When Part Had a Spine - (4 Parts)

[K.Matsuri]

All right, this is definitely a work in progress. That is to say, I need to write the rest. This story revolves around my two characters developed for further exploration of the fetish, Hana and Part. This is what they look like (for those who haven't visited the art forum/my blog):

Hana

Part

And this is the story. (Major thanks to NiceGuy for looking over my draft ) If you catch any major glaring errors or parts that just don't flow smoothly, please let me know and I'll edit to the best of my ability!

***

“What?! You like Hana?!”

Cory stopped in his tracks and stared in disbelief at his friend Part, who was trudging through the slushy walkway between the buildings on the university campus.

“Yeah, that’s right,” Part admitted sheepishly, running his hand briskly through his spiky, tousled brown hair. “Why? Is there something wrong with her?”

“You haven’t heard?” Cory lowered his voice and moved a bit closer to Part’s ear, raising a gloved hand to mask his mouth. “She’s got this…thing. All the guys are wary of her. She’s into some pretty weird stuff. She seems to be a hit among the girls, though, so whatever it is, they seem to like it. She’s definitely charismatic, that’s for sure, but there’s still something off about her.” As he explained, the two boys turned a corner on the path and stood directly facing the sun. Part stopped for a moment, eyelids fluttering in the dazzling light that was magnified in intensity by the snow around them.

“Huh…hah-choo!” Part shook off the sudden sneeze and casually wiped his nose with the back of his black-gloved wrist. They continued walking.

“So what is this thing?” Part further enquired. “It can’t be that bad – I mean, if she was dangerous, they wouldn’t allow her on campus, right?”

“Well, no, but you’d think she’d try a little harder to keep it hidden,” Cory explained. “It’s one of the weirdest things I’ve ever heard of. I can’t believe you’re oblivious to the point where you don’t know!”

Cory, who had been in several of Hana’s classes first semester, knew that she often revealed her unique interest during the first day of class during self-introduction exercises (assuming the class was small enough – professors didn’t bother playing name games in large lecture sessions). However, Cory had never bothered to inform Part because he assumed his friend was already aware.

Perhaps it wasn’t that surprising that Part was in the dark when it came to Hana. Part and Hana had never been in any classes together; however, the previous semester they had been in different sections of the same intro course. As finals approached, students from both sections had organized a study group that both Hana and Part had been invited to join. It was a casual come-and-go setting with no point for self-introductions – if someone was in the study group, chances were that they knew at least one other person, and thus had connections they could work with already.

Before the study group formed, Part could not recall ever having seen Hana. She first became apparent to him when she waltzed in late wearing a full, flowing gypsy skirt adorned with rows of bells that jingled lightly whenever she moved. The way she carried herself, even when flustered, captivated Part instantly. Part could only base his knowledge of her on how she acted in the study sessions, thus, he knew her only as a hard worker with a keen bohemian/indie fashion sense and an upbeat, if not occasionally sarcastic, sense of humor. He hadn’t noticed anything particularly unusual about her aside from the fact that she had a large amount of trouble with an unimportant part of the material from their intro course.

Part had watched her from afar, having no interaction with her until one of the final study sessions, when he had come down with a small cold. He had been sniffling as softly as he could throughout the session, and attempted to stifle the multitude of sneezes that commonly frequented his colds. Every few minutes or so he absentmindedly wiped at his nose with a tissue, a discreet action so as not to lose focus on the studying he had come there to do. Aside from the sniffling and sneezing, Part had thought to himself, he felt quite fine.

He looked about the room to examine his fellow study-mates. Many of them were sick as well, and most looked worse off than he. The room was a chorus of sniffles, sneezes and coughs – Part wondered how often the other students in the room caught colds, as they were being awfully messy about it.

Since his youth Part had been a fairly sneezy boy. He had several allergies and was plagued by hay fever every spring (and occasionally the fall). He had learned from an early age how to sneeze politely, so as not to upset others around him. He never thought much about his own sneezing, just that it happened frequently and there wasn’t much he could do about it. Not that Part cared – it was simply a part of who he was, and he ignored it.

