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It wasn't everyday he woke up from a coma. It also wasn't everyday that his friend slipped into a coma while he himself had been in a coma.

Somehow, Howl had managed to convince his mother to allow him a visit to the hospital. Of course, she insisted upon going as well, but at least she promised she would stay in the car. Mother truly was making an effort in being protective, but at the same time trying to respect his personal space. It was truly endearing.

As Howl made his way to his friend's room, he rather easily noticed he was getting plenty of stares. True enough, he was beautiful enough to get such attention, but he suspected it wasn't his beauty causing the looks. He could have blamed it on his unusual hair color too, but again, it was probably not the culprit. No, he suspected it was his choice in potted plants to bring to the hospital.

Most people brought bouquets of flowers.

Howl, instead, had brought a small stubby cactus plant. Not very many people would bring such an unconventional plant.

However, if there was one thing that Howl had learned in his time with Franz, it was that Franz was far from conventional.

Upon arriving at the room, Howl politely knocked on the door to signal that someone was entering. He didn't want to accidentally hit someone in the nose with a door suddenly swinging in their face. However, due to the environment, he did not exactly wait for someone to tell him to come in. Instead, he carefully opened the door (to ensure the scenario in his mind did not happen) and slid right in. The first thing he noticed was his roommate from Hillworth. One of the few friends he had made at his school, and now he was in a sleep that nobody could predict if he'd wake up from or not.

As he drew closer, he managed to somehow locate a nearby table to set the cactus pot on. It was at this location that he finally noticed something else.

Someone else was already visiting Franz.

In a tone that was polite and absolutely calm, he gave a small apology for the intrusion. "Oh, I beg your pardon. I hope I am not being a bother." The face of the other visitor was quite familiar, since it was his roommate's main infatuation.

"I see your point," he uttered gently with a slight polite smile. "However, Miss Fitzpatrick, I would not want to interrupt any sort of conversation you might have been having with Franz." It did feel strange to call the other visiting Franz a "Miss," but this was the proper title, despite the deceiving appearance.

The mention of the potted plant he decided to bring with him received a faint acknowledgment in the form of a momentary glance to the prickly plant. It was selected partially due to his roommate's strange tastes, but it was also a practical decision. Cacti did not require much water to flourish. His teal eyes didn't linger long upon the plant, seeming to easily return to Janice's own muddy ones.

"It is a pity that he only now received it due to such unusual circumstances." The lad sighed slightly, revealing his own levels of worry about the whole situation. "To be quite frank, Miss Fitzpatrick, I suspect this is perhaps the worst thing I could have woken up to after being in a coma myself. Do you know how long he has been like this? I have found that the Hillworth personnel are not exactly the most willing to release such simple information." At least despite his own anxieties, the teal-haired fellow was able to maintain some sort of dignity which most probably would be jealous of under normal circumstances, let alone during such a trying moment in a young man's life.

His smile seemed to falter slightly in an apologetic manner. "Alas, I must apologize, but I was raised to be so formal. So I humbly request you forgive me, but I will call you Miss Janice. I am certain Franz has warned you about how formal I am with nearly everyone." He glanced away towards a window for a moment, as if remembering something outside.

"Mother would throw a fit if she heard me saying anything less formal. She is just outside in the car. I had been hoping to eventually introduce her to my friend, but an introduction to a young man who is unconscious is probably not much of an introduction in the first place." With a sigh, he returned his gaze back to the boy in the bed. When the young lady explained how everything had gone down, he continued to gaze upon his unconscious friend's face.

None of this felt real, even though Howl was certain it was truly reality. "It has been a couple weeks." He repeated it, as if processing the information. Did Franz really keep the dorm room in such a pristine condition? If their room was such a wreck from Franz's lack of attention, what did that mean for the school? Howl knew how busy his roommate kept by doing various tasks about the school.

Four words managed to slip from his mouth. "This is not acceptable."

The wheels still continued to turn in the teal-haired lad's mind. Many times, Howl could not help but accuse his friend of being egocentric. For Franz, the world seemed to revolve around him. And now with that little sampling that Franz's roommate had of life without Franz, perhaps the egocentric view was more valid than once assumed.

What more can we do?

