More Terrorist! This chapter has a fair amount of ~drama~ coming up; considered yourself warned – not that there's so much that you need to be... anyway...

I wanted to get this revised and posted earlier, but unfortunately, school interfered, along with a terrible sleep debt and an Ulnar Tunnel Syndrome flair up. Therefore, I didn't get as far as I wanted to in the next part of this chapter – it's barely started, but hopefully it will be out before a week's time, as I know what's going to happen, I just have to write it.

Anyway, the next part of this chapter will finish it up, then comes some more Egoist. The next Terrorist chapter after this one is chapter 10 (16 on the dropdown menu).

Chapter title this time comes from "Syndicate" by The Fray. Any and all types of reviews are always welcome, and keep me motivated and happy during any forced breaks.


Chapter 7: Close Your Eyes, Don't Open 'Til the Morning Light

Shinobu was one of those people who didn't get hangovers.

It wasn't that he didn't drink; he'd had his fair share of beers and wines, and not always stretched out over a reasonable period of time. He'd just, quite simply, never experienced a hangover in his young life.

He claimed it was due to being responsible. Others claimed it was because he was secretly inhuman.

Whatever it was, Shinobu felt as though he was experiencing the world's worst hangover now – which was strange, since he hadn't had any alcohol recently.

That didn't seem to matter, though, as he founding himself retching into the towel bowl for the nth time this morning. He had a headache from hell, and he wanted to destroy the cramping in his gut as violently as possible. Even worse, it was his mother's sixtieth birthday today, and no sickness was going him to let him miss that one – especially since his mother had said that if he didn't show up, she was going to personally track him down, find his apartment, and get an explanation as to why he didn't show.

So he finished emptying his stomach the best he could and spent ten minutes cleaning out his mouth, until he felt as though he'd gone to the dentist, but without the aftereffects of numbness from the Novocaine.

As he scurried through the kitchen, looking for some source of caffeine to get him through the day, he heard Miyagi's familiar footfalls and felt his shoulders relax in relief; Miyagi had no idea of his sudden sickness, and he didn't want to worry him unnecessarily.

The coffee he made was very bitter, but he downed it anyway. He made his way to his bedroom, pulling out the best suit he had, which he knew would please his mother; she always made such a fuss over being well-dressed, even to parties like the one today, where it would be only him, Risako, his father, and his mother. It was a weekday, so she was going to throw a far more grand party – to which she invited all her friends, her friends' friends, and her friends' friends' friends – on Saturday. She'd told him multiple times he could bring a guest, and he'd half-considered asking a friend from school if they knew a girl who would go with him as he obviously couldn't show up with the much older girlfriend he'd told his friends he had, but then decided that would be more of a lie than he was comfortable with. Besides, he was at the top of his class, so he could just let her impress of all her friends and acquaintances with that. She might try to hook him up, but he was fairly certain he could avoid any awkward dates as long as he claimed all his time was devoted to his studies and his part-time job.

But that would be Saturday, and today was Wednesday – his mother had been lucky enough to be born in very late July, so there was never any school on her birthday – so he focused instead on how to avoid his mother's questions of his love life in a small, intimate setting. Maybe he could get her to focus on Risako's instead...

He winced. The headache was getting worse, and the cramping wasn't getting much better. Maybe it was just nerves? Or guilt, from not telling his parents – no, he didn't think it was that. He was tempted to take a painkiller of some sort, but he was worried it would make the pain in his gut worse – what if it was an ulcer? It wasn't appendicitis, as he didn't have a fever...

An hour later, Shinobu still had no idea what was causing him pain, but he hadn't really tried to find out. Instead, he was in the entryway of his childhood home, taking off his shoes and greeting the butler, which he rebelliously called by his first name, Kanji.

"At least add an honorific to the end, Shinobu," Risako commented, walking up to him. "Nakaguchi-san isn't used to your eccentricities."

"Whatever," he said. Then he winced – the pain in his stomach had just surged for some reason. He crossed his arms over his stomach, curling into himself.

"Shinobu, are you alright?" Risako looked at him with concern.

"Just some weird pains... there's no fever, so it's probably nothing," he said. "Wouldn't want to miss mom's party."

Risako rolled her eyes. "Oh please, you're going to see her on Saturday, anyway. Go home."

"No, mom said if I don't show, she would track me down... and besides, I'm here, and it's not like I can't lie down if I need to."

