For the first time since he had met her, Tomoya wished he had listened to the crazy golden-eyed girl. She had hammered it into him: Tonight, make sure you're clean, make sure you're dressed well. He hadn't listened. But it was all so easy for her to say, she didn't live in a dirty alley. Yet as he sat in the hospital bed next to the girl he had carried away from the hit and run, unwashed and reeking of sweat and stale alcohol he was almost overwhelmed by shame.

Tomoya regretted coming. What had he been thinking? This was all make-believe. What sane girl would want some disgusting hobo climbing through an open window into her room? Poor thing was probably scared witless he would hurt her. With a jerk, Tomoya rose from the bed.

"Are you leaving? You haven't even told me your name," the girl next to him squeaked.

"I'm a nobody, just a homeless alcoholic. I'm sorry I intruded upon you. I will leave now."

"NO! Don't!" She screamed, almost hysterically, desperately grabbing hold off Tomoya's dirty coat as her life depended on it. Shocked, Tomoya sat down next to her again.

"I'm...I'm sorry. I've never been very good at talking to people."

"Neither am I," he responded gruffly. "Most people are afraid to even look at me."

"When people talk to me, they only do so out of pity."

"So I guess we have that in common."

"I guess we do."

They both just sat there, until the awkward silence became so loud it was deafening. Tomoya bit his tongue and clenched his fists, still staring into the floor.

"I don't pity you."

"And I'm not afraid of you," the girl immediately responded.

Neither of the pair dared to look up, each still intently studying their own hands.

"My name is Furukawa Nagisa. N...nice to meet you." She turned her eyes towards the floor.

"Okazaki Tomoya," Tomoya grunted. Then he sighed, his shoulder dropping. "Look, I don't know what that girl has told you but you don't want me around. I'm a mess."

"I'm also a mess."

"Not like me. I live on the street and spend my days staring down the bottom of a bottle. I mean, you can smell me, right? No one should be forced to be around me. Least of all you."

There was a moment of silence.

"Do you drink a lot?" Nagisa whispered.

"Yes," Tomoya answered after a short time. It was impossible to lie to her.

"Then we'll have to do something about that." It was not a question, not a request. It was a decision she had made. Simple as that. Tomoya had no part of it. She had decided for him that he would stop drinking. Normally he hated it when people butted into his life, telling him what to do. But here and now, he felt only shame. Shame for presenting himself like this. Shame for having her take responsibility for his mistakes. Shame for making her worry.

"You don't owe me anything."

"That's not true. But I can understand if you don't want an unsightly, bumbling, crippled girl like me hanging around."

Tomoya glanced up at her from the corner of his eye and spoke from his heart.

"I think you're perfect."

"Th...that's not true! Besides, I bet you say that to all the young girls," she mumbled, blushing furiously. But somehow Tomoya could tell from the tone of her voice that she wasn't really upset by his words. She had always had a problem accepting compliments and easily got flustered. Big dramatic gestures made her uneasy. The trick was to sneak the complements in, usually with a joke.

"Ha, nice try, but you were born in 84. That makes you a year older than me. So it's not only appropriate but expected of me to give you praise, wouldn't you say? Senpai."

They chuckled together. Something very familiar, yet unseen, was gradually permeating the air in the room. As it turns out, some things in this world are so primal that, no matter how hard you might try, they can only be suppressed for so long.

"Noone has ever called me senpai before. I guess you're right. How did you know?"

Tomoya scratched his scruffy beard, a confused look on his face.

"Afterwards, I talked to your parents. I guess they must have told me." Yet, he had to admit it was strange, for he didn't remember talking about her age. "Or, I might have glanced it on your chart." That didn't sound right to him either, yet he found he didn't care.

"I really wish you would have stayed. I wanted to thank you for what you did for me."

She looked up and finally their eyes locked. They both found that once they looked into the eyes of the other, they could not look away. The rest of the room melted away around them, leaving only the two of them. When he looked at her Tomoya couldn't help but feel like he wasn't himself anymore. No that wasn't true. He was himself, just not the Tomoya who slept in alleys and drank cheap booze. With her, he was another Tomoya, one that made his current self seem like a sad caricature.

"It was nothing."

Nagisa shook her head.

"You carried me to safety. To be able to do something like that, even after the very same thing happened to your mother. All for me." She looked up at him, and her look was not one of embarrassment. It was pride. All of his life, no one had ever been proud of Tomoya.