Part continued to sit at the low table in the lounge, carefully explaining a test concept to a friend. Suddenly the cold began to make his nose tickle. Badly.

“S-so, you put this here like this, and then you ah-” He was mid-sentence with both hands on the paper in front of him, pointing at words and diagrams to accompany his explanation. He couldn't move his hands fast enough, and he couldn’t hold it back, it had been too sudden: “HUWATCSHOO!”

The force of the sneeze thrust Part back in his seat, bumping into the chair behind him. The inhabitant of the chair turned around quickly to examine him. Part’s eyes met with a swish of long black hair with two small sections of shocking red, quickly revealing emerald green eyes above a small, straight nose and a lively smile. A slender hand reached into a handbag pocket and revealed a small pack of tissues with a flower design on the front.

“Bless you!” the girl smiled, offering Part a tissue from the back of the package. “You might want to use that quickly, you’re dripping a little on the left.”

The girl giggled as Part blushed, grabbed the tissue from her hand, and began cleaning up the mess.

“Thanks,” he sniffed.

“No problem, my pleasure!” the girl smiled back, then turned around to her face her work. She put away the tissue pack and quickly pulled a small blue notebook out of a different pocket of her handbag. The notebook had a small white sticker on it, clearly labeled “Observations”. She flipped it open to a blank page and began to write feverishly:

“Male, 19. Brown hair, brown eyes, average height, thin build. A little lanky. Unstifled, mid-sentence. Bumped my chair, then accepted tissue. Ears turned red when blessed.”

Hana then proceeded to write the exact sound she heard in IPA (the International Phonetic Alphabet, the most practical writing system for otherwise difficult to transcribe sounds) as well as the date, then put away the notebook looking rather pleased. As usual, no one had noticed – the others in the room probably just assumed she was distributing her notes between various notebooks. Oh, if only they knew…

Meanwhile, Part turned to his study-mate, a friend from the other class whom he had been explaining a concept to only a minute or so earlier.

“Who is that?” he asked, nodding his head over his shoulder to indicate the girl behind him.

“Oh, her?” the other boy answered in a slightly bored tone without stopping to think. “That’s Hana.”

“Thanks.” Hana. Part hurriedly scrawled the name on the corner of the paper in front of him so as not to forget those four letters. The rest of the study session passed without event, and Past was able to rest up and recover by the following week’s meeting.

The winter break between semesters came and went, and Part found himself frequently recalling the one short interaction he’d had with Hana two months previous. He still knew very little about her, but whenever he passed her on campus before and after the break, he would smile awkwardly, and she would shoot back a dazzling grin. Sometimes he saw her sitting hunched over a small blue notebook, scribbling away in small spurts. She must be a writer, he thought to himself. Though he saw her often, he never built up the courage to go up and talk to her again.

Though he attempted to coax an answer out of Cory, Part still had no idea what Hana’s little secret was. He badgered Cory until they went their separate ways, headed to classes in opposite directions.

Part was a bit early to class, as per usual. The small lecture hall had just emptied out, and his professor had not yet arrived. After the flow of students in the hallway slowed to a halt, Part entered the room. While headed toward the right side of one of the back rows, he scanned the hall absentmindedly. His wandering vision stopped when he realized he was not alone in the room.

Down near the front of the hall he saw someone slouched over a desk. As he approached the girl he was able to make out more details – though her face was smothered in her rose-pink sweatered arms, he recognized the head-banded black hair and the stop sign red side-bangs in an instant.

“Hana!” Part ran down the narrow stairs to reach her. He placed his hand on her shoulder and shook her lightly. “Hey, are you all right?”

Hana stirred slightly and slowly raised her head up off her notebook. Her puffy bangs were mussed in the front, and she looked as if this had been the first sleep she’d gotten in a week.

“Huh? Where am I?” she asked in a daze. “Is class over?”

