Chapter 2

"So, tell me about your first day." beamed his mother as soon as he got in the car. Shinji placed his bag on the floor in front of him and pulled on his seatbelt before he even opened his mouth to answer her question.

"It was fine," he replied simply.

"Did you find all of your classes okay?" she pressed. Shinji sighed.

"Yes mom," he said to her. He looked over at her only to be greeted with a look of concern.

"Are you feeling okay sweetie?" she asked.

"Yes, I guess I'm just a little tired." He said to her.

"I got a call from Kazumi today," She said. This really peaked Shinji interests, Kazumi, or Mama Zu as he liked to call her was the mother of one of Shinji's oldest, most trusted friends. Shinji met Kazumi's son Gin in the children's ward of a cancer treatment center when he was 7 years old and from that day on the two were almost inseparable.

"Is he okay?" Shinji asked urgently. His mother laughed softly.

"His surgery went fin, he woke up about an hour ago and was asking for you." She said. Shinji nodded and looked out the window.

"Well, what are we waiting for?" Shinji asked finally.

"I guess we're eating out for dinner then." She replied.

"Hospital café food never sounded so good." He replied with a smile.

The ride was a total of three hours, but for someone like Shinji who never found sitting still for very long comfortable it felt like an eternity. When they finally got to the hospital they went right up to Gin's room and knocked on the door.

"Come in," came the soft sound of his mother's voice. Shinji opened the door and walked into the room. Gin was sitting upright on the bed completely awake from what Shinji could see. There were thick bandages covering the majority of his head, but it looked like they had been moved so that he could pull his bangs from under the bandages and hang them over his eyes like he preferred them to be.

"How you feeling G?" Shinji asked as he stepped over to the right side of Gin's bed.

"Fine and surprisingly aware for someone who just got the majority of his vision taken away," Gin replied

"I'm over here," Shinji said tapping his shoulder. Gin turned his head to Shinji and smiled again.

"Sorry, I can't really see anything with these bandages on and they're also covering my ears so I can't hear that well either." He apologized.

"No need for that," Shinji replied. "I understand completely. So what's up with your eyes? What did the doctor say?"

"I am glad to say that I'm free of cancer," Gin stated. "At the moment, of course, but this endeavor has left me perpetually sightless, it might not be completely shot, but I won't know anything until I permanently get these bandages off in three week." Shinji nodded, Gin made it all sound so simple, like a cure for cancer was just going to fall from the sky any minute and land right in his lap. Him being diagnosed with a rare type of eyes cancer was probably the reason for his optimism. He knew from day one that there was a big chance his would lose not only both of his eyes, but his life. So far he only had to give up a little bit of his sight.

"I heard you're back in school now," gin said possibly trying to steer the conversation away from death and caner.

"Yeah, it's pretty cool." Shinji replied. Gin smiled then turned his head in some odd direction and shouted.

"Hey, mom!"

"I'm right here," she said to him. He turned and looked at her.

"Oh, well, if it's alright, can I go back to school too, you know if the doc says it's okay?" he asked sounding more like a child than I've ever heard him sound. His mother sighed, whatever trick he was trying to use on her worked and now she had to give in to whatever he wanted.

"Only if the doctor says it's okay," Mama Zu said.

The nurse walked into the room and announced that visiting hours were over and anyone who was directly related to the patient would have to leave the hospital at once.

"Are you ready to change your bandages?" she asked sweetly.

"Nurse Lan fan, I've been waiting for you all day." Gin replied finally sounding like the pervert that Shinji knew and loved. Shinji laughed before he and his mother stepped out of the door and went down the hallways to the elevator.

"So, you never gave me details about your first day." his mother said as she fished around in the bag for stray French fries.

"They laughed at me," Shinji replied simply.

"They didn't," she said almost in disbelief.

"I heard on guy call me a walking toothbrush and another said that my dentist really did a number on my teeth and that we should get back whatever money we gave to him." Shinji replied with a laugh when he remembered the face of the guy who had talked about his teeth.

'He had a reason to be jealous; his mouth looked like someone had beaten him in the mouth with a sack full of rocks.' Shinji thought to himself.

"Well, there's always tomorrow." His mother said.

"You're, right. When you start at the bottom of the totem pole the only place you can go is up." He replied. She nodded affirmatively.