Description: Hinata and Shoma visit Roberto at the institution. He actually seems to be getting better. Plus he was excited to have a pleasant visit for a change. Roberto goes into details of his post traumatic stress disorder. There's also cake!
Roberto Miura, along with a few groups of other patients in a cold sterile room that seems devoid of any feeling. Sure it could change with the help of an interior designer but the room wasn't built for that purpose. It was built for rehabilitation and so no concern was given towards the appearance other than making sure that it was tidy.
Roberto is sitting with a few people at a table playing black jack while some type of documentary was playing in the background. At this point it didn't matter it was little more than background noise.
Nurses make their rounds distributing various medications and a cup and a pill is placed next to the soccer star. He's been doing better since Yurika and Gabriel haven't been making any visits lately.
One generally imagines a mental hospital to be the sort of place where they like to avoid loud noises, rapid movements, and other such distractions. In that case it should be anyone's guess how Hinata managed to get them to let her in. Finding herself led toward the room with Roberto, she ends up rushing on ahead of her escort the moment she catches sight of the King of Southtown Soccer.
"Ohyaou, Roberto!" In a flash one of the nearby nurses attempts to shush her, but it takes quite a bit more than a raised finger to do that. The Sunshine Girl is her usual self, despite the somewhat depressing environment. After making her way across the room over to Roberto, she gives him a hearty slap on the back, her standard greeting for friends, "When I heard you were here, I knew I'd just have to come to shake you out of your funk!"
Roberto's eyes burst wide open as he feels the impact of palm making contact with his back. The cards that were in front of him fly out of his hands nailing the dealer in the forehead and revealing that he was sitting on a 19. While the others frantically call for hits Roberto stands up and there's a genuine smile on his face.
The nurses see that Roberto has another visitor and at this point the nurses have drilled the procedure for when he receives visitors to near perfection and have already moved to the phones to call for security guards. Of course this is all aborted the moment he speaks since it's obvious that he's dealing with a friend this time, "Hinata! It's a pleasant surprise. For once, I've got a visitor that I don't mind having around. What have you been up to?"
"She's not the only one, I hope," comments someone softly. Shoma stands there, grey bat over one shoulder with a sober expression on his face. He seems to realize, even if he has not confirmed it, that he may have had something to do with this mess Roberto is in."
Well this isn't so bad, he at least seems to be in a good mood (which is her whole point of being here), and the panic on the nurses's faces goes completely ignored by the girl. Her lips are spread into a wide, contagious smile, "I was on vacation, don't you remember? The whole summer, out in the middle of one of those wilderness resorts that people seem to like so much. It was kind of boring, though, because the only things to fight out in the wilderness are trees, bears, and bees. It's not nearly as cool as in those movies where the fighter becomes super powerful after a single montage in the wild."
Then, it so happens, that Shoma appears. This actually causes the cheerfulness on the Sunshine Girl's face to waver, things not having gone so well the last time she saw him.
"Sh-sh.. Shoma?" There's a moment where his face takes on a combination of surprise, excitement, but having both get reigned in by remaining guarded. His last two experiences with Shoma weren't all that pleasant either. By itself, Roberto's situation with Shoma wasn't enough to push him over the edge. He had familiarity on some level with people being brainwashed. But combined with the war and blood he had seen both in the times he was surviving by himself in the jungles of Thailand and in the time he was fighting alongside Alex's crew and Rose's crew he had seen things he wasn't ever prepared to see. Shoma's presence even if he still counted him as a friend, reminded him of those times and a thousand yard stare began to form in his eyes as he looks back and forth between Shoma and Hinata.
There's also the fact that he managed to get in with his bat that gives the soccer player pause. While they've kept him away from balls. It makes him wonder how he got in, in the first place.
The guards were very hard-pressed to seperate Shoma from the new bat. He insisted that it remained with him. Shoma's eyes meet Roberto's, and the Slugger frowns with a bit of concern.
"You...you okay, Roberto?" Shoma /hopes/ Roberto is okay. He'd hate for his friend, his best /guy/ friend to not be okay.