“Afraid so,” Part explained. “You’re lucky, it just got out. If you hurry you can make it to your next class. That is, of course, if you have a class.”

“No, I don’t have a…a…” Hana’s eyes widened suddenly, and her previously drowsy face displayed an expression of surprise.

“HATCHUH!” A look of horror flashed in her eyes after the release of the loud, booming sneeze. “Oh my god, I’m so sorry!” Hana grabbed her messenger bag, clamped both hands to her nose and mouth and darted out of the room, cheeks flushed and stumbling slightly with her scarf fringe waving behind her out the way out.

Part froze as he watched her leave, blinking confusedly as he wiped the mist off his face with the back of his jacket sleeve. He looked at the seat where Hana had been just moments before and realized she had left her notebook on the fold-out desk. He picked it up and examined the front cover, hoping for a clue. Opening it up, he was relieved to find her name, class section, and dorm address printed neatly in the upper left-hand corner of the inside cover. He admired the preciseness of her printing for a moment, then carefully slipped the notebook into his backpack, promising himself that he’d return it later. Students began to file in, and Part, already standing in front of Hana’s desk, took a seat and pulled out his own notebook, prepared to listen to the lecture he had come for originally.

Cory came to meet Part as he stepped out of the lecture hall. Part had found his attention split during the lecture. Hana’s notebook seemed to be slowly but surely burning through his hunter green backpack, creating a mysterious and alluring aura that Part found difficult to ignore. He began to walk right past his high school friend and current roommate, but Cory was not one to be ignored.

“Hey!” Cory stepped out in front of Part, snapping him out of his ambulatory trance. “Where are you going? Our classes are done for the week – don’t you want to hang out, grab some pizza, maybe play some games, like we always do?”

“Crud,” Part uttered under his breath, caught in an obvious dilemma. It had become a sort of tradition for he and Cory to hang out every Friday evening, eating pizza and playing video games, occasionally complaining about outlandish assignments and odd professor quirks. Part looked forward to it every week as it was the only time he could fully devote to bonding with his roommate, but a certain spiral-bound paper good had completely dominated his mind at present.

“Sorry, Cory, but I’ve got something I have to deliver,” Part replied sheepishly. “Maybe tomorrow. Get a head start on your homework for once.” Cory playfully punched Part in the arm for this remark, but didn’t give Part any more grief for the sudden change in plans.

“Can I ask where you’re going?”

“I have to deliver something to the North Towers,” Part admitted. He wasn’t a very good secret-keeper, especially when it came to Cory. Despite his slight guilt toward the situation, he had no choice but to tell Cory everything. “Turns out Hana was in the lecture hall the period before me. She left her notebook, so I’m going to bring it back to her.”

“You’re going to Hana’s room?!” Cory stared at him in disbelief, a slight panic in his voice. “Are you insane? She’s probably got a fully operational torture chamber in there! It’d be nice if you came back…well…alive, maybe?”

“Come off it,” Part retorted. “You can’t believe everything you hear. Who told you those crazy stories anyway? The fact is, if it had been my notes that had gone missing, I would certainly appreciate it if someone returned it to me. See you later, Cor.”

Cory gaped as Part zipped up his navy blue ski jacket, threw his gray-blue knit scarf around his neck, and marched determinedly out to the North Towers dormitory. As Part disappeared into the distance, Cory could only imagine what was going to happen to his friend.

Walking down the third floor’s main hallway, Part counted the room numbers, checking them against the number scrawled on the back of his hand. As he approached 326, he noticed he was in an all-girl’s hall. He could hear muffled coughing coming from one of the rooms, but he didn’t pay much attention to it, just acknowledged that it was there. As he passed the girl’s bathroom, he was hit with a rush of scented soap and liberally applied perfume. His eyes began to water slightly, and his nose suddenly felt as though it were full of angry bees. His eyes narrowed, and he lifted his arm, bent at the elbow, to his face while tilting his head back slightly…

“Ihchew! Hih’chh, hachoo! HATICHOO!” Part’s allergic sneezes built in severity and volume as he walked. By the second sneeze, he noticed that the coughing he had heard upon entry to the hall had stopped, almost as if it were paying rapt attention to his performance. Pulling a crumpled tissue out of his pocket, he blew his nose lightly, sniffling a bit and hoping he still looked presentable. Throwing the tissue away in the trash room, he approached and stood outside the door of North Towers 326. He stared at the door for a minute, slowly gathering the courage to reach out and knock three times in quick succession.