It was a question now echoing through his mind and around his ears (thanks to Janice's input). Succumbing to bad habit, his pointer finger and thumb began to gently rub over the edges of the teal jewels that dangled from his right ear. At least he wasn't a nail biter.

The world without Franz really would be a rather foreign concept to Howl. Franz assisted in maintaining much of the school campus. Franz had rather quaint, charming extracurricular activities, such as cheerleading and band. Such an active member of the student body would be sorely missed during the upcoming school year.

Unless...

His fingers halted around his earring. In a calm voice, he then spoke, as if his thoughts were just the pieces of a puzzle being put together on the spot.

"I propose we do not let the world forget all the things which Franz stood for. Indeed, there are things which will be rather difficult to recreate, yet some things will need tending to. I suspect he will be quite disappointed if we did not tend to his activities in his absence." Perhaps he was being too optimistic, but he let Janice know his viewpoint on Franz's current state.

"When Franz wakes up, he would be devastated if everything he worked for had gone to Hell without him." His fingers drifted away from his earring finally, and his eyes searched for Miss Janice's muddy eyes.

"You shared many of the same, or similar political views as Franz did. I am correct in saying such, yes?"

Her eyes fell towards the ground, which was a simple way of letting him know that she was doubting something. Maybe she was doubting herself, or perhaps she was just doubting Franz ever waking up again? Whatever it was, it was not his place to pry. Howl would stick to the subject.

"You come across as an incredibly intelligent individual. So I will just be direct about my proposal. I think that you would be the perfect fit to continue writing for the Hillworth Sound. I might have been Franz's roommate, but I did not share the same passion he did in regards to issues of the school. Most of his views about the school were based off of his own political views... at least, that is how I saw it."

He drew both of his hands behind his back and laced his fingers together. The thin lad had rather excellent posture, most likely a result of his upbringing. As if adding to the proposal, he added after a slight pause "I can supply you with the current goings on at Hillworth, so you do not need to worry about lacking information about school life. The Sound just needs a more authentic 'Franz Spin' than I could ever pull off on my own."

Howl offered his perspective about the label about the literature his roommate wrote. "It was a newspaper that was circulated beyond the Hillworth campus, so it is not fair to truly call it a Hillworth newspaper." He noticed her stance, and especially noted the arm folding. It was a defensive stance, something someone did when they were not feeling 100% confident. His father had shared some secrets of reading a person when in an interview, and many of the little signals were still safely tucked away in his memory.

"I want someone who truly knew Franz. Someone who shared his same passions when it came to injustices." He could have phrased it as political stances, but it was not the way to refer to Franz's stances. His dear friend did what he did to try to benefit everyone, even if many did not agree with his positions.

Teal eyes continued to watch Janice, noting that the current angle her face was at was causing a slight glare over the lenses of her glasses. It was not exactly like she had the sort of eyes he would want to gaze into for hours on end. They were very plain and quite unappealing for Howl. "I could honestly write, but it would not be right. I would merely be reporting information. I would not give it the right emotion or passion, no matter how I wrote it."

He paused for a moment to brush a long lock of hair that had swayed into his line of vision before adding "I may hardly know you, but I trust that you would be the only one able to match Franz's passion in the written form."

His eyes trailed along behind her short trail toward Franz. He was no actor, but he was able to mask any of his shock at her vague sense of doubt. Instead, in a smooth voice, he merely asked "Do you really think Franz the sort to fib about something such as who his roommate was? Or do you take me for the one who tells fibs?"

Despite seeming like such rigid woman, Franz's girlfriend seemed to have a few gentle touches to her. The simple action of fixing his hair while he was sleeping seemed like a much more formal version of what a mother might do to a child with messy hair.

His head bobbed up and down in an effort to signal to the other in the room that her deduction was seemingly accurate. "When someone has so much energy, he or she will find any way to release it. Pacing is a common way to release extra energy. He had so much energy, so he used it to try to do his part for our school." There was a pause. "And then he still had energy to spare."

His right hand almost seemed to float up to his lip so that his pointer finger could rest upon his lip lightly. "Whether or not you decide to assist will be up to you. It would be a pity to see Franz's legacy snuffed out so easily. I will leave you with my contact information, should you decide to assist the Hillworth Sound. I will be doing my part to make sure nobody forgets my friend."

His eyes finally abandoned the female and began to wander the room in an effort to locate any sort of writing materials.