Thank you for the wonderful reviews so far! I love reading each and every one of them and really am thankful for all the great suggestions you bring. 3
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Feeling absolutely terrible, Natsume opened his eyes. The room around him was very blurry, but he could see that the light had an orange tint to it. Reaching his non-injured hand down to his stomach, he noted what seemed to bandages and tubes sticking out of him. What he could feel of his skin, it was completely numb to the touch. Brushing one tube in particular, he felt a stinging bolt of pain shoot straight through him, and he quickly removed his hand. He noted he was lying flat on his back, and whatever he was laying on was not comfortable. Not in the least.
Turning his head to the side, he could see heavy furniture of different width and heights, probably a good 8 feet away from where he was. He noticed they ranged in different colors, some silver, some black, some brown. Looking at one in particular, he could have sworn it looked like a refrigerator.
Feeling the surface underneath him, its surface was slightly course, and had small indents and crevices, like polished wood. This made him frown, "Where the hell am I?"
He heard noises behind him, but couldn't see who or what it was. He saw what looked to be a nurse walk around to him. Seeming to observe his condition, she checked his pulse, temperature, and breathing. She didn't ask a single question or say anything to him. Natsume not saying anything as well, not really wanting to know what/where he might be. If he had been captured by his father, or even by Kanzaki's family, it was the last thing he would want to know.
Once the nurse finished taking notes on what looked to Natsume as a clipboard, she addressed him. "Do you feel any pain anywhere?"
Natsume blinked at her for a second, "A little…my right arm feels like its pulsing and I can't seem to move it…also I feel a bit nauseous." Nastume Indicated to the tube that he had brushed earlier.
The nurse nodded in response, "I see. All your other symptoms seemed to have cleared then."
"Other symptoms?" Natsume naturally curious.
"Hypothermia mainly, please do not worry yourself now. You should just rest a bit." The nurse walked out of Natsume's eyesight. There was a few clinking of tools, and then the nurse was back. She started wiping a small dab of alcohol on his arm. Once finished, she picked up a needle, and found a vein quickly.
"Wait…what are you doing?" Natsume always hated how doctors and nurses never explained what they were actually doing to you.
"Oh, this will put you asleep for a while. The doctor wishes to do a few more tests before we move you." The nurse finished the injection, and pulled out the needle, cleaned the spot once more, and walked away.
Natsume finding himself waking up again, definitely knew he had been moved. He could now tell he was in a very comfy bed that was slightly reclined upwards. This definitely felt more like a hospital bed now. Looking around though, the room was definitely not that of a hospital. His eye sight was much better than what it had been. There was a couch and a TV to his right, a window to his left, with very thick blue drapes covering them, only letting in a tiny sliver of light. The walls were painted a tan color, and he could guess the two doors that were in view probably led to a bathroom, kitchen and/or a closet. This was definitely not a hospital room.
Looking down at himself and his immediate surroundings, he noted the bed was definitely what one would call a 'hospital' bed. With many buttons you could press to adjust the height of the bed, and the sterile white blankets. There were also many tubes and hanging medical bags around him, all seemingly going to or from his stomach area. His stomach area itself looked like an absolute mess of tubes and bandages, much like it had felt earlier. He did not feel any pain there though, just very strange pressures here and there. He assumed that area was probably heavily numbed, and that he was probably on some very killer pain medication.
He saw his arm that he had injured was splinted and bandaged as well. There were only two, what looked like I.V. bags coming out of his arm, so maybe that meant he hadn't hurt himself as badly as he though. "I really should learn more about this stuff…" Natsume looked back down at his stomach area. He knew this would take months for him to heal, if he ever made a full recovery.
A painful look crossed his face. "Who did this? Why am I here? Are my parents alright?" Natsume could not fathom why something like this was happening. If this was the Niigata or the Kanzaki family, he would surely be dead by now…
"Oi, never seen you with that look before," said a voice from the couch.
Natsume jumped slightly, immediately turning his attention in that direction, he saw someone peaking above the backboard of the couch. The voice he knew, but the person looking at him was... "Hime-chan?"
Himekawa yawned and stretched out. Getting up off the couch, Natsume saw he was in his sleepwear, PJ's with gohan-kun all over them. Brushing the tangled hair out of his face, Natsume could clearly see it was, in fact, Himekawa. Natsume had only seen Himekawa with his hair down twice before, and even then he could not believe it was the same person. He really adorned the name 'Hime' when he was like this. Natsume couldn't help but smile.
"What the hell you looking at?" Himekawa glared at Natsume.
"Nothing, it's not very often I get t—." Natsume started to cough uncontrollably. He could feel the tubes in his stomach start to rattle as well, and that led to bolts of pain starting to rupture all throughout his side.
Himekawa seemed to disappear very suddenly, but quickly reappeared with a glass of water in-hand. Himekawa quickly grabbing a hold of Natsume's uninjured arm, and pinned it to his chest. Natsume realized once Himekawa did that, that he had been unknowingly grabbing a hold of the most painful tube, and was pinching it, as the fluids were not going into his body.
