~Lori's POV ~

After the guys left, I tried to get back to sleep. Really, I did. It was just hard to do when you've been sleeping for a week and still feel queasy from barfing your guts up.

I finally managed to doze off for a few minutes before the nightmares started. The hospital air was suffocating me worse than when I was in my apartment, if that is even possible. Slowly -because I was still very stiff- I got up out of the bed. Luckily for me, the nurses hadn't tried to hook me up to any machines while I was tossing and turning in my sorry excuse for sleep.

I limped over to the window and saw that there was a fire escape. Why the hell is there a fire escape in the coma ward of a hospital? I mused as I opened up the window.

Oh, I have a feeling that I am going to regret this later… A small 'oomph' escaped my lungs as I crawled through and landed on the cold metal below.

It might not be the most comfortable place in the world, but I don't think that I can move anyway. The energy just seemed to drain out of me as my mind cleared from the crisp night air. My lungs burned for a moment, unaccustomed to the cold after staying in the same lukewarm room for seven days. But it was worth it.

The blissful fog of insanity that nearly consumed me while in the dark lifted and was replaced by a strange mix of fear and sadness. The reality of my situation hit me as I looked out at Konoha, the place I had been sure I'd never be again. I can't stay here. I need to leave as soon as I can move without collapsing from exhaustion.

Tears came to my eyes. I had to leave again. This time, I couldn't fake it. At least some of them would try and follow, which would hinder my escape. I'd say I didn't want them to, but I prefer to not blatantly lie to myself. Part of me wanted them to care enough to put their lives at risk for me. But that was the selfish, irresponsible, useless part of me that had put me in this situation in the first place. If I hadn't come back, this wouldn't have happened.

If I hadn't come back, Shikamaru would be-

The door opened quietly before being slammed shut in a panic. "Lori...Lori!" Shikamaru yelled, coming up to the open window and searching. Speak of the devil…

"Hi!" I waved from under the sill, and the look of horror that was on his face scared me. It was gone just as suddenly as it had appeared, replaced by the expression a relieved parent would give a naughty kid after they found them again.

"What are you doing up?" the boy asked as he looked out into the dark sky, still leaning against the window.

"Eh, I couldn't really sleep. Comas can do that to a person, I guess."

A small smile graced his lips as he said sarcastically, "Well, I don't think the nurses will take too kindly to you asking for a bed to be moved out here."

I snorted and patted the spot beside me. "I don't need a bed. The couch will do nicely."

Shikamaru accepted my invitation. Sliding out the window a lot more elegantly than I had, he plopped down beside me. "Oh, well that's different."

After that, a comfortable silence grew between us. My attention went to the streets below. Even though it must have been late, Konoha was still bustling. Couples walked around arm in arm, enjoying the cool air just as I had. Ninjas flew across rooftops with their deadly grace, off to missions or returning from them. Clubs and apartments had music thumping through their walls and neighbors screamed their annoyance. The flashing lights and pounding of the bass soon lulled me to sleep.

~Shikamaru's POV~

Just as I opened my mouth to speak, something made a soft 'thump' against my shoulder. "Lori, wh-. Oh brilliant. Troublesome woman," I muttered. And right when I was about to have a serious conversation with you too. But despite my complaining, I was relieved.

I didn't know how to bring up what had happened. 'Hey, sorry to bother you, but I wanted to know why you left because Ryu wouldn't tell me and I haven't the faintest idea,' didn't seem like a very tactful way to do it. Instead of plucking up the courage to wake Lori and have our long overdue chat, I sat there.

At first, I couldn't look at her. Every glimpse of the kunoichi with her eyes closed almost sent me into hysterics. If I just sit here and listen to her breathe… Her breathing sounded so much different while Lori was asleep than when she was in the coma. It was still soft and deep, of course. I just never thought that snoring could be such a wonderful sound.

We must have been sitting like that for half an hour before I heard Ryu walk into the room. He and I had a similar reaction to finding her gone, but the dragon-possessed young man didn't yell. In a split second, he had stalked up to the window like an angry tiger, sword at the ready.

