buttercup - hippo campus

    Sana comes home battered and bruised, almost every night. Last night it was a black eye. The night before, a split lip. Tonight it’s a gash across her left cheek and Mina can’t help but be worried sick.
“How did you get that?” she frowns, as always.
And, as always, Sana grins, as if there isn’t dried blood all over her face, as if it doesn’t hurt, “you know how I am, I’m just too clumsy.”
Mina’s frown deepens as she inspects Sana’s injuries, holding her face gently in her hands, “please, Sana.”
Sana winces as Mina’s fingers graze the fresh wound, “you know I can’t tell you,” she sighs.
Mina looks at her, worry embedded in her eyes. She sighs again and opens the first aid kit. The iodine bottle is almost empty, even thought she had only replaced it two weeks ago.
“Come here,” she says, almost orders.
Sana obeys, hissing as Mina swipes the iodine soaked cotton on the gash.
“You wouldn’t be hurting if you didn't go out looking for trouble,” Mina huffs.
Sana sports another grin through the pain, “I don’t mind the pain, not when I’ve got you to patch me up.”
Mina rolls her eyes and presses harder on Sana’s face.
“Ow ow ow! Stop!” Sana whines, “okay okay, I’m sorry!”
Mina manages a smile for the first time in the night.

    They were always an unlikely pair. Together since they were six, they were complete opposites, and yet never seemed anything less than perfect for each other. Sana was always all over the place, climbing up trees, disappearing into the garden for hours at a time, returning with mud all over her clothes and dirt on her face, her arms and legs, under her fingernails. Mina, on the other hand, much preferred watching Sana’s antics quietly, voicing out her worries occasionally.
“Satang, you’ll fall,” Mina said, looking up at Sana who was swinging from a tree branch.
Sana laughed, “don’t worry so much, Mitan, I’m not gonna fall!’
“You always say that! And you always fall!” Mina huffed, crossing her arms.
“I won’t fall this time! I promise!”
Of course, Sana fell, because a fly flew up her nose and it made her sneeze. As she sat under the tree, sniffing, with a snotty nose and grazed knees, Mina sat beside her.
“You can laugh if you want,” she snivelled.
Mina only smiled, “it’s okay, Satan, you won’t fall next time,” she said as she wiped away the blood and dirt from Sana’s knees with her handkerchief.
Sana pulled Mina into a tight hug and kissed her on the cheek, as Mina squirmed and complained that Sana was getting her dress dirty.
The next day was presentation day. When it was her turn, Sana stood in front of the class, with a red blanket tied around her neck like a cape and penguin patterned bandaids decorating her knees, telling everyone about how she wanted to become a superhero.
“Because I can fight all the bad guys and no one will be sad!”
Mina looked on proudly as she spoke eagerly, quicker than could manage, with a smile that never faded. When it was Mina’s turn, she was nervous. But with Sana grinning from her seat, holding her thumbs up in encouragement and she felt a little more relaxed.
“When I grow up, I want to become a doctor,” she began.
Sana had stopped waving her arms around, and was simply sitting still in her seat, watching and listening intently. Mina shifted on her feet, clearing and continuing with her presentation. It went by quickly, and Mina almost forgot her closing statement.
“I want to become a doctor so I can take care of Satang when she gets hurt,” she said shyly.
Her classmates clapped politely as she bowed her head and ran back to her seat. Upon lifting her head, she was met with Sana beaming at her, teeth and all. A sticky hand slid into her own.
“You’ll be the best doctor, Mitan,” Sana whispered as the next student started their speech.
Mina squeezed Sana’s hand, “and you’ll be the best superhero.”

    Mina makes her dreams come true, slowly but surely. She doesn’t get into medical school straight away but she works hard, as she always does, and makes it into the university of her dreams for postgrad studies. Unfortunately this means she’ll have to move away, away from home, her family, away from Sana.
But Sana isn’t too fussed when she breaks the news, “it’s okay, I’ll go with you!”
And that’s how they end up in a completely foreign country, a high school drop out and a med student. They struggle to make ends meet, for a while. Then one day, Sana comes home, hoodie torn and body more bruised than Mina had ever seen.
“No instant noodles tonight, let’s have a real meal,” Sana laughs weakly, before falling into Mina’s arms and passing out.
Mina doesn’t know what to do, so she lugs Sana into bed and watches over her, scared that maybe something bad will happen if she let’s Sana out of her sight. When she wakes up, Sana is gone and there’s a wonderful smell from the kitchen. Sana sits at the table, holding a bag of frozen corn to her head. There’s a poorly dressed wound on her cheek, but she still smiles widely when she sees Mina frowning from the doorway.
“I bought breakfast from that pancake place we’ve always wanted to try.”
The food smells and tastes great, but Mina can’t find it in herself to enjoy it. After breakfast, she hauls Sana into the bathroom, peeling off the flimsy bandaid Sana had applied herself, and begins cleaning the wound.
“What happened?” she asks.
Sana shrugs and smiles, “y’know, occupational hazards.”
Mina frowns, but doesn’t press any further, because she knows Sana won’t tell her the truth.

    And so Sana starts coming home late, starts coming home bloodied and bruised. Coincidentally, the rent starts being paid on time, their fridge starts being filled with fresh food, not just leftover takeout, and they manage to replace their plastic chair sofa with a real one. It’s nice, but Mina starts getting suspicious. While they’re curled up on the sofa, on one of the rare nights Sana hasn’t gone out to get beaten up, Mina asks.
“Sana are you…in a gang?”
Sana looks at her, surprised, “what?”
“Are you in a gang? Is that why you’re always getting hurt?” Mina frowns at the thought.
Sana looks at her for a while, and then bursts into laughter, “I’m not in a gang, Mitan, you don’t have to worry about that!”
“Then where is all this money coming from?”
“I’m working hard for it,” Sana answers, somewhat wistfully, “don’t worry about it.”
Mina huffs and leans into Sana, “I’m always worrying about you, idiot.”
Sana wraps an arm around her and kisses the crown of her head, “I know you are,” she sighs, “I’m sorry.”