“Who’s there?” a slightly startled voice asked.

“It’s Part,” he replied. The voice behind the door thought for a minute.

“Who?”

It suddenly dawned on Part that he and Hana had never had a proper introduction. He only knew her name because he had asked someone else about her – there was no reason he could determine that would cause him to stand out in her mind, nor to warrant her asking someone else about him. He tried again.

“The guy who woke you up in the lecture hall earlier. You left your notebook!” As if to prove a point, he held the notebook nervously in both hands.

Part heard footsteps approach the door. Hana peeked out, giving Part a once-over with her slightly glassed-over green eyes. Part gave her a skeptical look. Wasn’t she going to let him in? Eyeing the notebook in Part’s hands, she opened the door a tiny bit more and looked at him expectantly.

“Oh, here you go.” Part moved the notebook closer to the crack and a red-nailed hand reached out to grab it.

“Thanks,” Hana replied as she took the notebook and began to close the door again.

“Hey wait –” Part interjected. Hana re-opened the door a crack and peered out again.

“Hm?”

“Well, ah,” Part thought on his feet. Before he knew what he intended to do, his mouth began spewing words. “I don’t suppose you’re busy tomorrow afternoon?” He figured that her unwillingness to let him inside meant that she was busy with something or another.

“No, not particularly,” Hana raised a thin eyebrow as Part stood ready to continue with his spur-of-the-moment plan. “Why?”

“I was wondering if…well…” Part stammered, his ears flushing a bit pink. “Maybe we could get lunch or something – I mean, you know, ‘cause we both eat on a regular basis and all. You know what they say, three square meals a day!” He forced a smile. God, I’m an idiot, he thought to himself.

“Sounds interesting,” Hana mused, a slight purr in her voice. Or was it uncharacteristic roughness? “Just lunch, yes?”

“And video games, if you want,” Part replied. “That is, if you like video games.”

“Love them,” Hana smiled from behind the door. “Meet here at noon?”

“Okay!” Part responded jovially. He appreciated that Hana had taken the responsibility off his hands. He’d heard from Cory and several others that she liked to take charge. “Well then, I’ll be here at 12.”

“Excellent,” Hana nodded. “Part, was it? I’ll see you tomorrow. Oh, and thanks for bringing my notebook back.” She rushed this last statement with a slightly pained look on her face. She slammed the door shut the moment she finished her last sentence.

Hana held her breath and waited to hear Part’s footsteps exiting the hall. Once they had echoed into silence, she exhaled deeply, turning away from the closed door to face her room with a couple dry, sharp coughs. Normally, she would have let anyone into her room, even if it was a boy she was just properly meeting for the first time, but tonight she was ashamed of the small piled of used tissues and bottle of Zicam on her desk. It had been three hours – she picked up the bottle, unscrewed the lid, and popped another cherry-coated Zinc tablet into her mouth.

As it dissolved slowly, she thought about the exchange that had just taken place outside her door. Part seemed nice enough – he didn’t seem to judge her like nearly all the other boys she knew did. He was cute enough, she supposed. It would be a shame to stand him up. Not that she’d do it intentionally – she just wasn’t sure she’d be good to go by noon the next day. The last of the cherry coating disappeared and, taking in the hard metallic taste and papery texture on her tongue, Hana winced slightly. Regardless of what the next morning would bring, she had one fact to console her. What she had heard in the hallway had confirmed it – Part had a very distinctive, and attractive, sneeze. Swallowing the wet paper-like remains of the tablet, Hana began to clean up her room a bit, giving herself a bit of false hope. She was not optimistic about her ability to make the upcoming lunch date.

