Author's Notes

STEP Eitken is like the English version of the Kanken I mentioned in chapter 7. A lot of schools start English studies either at the start of junior or senior high school, but some start in elementary school and so have some prior knowledge. Grade 3 is the benchmark for junior high graduates, and the lowest is grade 5. It's a four skills test, assessing reception and production. It is conducted three times a year: January/February, June/July and October/November. They've already had a trimester at junior high school, so the students must have learnt something by now. And I just love Kouichi having a good grasp on languages. We're in August now to anyone who got lost (which is my fault, as I don't remember mentioning it). And the second stage of the STEP Eitken, the oral component, takes place a month after the other. And I seriously doubt they want to be coming in during the holidays. So first part, beginning of July (End of 1st trimester). Second term, beginning/mid August (beginning of 2nd trimester). And its a standardised test, so you can't really miss them...I would think anyway, unless it's something really drastic.

A note of fevers. You notice people get grumpy right before their temperature soars (well, mostly). Also, drinking and washing your face with cool water tends to temporarily stem off the effects, as does sweating, seeing as the water evaporates from the skin and consequently lowers the core body temperature. Of course, if it's some sort of infection, it returns with a vengeance.

And some cardiology for you guys (I wanted to be a cardiologist when I was little, but they don't offer the specific major, so I'll see what happens with that after graduation): symptoms of restrictive cardiomyopathy include coughing, difficulty breathing, fatigue, poor exercise tolerance, loss of appetite, abnormal pulse, chest pain, decreased alertness...well, those are the only ones I used so far. It can lead to cardiogenic shock, hence chapter five, and eventual heart failure. Signs of heart failure can appear soon after a shock, but that doesn't mean the person will die that soon. Symptoms include: apart from the common systems with myopathy, palpitations, difficulty sleeping, faintness, nausea and vomiting, arrhythmias (abnormal heart rhythm), and infections with high fever. It can also lead to apnea (ie. a form of asphyxiation brought on by cardiac or neurogenic factors generally, but can also be caused by sleeping patterns, drugs etc.). Turning blue is a sign of asphyxiation, though you probably know that from the crime genre. It's quite famous.

Whew, that was one long author's note.

Enjoy, and please *giving puppy dog eyes* tell me what you think. I haven't gotten much feedback with this particular story of late. Have I lost you guys already? *Sniffs* No, come back...I hate being alone (a trait I share with Kouichi there, don't know how Kouji stood it).

Anywho, he's the chapter...

Sakura, Mono no Aware

He's always been in and out of hospitals. But that doesn't make it any easier, or more tolerable. Especially since he's going to be there for a while yet with hopes for recovery slimming – but at least there are friends and family to help him through...

Kouichi K & Kouji M

Rating: T

Genre/s: Drama/Hurt/Comfort

Chapter 9 – Cliffhanger

He woke up to his mother shaking him. It was becoming a regular occurrence not; left to his own devices, he would sleep the whole day through, and the next as well. Another thing, which one would have found rather amusing in any other situation, was the soft but heavy wheezes which escaped from him in those hours...rather like snoring actually, and in fact, one could mistake it for such...if an awakening didn't bring with it a bout of coughing and a desperate need for air which was soon placated.

At least it woke him up beyond the 'zombie' state, leaving him with his head reeling and a swirling image of his mother. 'School,' she said softly. 'And I'm taking you to the doctor after the STEP Eitken.'

He mumbled something, one hand coming up to rub his eyes, only for the numb fingers to accidently poke him instead.

'Oww...' he mumbled, once the pain registered. He was in no mood for an oral test, on a language he wasn't entirely fluent in either, though he was better off than a lot of students since his grandmother had enjoyed learning various dialects herself (something he had apparently inherited) and had taught him much before her death. Most of the class had in fact not even made it to the second stage, seeing as they had begun simply the term before. Several, who went to cram school like Yoshiko (and Minoru, but they didn't seem to help when it came to languages), and those who had started from elementary school, had also progressed to the next level. But that was about one or two students per class of over thirty.

