own match in Avalanche was over but due to being interviewed and the long distance from the forest the match took place in she missed it. Walking up to the receptionist desk, she was denied to visit Talia due to it being after hours now and that she isn't family.

Looking down feeling a bit upset, Tatsuki turned around to leave the hospital but then stops outside the door to look at the hospital. She was still highly concerned of Talia's well being and really wants to talk to her, so she pulls out her phone and starts typing a message for her. "Talia-san, it's me Tatsuki. I tried to visit you, but the receptionist won't let me in. How are you?" Tatsuki then hit send before closing her phone and holding it in her hands as she begins to walk back towards her home.

Talia was staring at the wall with a blank expression on her face. She still couldn't sleep. Everything felt so overwhelming now. There were so many things she needed to think about. And yet, there was also so few things she could actually do about it. Talia rolled her head to the other side of the pillow and closed her eyes. She wanted to sleep and be rid of all these bad images in her head. But her mind wouldn't let her. Her phone lit up and she rolled her head back over.

She quickly grabbed her phone and gazed intently at the screen. It wasn't Cassie, however. It was someone else. Talia stared at the screen for a few moments. Finally, she replied, "Tell them your name is Aurora and that you're my sister." Talia then put her phone back down and laid down. Bravely, she took a deep breath and pushed herself up in the bed so she was seated. She wasn't entirely sure she was ready for a visitor, but at the very least it would distract her.

Tatsuki wasn't really moving fast as she walked on the sidewalk while still a short distance away from the hospital. It was really getting cold out since it was lightly snowing, but she made sure to dress warm just in case. This is Tatsuki's first Winter in Japan and she was already enjoying it despite her upset mood. Seconds later, she feels her phone vibrate in her hand, notifying her of a reply. Tatsuki looks at it and raises an eyebrow at the response, instead of it being an answer it was directions to tell them she was Talia's sister."Umm... okay, I'll try that...." Tatsuki typed and sent quickly as she gulped and then turned back around to head back to the hospital.

The young girl really hated lying, especially if she is pretending to be someone else, but if this is what it will take to see Talia she'll do it. Making her way back to the receptionist, Tatsuki lightly slammed her hands on the desk with a desperate expression. "Look, I REALLY need to see Talia. I'm her sister Aurora!" She told them while holding back the desire to tell the truth, and after a few seconds, they actually granted "Aurora's" request to visit Talia as the girl sighs in relief.

She eventually makes it to Talia's hospital room and waits outside it, she was nervous and hesitant to enter the room but her hand hovered on the doorknob. Gulping, Tatsuki makes her choice to enter the room, especially since she has something really important to say to Talia, and opens the door slowly as she pokes her head in to see if Talia was in the room. "Talia-san?" Seeing the redhead sitting up in her bed, Tatsuki comes in and shuts the door behind her to walk over to Talia's bed and sit next to it in a chair while her head is down but her eyes looking up at Talia. "Hi."