While Shoma may have managed to sneak in a somewhat threatening device capable of providing severe beatings, Hinata snuck in something better, and it really looks like now might be the time to bring it out from the look on Roberto's face. Sliding her pack off of her back, she reaches in and pulls out something in a smallish plastic storage box, setting it down on the table and popping it open to reveal... a piece of chocolate cake that looks like it must have been dropped or something. "Hey uhh, I figured they probably weren't letting you have any good food here, so I made you some cake." She also pulls out a plastic spork, holding it out to Roberto and drawing a few nervous looks from the staff. Sporks are dangerous tools, after all.
"Ok? That depends on what type of 'ok.' Physically I'm as fit as ever. Probably more so. Not much to do here other than play cards, watch TV, and work out." He pauses slightly as he touches a finger to his temple. "Up here is a different issue. I'm not ready to get back into fighting. I don't think I can make it through a match without screaming, 'Hit the deck.' I should've never went to Thailand. I just wasn't ready for it. I saw things there that I never had prepared myself for. I saw people dying around me in variously brutal ways. I saw humanity at its worse and I barely managed to hang on." Roberto normally wouldn't be able to express himself with such clarity but he had a lot of time to think about why he was there in the first place.
The cake, he's aware of but he doesn't acknowledge until he's finished answering Shoma's question. He then turns to the cake and takes the plate into his hands. Staring at it for what is only a few seconds but to him it seems like eternity. His lips curl into a smile, "Thanks. It's greatly appreciated."
As Roberto starts to go on about his current condition, Hinata seems to be a bit stunned by it all. It's practically unthinkable for the girl that anybody could go from being a good fighter to being so unable to fight without losing it. The fight was practically the blood in her veins. Of course, she barely knew anything about what had happened in Thailand. Until she got back from vacation, the most she had heard was that some dictator had taken over Thailand and then gotten kicked back out. That some of her friends had taken part in the whole thing just seemed so utterly strange and made her a little uncomfortable, especially with the ones who'd taken part in it all seeming to have changed, especially Shoma and Roberto.
But above all she, didn't want to upset the two any more, so back comes the bright smile, the one that could make a dreary day seem bright and happy. "Oh, you're welcome. It's fun to make cakes, even if mine always look bad."
War. Huh. Good god y'all. What is it good for? Absolutely NUTHIN'!
Shoma nods at Roberto's response. He understands; no one left that country unaffected in some way. Not him, not Hotaru, not Sakura. /Nobody/ got out the same. He eyes Roberto for a moment, "Well...whenever you're ready, man. We'll be waiting for you. just don't take too long, or I'll leave you behind," Shoma comments with a slight grin.
The one good thing about being raised in Southtown is that you become adept at handling spoons, forks and chopsticks. He takes that spork into his hand, "I'll be heading into senior year at Taiyo and I plan on graduating. I shouldn't have too much trouble with school as long as people don't pick fights with me. Plus I'm slowly getting better, and it may be possible for me to return to the fighting world. I may not though. I don't plan on giving up soccer though. I'm sure I can handle that without going nuts."
It's odd. Roberto views soccer the way Hinata views fighting and he's certain that Shoma views baseball the same way. While he's sure he can handle soccer, he wonders if he really can. The thought that it would be possible that he would be unable to play soccer would be almost impossible for him bear. But he pushes that aside long enough for him to dig in. "Shoma, I'm glad to see you're ok."
The fact that Shoma was here in the hospital was a testament to the fact that he wasn't quite the Shoma he left behind in Thailand which was a good thing. He can read it in the questions Shoma asks. If he was the same Shoma that sent him home, it would've made the visit so much more painful and angering than Yurika and Gabriel's respective visits combined. And much harder for him to tell him to get the hell out like he did with Yurika (Gabriel didn't give him the chance to).
He looks over to Hinata again as he finishes the chocolate cake. "I believe Natsu likes the cakes you make for a reason. Speaking of Natsu, I haven't seen her for awhile. Before everything happened, Natsu and I joined up on a fighting team with a boxer calling himself Heavy D as the leader and an American Football player named Brian."