Natsume was soon able to force the coughing to subside, and gain some control of the pain. He hissed, trying not to let the pain get to him. Himekawa let go of his arm, and held out the water to him. Natsume taking a few regular breaths, took the glass, and drank a few sips, getting his mouth wet.
"tsk, you're such a pain." Himekawa turned around and leaned on the bed. "Feeling better?"
Natsume took a few more sips before trying to talk again. He definitely was not feeling very well now, realizing that he was still really badly off. "Ah, sorry for the trouble."
Neither of them spoke for a while. Natsume wanted to ask so many questions. He wanted to know how Himekawa had found him. Why he was in this room, and where exactly the room was. He assumed this was probably one of Himekawa's many estates. Why had Himekawa helped him to this extent? Had he told anyone else about where he was and his current state? And how much did he know about who he was? But most importantly…
"How are my parents?" Natsume finally whispered, not trusting his own voice.
"Oi oi, for the state you're in, that's the first thing you ask?" Himekawa looked over and made a half motion to slap Natsume, but stopped.
"Hime-chan...?" Natsume asked a little louder.
"They are fine," Himekawa finally relented and turned his head away, taking his smart-phone out of his pajama shirt pocket. "They have been relocated under a new name and identity…You know, this sort of thing isn't easy to do. I assume you don't want me to tell you where they are though."
Natsume smiled, "I see," looking at nothing in particular; he reflected a little. "No, its best I don't know. They are safe now?"
"As safe as they ever will be. That Niigata Organization really had some juicy files on them. Apparently they are indebted with some huge financial scheme." Himekawa scrolled through his phone, "Seems they paid most of it off, so that stupid family shouldn't be looking for them seriously."
Natsume listened intently. This was information he did not even know about. He really was envious at Himekawa's ability to collect information. This made him think of the other matters at hand.
"Have you told anyone else what happened?"
Himekawa continued to scroll through his phone, "Watcha mean?"
"I mean…well," Natsume not sure how to phrase the question without being too blunt, "How many days have I been out?" Natsume changed the subject.
"Well if you include the morning you called, about three days. You completely missed the weekend, it's Monday evening now."
"Eeeeh, I hope you didn't miss school because of this." Natsume said in a half-teasing tone.
"Damn right I didn't. You aren't even worth that." Himekawa smirked back. "Though I have to say, Kanzaki seemed pretty distraught today."
Natsume's eyebrow's shot up, "Kanzaki-kun?"
"Yeah, that deadbeat seemed out of it today. Could have taken him out if I wanted, wouldn't even be worth my time though."
"Have you told him anything?" Natsume suddenly very scared of what Kanzaki might have found out.
Himekawa looked over at him, and smirked, "So what if I did? He is your boss, right?"
Natsume opened his mouth to say something, but couldn't. He had no idea how much Himekawa knew, and perhaps this was even just a way to provoke him to accidently say something he shouldn't…Natsume closed his mouth, and looked down at his stomach.
"tsk, you're no fun." Himekawa turned back to his phone. "I haven't told Kanzaki anything. No one knows you are here, save your parents, the doctor, and that damn nurse. Gotta keep things quiet when you're hiding from a large organization like them." Himekawa referred to the Niigata Organization.
Natsume nodded his head. "Thank you Hime-chan. This must have cost you so much…I really am sorry for all of this trouble." Natsume pondered a moment, "Though I am surprised you found me. Didn't you go after my parents?"
"Well like hell I was going to let you bleed to death like that." Himekawa looked none too happy, and put his phone back in his pocket. He sighed, "After you hung up on me, I was able to pin-point your location by tracking the location of your call. Found you all hunched over and covered in snow. I swear you are really good at trying to kill yourself."
Himkawa paused a second, "I had your father's employer go after your parents. No need to get specific, but it sure as hell got your parents out of that house fast." Himekawa had an evil grin on his face.
Natsume smirked at that, he knew Himekawa was known for his dirty-handed tactics. He would have to inquire about that later. "Good to know everyone important is on your payroll."
"Naturally. Oh, yes..." Himekawa looked at him, going to judge his reaction, "Your house was burned two days ago."
Natsume's eyes flickered for a moment in surprise, but he quickly put on his stone-face,"By who?"
"How the hell should I know? Though I can guess that it's not just the Niigata Organization you are worried about, is it?" Himekawa's eyes narrowed at him. "Natsume, what is really going on here?"
Natsume looked down, his head bent as his hair fell and covered his eyes. He had to tell Himekawa what was going on. Everything he had done to help him. Where he was now, what was going to happen to him from this point on…it was all going to be up to Himekawa. He didn't know if he should be enraged or sad that he now had another person he was indebted to. He really wanted to tell Himekawa everything though, let someone know who he really was, and what he was meant to become…
"I can tell you my name." Natsume head still bowed.
"Well, that's a start." Himekawa waited for the rest of the story.
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Thank you for reading so far! Unfortunately I'm not sure if I'm going to update after this...Been on sort of a hiatus from writing for awhile. I hope you have all enjoyed it up to this point though. Please comment or review to let me know what you think of the story so far. I would love to hear everyone's opinion if you've made it this far in the story!