***

To Be Continued . . .

[girl_in_love]

Ohhhh this sounds interesting, I'd love to read more! Hugs!!!

[silentdreamer789]

Ohhhh this sounds interesting, I'd love to read more! Hugs!!!

Yeah, great start!!!!!!! Plesae post again soon...

silentdreamer789

[Niceguy]

(I know I already told you this, but...)

LOVE IT! Please continue!

Oh yeah - and I dig the sketches too!

Great job!

[shy_obsession]

Oh my God, I love these two characters and this story. And I've never seen those two drawings before-they are SO good. I feel like I actually know who Hana and Part are now. (and I can relate to Hana) I have to say, I loved the part when Part's nose was dripping!

[count tiszula]

This is terrific. Excellent characters and fine sneezing. I look forward to reading more.

[Vetinari]

I missed this before. Great start. Would love to read some more.

[K.Matsuri]

Sorry for the delay - here's a little bit more (about a page or so). Hope it's passable ;; The inspiration's starting to come back a little - I've been crazy busy with school! This is seriously going up right as I'm writing it, so if you see any glaring errors and/or want to edit, please feel free! All right, here we go:

---

Part marched triumphantly back to his dorm on the other side of campus, his face glowing pink from a combination of the brisk evening air and the mounting excitement of having had Hana accept his spur-of-the-moment invitation. Sprinting the last couple of steps up to his floor, Part unlocked the door and greeted Cory with a huge grin on his face.

“That was fast,” Cory remarked. Part hadn’t been gone more than thirty minutes. “And you’re still alive! She must have been feeling compassionate. Lucky you!”

Cory continued to ramble on, but Part didn’t respond, choosing instead to grin stupidly in the doorway.

“Hey, earth to Part! Did she bewitch you or something?” Cory had gotten up and was standing right in front of Part, waving a hand in front of his face.

“Oh, what? Sorry,” Part snapped back to reality. He looked around the room – two maple wood beds, one lofted in the air, desks facing each other off to the side, a large TV on top of the two sets of drawers at the back wall…and dirty clothes everywhere. Part wondered when they had last straightened the place up. “Hey Cory, it’s cleaning time!”

“What? Why?” Cory whined. “Friday nights are supposed to be for chilling, not for cleaning.”

“Come on,” Part pleaded from the other side of the room, picking a stray tee-shirt up off the floor. “Just this once? I promise we can play once we’re done. I’ll even buy the pizza.”

Cory sighed heavily and went over to his side of the room and began putting things back where they belonged. The two of them worked silently, fully focusing on getting the room to look moderately as clean as they day they moved in…or at least close. Cory noticed that Part had been cleaning double-time.

“Why are we cleaning again?” Cory questioned.

“Oh! Right,” Part looked up from the papers he was re-arranging on his desk. “I completely forgot – I’ve got a date tomorrow!”

“Oh jeez,” Cory moaned. “It’s with her, isn’t it.”

“Yes, it’s with Hana,” Part replied sternly. “I still don’t get what you’ve got against her.” Part pulled a thick folder out of the hutch above his desk, put the papers in, and placed it back, letting loose a small cloud of dust in the process. Waving it away from his face with his hand, Part’s nose began to twitch. After a short build-up he sneezed twice sharply into his fist. Rubbing his nose with the knuckles on his right hand, he sniffled and blew his nose loudly into one of the tissues he found on his desk.

Cory rolled his eyes. “You and your darn sneezing,” he sighed. “That could get you into trouble some day.”

“Yeah right,” Part scoffed. “What, am I going to sneeze myself off a bridge or something? ‘ACHOO – Oh no, I’m falling!’ Psh.” Part flailed his arms and acted out the scene. He shook his head at himself – how could sneezing be anything more than merely annoying? He failed to see his roommate’s logic.

