Sunday 4th November


Even though Hiroki's wounds are well stitched and bandaged, he's still feeling very battered. He had woken from surgery on the Friday and had spent the next day tottering about the ward and feeling very sorry for himself indeed. His legs had been well gnawed on, his hands scratched and swollen and deep fang marks on his arms and torso.

The doctors had been suspicious, rightly, about the source of his wounds. They did genuinely look like tooth marks, rather than crush injuries, but Hiroki had stuck to his story about not knowing what had happened. Someone had suggested that it had been from when the school had exploded, and then Hiroki had clung to that story instead.

Also on Saturday, a battered Akihiko had stumbled his way to Hiroki's side room and then had spent a few hours chatting. They hadn't touched on the events of the past fortnight, which Hiroki would have quite liked to talk about but Akihiko was clearly not keen on that idea at all.

"What did happen after it got me?" Hiroki had demanded once, tiring of Akihiko's evasiveness over the subject.

Akihiko had looked away, raising his uncast bound hand to scratch his unwounded cheek, and had sighed. "Nowaki, Miyagi and I chased it down and got you back. And that pissed it off a bit."

"Someone said the school exploded," Hiroki had pried.

"It did." Akihiko touched the exposed burn on his throat and winced. "Spectacularly."

Hiroki had narrowed his eyes and asked, "Did you have anything to do with that?"

Akihiko had rolled his gaze over to the open door and had said, "Of course not. They say it was faulty wiring."

Hiroki had been unable to get anything else out of his friend, and they had gone back to the conversation topics that Akihiko was comfortable with.

On Sunday, Hiroki spent the morning persuading his parents that going home would be a good idea. The doctors had suggested that he should be able to return home by Monday, and Hiroki was frankly more than keen on the idea; being in hospital, smelling of antiseptic and illness, sterile and filled with nurses and doctors and screaming, crying children. Hiroki wanted to go home.

His parents had been less keen- worried about his wounds and how they would care for them, and if there was any secondary damage. But Hiroki had worn them down with puppy-dog looks and badgering and generally being much more stubborn than both of them put together. Part of his problem with staying was that Akihiko was due to leave on Monday as well, and Hiroki didn't know where any of the other boys were in the hospital.

Finally, with the decision made that he could indeed go home, Hiroki was spending his last day in hospital hobbling back and forth across his room to help build up his strength again. It was mostly stiffness and pain that kept him still, but his legs did feel a bit weaker than they normally did.

During one of his traipses across the room, someone knocked at the door. Scowling, he was expecting a nurse to attempt to do something painful to his person again, he looked over and was intensely surprised.

Standing there smiling like a complete idiot, and armed with flowers of all things, was Nowaki.

"You look so much better, Hiro-san!" The younger boy exclaimed, before Hiroki could even speak himself. "I brought you flowers!"

"Uh-huh." Hiroki looked at the flowers, looked back up at Nowaki's eager, delighted face, and decided he couldn't be snappy about that. "Um, thanks." He waved over at one of the side tables and said he could set the stuff down there. As Nowaki did that Hiroki hobbled back over to his bed and eased himself down carefully.

"How are you feeling, Hiro-san?" asked Nowaki, sitting down in the bedside chair.

"I'm all right. The bandages are a bit annoying." He prodded one of them to demonstrate, wincing when he jabbed himself right in the stitches. "They say I'll have the scars for a while."

Nowaki's sunny expression faded slightly, but swiftly swung back into position. "When are you going home?"

"Tomorrow!" Hiroki smiled. "No more screaming children to disturb my sleep."

"Hiro-san would struggle in my house," laughed Nowaki. "A undisturbed night of sleep would be a new idea there."

Hiroki smiled wryly at the thought, and his eyes lit on Nowaki's hands where it sat on the edge of the bed. The previously unblemished skin was flecked with red and purple burns and bruises, and Hiroki felt a momentarily blip of rage at the thing that had harmed his Nowaki so.

"How are you?" he blurted, still staring at the burns. When he realised he was staring, he jerked his gaze up and noticed a little trail of marks on Nowaki's face instead. He scowled again, vowing that if the thing hadn't been destroyed already, he himself would hunt the damn thing down and beat it into a pulp.

"I'm fine Hiro-san," said Nowaki, happily. "I've got a few burns." He touched his face gingerly, smoothing over the blips of red skin on his jawline. "And I pulled a couple muscles as well."

Hiroki cringed, realising why that had happened. Nowaki had had to have been the one to carry him, from wherever that the monster had taken him to the school and then out again. He blushed and thanked the other boy; Nowaki merely smiled brightly and said it was nothing.

"You kept saving me," said Hiroki, scowling again. He hated to feel useless.

