"I was always too strong. A monster. A murderer. I'm not someone who can love, not someone who can be loved…"

"HEAL HER!"

The hospital paused, everything freezing for a moment before everyone resumed their work.

"You are Accelerator-kun, correct? May I ask what is the prob—"

"Get me the frog doctor," Accelerator snarled. "And get her to the operating room NOW!"

"Now, if you'll calm down and answer a few ques—" The nurse attempted again.

Accelerator glared her in the eyes, and said very slowly, "If she dies, your head gets ripped off your shoulders, understood? Now get me that frog doctor!"

"That's Accelerator!" One of the nurses hissed at the brave or idiotic one speaking to the boy.

Yet another nurse called out over the intercom, "Dr. Gekot—I mean Dr. Heaven Canceller, please come to the front immediately. Emergency patient. Repeat, come to the front immediately!"

Everyone, patients and staff, all tiptoed on eggshells, sending nervous glances at Accelerator. If he wasn't ready to tear out all their throats for being so damned slow, he would have been amused. He liked being feared. Granted, it had to be because he was covered with blood, but terror was terror.

Finally Gekota in human form appeared, glanced over the two, and barked out orders. "Prepare Operation Room Five immediately! Get any available hand in there scrubbed down! This is an emergency—MOVE IT!"

The doctor once again glanced at his patient, and decided against trying to get Accelerator to relinquish her to a stretcher. He nodded at the boy to follow, and the two hurried off.

The blood flow had stopped. He would have thought it was a good thing, if he hadn't known it was because there was almost no blood left in her body to lose.

She was so cold. Accelerator's grip tightened, his chest clenching. If he didn't feel her chest rising and falling against his back, no matter how small the movement, he would have thought her dead.

"Put her down here," Dr. Gekota said, ignoring that the highly unsanitary boy was in the highly sanitized operation room.

Accelerator only hesitated for half a second. But he obeyed. He didn't trust most of the doctors and nurses in the room, but he knew Dr. Gekota would fix her. After all, he could fix a bullet through the head, right?

"What's her blood type?" the doctor asked.

Accelerator hesitated. He had no idea.

The doctor nodded. "Get O type blood. She's lost too much blood. We need an immediate transfusion."

Accelerator winced. She probably knew his blood type, his birthday, his real name, everything. If she were anybody else, he would probably call her a creepy stalker. But she was the only person who cared about him.

And he didn't even know her favourite color.

"You should leave," one of the side doctors told him. "If you need to watch, go up there."

Accelerator glared, opening his mouth to snap back at the man, but before he could say a word, Dr. Gekota began his operation.

"Let him stay," the man said. "Just stay out of the way."

Accelerator nodded, even though the man couldn't see him. He backed away a few steps, eyes flicking between her face and the faint beeps of the heart monitor.

The doctors worked frantically, transfusing blood, cleaning the wounds, removing particles that shouldn't be there, suturing.

But she had lost a lot of blood.

The monitor flat-lined.

Accelerator's breath stopped. The doctors rushed around, but everything was a blur except her face. Too pale, stained with blood. And then the beeping started again, her heart jolted back into moving.

The doctors breathed a sigh of relief, more than one of them shooting nervous glances at Accelerator.

The boy felt himself relax, the fists that he hadn't noticed himself clench coming loose. He felt a light pain on his palms, and at the back of his mind, realized that his nails had broken skin.

"…celerator. Accelerator?" Heaven Canceller repeated, standing in front of the boy.

Accelerator's gaze finally tore, albeit reluctantly, away from Celeste and to the doctor.

"It's done. She's stable. She'll be fine when the anaesthesia wears off and she wakes up."

"… Thanks." Accelerator said, the word foreign in his mouth.

Heaven Canceller's eyes flicked to the nurses wheeling the girl out, then asked, "Is there a reason she didn't heal herself?"

He watched with curiosity as the boy stiffened, face going carefully blank.

Accelerator chose his words carefully. "She cannot heal anyone for the next nine years. It is what she exchanged for something she did with her ability."

Heaven Canceller furrowed his brows. The boy was lying about something, but he let it slide. "I see. I had her put in room 4696. You may want to change before you go to her."

He did so quickly, showering to wash the blood off before shooting back out of his apartment door, ignoring the questions from Yomikawa, Yoshikawa, and Last Order.

Accelerator walked into Celeste's hospital room to find her clean of blood. Someone had washed her, and her hair was once again the blonde he had grown attached to. He sat next to the bed, waiting for her to wake.

"Shiro-chan?" She said sleepily.

Accelerator shot out of his daze, fighting the urge to smile. "Hm?"

"You'd look really cute with bunny ears."

"What the fuck?!"

If she were sober she would have laughed at the expression he made.

"Yeah. An albino bunny. But cat ears would be really cute too."

He stared incredulously at her. He wished it was only the drugs talking, but if she was completely sober, she would probably say something like this too.

"And if your hair grew a bit longer, you'd probably make a really cute girl."

He fell silent, speechless. He was just grateful nobody else was there to hear this. Especially not Last Order. If she heard, she would never let him live it down. But now he only sighed, running his fingers through her hair. It was damp, he thought absently.

"Shiro-chan?"

"Hmm?"

"You really Shiro-chan?"

"Hah? Of course, dumbass."

"You're being nice."

He scowled. "You implying something?"

She grinned. "There's the real Shiro-chan~!"

Celeste manoeuvred her hands under her and pushed up. Immediately Accelerator pounced, hands on her shoulder, grappling her back down to the bed. She made a sound of protest.

"No," Accelerator said firmly. "You're injured, and you nearly died. You're not getting out of bed."

Celeste blinked, then asked innocently, "Join me?"

His eyes widened, then he forced the perverted images out of his mind. His hormones chose now to hit?

He sighed and pressed his lips to her forehead. "Sleep."

But Celeste pouted. "Not tired. And you missed."

"Hah?"

She grinned, a hint of her normal mischief shining in her eyes. Her finger moved up to trace her lips. Accelerator's mouth went dry. He visibly battled himself for a moment, then gave in.

"Fine," he huffed.

His lips pressed softly to hers before pulling away. His face was bright red.

"Happy?" He demanded.

The grin she gave him made his heart turn flip-flops. "Very!"

"… So why do I feel this way?"

A/N: Hospital room number 4696. Hehe. He.

One chapter left!