He glances over to Shoma's bat. "He looked for people who used Sports Styles. You might fit in as a replacement either for me or Natsu considering our respective situations."
"Maybe," Shoma comments as he nods. He glances at the grey bat. It's not the one he had before Thailand. It never will be. But...maybe he'll make something of this one. Something more than the old one. "Actually...I haven't seen Natsu since before Thailand, and since SOMEONE has to take the art of Taiyo Athletics out into the world..."
Shoma does something rare for him of late: He grins, big and wide with a manic fire in his eyes, "Dude got a phone number?"
"From what Sakura told me, Natsu's off in some volleyball training camp. I'm a little disappointed, I was expecting everyone to be just dying for me to come back, but then I show up and it seems like everything's a mess." Her tone is a little less cheery than usual, but still brighter than most people manage on a good day, "Of course now that I'm back all of you are going to have to be happy or else I'll spiral into a horrible depression from which I shall never awaken. While the subject turns to 'spiraling depression' she seems to whirl about to emphasize it all before drooping foreward, like you imagine a deactivated robot.
In a flash though, she's straightened back up, winking and giving her usual 'v' sign to show she's just playing around. "Of course it's impossible to not be happy with me around, so you don't have to worry about that."
"Hey can I get a pen and paper?" A nurse heads over and closely watches as Roberto puts down the now empty plate of food to the side and begins writing down the phone number. "Since you two are the first actual nice visit I've had, I think spiralling depression won't be a problem. Just keep that crazy bitch Gabriel, and evil bitch Yurika away from me and there'll be no problem." He breaks out into a huge smile, since both Shoma's enthusiasm in in joining the team and Hinata's general enthusiasm tend to be contagious.
Shoma grins widely, "No problem, man. I'll beat 'em off with a stick for ya." Shoma lifts his bat slightly for emphasis while Roberto gets that number. "Though you shoulda seen that crazy lady with the hair that I had to deal with at the school while Kyosuke had me stayin' there."
Hinata laughs a little, a rather pleasant noise, "Ooh, having to beat the ladies off with Shoma's stick, Roberto? I guess it's no surprise given some of the things I've heard said in the locker room..." There's a little more laughter before she tries to put an innocent expression across her face.
When Gabriel and Yurika were mentioned there's a look of horror on the staff's face. They remember how close he came on both occasions to putting a hole through the wall. Meanwhile Roberto is looking at Hinata completely mortified. Maybe he's taking what Hinata just said out of context or maybe it was jokingly meant in that context. Either way, he looks just as horrified as the staff but for a different reason.
The soccer star pulls it together though completely disregarding the the questionable part of it to ask a question that he may find himself even more horrified by the answer. "What exactly have you been hearing said in the locker room?"
Shoma simply blinks at Hinata, a bit red in the face.
Not quite getting what could be wrong about what she said, or even that it could be taken the wrong way, Hinata just goes on smiling, "Well, from what I hear, you've got your fair share of female fans, Roberto. A quiet, confident sort who shows off his skills on the field. Shoma'd probably have his fair share of admirers too, if it weren't for Natsu."
Shoma, perhaps surprisingly or maybe not so surprisingly, simply shrugs as if to say that he is okay with this.
Roberto takes a deep breath and lets out a sigh of relief. Perhaps he had read into it more than he probably should've and definitely more than was probably healthy for his already tortured mind. To be honest though, he's a bit surprised to hear that he has such a female following. "You know, I had no idea. Most of the people I knew within Taiyo I had only put into the associates catagory. Only a select few I counted as friends."
Bringing her face to an even wider grin, she leans in and pats Roberto on the back, a bit harder than most would consider a pat, but pretty standard for the girl, "Well fans aren't always your friends, you know? Girls like guys who are in good shape, and when you're so good at sports you have to be. They also say you're..." she pulls back and clasps her hands by her head, fluttering her eyes as she takes on a breathy tone that seems completely out of place of the cute girl, "sooo mature and handsome!" Then she bursts into a fit of giggles.