“Ah, you’ll see,” Cory shrugged. Though he wasn’t particularly a big fan of Hana, he didn’t want to scare Part off before he’d witnessed her for himself. Though initially opposed to letting Hana in the room, Cory figured that after Part figured Hana out, he’d never speak of her again and that would be that.

Not an hour later, the room looked as neat and organized as the sample room they often showed on campus tours. There was no indication (aside from the full laundry baskets) that there were two freshmen boys living there at all. Pleased with their work, Part phoned in a pizza delivery order and sat down with Cory to play video games for the rest of the night.

---

Coming up next time: Hana and Part meet for their lunch date...or do they? TBC...sorry ;;

[Guest Posaune]

Eee, I'm lovin' this story so far. Great job, K.Matsuri. I'm really looking forward to seeing more of Hana and Part soon. :3

[lalaland~]

Thank you for posting more! I like how this story is shaping up!

[Niceguy]

Cool! I like where it's going! Please continue!

[girl_in_love]

Hey,

Great chapter, I like where this is going too! Write more soon?

Love

~*Jillo*~

[K.Matsuri]

Here's a little teeny bit more. It'll leave you hanging for the exciting part, as in, when the two of them actually interact for once. Don't worry, I'm working on it now. This is just to whet your appetite again ;;

~~~

Part woke with a start the next morning. Sliding out of bed to turn off the siren-like beeping of his cell phone’s alarm, he checked the display – 10:30 AM, plenty of time to shower and be ready with time to spare. Placing the navy blue phone back on the desk, he went to take a shower.

Under the warm cascade of water, Part thought about what might happen come noon. Would their personalities click? Would they hate each other? What games would they play? All of these thoughts and more ran through Part’s mind as he rinsed the soapy suds off his lean body.

Clean-shaven and fully awake after his shower, Part slipped on a maroon thermal shirt with pale yellow stitching and a pair of loose, dark blue jeans. Shaking off some of the moisture weighing down his spiky hair, Part glanced at himself in the small mirror on the wall. He wondered if he looked presentable. His gaze shifted from his reflection to a small bottle of cologne he kept near the bottom of his clear plastic shower tote.

Picking the sample-size bottle up in his hand, Part contemplated whether or not to use it. Normally colognes and other scented lotions and sprays set off his allergies, sending him into hopeless fits of sneezing until he washed the offensive substance off his skin. When he was given this cologne, however, Part was told that it was only very lightly scented, probably not enough to irritate him.

Curious, he took the cap off the bottle and hovered it near his nose, inhaling very lightly. His nasal passages, surprisingly open after the hot shower, began to stuff up almost immediately. Sniffling, Part quickly re-capped the bottle and put it back in the shower tote. As he feared, cologne was out of the question…but at least he had realized this before he would have been forced to take another shower. In the back of his mind he hoped Hana wouldn’t be wearing any perfume.

Finally satisfied with his appearance, Part quickly ate a granola bar he had on his desk, then set off for the North Towers dormitory around 11:40 AM. In the fifteen minute walk to across campus, Part’s anticipation mounted with every step. The butterflies fluttering in his stomach seemed to carry his heart into his mouth, where it took all of Part’s willpower to hold it back. Afraid he might sneeze it out accidentally, Part kept his eyes mostly shut as he breathed deeply and tried to calm himself down as he walked. Soothed by the rhythm of his repetitive even strides, Part soon arrived at the dorm building. Taking the stairs up to the third floor, he contemplated each step carefully, trying not to lose his balance or freak out any more than he had been on the way there. Part noted the position of the girl’s bathroom with its fragrant perfumes, and used his scarf to cover his nose and mouth, lowering it when he once again arrived in front of room 326.

Staring at the number on the door, Part took a deep breath and checked his watch: 11:56. Not too early…surely she must be ready by now, he thought. He wondered if he should wait for her to open the door herself, or if he should knock. Anxiety mounted in his head again, and Part continued to stand in front of the door. As it grew closer and closer to noon, Part built up the courage to knock.

