04 - Like a wrecking ball

(Hiraya’s  POV)

"Ow! Geez, what the heck—!? Get off me!" I screech as I find myself on the ground, toppled over by a deeply ambitious, and possibly slightly unhinged man who probably imagines himself as a bird. He just suddenly dropped from the sky, not exactly out of thin air, but I hadn't seen him coming, and he smashed into me like a wrecking ball.

"Sorry, sorry! Ouch, damn it, stop struggling, I can't get off, I'm all tied up—ow!" he cries when I somehow manage to smack him on the nose.

"I said, 'get off!'" I shout, starting to freak out because someone is on top of me and we are now entangled together and trapped under something that is triggering my anxiety about closed up spaces and being unable to escape.

"Please, could you just stop moving for a bit while I figure out how to untangle myself—"

"So you can take advantage of me!? Not bloody likely! Get off! Help!" I cry. Although, who can hear my screams in this godforsaken place, I have no idea.

"Miss, I understand you're scared, but please know that nobody is trying to take advantage of you. This was just an accident, and believe me, I'm as eager as you are to be free. I'm asking you to please stop flailing your arms and trying to break my nose. I have an important meeting tomorrow, and it would be so inconvenient to have to explain why I have a black eye and a crooked nose. Please, I mean you no harm."

I stop moving. The cultured voice and the scent of his expensive perfume is finally sinking in. Perhaps I am being a little bit dramatic.

“Okay,” I answer in a small voice.

“Good girl. Thank you,” he sighs in relief, and I can feel him trying to make sense of the ropes and whatever it is that is draped around us. “I apologise, I wasn’t supposed to land here...but a rogue wind threw me off course, away from my drop zone.”

“What were you doing, falling from the sky like that?” I ask, wincing as I feel something painful on my shoulder now that I am no longer hysterical about the whole thing. Damn, the impact could have knocked her out! She gasps as she realises her joke of a wish about a month-long coma almost came true! Thank goodness she’d taken it back! Oh, but if it’s a dislocated shoulder, she’d be resting for real. Sh*t, she probably should have made a direct wish about money dropping from the sky instead. Maybe some of the words get filtered on the way to the stars!

“Skydiving.” The man grumbles.

“At night!?” She asks, incredulous.

“Yeah.”

“Why!? Do you want to die?”

He sighs again, annoyed this time, as if he’d already heard it too many times before. “It’s perfectly safe—”

“Perfectly? Oh, my aching behind humbly begs to differ.”

He chuckles. “Touché. But it’s nothing serious and as you can see, I’m not dead.”

“Not yet.” I mutter. “You must have suicidal tendencies.”

We lay tangled together on the ground, limbs, and fabric awkwardly twisted around us. Over us, part of the parachute flutters in the night breeze, its shroud lines tangled around our bodies as well. We were both conscious, if a little dazed, struggling to make sense of how to free ourselves from the tangled mess.

I groan and try to sit up, but the weight of the parachute and the man’s body pressing down on me is making it impossible for me to move. As pain flares from my left shoulder I grimace, realising it is really dislocated. Cursing, I look over at the man, who is panting beside me, groaning in pain too as he tries to move a little more to get his weight off of me.

"Are you okay?" he asks me instead, his voice hoarse. 

I whimper in response as the pain intensifies, clutching at my shoulder. "My shoulder hurts really bad," I answer, gritting my teeth against the pain.

I hear the man curse under his breath. “I think I also broke my radio during the fall. I’m so sorry. I’ll make it right, I promise. My secretary should be here soon.”

My eyes begin to well up with fresh tears. It feels like a curse has been placed on me, as it seems so far-fetched that one person should bear so much misfortune alone.

“I won't be able to… go to the hospital,” I reluctantly admit. “My… my car broke down.” I feel ashamed to reveal the true reason - that I can't afford to go to the hospital because I have fallen behind on my health insurance payments.

“Don’t be ridiculous, I will take care of everything. It was my fault anyway, Miss… Um, I forgot to introduce myself. My name is Kaan.”

“I’m Hiraya. You can just call me Raya.”

“You have a lovely name.” He offers as he starts to wiggle his body in different ways, trying to shift the weight of the parachute off of us. I whimper in pain again as the fabric rubs forcefully against my injured shoulder, but after a few more tries, we are finally able to free ourselves from the tangled mess. The darkness makes it hard to see what he looks like but he appears to be a big man with dark features.

He tries to stand up but fails and falls back down on the floor with a groan, gripping his right foot.

"What's the matter?" I ask, worriedly.

"I...uh...probably twisted something," he admits sheepishly. "D@mn it, why isn't Elijah here yet?"

"Here, let me help you...Ouch!" I cry out as pain spreads from my shoulder to my back. "Darn it, we're a sad lot, you and I." I slump back onto the ground in resignation. "Oh, and I thought things were finally looking up for me, what with a falling star coming my way… I haven’t seen falling stars in ages. Of course it would turn out to be a falling man with a parachute instead."

Kaan grins in amusement. "Was that what you were doing before I crashed into you? Thinking I was a falling star and making a wish?"

I blush. "In my defence, I wasn't wearing my glasses, and you were twinkling! How was I supposed to know Batman was coming in like a wrecking ball instead?"

He snorts, his smile widening into a grin, which soon turns into a chuckle. Before long, his infectious laughter spreads around us, and I can't help but join in, laughing along with him.

"What were you wishing for?" he asks when we finally calm down enough to talk again.

I sigh and look away. "Nothing, it's not important," I mumble.

"It didn't look unimportant. The ones who turn to faith and things like falling stars are usually those who have given up on being able to make their own wishes come true."

I snort. "Easy for you to say something like that. You look like you can afford to grant anyone's wishes."

"First, I was a falling star, and now you're saying I'm like a genie in a lamp too? Let me guess, you're a Disney kid at heart," he says teasingly.

"No, I mean... look at you! You look... and you... smell... expensive. You even talk like it's an ordinary, everyday thing for anyone to skydive at night. Of course, you'll have no problems doing what you want. Not everyone is as lucky to have so many doors open before they even decide where they want to go... that they only have to choose from the variety of opportunities laid at their feet," I say bitterly. "And the thing is... you don't even seem to appreciate it."

“Of course I do,” Kaan stares at me with narrowed eyes. “And it’s quite judgmental of you to say that, considering we barely know each other. You got that from what? Because of my perfume? That hardly seems fair.”

“I’m sorry. It wasn’t my place, of course, but…it's just…I find it frustrating… that you’re so willing to…” I start to tell him, and he seems to be waiting for me to clarify. But before I can finish talking, we hear a vehicle arriving, and soon enough, Kaan’s team arrives.