Okay, so I have now ostensibly finished the story, there are four parts left including this one, and I think it's gone okay. I just can't believe it's taken me this long to finally finish it. Good grief, it's not even that long, but I want to because it feels kind of like my child now.
Chapter fourteen.
Nowaki merely sat in Hiroki's room silently, hour after hour. The first time that he had seen his lover in such a state, he had not been able to stand it and had left the room, wandering the corridors aimlessly for the better part of an hour before compulsion had pulled him back towards the ICU room where Hiroki lay, alone on the white bed that looked far too big for him, as shrunken as he appeared now.
One of his superiors came in earlier to insist that he took some time off during this 'personal situation', as he had called it. Nowaki had almost gawped at the seeming lightness of the phrase, before merely nodding instead and looking back to the limp body before him.
He had accepted the time off, but he still didn't leave the hospital. After all, where else would he go? He knew that his superior had intended him to go home and get some rest, some food and a shower, but after all this time, he couldn't bear to leave Hiro-san like this. Especially when he was like this. Even if he wouldn't notice, he knew that Hiro-san would want him to stay with him, even if he also knew that Hiro-san would never admit that.
On the second day after Hiroki had been brought in, Miyagi turned up. If he was shocked at Hiroki's appearance, he didn't let it show on his face. He didn't say anything to him. After all, he knew better than to think that the man was there for him. They didn't even like each other.
Miyagi sat for a bit and began to light up a cigarette before he was stopped in his tracks by a glare from Nowaki. Instead he settled for berating the unconscious man about how he had left him all on his own in the middle of exam period to do all the marking on his own. He claims that Hiroki is just being lazy and that he should get off his arse and get back to work.
When he gets no response, he gets a strange look on his face that Nowaki has not seen before. It's barely there, but he thinks that Miyagi might just be upset at the lack of reaction.
Later in that same day, after school was supposed to have finished, Akihiko turned up, with that weird kid on tow. When he and Hiroki had seen them together before all of this had happened, Hiroki had said that they were obviously a couple, and Nowaki could see it now. He saw the very young man touch Akihiko's hand gently whenever he thought that Nowaki couldn't see. He still didn't want them there though. He hadn't wanted Miyagi there either, but he knew that, even if he would never admit it, Hiroki would have appreciated the fact that they were visiting him.
When they had first entered the room, Akihiko had been visibly taken aback by Hiroki's appearance; by how shockingly pale and thin he is, and with his arm in a cast. After a long moment, he finally steps forward and brushes a piece of Hiroki's hair from his face before sitting down in a spare chair and openly holding his lover's hand.
The kid tries to make small talk, which Nowaki blithely accepts, but he isn't really interested, and his eyes never stray from Hiroki.
The kid just gives up after a bit. They only stay for about an hour before Akihiko storms out of the room.
Nowaki looks out of the window after a while. It's daytime. Mid-April now. Nowaki feels angry. It doesn't seem right. The weather is all wrong. What does it think it's doing? It should be dark, and stormy, with harsh rain or something. It shouldn't be such a nice day when Hiro-san is hurt like this.
Right now he wanted more than anything to crawl into that bed with his Hiro-san, like he used to at home, when Hiro-san would let him at least, but he can't. He wants to cling to him like a limpet and never have to let go again, but he can't. Hiro-san's broken bones hadn't healed yet, and he was still weak and covered in bruises. It had only been a week after all. If he put too much pressure on him, then it would only cause him pain, and he had had enough of that in the last few months without Nowaki adding to it. Instead, he settled for merely clutching Hiroki's good hand as hard as he dared.
A week and a half after Hiroki had been brought in Nowaki was finally ordered to go home by Tsumori-sempai to get some rest in a proper bed and have something good to eat. Finally, he acquiesces and leaves, only planning to be gone for one night.
A few hours after Nowaki leaves, Hiroki finally starts to wake up for the first time, a combination of exhaustion, malnutrition and pain meds having kept him unconscious up until now.
He was still pretty out of it, but he distantly recognised the white room smelling of antiseptic and bleach as a hospital; but it didn't really register.
Before he fell back asleep, the only other thing that he noticed was that there was someone else in the room with him, looking down on him. He couldn't really make out their face, being drugged up to the eyeballs as he was, but he could tell that they were tall, and pale, with dark hair, and that they were holding his hand fondly, almost fully encasing it in their own larger one. Nowaki then. Relief flared hot and warm in his chest as his eyes were closing. If Nowaki was here, then everything would be alright. He was safe.
Meanwhile, across town, Nowaki slept restlessly in their bed.
I can't believe I just wrote "Meanwhile, across town..." It sounds like something from the Power Puff Girls. Oh Geez.