His head simply wouldn't stop swimming as he crawled out from under his blankets. He was sick of them anyway, waking up enough times in the night lately for them to become a little too familiar. Not to mention he was still tired...though at this stage, having missed more school than he could live through to be honest, he was far more bored than tired. And he was starting to get faintly annoyed at the insistent worry...especially since now Kouji was sounding rather odd when he had needed to cancel a visiting weekend on a day where his body simply refused to travel any further than the length of the house.

'Are you sure you're up to taking the test?' Tomoko asked worriedly.

'Sure,' he replied. 'It's just a dialogue.'

He was feeling better too...save the swimming head and the stifling atmosphere of his room, but then again, it was rather hot during this time of the year, so there was probably a good reason. Some water was all he needed. And an asprin. And hopefully, he wouldn't lose his dinner in the process.

'Oota-san is picking you up today, seeing as she's driving Akihiro-kun,' she continued. 'Be ready in ten minutes, okay honey? I'll be leaving soon too.'

'Hai Okaa-san.'

'At this rate you're going to beat my record,' Akihiro joked, albeit in concern. Seriously, the kid didn't come to school all week, and then he manages to fall asleep in the car...until being rather rudely awoken. 'You're spending more time out of school than in it.'

'I'm just doing the test,' he mumbled, leaning his slick and rather warm forehead against the cool glass. ''kaa-san's taking me to the Doctor's after that. I'm probably just coming down with a flu.'

'A very slow flu,' he pointed out, leaning back to place a hand to the other's forehead. 'You're hot.'

'Funnily enough,' Kouichi said dryly. 'I realised that.'

He fumbled with the door handle, until Akihiro climbed out of the other passenger seat and opened it for him.

'I could have done that myself,' he muttered, though accepting the help, turning to bow to the fair haired woman who had driven them. 'Arigato.'

'You take care of yourself Kouichi-kun,' Oota Miyuki smiled at him. 'Don't work too hard.'

She drove off with a wave to her only son, who turned as soon as he was gone to stare at his friend. 'You know,' he said. 'You look like me the day after a fierce workout. Only you never work out that hard.'

'I just don't like sport,' the boy sighed, trudging off to homeroom. 'You make it sound like I'm being lazy.'

'No. I make it sound like you're sick way too often. Seriously, you're-'

He cut off suddenly as the other stumbled, grabbing his wrist to steady him and finding a blue tinge at the edge of the fingertips. Because it wasn't something that related commonly to sport (give him a concussion or a broken bone, and he'd reel of facts as good as any science student), he didn't recognise the cause. He did recognise though that they looked nothing like blue ink, which was the only logical explanation that came to mind. Well, except asphyxiation, but seeing as he was still breathing relatively fine (a little on the heavy side with the occasional coughing boats), it couldn't be that.

'Did you get ink on your fingers?' he asked anyway.

'Iie,' the other mumbled, trying and failing to get his hand out of the other's grip.

Akihiro began to say something else, but the bell rang before he could. 'Oh crap, the bell.'

Without waiting for the other's reaction, he dragged him by the wrist he still held.

Less than five minutes after they slipped into their seats, and to Akihiro's utter surprise, not scolded for their tardiness, Kouichi was finding it extremely difficult to pay attention to anything except the thundering drums pounding in his ears, the nauseous feeling settling into his churning stomach and the fact that he simply wasn't getting enough air.

He tried to take a deep breath, only for his chest to tighten and almost explode in pain. A pained whimper escaped his lips, to be heard by Akihiro beside him, who was out of his seat in a flash and pulling the raven haired male up from his slumped position. 'Kouichi? Damn it, you really are sick!'