Shoma forces back a laugh at Hinata's 'mature and handsome' comment when his watch starts beeping like mad. He pulls back his batting glove and does a double take. He looks at Roberto.
"Gotta go, or I'm gonna be late for practice. I'll be back, man," he says simply as he offers a hand to shake with his good friend.
Roberto snickers at the 'mature and handsome' not so much at what is said but in its delivery. He looks down and shakes his head in disbelief at it until the watch beeps. "Alright, man." He reaches out to return the handshake a smile on his face. The friendship won't ever be the same since Thailand but at least there's a sense that the friendship is healing. "Next festival, I'm gonna be giving you some competition in the homerun contest."
Shoma simply laughs as the two shake. "You're a /million/ years too early to say that to me, Roberto." Shoma turns and leaves, waving at the pair over his shoulder. "Later."
Hinata, too gives Shoma a quick wave as he goes before turning her attentions back toward Roberto, fixing him with her best cheerful smile, "So are you going to be getting out of here soon? This place is pretty boring. Like, so boring that if I had to stay here, I'd go crazy." The joke is in rather poor taste, although knowing Hinata, also not really a joke. "I'm sure that when you get back to school, your box is going to be flooded with notes from girls begging you to let them console you."
"I'll be there when school year starts. I'm hoping I'll be able to atleast get back in time for the tail end of the team try-outs," Roberto says in a matter of fact tone. "You think? After the SNF fight against Hotaru, I'd be surprised. And I wish they chose better music for me. I mean 'Hit Me With Your Best Shot?' What were they thinking?"
"Oh don't worry about that, maybe at first some people will be a bit worried, but all you gotta do is stay calm. And if anyone starts trying to start some trouble with you, I show up and beat them up, okay?" She lifts one arm up into a flex position, not that she shows much muscle when she does it.
"I'm more worried about what I'd do. Even without a soccer ball I know I can lay on some serious hurt." In his mind he's thinking, 'Heaven forbid that I do get ahold of a soccer ball.' He has good reason for this. He knows how much he can hurt somebody with a soccer ball.
"Of course, knowing that you have my back is reassuring." The smile on his face completely lighting up. Hinata's presence has definitely done him good and quite possibly has sped up recovery.
As far as Roberto is concerned Yurika didn't quite have it right. He doesn't need people who understand what he has been through. He needs quality people who'll be there for him even if they don't understand what he's going through. Hinata fits in that catagory, Natsu, does as well, and Shoma although he quite possibly is the closest to understanding his situation.
If ever there were a time that Hinata couldn't cheer up her friends, at least over an extended period, there would be cause for concern. Bubbling with energy and always at her friends' sides, even though she doesn't always know what they're going through. Yep, if you're feeling down, you just need a presciption for Hinata!
"Well then, if it makes you feel better, the moment you start getting out of control, I'll stop you personally. Probably just need a bucket of water to the face to snap you out of it." She lets out a little contageous laugh.
"If I'm gonna be stopped, I'm glad it'll be by a friend." Roberto says with a smile that just gets bigger and bigger until suddenly one of the nurses approach the two. The nurse says in a low volume, "I'm sorry, Miss Wakaba. I'm afraid visiting hours are over."
Roberto shrugs at the nurse then looks over to Hinata. "Well I guess that's it. Stop by again. I can use more visitors that make an effort to cheer me up as opposed to insulting my intelligence or calling me weak."
There's a bit of a disappointed look on Hinata's face as she's told she has to leave, but with Roberto seeming to be glad that she came, she doesn't want to throw such a big fuss that they won't let her back in. "Oh well, I'm glad you're not nearly as crazy as people made you out to be. Just don't push yourself too hard when you get back to school and I'm sure you'll be fine."
She slides her backpack back onto her... back and then starts to head out, pauses as she reaches the door to give Roberto a quick 'V' with her fingers, "Go Taiyo!"
Log created on 16:25:36 08/09/2007 by Roberto, and last modified on 17:37:06 08/13/2007.