"I couldn't let anything happen to my Hiro-san," said Nowaki firmly, a more serious look flashing onto his face. "You would have done the same for me."

This was true and Hiroki nodded in agreement, pride making him add, "I would have done a better job of it too."

Nowaki only laughed, "Yes, of course, Hiro-san." He reached out and took Hiroki's hand. "I'm really glad you're ok. I was really worried."

"I'm fine," mumbled Hiroki, looking down at where their hands were clasped. "That stupid thing wasn't going to take me down." He allowed himself a little blushing smile when Nowaki squeezed his hand tighter. "We're fine," he added.

Nowaki kissed him briefly, and Hiroki didn't even care that the door was still open.


Miyagi was packing his things to leave that Sunday, when Shinobu crept into his room and nervously cleared his throat for attention.

"Brat!" Miyagi grinned brightly and scrubbed the boy's hair, lifting his hand immediately when he saw the thunderous growl that dawned on Shinobu's face. "Uh… You all right?"

"We both nearly died, and you greet me like that?!" he shrieked, like a little tea kettle letting off steam. Miyagi resisted the urge to block his ears from the noise and hurried to shut the room door before a curious nurse came investigating.

"All right, all right," he said, placing calming hands on Shinobu's thin shoulders. Up close he could see the dark marks under the boy's eyes, the bruises on his pale skin and the tiredness in his gaze. "You look dreadful."

"Oh, thank you." Shinobu had subsided back to a general level of sulkiness. "Head injuries ache for ages afterwards, apparently."

"You've been worrying about the thing too, huh?" Miyagi gently petted the fawn blond hair this time. Shinobu started and blustered something about not being worried, but Miyagi knew the truth. "Don't. It's dead and gone. I saw it go up in flames."

Shinobu's grey eyes scanned his face, clearly taking in the burns on his cheeks and the singed tips of his hair. "What if it comes back?" he asked, quietly. "It mightn't be gone."

Miyagi pulled away for a second and went searching for something, finding it quickly under his pillow. His father had dropped by twice, bringing this with him the second time and leaving it at Miyagi's request. His wounds had distracted his parents' worries and woes about him, and while they weren't entirely back to normal, there was a new air of familiar civility that Miyagi hadn't realised he had missed.

"What's this?" Shinobu took the paper from Miyagi and grimaced at the sight on the front page; the remains of the school smouldering petulantly.

"Read this paragraph." Miyagi tapped a selected line and watched as the boy read it.

"Bones?" he said, quietly. "But I thought everyone got out?"

"Everyone did," said Miyagi. He had spotted Nowaki as he was leaving on Thursday, and Misaki on the same day. Hiroki had been spotted hobbling around the ward, and Akihiko had paused to chat with him for a few minutes, quietly corroborating both their stories. "Those are the monster's bones. They say had heat warped them so badly they barely looked human anymore."

"But that's because they weren't human in the first place," said Shinobu, folding the paper up and throwing in onto the bed. He was smiling now, the tiredness now replaced with a glimmer of life. Miyagi beamed down at him.

Shinobu stood up on his tiptoes and kissed him. For once Miyagi had no qualms about kissing him back. They were both alive and well enough and that was enough reason for celebration.

When they broke apart, Shinobu was crimson with his blush and Miyagi was feeling very smug indeed. Instead of embarrassing the boy further – not a great idea in the middle of a busy hospital, full of staff who might tell his parents about his latest indiscretion – he started to pack again.

His ribs still twinged painfully whenever he over stretched, over even breathed deeply, but Miyagi refused to let it stop him moving normally. He thought he had been doing a good job, until Shinobu stepped up and told him to sit down.

"Or what will you do?" asked Miyagi, sitting down obediently anyway. His ribs did really ache badly now.

"You don't want to know," said Shinobu darkly. He attempted to fold a pair of Miyagi's pyjamas and failed, balling them up and shoving them in regardless. "Are you going to go back?"

"Huh?" Miyagi had been distracted trying to figure out if it was time for his pain meds yet.

"To school. They're using a temporary building now until the old one's repaired. People will be going back tomorrow." He shoved in a pair of socks willy-nilly and Miyagi rolled his eyes.

"Not tomorrow. Not until my ribs stop throbbing."

"But you will go back?" Shinobu asked quietly. "If you don't, then we won't see each other as much."

Miyagi smiled and shook his head. "Yeah, I'm going back. As long as they think it was their shitty wiring that nearly killed me, rather than ourselves, I'm going to be free of any suspicion. I need to do well in this year anyway."

"So we'll see each other there?" Shinobu had definitely perked up, and even managed to tuck a pair of slippers in the bag in a neat fashion.

"Every day until the end of this year," said Miyagi firmly, beckoning for the boy to come closer to him. "And then we'll figure something out. I don't see why not."

Shinobu kissed him again. All was well.