By then, their homeroom teacher had made it over to the pair, taking in the almost chalk white pallor flushed with red, the fluttering eyelids and the wheezing breaths which seemed like they won't providing enough air. One hand found its way to the slick forehead, noting the spike in temperature that he was sure had not been apparent when he had entered the room. The other took a wrist, knowing the slightly blue tinge on the fingertips and apparent veins, feeling the beats skip in rhythm.

He turned to stare at Akihiro, though it must have come out as a rather strict glare as the other immediately started stammering something about it not being his fault.

'Oota,' he snapped. 'Go get the nurse. The rest of you, out.'

No-one argued.

The fever made its way out of the danger zone slower than it had made its way in, and Kouichi had fallen asleep on Akihiro's back (the nurse had decided that since he flat out refused to leave, he could make himself useful) by the time the taller boy carried him to the infirmary. The rest of homeroom had continued in the corridor during that time, much to the bafflement of the principal passing through, and the first period was littered with hushed discussions...not all of them entirely accurate.

As thus, it was no surprise that Yoshiko and Minoru, both in their separate classes, heard of the commotion. And it was also no surprise (although the teachers weren't too pleased) that they joined their two friends in the infirmary.

The only thing that they did find surprising was that Kouichi, once his head, and more specifically his breathing, was more placate thanks to a tranquiliser to soothe the over-excited heart (or so Eri said, but the students were having a little trouble understanding why that was the case; they were all sure she was hiding something, but something in their sick friend's face stuck the question in their throats), had flat out refused to skip the oral component of the STEP Eitken even after a raw throat from the vomiting incited from nausea, forcing the jumpy examiner to converse with him in the sterile room.

Apparently, a constantly sick and tired Kouichi invited an irritated Kouichi, and that invited an extremely stubborn one. Although even that was forced to relent (not of his own violation though) when his fever alarmingly spiked again and his breaths ceased. Literally.

They had no warning that second time. Eri had finally succeeded in chasing the two boys away, but the girl remained, seeing as her second double-period teacher was absent that day. Lucky for her, as there were no grounds to dismiss her back to class.

The examiner had taken her for a brief moment so she could undertake her own exam. Returning back, she found Kouichi sleeping on the white bedsheets, so simply drew up a chair and watched him as the nurse turned to other matters, returning every now and then to measure core temperature and heart rate.

She frowned lightly. Everyone, the adults that was, seemed to be checking his heart rate lately. But he had never mentioned any sort of heart problem, and she was sure that something like that at least, either he or his mother would have mentioned.

Still...something was wrong. Something further than a weak immune system attracting viruses and bacterial infections. Something that she didn't know. Something that Akihiro and Minoru didn't know, seeing as they had the emotional block of a sheet of aluminium foil when it came to family or friends. Something that she suspected, from his confession, that Kouichi didn't know either.

But at the same time, something was stopping her from pushing for an answer. She knew how important trust was to Kouichi. She knew how hurt he had been when he found his mother had never mentioned his brother to him and his grandmother only on her deathbed (including the Duskmon saga in the Digital World, but that was more her stealing his journal and noting the odd tale, forcing him to explain), and she knew he needed to be able to trust that whatever knowledge he had the right and need to know would be given to him...without him pushing past barriers he didn't have the heart to break.

Caught up in her thoughts and the pale appearance of her friend, a wash cloth covering his eyes and seeping a little cool water through to maintain a lower temperature, she hadn't noticed a change at all. His chest rose and fell slowly under the thin sheet, one hand unconsciously clutching the fabric of his shirt in the slight pain that showed on his otherwise tranquil expression.

It was so gradual to a person thinking of him and nothing else, that she hadn't noticed the lack of movement till the nurse, checking on her patient again, gave an exclamation of alarm, causing the brunette to fall of her chair.

'What is it?' she gasped, one hand over her own heart.

Eri took a deep breath, ignored the question, and reached for the phone with one hand, using the other to pull the patient into a supine position, gesturing at the suddenly panic-stricken girl to hold him there.

Luckily for them both, she kept her head and held him steady as a calm female voice answered the call.