    One night Sana comes back worse than ever before. With both eyes bruised a broken arm and broken ribs and toes, bleeding out from innumerable tiny cuts and one jagged cut at the edge of her hairline, Mina wonders how she even made it back.
“Oh my god, Sana!” Mina panics and rushes to hold Sana up and help her inside.
“I’m a little beat up,” Sana smiles weakly.
Mina only has the strength to bring Sana to the sofa. Her breathing is laboured and she can barely keep her eyes open. The first thing Mina does is take Sana’s bloodied jacket off. Sana groans as Mina rolls her over to take it off, and it makes Mina’s heart ache. She bustles around the house, grabbing the first aid kit as she goes, filling up a basin with warm water, finding a clean towel, anything to patch Sana back up again. She wipes away the blood on Sana’s face, then disinfects the cut on her forehead. Sana barely flinches. She simply doesn’t have the energy to do so. Sana coughs as Mina rinses the towel. It sounds phlegmy and Mina worries even more.
Sana gives a wheezy laugh, “I’ll live, don’t worry so much, Mitan.”
“I will always worry about you Sana,” Mina says, voice cracking as she holds back her tears, “how can I not when you come back to me in pieces every night?”
Sana laughs, then spirals into a fit of coughs. Her coughing gets worse and worse and before long, blood flecks her lips and dribbles out of the corner of .
Mina’s eyes widen. She lifts Sana’s shirt up and sees huge, ugly bruises on the swollen skin over her ribs. Sana’s breathing gets shallower and shallower and she coughs even more blood and Mina finds herself carrying Sana to her car, ignoring the blood Sana coughs up onto the shoulder of her shirt, and driving them to the hospital she works at.

    It seems that even a broken arm, broken toes, broken ribs and a punctured lung can’t bring Sana down. As Mina is about to go for her break, a nurse peaks into her office, looking apologetic.
“Sorry to disturb, Dr. Myoui, but there’s a patient, in room 2912 who refuses to see anyone other than you.”
Mina smiles, “it’s fine. I’ll see them.”
When she reaches room 2912 she sees Sana lying in her bed, watching the door expectantly, lighting up when she sees Mina.
“What took you so long, doctor?” she teases, voice hoarse and tired.
Mina takes a seat next to Sana’s bed and fixes her hair, “how’d this happen Sana?” she sighs.
“Well, as usual, I tripped—” Sana starts, with that same cheeky smile she always has, but Mina’s not having it this time.
“Tripping doesn’t puncture your lungs and break your arm and ribs and give you two black eyes, Sana,” Mina snaps, the softens, “please tell me the truth, I can’t see you like this anymore.”
Sana looks guilty, “okay,” she relents.
She tells Mina everything. She tells Mina about how one day she saw a poster for a fight club, tells her how the prize money was more than enough to cover a months rent, how she just wanted to help Mina out with money, how she was tired of seeing Mina eat nothing but instant noodles. She tells Mina about the thrill of the fight, how it put her heart at ease seeing Mina live a more comfortable life, how every hit she took hurt like hell but seeing having Mina to wait for her every night made it all worth. Mina bursts into tears.
“You idiot!” she sobs.
Sana gives her a pained smile, “I know, I’m sorry.”
Mina looks at her with a mixture of anger and betrayal and—love? Sana’s not quite sure what it is, because her chest hurts and her arm hurts and her eyes are swollen and everything hurts. Everything hurts, but it hurts less when Mina leans over her and kisses her gently, still crying, still angry.
“Idiot,” she whispers against Sana’s dry lips.
Sana only nods and searches blindly for Mina’s hand to hold. It’s shaky and trembling but it’s warm and comforting all the same.

    “Do you remember?” Sana asks, “my dream?”
Mina looks at her softly, “of course I do. You wanted to be a superhero so you could fight all the bad guys and no one would be sad.”
Sana smiles sadly, “I’m sorry I couldn’t become the best superhero. Or a become a superhero at all, for that matter. All I do is make you worried and sad.”
Mina reaches for Sana’s pallid hand, careful not to disturb the peripheral line that has been placed on it, “it’s okay, you’re always my superhero, Sana. All you have to do is come back home to me.”
Sana laughs weakly, “you never call me Satang anymore.”
“Satang,” Mina says, barely above a whisper, holding Sana’s cold hand against her warm cheek and feeling it cup her face.
“You must hate me, right Mitan?” Sana smiles that same sad smile again and Mina feels her heart break.
She presses a kiss to Sana’s bruised knuckles, “I could never.”
“I’ll come home to you,” Sana whispers, falling into the gentle grasp of sleep, “soon.”
Mina nods, watching as Sana’s eyes flutter shut.
“I’ll wait for you,” she says softly, squeezing Sana’s and gently.
Mina almost misses it in the dim light of the room, but there’s a small smile on Sana’s face as Sana squeezes her hand back. Mina laces their fingers together, rests her head on an empty space by Sana’s bed, and watches as Sana’s chest rises and falls unsteadily.
“Come back soon,” she whispers.

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tbh i love this song its a jam
not sure what this is but whATEVER
its a mess but what isnt in this day and age amirite