I was going to wait until I fully finished writing this fic before I posted anything. But I'm good at changing my mind. So this story is still in the works. But I'm excited about sharing it so I decided to post the first chapter to tease you all. The next one probaly won't be up until I have at least seven chapters done. I have five currently and happen to know exactly what I'm doing with it and my muse is happily spitting out inspiration.

This is actualy only half of what was original the first chapter. I decided to split it.

I need to give special thanks to my beta, Porticulis. Thankies, Porti-San! (Huggles) You are wonderful!

As he came into consciousness, he could hear the soft beeping of some kind of machine. Other than that, there was no noise. He lay there, eyes closed, trying to remember where he was. He had been walking home from school with Doumeki and Himawari-chan. Himawari-chan was laughing and telling them about a cafe she'd been to.

And then....

What?

.....And then he had heard the screech of tires and the sound of a car sliding across the pavement. Himawari-chan's scream. Not of pain- of terror. And Doumeki....

Doumeki had screamed too. Doumeki had screamed his name.

Then there was pain and darkness.

So then, he must either be in heaven or a hospital.

He opened his eyes and saw the white ceiling above him, and he could see part of a light fixture too. Turning his head to the left he saw some kind of machine. Numbers and lines and other strange things he couldn't understand were on it. It was the source of the beeping.

A hospital then. Turning his head to the right he caught the eyes of a nurse who had just entered the room. She seemed startled. Her mouth formed an 'o' of surprise.

"Oh my.... you're awake." She said, blinking. "Oh... wait one moment. I'll fetch the doctor."

"Such shock," he thought to himself. "I must have come pretty close this time. Himawari-chan will have been so worried, and Doumeki will be angry. He'll say I was an idiot for just standing there like that. It wasn't like I had enough time to move or anything. But..."

He snapped out of his reverie as the nurse re-entered, followed by a young man in a white coat. He had long black hair tied back in a ponytail, friendly dark eyes and glasses perched on the end of his nose.

He offered Watanuki a small smile before he began checking the readings on the machine. Watanuki tried to smile back but his face felt a little stiff. He worked his jaw back and forth to try and loosen it up a bit.

The doctor finished marking down some notes on his clipboard and turned back to face him.

"Is something wrong with your jaw?" The doctor asked.

Watanuki shook his head. "It's just a little stiff."

His voice sounded a bit strange. A little deeper than he remembered, but he brushed it off as being caused by a dry throat.

"That's to be expected." The doctor said. "I'm Dr. Kyle Rondart, by the way." He offered his hand which Watanuki shook.

There was a pause before Dr. Rondart spoke again. "Do you remember what happened?"

Watanuki nodded. "Yeah. I was walking home from school and there was an accident. I got hit by a car, right?"

"Yes," replied. "You were pretty badly injured and you slipped into a coma."

Watanuki felt a chill go through his body. "A coma?" He whispered. "For how long?"

"You've been in a coma for five years." admitted.

The sheer shock of the hard reality dumbfounded him. "Five years?"

"We weren't sure you would ever wake up."

Watanuki felt his throat constricting. Five years. He'd been in a coma for five full years.

His life had been passing by while he slept. Everyone he had known would have had kept on with their lives. Himawari-Chan would be an adult now! Doumeki too! Kohane-chan would be a teenager!

He allowed himself to slide back down onto the bed, feeling weary and frightened.

"It's a lot to register," Dr. Rondart comforted gently.

Watanuki just closed his eyes. He wanted to wake up now. He wanted to wake up for real to find that he'd only been out a week or so. He wanted to open his eyes and see Himawari-chan or Kohane-chan or Yuko-san or even Doumeki standing by his bed.

He felt his whole body begin to shake, but no tears were coming.

The last thing he heard was Dr. Rondart's voice murmuring distantly. "Let's give him something to sedate him for a little while."

And then he was asleep again.

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