I tried not to feel guilty when the relief washed over his features. Ryu stared at the two of us strangely, not yet sheathing his blade. Trying to relieve the tension, I said weakly, "Mind giving me a hand?" I gestured toward Lori, still snoring peacefully against me.

A wicked smile was my answer. "Nah, I don't think I will. You can just wake her up if you want to move. A bed would be a lot more comfortable, I'm sure." Finally, the shinobi let his defenses down (or at least as much as a ninja ever does.)

"Well, she won't go back to sleep in the bedroom and wouldn't appreciate getting woken up." I put on my best serious face. With a sigh, Ryu leaned over the windowsill and picked her up by the shoulders as if she weighed nothing at all. I thought she was going to wake up and give him a swift whack in the head.

Ryu softly laid her onto the bed and tucked her limp body in under some blankets. With a sweet—almost motherly—smile, he tucked some loose hair away from his friend's face. Then he looked up. You could practically feel his confusion. "Why wouldn't she go back to sleep in the room?"

Now I was feeling confused. "What do you mean, you didn't notice? She never slept in the apartment while she was here. Lori just pulled her couch onto her balcony."

He seemed to ponder this for a second. "All Rain did was sleep…all the time. It didn't matter where it was."

I had never actually asked why she did it. It was stupid of me to assume that her little habit was nothing more than that.

A soft voice came from the bed. "It's the buildings. They suffocate me and I…have nightmares. Ryu and I mostly slept outside. When we did manage to get an inn, I always slept with the window open on the sill." She had startled both of us out of our wits. The girl gave a slight chuckle at our stupidity. "Oh, come on. Don't be so surprised. I might be tired, but I think I would have noticed being picked up like a rag doll."

The guilty person coughed to cover up a chuckle of his own. "Uh, Lori, sorry to break this to you," I said, "But you have windows in your apartment too."

"Don't be such a smart ass. My windows don't have seats under them, and why do that when I have a whole bloody balcony anyway? I'm not stupid." Lori looked around for the first time since she'd woken up and spotted someone missing. "Where's Gaara?"

"Now that you aren't in a coma, he finds you much less appealing. He's at the hotel with his sibs. You know, the chick with the freaky ponytails and the dude with face paint," Ryu remarked at his tried imitating what the two looked like.

Just as Lori was about to chew out the other ninja, her favorite nurse, whose name we found out to be Shaniqua, came in. "Hey, it's one o'clock in the morning. Ya'll should be asleep." Ryu looked like he was going to pee his pants if he already hadn't. "Now, I'm feeling good this morning, so I'm gonna let you off easy. But if I come in and see that ya'll are awake, I'm gonna bust some heads."

"Fine," I murmured. Ryu plopped down on the couch, with his sword lying down beside him as if to prove he really was going to sleep. At that, Shaniqua left.

Lori had to have the last say, of course. "Aw, doesn't little Ryu look so cute snuggling up to his precious White Lily?"

I had to hand it to the idiot, he knew exactly how to press her buttons. "Well, how can you not adore such a masterpiece? She's plain gorgeous. G'night, my love." And he planted a big kiss on the hilt before fake snoring up a storm before finally falling into a real sleep.

I sat with my eyes closed for a while before I got up. Well, a while for me. Looking over at the bed, I saw Lori staring at me. "I knew you weren't asleep. You snore about as much as Ryu and you drool too."

The only thing I could do was ignore her comments or risk my sanity. "You're the one who should be sleeping. I sleep enough for the two of us as it is, and I wasn't even in a coma."

It was quiet for another five minutes. "I'm bored!" Lori complained.

"What do you want me to do about it?" I asked.

"I dunno! You're supposed to be the smart one, Mr. Over-200-IQ-who-has-never-been-beaten-at-shogi!" she whispered harshly. I remembered how my sensei, Asuma, had beaten me a while before, but decided not to spill that particular secret.

With a groan, I stood. "Give me a minute then, your highness, and I'll get something that will keep both of us amused."

~Ryu's POV~

I watched from under slit eyelids as Shikamaru left the room at his signature lackadaisical pace. A few minutes later, the lazy bum came back, pushing a shogi board in with him. "Where the hell did you find this?" Rain asked in amazement.

