Sakuno opened her eyes slowly. Her whole body felt numb and heavy. Looking around, it took her a while to be able to focus on her surroundings. She was in a hospital room and from the orange tones entering the place; it was the ending of the afternoon already. The scarlet eyes were taken by panic when she noticed the strange weight on her right arm. There was an external fixator on her wrist, many metal pins going inside her skin. On her other hand, there was an IV.

The girl sat down, but a sharp pain spread from her arm to her entire body with a simple movement.

"Sakuno-chan, you are awake." Syuusuke appeared on the door with a smile and sat by her bed's side.

"Syuusuke-san, what happened to me?! How did I arrive here? How's Tou-sama? And where is Ryoma?!"

"Hey, calm down." He touched her face. "Everything is okay. You had surgery on the night before. They had to put these pins because of the fracture on your wrist. Your father is fine; he is recovery in the ICU, he woke up and asked for you right away. Your mother is with him and Kunimitsu is taking care of things for the group and the store. Echizen-kun is well too, he was discharged just a couple of hours after you two arrived."

"Discharged?! What happened to him?!"

"He injured his hands. From fighting with Takagi-kun."

"What?"

"Takagi-san was the one who brought you two here. You lost your conscience because of the drug his son used on you. He said that Echizen-kun charged on him and beat him, hard. When he arrived here, his hands were all bloody and hurt. He broke Takagi-kun's nose. He was also much shaken with everything, so I sent him back to Tokyo with one of our drivers when the doctor released him. He arrived safely at home."

Sakuno lowered her head. She really wanted to talk to him after everything that happened. Looking at her hand, she asked, sadly. "What about this? Will I still be able to do kendo?"

"Your shoulder is fine, it was only dislocated and the doctors were able to put on the right place before your surgery. But… it was an extensive injure in your hand. You will probably need some physiotherapy after it heals." he gently touched her face. "But, I'm sure you will be all right."

"I see." She replied, quietly.

"Are you hungry? Do you need anything?"

"I'm fine." Sakuno laid down again, carefully. "What about Takagi-san?"

"He is a character, that guy." Syuusuke chuckled. "All the hospital was afraid of him, he came screaming and kicking the doors with you on his arms and threatening the staff."

"Really?!"

"Yes. When you entered to surgery, he was really worried. He only left after the procedure ended and he was able to see you again. He said he had another situation to deal." Syuusuke stood up and caressed her hair, when he noticed the girl was starting to get sleepy. "You should rest more. You took a lot of medicines."

"Syuusuke-san?"

"Yes, Sakuno-chan?"

"If Ryoma comes, wake me up. Let me talk to him, please."

"I will, don't worry." He responded, with a smile, when she fell asleep. Fuji fixed her covers better, before leaving her room.

#########

Ayato entered his son's room at the hospital. He made one of his men to take Alexei there. The boy looked at him with a terribly glare. He was chained to the bed. His injured hand was all bandaged and he had a bad bruise on his face.

He sat down in front of the teen's bed.

"How are you feeling?"

Alexei thrown a cup on his father, but Ayato just moved his head a little.

"You shot your own son and now you are asking how I am?!"

"You asked for it." He replied, calmly. "You stabbed the Tezuka head, drugged your sister and broke her hand and even involved a regular person in your craziness. You could go to jail, you know that?"

"Why didn't you let it, then?!" he tried to walk to him, but the chain on his wrist didn't let him.

"Because you are my kid. It's my job to protect you."

"I don't need you! Why don't you go take care of our precious daughter?!" Alexei averted his eyes and his father noticed his voice shattered. "All my life you were never around. I heard you telling her that you only had me out of duty. Since I arrived you are frequently telling my how much inapt I am and, since you met her, how much better she is than me."

"Alexei…"

"You should just… leave me already. I will never be the child of the "only woman you ever care about", I will never be special like her."

Ayato stood up and walked towards his son. Alexei's dark eyes were wide in surprised when his father hugged him, tight.

"What are you doing?! Let go of me, Oyaji!" he tried to push his father away

"I'm so sorry." Ayato tightened the hug, making the boy stop. "I spent so much time thinking about the things I left behind and avoiding the new life I had in Russia, resenting the fact I was away from Sayaka that I didn't take care of you properly. I was always blaming your grandfather for the way you behave, but in reality it's my fault.

"Oyaji…"

"I'm really sorry for the things I said too, Alexei. It was terribly wrong of me to compare you two. I hope you can forgive me."

It was the first time in all his 16 years Alexei was hugged by his father. The boy felt his heart tight and didn't know what do to, so he simply stayed there, allowing Ayato to hug him for a while, holding back the stupid tears that started to moist his eyes.

It took some time until Ayato released him and looked at him kindly.

"I need to go solve some things. I will be back at night to have dinner with you. Is that okay?"

"Fine." He looked away. "Oyaji."

"Yes?"

"I'm going to face any punishment the Tezukas ask from me." He said, seriously. "I want to meet them later."

"Okay."

"Can you untie me?" he asked, when his father was about to leave.

"No way." Ayato smiled at him.

"Don't you trust me?"

"Not yet." He messed up his son's blond hair a little, before leaving.

Alexei looked at his father's back and grinned, feeling a little painful on his face with the gesture.

#######

Ryoma took a deep breath, rolling on his bed, unable to sleep. It was late at night. He looked at his hands and they were throbbing even with the medication he took some hours ago.

He remembered how angry and desperate he was when Sakuno passed out and he was finally able to get himself free from the rope on his wrist. He still didn't know how he managed to hurt Alexei so much. He only stopped after seeing the blood on his face.

Echizen picked up his cell phone and read the message from Fuji again, saying Sakuno had woken up and she was fine. He knew it wasn't fair to her, after all, she only got hurt trying to save him, but, he just couldn't be around her for the moment. The boy was feeling extremely deceived.

All of his uneasiness from the beginning of their relationship had a much bigger weight now and it was crushing his heart.

Putting an arm in front of his face, he felt extremely lost and confuse, wishing sleep could reach him soon so he could give a break to his troubled mind.