"I would do anything for you," he said without thinking.

"I know," Nagisa smiled back, a smile from the very depths of her soul, full of quiet confidence. She shook her head and absentmindedly brushed two long strands of hair out of her face. Tomoya blinked, for the very next second, her hair was short again. Reality flickered before his very eyes. Tomoya's eyes went wide as she effortlessly rose from the bed and walked up to the open window, staring off into the setting sun.

"Come watch the sunset with me," she gestured.

Slowly, Tomoya walked up to her. Out of instinct, he picked up her hand in his, running his thumb against the back of her hand. She smiled and squeezed it back. As the sun disappeared beyond the horizon their fingers intertwined.

"I can't wait to come home again," Nagisa whispered, resting her head on his shoulder.

"We missed you so much," Tomoya answered. That made no sense. And why did he say we? Tomoya lived alone in an alley. But most of all: Why had he missed a girl he had never met before so much that now that he was finally with her, the rest of his life seemed like a distant horror story. Yet with her by his side, he felt like he could finally breathe again.

"I will be home soon, I promise. Even if it means I have to crawl home."

"Don't say that. The most important thing is that you recover."

"I know, I know. It's just, I hadn't realized how much I missed you. The thought of you leaving me alone here..."

"I will never leave you."

She squeezed his hand extra hard and glanced up at him, her eyes were full of expectation. Slowly, her lips parted slightly. He knew that look, he knew what she wanted. In one glance, he instinctively knew her heart, like they had spent a lifetime together. They both nervously glanced around, and satisfied no one was watching, started to lean in against each other.

At that very moment, the speaker system crackled to life. The pair of them jumped at the sudden interruption.

"Visiting hours are over, all visitors are kindly asked to make their way towards the nearest exit. Thank you for your visit."

They both burst out giggling. It felt like they had been caught in the act. Nagisa looked up, a twinkle in her eye.

"I guess that'll have to wait," she teased.

"I guess so."

They shared one last moment together before Tomoya resigned himself to leave. But just as he was about to leave something popped up in his mind.

"Can I ask you something?" The question had been at the back of Tomoya's mind the whole time, like an itch that he needed to scratch.

"Anything."

"How did you know mom died in a car crash?" Tomoya himself didn't know that. His father had never talked about the death of his mother.

Nagisa absentmindedly shrugged her shoulders, letting the wind play in her hair.

"Your grandmother told me all about her, that weekend we were up at her place for Ushio's birthday. I remember thinking that I would so much have liked to meet her. Oh, I forgot to tell you: We're out of milk, could you swing by the supermarket after you pick Ushio up from school tomorrow? By the way, where is she?"

"Who?" That name again. It knocked the breath right out of him. Something was very wrong.

"Ushio! Didn't you bring her with you? I want to hug her before you have to leave. Did you leave her with mom? No wait, that can't be, mom was just here. Wait..."

Puzzled by the contradiction, Nagisa turned around to look around. Then her face turned ash white. She looked down at her feet and her legs started to shake. Just barely managing to remain standing, Nagisa's eye flickered across the rehabilitation room as if she had just entered it for the first time, raw terror shining from her eyes.

"No, no. None of this is right. This isn't how it's supposed to be."

She looked up at Tomoya, blinking in confusion, then reaching up with a trembling hand to feel his face.

"I...I know you."

Get away from her.

Tomoya drew away from the girl like her touch was fire, nearly toppling her over. She reached after him.

"You...we went to school together."

It's happening again. Get away from her.

"I...you...we...we were friends, weren't we?"

Now, quickly! Before you hurt her again.

Tomoya stumbled backwards, almost tripping over a chair. Nagisa advanced relentlessly on him, her weakness as if forgotten.

"No...not friends. We..."

She reached up and touched her lips, mouth wide with amazement. Then gently, her hand dropped to her stomach. She patted it in a smooth circle and looked down, closing her eyes. When she looked up again, her eyes were full of pain. Images of things that she clearly remembered yet that had never happened raced through her mind. Overwhelmed, she gradually crumpled onto the floor.

"Our daughter. Where is our little girl?"

This is your doing, bringer of pain and death. That's all you ever had to offer her. If you care for her, even in the slightest, you have to stay away from her. Go. Now!

Tomoya turned around and ran as fast as he could out of the room, leaving the love of his life alone on the floor behind him, helplessly sobbing to herself.