Haruka was watching her. "Hey, Tenshi," she said casually. "Why don't you just go in there and wait for her to wake up?"
"I can't. She's mad at me. We had a fight."
"Was that before or after she was at death's door?"
Tenshi gave her a look. "Before."
"Trust me, she's over it. Go in and wait for her. She'll be happy to see you when she opens her eyes."
"I-" Tenshi thought it over for a second. "I can't." She plopped down in the chair next to Ryo.
"Ne, Tenshi-chan?" He got her attention. "Do you know why Neko was so upset by what you said?" Ryo didn't exactly know what the exchange was, but he had a good idea what it was about both from Neko's most recent issues and from Tenshi's immediate feelings on the subject of the fight.
"Sort of. She really hates the nickname 'Koneko,' and I said something that worsened it."
"Oh, I wondered when that was going to come up." Ryo had been expecting that since he first heard Tenshi call her that.
"Me too," Haruka added. She had found out when Neko was very young that, ironically, she was one of the few girls that wouldn't let Haruka call her "Koneko-chan."
Tenshi looked at them incredulously. "Thanks for warning me," she said, only half-seriously.
"But that's not why she was that upset. You see, Neko rarely argues with anyone outside of her family. Neko hates to fight. So if someone says something that she disagrees with, she'll usually let it go because, to her, it isn't worth it to get into a dispute. That's just the way she is. Michiru, on the other hand, will fight you every single time if you say or do anything she disagrees with. But Neko will avoid a fight. However, she will argue with the people who she's close to. The fact that you two fought tells me that she cares deeply about what you think."
Tenshi looked away to hide any tears that might do more than just threaten to fall. "I'm glad," she confessed. "But I still can't go in there."
Just then Neko's door opened. Tenshi was instantly on her feet and next to Mi-chan who was exiting the room. "How is she? Is she awake? Is she okay? Did she say anything? Does she feel better?"
"Whoa! Give the poor girl on crutches room to breathe," Mi-chan protested as she closed the door. "Yeah, she's awake. And coherent. And more or less okay," she informed the group.
Tenshi pulled her aside. "What'd she say? And details please."
"About you? Or about her?"
"About her, of course." Tenshi blinked. "She said something about me?"
"Well�." Mi-chan regretted saying anything. "Not much. Ne, Tenshi-kun? When you say 'koneko' what do you mean by it?"
Tenshi looked away from Mi-chan, out the window. She tried to imagine a 'koneko', but there was only one for her. She smiled as she visualized it. "When I say 'Koneko,' I see a beautiful individual. This individual is beautiful not only in body, but also in mind and spirit. She is good at many different sports - soccer, pole vault, karate, ice skating. She's very graceful. She has a great voice. And she gets good grades in school.
"She loves ice cream, and never complains that it might be going to her hips, mostly because she doesn't have to. She is a little sensitive, but she's also sensitive to others' feelings. She's nice to almost everyone, even willing to give him or her a second chance if they've betrayed her trust.
"She has her issues, of course, but she's always trying to work them out, striving to become a better person. Even though she's occasionally shy, she still knows how to tease when she's become comfortable with a person. And although she knows that eventually she will be the ruler of her own planet, she still works hard at everything she does."
She paused and finished slowly, "What I see, Mi-chan, is a pair of beautiful deep violet eyes, and when I look into them, I know that my 'Koneko' is the only person I've ever loved, and probably the only one I ever will." She looked back at Mi-chan. "That's what I mean by 'koneko,' I guess. Did that answer your question?"
Mi-chan's eyes glistened. "You should go see Neko-chan now," she insisted.
"Demo-"
"She forgives you. She- she knows how you feel."
Tenshi's eyes widened, as she realized that Mi-chan had just relayed her entire interpretation of "koneko" to Neko. "I thought you said that took too much concentration."
"Yeah, well don't expect a repeat performance."
"Thank you, Mi-chan." She walked over to Neko's door and knocked on it. Hers and Neko's parents watched her with looks that clearly said that they knew she wouldn't be able to resist. "Give me a break," she mouthed to them.