"Mom would more than understand if you didn't come due to medical stuff. She wouldn't want to risk making you sick." Risako gave him a strange look. "Why do you need to keep where you live such a secret, anyway?"

The pain wasn't bad enough for him to let her even start to figure that one out. "Alright, I feel better, I should go find mom –"

Risako just sighed and shrugged. "Alright. She's in the main room of the house. She said as soon as you arrived, she was going to start lunch, because apparently she didn't eat breakfast for some reason."

Great. More food. "Okay, then let's go." Risako still looked at him skeptically, so he rolled his eyes at her and gave his best glare. "I'll be fine."

"If you say so," she said, and they walked together to greet their mother.

It was at the end of lunch, which consisted of miso soup, rice, whatever he could manage to stomach of the katusdon, and tea, that Shinobu felt as though he was going to throw up again. He hadn't eaten much, only as little as he could get away with eating in front of his mother, but he still felt horribly sick. Maybe he should have gone home.

"Excuse me," he said, and hightailed it to the nearest bathroom, glimpsing his parents' surprised faces as he left. Within moments, he was retching again, the bile that was coming up burning worse than it had before. He felt like he was vomiting up his entire digestive tract – his stomach, his intestines, his liver, his pancreas –

There was a knock. "Shinobu." The voice on the other side of the door was Risako's, and it was laced with concern. "Are you alright in there?"

"I'm fine," he called out, before vomiting again.

"That's it, I'm taking you to the hospital," she said. "By force, if I have to."

"No, wait – " As Shinobu tried to stand up, he felt a wave of vertigo overcome him. He grabbed onto the countertop to steady himself. He was tempted to get some water from the sink – his mouth felt so dry, and his lips might just be cracking – but he didn't even think he could move that much. Instead, he slumped to the floor, curling himself into a ball. The pain was so excruciating...

"Shinobu! What's going on!" Risako sounded panicked now. He wondered if he'd ever heard her sound like that before. "Hold on, I'll get the key –"

Shinobu didn't say anything, just closed his eyes.

The next time he opened them, he was somewhere else.


The time that Shinobu had almost left for Australia, Miyagi had driven his car so fast he'd been incredibly lucky he hadn't gotten a ticket (though Shinobu would claim it was destiny). Now, Miyagi was hoping his luck from last time would be with him again, because he was pushing his car to its limit.

When Miyagi had got the call Shinobu was in the hospital, he'd gotten into the car so fast he might as well have gotten whiplash. Now he was rushing towards the hospital where they'd taken Shinobu, mentally cursing himself for not listening to Kamijou's suggestion to take Shinobu to the doctor's when he was sick a week and a half ago.

Much to Miyagi's relief, the hospital parking lot wasn't very crowded, and he was able to find a spot easily. He ran from the car to the wide hospital doors, but found himself pausing before he entered. Memories of being eighteen and entering a hospital over and over again only to end up with so much pain surfaced from the depths of his past, but he shook them off. This time was different. Shinobu was going to be okay, because he didn't want to think of what would happen otherwise.

Inside, the hospital was calm, a façade to the chaos and life and death that happened further within. He walked up to the desk and asked for the room number for Takatsuki Shinobu.

"And who are you?" the receptionist asked him, eyebrow raised.

"Miyagi Yoh," he said. "They called me –"

"Oh, you're his medical proxy," she said, looking at her screen. "Room 321. Take the elevator to the third floor; the room will be to the left of where you exit."

"Thank you," he said, briskly walking to the elevator. He had no idea Shinobu had made him his medical proxy, but that wasn't important right now. What was important was Shinobu was here, and he had to see him.

The elevator couldn't arrive fast enough for Miyagi, and he was relieved to see he was the only one who needed it, even if he had only three floors to go. He could look for the stairs, but he was already having enough trouble breathing as it was – for once, he wished he'd never taken up smoking.

The sign that greeted him once the elevator doors slid open, a bored electronic voice welcoming him to the third floor, told him rooms 300-350 were to the left, as the receptionist had said. He walked as quickly as he could down the hall to room 321, a private room. Shinobu's name was written to the left of it.

Before he could even knock on the door, it opened to reveal a young doctor, most likely in his late twenties.

"Miyagi Yoh, I presume?" he said. He gave a slight bow, and Miyagi could barely bring himself to bow in response. "I'm Takaguchi-sensei, the doctor in charge of Takatsuki-san's case. Follow me - I'll led you to where everyone else is waiting."

"Shinobu –"

"Will be fine. He's not conscious right now, but he should be waking up very soon. Before that, however, I need to talk to you and his family about Takatsuki-san's condition."