"The old hags on the floor above us were passed out in front of it. I doubt they'll need it any time soon," Shikamaru drawled, positioning the wheeled table between his chair and the bed. Rain tried to swing her legs to the edge and almost fell. The boy caught her arm quickly to prevent disaster, then dropped it like a hot brick. I could have sworn there was a blush on his cheeks.

After setting up the board for play, the two started chatting like old coots. I almost actually fell asleep from sheer boredom. They spoke of random topics like the weather (specifically clouds they had seen during their separation), the price of rice in Otogakure, and how hard it would be to find a new Hokage after the recent death of Sarutobi.

However, it was interesting to hear about how Rain's friends were doing after the battle. Whenever Shikamaru hadn't been on babysitting duty or running home for a quick shower, he was wandering the halls, checking up on the people they knew who had been injured during the attack. Naruto might have gotten out before, but his new training master, Jiraiya, was constantly getting him injured. Rain's face went dark for a moment at the mention of some 'Rock Lee' and how badly injured he was.

Of course, that clever Nara boy was able to steer her away from such bad news and back onto topics like how two chicks named Pig and Cherry cut their hair off. The way he talked about the fight made it about as interesting as watching paint dry, but Rain was enthralled. She looked like he was describing a slugfest. Hm, she's pretty good at Shika-ese.

Suddenly Rain swore like a sailor in Dragon before going back to Japanese. "Damn! I know I shouldn't have expected to get any better after not practicing, but still!" She was boxed in.

"Stop complaining so much, woman. It gets tiresome… And now I'm tired." He swept the pieces off the board and laid his head down on it. "G'night."

Rain pouted. "Shika, don't be such a spoil sport! I know you're just saying that because you want me to sleep. But I'm fine, really."

"Sure. So you yawning every three seconds means you're ready for a marathon," Shikamaru mumbled into the wood. Then he turned his head just enough to peer at her through one dark eye. "Just go to sleep already." For once, the Nara kid didn't just brush off an argument. He might not have stood up and yelled his reply, but compared to how he usually acted, it was a big difference. Anytime that I had tried to get him angry (which was often, since I was bored to tears), Shikamaru mumbled something about 'troublesome' and ignored me.

Rain seemed to get he was being serious as well. With a sigh, she turned towards me, pulling the blanket over her head. Shikamaru moved the table and leaned back. Before long, he was sound asleep.

"Ryu," the girl beside me hissed in our native tongue, "I know you are awake. Spying on people isn't nice. I thought I would have beaten that into your skull by now."

Since I was caught, I opened my eyes all the way, keeping my voice down. "So? You spy on people all the time."

She smirked. "I just never get caught." It was silent for a moment before her smug look was gone and the hollow stare she had the whole time we were away came back. "We're going to leave as soon as I can walk properly. I don't know when that will be, but if necessary I will use the Wing again. I hope I don't have to, but getting out of here a second time is going to be a lot harder."

I had known that this was going to pop up again. The two of them playing shogi helped me to decide what to do. My throat was suddenly dry and it took a second for me to speak without my voice shaking. I have to stay strong. "Who said 'we'?" I kept my tone light, but the look I was giving her was anything but carefree. "I kind of like it here. The people don't seem to mind me and I've made some friends while you were out cold."

Guilt gripped my heart with iron fingers as Rain stared at me with shocked eyes. "You mean…you are going to stay even if I go?" I nodded stiffly. A strangled sob escaped her throat. "A-and you value their friendship over mine?" I couldn't lie that much to her, so I stayed silent and turned around, my back facing my best friend.

My silence seemed to upset her even more. Rain was quiet for what seemed like forever before her quavering voice met my ears. "I understand. A-after everything….You deserve better. This place and these people will give you the things that I never could. They'll make you happy. And I won't —no, I can't— take that away from you, consamin'ara." Then she fell silent but for the few sobs she couldn't hold back as she cried.

Having her call me that destroyed me. I wanted so badly to turn around, bring her into my arms like a true brother would do and say, 'No, I lied. I could never betray you, Rain. It's alright.' But I couldn't. No matter how much it killed me, I had to stay strong.

Everything I do, I do for you. Perhaps you'll never forgive me, but this is for your own good. Those thoughts and her tears lulled me into a fitful sleep.