~~~

TBC. Bwa.

Sorry there was no actual sneezing in this section o_o; Part wanted to keep himself presentable...though the cologne bit was inspired by one of Salmon's recent mishaps!

[K.Matsuri]

Now we're getting somewhere!! No sneezing in this part, but you'll see something interesting happens to Hana...

~~~

Part tapped briskly on the door three times. There was no response, so he knocked again, a bit harder than before. This time he could hear rustling behind the closed door.

"Who's there?" a strained voice called out.

"It's Part. Ready to go to lunch?" he reminded her.

"Oh shoot! Is it noon already?" More rustling. "Ah, um, I'm not ready yet. Would you mind waiting a few more minutes?"

"Sure, no problem," Part replied jovially. He had heard that no matter how long a girl took to prepare, she was never ready to go out, so he let it slide. Besides, he was not unbearably hungry, having eaten that granola bar just before setting out. Truth be told, he was relieved to have a bit more time before coming face-to-face with his date - he was still anxious, and figured he could use her preparation time to calm down just a bit more. He took a seat next to the door and stared across the hall.

From his position outside the door, Part could hear Hana moving about the room. The sliding of drawers, the opening and closing of closet doors, the clicking of jewelry and make-up cases, the faint slipping of clothes being changed - all these were steps in Hana's last-minute preparation waltz. Suddenly, the rhythm was broken: a large crash, then nothing.

"Hana?" Part stood up with a start and faced the door, panicked. Breathing quickly, he knocked briskly on the door. There was no response.

"Hana?" he called again. Still Nothing. Part wrapped his hand around the doorknob and turned it sharply, charging through the unlocked door.

"HANA!"

Part gasped. Just beyond the doorway, Hana was curled up on the floor, motionless except for heavy breathing. It was clear that she had fallen while getting ready - while she was wearing a knee-length tiered dull gold puffy skirt, she still donned a silky, long-sleeved red pajama top. Her unbrushed hair was strewn about her, and her hands clung loosely to the top of a pair of black leggings that were pulled just above her knee.

"Oh god..."

Part knelt down next to Hana and gently turned her over to face him, propping her head up on his knees. Her face was flushed, her skin hot to the touch. Cold sweat clung in beads to her forehead. Hana quivered slightly, coughed, then opened her puffy eyes, gazing tiredly up at Part.

"Ungh...dizzy..." Hana groaned, clenching her eyes shut and turning her head slightly to the side, trying to go back to the cold linoleum. Part stopped her with gentle force, holding her in place. Though it was extremely obvious to him from her appearance, he felt it necessary to feel her forehead lightly with the back of his hand, as if there was the slightest chance that she might still be all right. As he feared, his lunch date was burning with fever.

~~~

TBC, again!! Man, I don't mean to leave you guys hanging...but...ehe. At least I'm on a roll now.

[magictoes11]

I just started catching up on your Hana/Part story, and I'm enjoying it! Looking forward to seeing what comes of this. I love Hana's observation notebook, and Part is just too cute for words with his cologne allergies.

[lalaland~]

YAY! I hadn't read this in a while! I can't wait to read more! It's great fantasic yayness!

[doggo]

And this is getting SO exciting! I wonder what will happen next? What a cliffhanger...

[Vetinari]

Oh this is shaping up nicely.

I'm sure he's going to have to look after her........ And if we're lucky she might sneeze all over him!

[doggo]

Oh this is shaping up nicely.

I'm sure he's going to have to look after her........ And if we're lucky she might sneeze all over him!

Or he will sneeze all over her while looking after her!!!

[Vetinari]

Oh this is shaping up nicely.

I'm sure he's going to have to look after her........ And if we're lucky she might sneeze all over him!

Or he will sneeze all over her while looking after her!!!

Or BOTH!

Hmmmmm...getting carried away here.

Whatever happens I'm going to read it!

And I'm sure it will be great!