Miyagi didn't like what he was hearing, even if the doctor did say that Shinbou would be fine, but he couldn't do anything about it so he followed the doctor to a private waiting room, where he hoped to get some answers. Already sitting there were the three people he expected to be there – the dean, Risako, and Shinobu's mother.

"Miyagi-kun, what are you doing here?" Shinobu's mother asked, clearly very confused. Risako and the dean seemed surprised to see him as well.

"Miyagi-san is Takatsuki-san's medical proxy," the doctor explained, but that didn't clear up any of the confusion.

"Why – " But before Shinobu's mother could say anything else, the doctor continued speaking.

"Takatsuki-san fainted earlier today due to, in part, dehydration. We were able to get an IV of rehydration solution started, and his body is showing no signs of trouble retaining the liquid. He should be up fairly soon."

There was a slight sense of relief pervading the atmosphere of the waiting room now, but Miyagi had a feeling that wouldn't be everything.

"By our estimates, he did not only past out from dehydration – his skin turgor was too good for that to be possible – but also from extreme pain. We did some blood tests," the doctor said, and Miyagi felt as though the ground was coming out from under him. "The results showed that Takatsuki-san is pregnant."

Utter silence filled the room for a few moments, as Miyagi tried to process what the doctor had just said. What? How is that even –?

"That's insane!" Shinobu's mother cried out, and Miyagi couldn't help but agree with her. "That's not possible!"

"Oh, yes it is," the dean said, and Miyagi looked at him. The expression on his face was clearly not just one of shock, but also of fear. "There's been a new virus recently – one that does things to the genetic code – "

"Then how come I never heard of it?" Shinobu's mother demanded.

"Because there's a gag order on all things relating to disease in the media. There are rules as to who can be told of its existence," the dean explained. "Believe me, I wouldn't have kept this stuff a secret if I didn't have to – it's one of those its hard not to talk about."

"Then how do you – "

"One of my employees had to inform me of his condition to request time off."

Kamijou? Miyagi thought, and things started to click into place. Kamijou telling him to get Shinobu looked at, the sick leave, the fact that Kamijou had been crabbier than usual – though, actually, there hadn't been that much of a change in his level of grumpiness –

"The virus typically manifests as a high fever, lasting at most a day; the worst of the fever usually lasts only a few hours. Therefore, most of those infected typically don't make much note of it at first. For several weeks after the fever breaks, it is possible for the infected person to become pregnant."

"But – how?" Shinobu's mother asked. Out of the corner of his eye, Miyagi noticed that the dean went very pale; he wondered if his own face matched the dean's pallor.

"Sexual intercourse with another man," the doctor said, and Miyagi wanted noting more than to run away from here and not deal with the fallout. But there wasn't a choice; Shinobu needed him, now more than ever.

He looked at the Takatsuki family's faces. They all had a look of shock to them, but each held a different emotion as well: the dean's was fear, as it had been before; Shinobu's mother held disbelief, and Risako... looked as though she'd realized something. She was looking directly at him, too.

Oh shit.

"But, but... Shinobu never said anything about... who...?" Shinobu's mother mumbled, her voice light and trembling.

"Yoh," Risako said, still looking right at him, and everyone turned to look at him then.

He couldn't deny it, but he couldn't bring himself to confirm it, either. Instead, he stood there, frozen, as his world started to crumble into little pieces.

There was a thick silence, and then: "You beast! You monster! How dare you... touch Shinobu! Now, he's – he's – "

Miyagi had never seen Shinobu's mother like this before. She was in hysterics, which was entirely different from her usual, far more calm demeanor. He still couldn't bring himself to say anything, to do anything, so he just remained stationary, Shinobu's mother hysterical screaming the only sound in the room.

That is, until the door opened. Shinobu's mother stopped screaming, and a nurse walked into the room.

"Takaguchi-sensei?" she said, looking at the doctor. "Takatsuki-san just woke up. As you requested, we informed him of his condition, and he's requesting Miyagi-san."

The doctor nodded. "Very well, then." He looked at Miyagi. "Miyagi-san, come with me; I'll come back for the rest of you."

"But – "

"I'm following the patient's request," the doctor said, then gestured for Miyagi to follow him. He forced himself to move, though he felt as though his body was separate from himself, like he was a puppeteer pulling strings. When they reached room 321, the doctor didn't say anything, just opened the door.

Miyagi walked in.