As I hold her with one arm, the other being limp from having been sliced open…she jumps back. “You’re bleeding!” …..”Ill be ok” I reply, No We have to get that closed up!” She grabs my other arm and starts leading me away from the café. We walk for a little while and we arrive back at the inn. She leads me in the door, up the stairs and into a room, she sits me on the bed and starts frantically looking around the room… I can only guess for a bandage of some sort, I calmly watch her walk around and look for about 3 minutes, when I notice she’s not finding anything I take my long-sleeve shirt off and hold it out, she stops walking and smiles at me, she rips one of the sleeves off and starts bandaging my arm silently, after she gets the bleeding to stop and starts wrapping my arm she finally says, “…Thanks” I look at her and reply “for what?”, “for saving me”…..”Hmph I should be thanking you Amelia…, if you hadn’t distracted him long enough for me to get up, …..he would have….” She cuts me off by saying…”oh its no big deal, you would have done the same for me…..right?” it’s a surprising thought….but she’s right “ye-yes of course I would!” “she looks up and giggles at me, don’t be so embarrassed, its just a question….its not like I asked you to marry me “ “umm….” I can feel my face turning red so I make up an excuse, “I-I’ll be right back.

            I hurriedly walk to the bathroom and close the door behind me, when I look in the mirror I notice as I had expected….my face was red…I splash some cold water on in a few times…it helps and the redness subsides. As I walk out of the bathroom I notice Amelia is asleep on the bed… Clutching my shirt against her tightly…as if she was scared… I stare at her for a little while, and I walk over to the bed, I pick her up and pull the covers back, place her gently on the bed and cover her up, she’s still holding my shirt….I decide it’s best to let her…

            I look out the window and see that the rain has stopped and the sun is shining, I take a seat against the wall and put my arms on my knees, before long I fall into a deep sleep.

 

When I awake I notice Amelia is tediously working around the room I sit up and notice that I’m in the bed…”how long have I been asleep?”…She turns around and runs over to me “oh! Your awake! “ “ C’mon get dressed! We’ve got to go!” I look at her puzzled for a moment “huh….what are you talking about” she looks at me and smiles “we’re going to the hot springs, the ones around here are legendary for healing.” “well…I would but….there’ one problem with that…I don’t have a shirt…remember?; I cant exactly walk around town shirtless…” she walks to the other side of the room and starts rummaging through a big bag in the corner, she throws me a shirt..” hehe I went shopping while you were asleep, I bought u some shirts like the one you had” I get out of the bed and start putting the shirt on as I pop my head through the top I ask…”one more thing…how did you I get in the…” “hey I might be small but I’m stronger than I look, now hurry we need to get to the spring so we can speed the healing of your arm up” “fine” We walk a little ways until we arrive at the hot springs…as Amelia pays the clerk he asks “what type of spring?” “conjoined” I step back “hey wait a minute!” conjoined what do you mean conjoined? …She sighs and replies “you know…the one for guys and girls.” “bu-but, wait a minute you mean…” ….”duh so we can talk while we soak?” “bu-but” I stutter, th-that means….we’ll… she looks at me and then realizes what I mean, her face turns red. “n-no ichiro! We’re gonna have towels on.” She turns her back to me in embarrassment, I do the same….we turn and look at each other and immediately start laughing we walk through the gates and the gatekeeper hands me 2 towels, as I take them in my arm Amelia grabs my right arm looks up and smiles at me. I smile back.

 

After we have undressed and are now in the hot spring she starts to talk to me.

“Ichiro?…” I look at her, “yeah?” She looks down at the water and says “well….why are you all by yourself …I mean…where is the rest of your family…?” as she finishes my face goers solemn I look down at the water and once again see the image of him…”is everything ok ichiro?” I look up in surprised “oh …yeah sorry I was thinking about something.” “well…I don’t remember my family I was….separated from them in an accident that cost me my memory, I cant remember anything but my first name..” and his face smiling at me , I thought this to myself because I didn’t want Amelia to know anymore then she had to, people who knew too much about me seemed to disappear…

 

“she watches me for a moment and when I finish talking she looks down at the water, the only thing I can figure is that she’s remembering something. While lost in her thoughts I catch my self looking at her, beautiful blue eyes, long blond hair pulled up into a bun, little strands sticking out, a small cute face, so innocent, halfway through a thought she looks at me and says “What’s wrong Ichiro?, your face is really red.” The thought shocks me, I must have started blushing when I started looking at her, “I…its just the water, its really hot!” I sink all the way down so that only my eyes are above the water, she giggles at me, “what’s so funny?” I ask, “oh nothing you just look kind of silly, is all” she smiles at me and sinks into the water so that the only thing visible is her head, “although it does feel good” she smiles at me. “Ichiro I’ve been wondering, where do you plan to go?”

I look at her puzzled at first, I pop my head above the water and reply “Well…I’m kind of a drifter so…wherever my travels take me, I don’t really think about it.”

She looks at me and says, “Well I’m searching for someone, and I thought maybe you could help me find him.” I look at her, completely confused “huh?”

“I’ve decided, I’m going with you Ichiro”