"You look terrible." Misaki's eyes were already filling with sympathetic tears, and he willed himself to be less weepy.

In his bed, notebook propped on his knee and pen clasped in the wrong hand, Usagi-san did indeed look terrible. Nearly every inch of visible skin was covered in some sort of bruise, burn, cut or scab, and his right arm was well bound in a substantial looking cast. He was smiling, but Misaki didn't think that negated many of the injuries.

"It's good to see you too." Akihiko set down the notebook, and swung his legs over the edge of the bed, patting the spot next to him for Misaki to sit down.

Misaki chose a spot a little further away, afraid that he might knock one of the multiple wounds or that Akihiko would attempt something that might hurt himself further.

"You saved me," said Akihiko, when Misaki didn't say anything more. He gently elbowed Misaki in the ribs with his good arm and smiled down at him. "Thank you. I wish you hadn't risked yourself to do so though."

"What other choice did I have?" Misaki barked, resisting the urge to elbow the other boy back. "Was I supposed to let you bur-"

"Misaki." Akihiko stooped his head a little and pressed his lips to Misaki's. The younger boy squeaked in shock, but it did stop the spillage of angry words, and he was almost grateful for that – certainly he was less annoyed than he would have otherwise been.

"You should warn me before you do that!" he grumbled, touching his lips and trying not to show his blush.

"I'll remember that for next time," grinned Akihiko, scrubbing Misaki's hair. "How are you feeling?"

"I'm not bad anymore. I had a bit of a cough from saving you. The smoke got to my lungs, they said. But they allowed me out on Friday, so I didn't mind."

Akihiko shook his head. "You didn't get burned?"

Misaki touched the one livid spot on his hand, where an ember had settled and burnt into his skin. A big, pale hand settled over his own, cooling any residual heat away.

"It's not too bad," he said, looking up and catching a glimpse of the nasty burn on the side of Akihiko's throat. Tears began to well up again, and a sob escaped, despite his best efforts.

"Misaki, what's wrong?" Akihiko dropped to his knees next to the bed, kneeling between Misaki's thighs and touching his face with his one good hand. Misaki blinked away a few tears and looked down at the battered face of the older student, creased with worry.

"I thought you were going to die, idiot!" he wailed. "And I went back into the fire to find you and I could barely get you out, and you had told me to go away, but I had to come back. And I don't know if the monster's gone or not, and I really hope it is, because I don't want to have to fight it again, and you'll do more stupid things and you barely survived this time!" Misaki gasped in a breath and then clapped both his hands to his face.

To his surprise, Akihiko chuckled and kissed him again.

"You are silly," he said. "Trust me, it's gone. I know."

"How?"

Akihiko paused. "Just trust me. You don't want to know, but I know. It's definitely gone."

Misaki took one look at Akihiko's face and then decided that he definitely didn't want to know the specifics at all. He could be content just knowing that Akihiko knew somehow.

"Feeling better to have got all that out of your system?" Akihiko rumbled, wiping a tear off Misaki's face.

"Like you've never had a bad day," said Misaki.

"I'd think that last Wednesday counted as one for me," suggested Akihiko, mildly. Misaki made a face at him and grumbled when he received another kiss for his troubles. "Oh, sorry, should have warned you…"

Misaki made a face and didn't complain this time. He wiped the rest of the tears from his cheeks as Akihiko gingerly heaved himself up and sat back down on the bed.

"I'm going back into school on Monday," said Misaki, suddenly, "They put temporary buildings up, and Takahiro thinks I should try to get back into the scheme of it as quickly as I can."

"Probably a good idea."

He cast a curious look up at the blond boy and asked, "Are you coming back?"

"Of course." Akihiko looked bemused as to why he would ask such a question. "Why?"

"I thought you might not want to come back…"

Usagi-san shrugged, leaning his weight back onto his one good arm. "I might as well finish school off where I started. I think I'm safe there now anywhere – my father was fairly annoyed about the whole situation, and I think he may have threatened to sue someone. So no more threats of expulsion for me." He grinned brightly. "So there will be plenty more times in storerooms for us."

"You pervert!" Misaki squeaked in rage.

"Oh you love it." Akihiko slung a heavy arm over Misaki's shoulders, nuzzling his head down against Misaki's.

Misaki decided not to complain again. Everything was good like this.


And we are done! Huzzah! For what was a momentarily blaze of inspiration, this spooled out into something much bigger, and I'm pleased with most of it. I'll do the correcting after NaNoWriMo is done, but for now I'm off to focus on that instead.

Thank you to all reviewers and readers! I'm sorry I haven't replied to many of your reviews – it's been a busy couple weeks, even without all the writing! -, but I do appreciate every bit of feedback I get.

Until next time, my dahlings! FLC.