Shin slowly began to stir, waking up but not quite opening his eyes yet. He'd just had the most wonderful dream- he confessed his feelings to Sayori, she returned them, and they became partners at long last. It wasn't the first time he'd had that dream, but he always hated waking up from them. He tried to move, but he found that his right side was pinned down. Shinsuke finally opened his eyes to find that he was passed out on the couch, with Sayori wrapped up beside him. Memories of the previous night flashed through his mind, and he realized that it hadn't been a dream, at all. He really had confessed to Sayori, and he really was her boyfriend now. An ear-to-ear smile spread across his face as he slowly unraveled his body from hers. Once he'd accomplished that, he went to the bathroom, did his business and took his morning shower, throwing on some sweat pants and a plain t-shirt as he walked down to the kitchen, where Natsuki was already preparing breakfast.

"Hey, Natsuki."

"Oh, look, one of the lovebirds." She devilishly smiled at him while flipping a few pieces of bacon. "I'd ask how you slept, but I'm willing to bet that you slept just fine."

"To put it mildly, yeah. You got coffee yet, or you want me to get some going?"

"I'm good, but knock yourself out." Shin grabbed the pot and started filling it with water before Natsuki spoke again. "Hope you don't mind, but Yuri and Monika are swinging by in a little bit. They were going to help me decorate my room, so I invited them over for breakfast."

"I'm cool with that." Shin poured the coffee into the back of the machine and threw in a filter. "Guess that means one of us should wake Sayori up, then, right?"

"You can do that, I'm preparing a feast, here!"

Shin laughed as he shook the grounds into the filter, closed the top and flicked the machine on. "Can do, Master Chef!'" He strolled into the living room and knelt down beside Sayori, gently shaking her arm. "Hey, silly, time to wake up. We've got company coming over, and breakfast is being made as we speak."

Sayori groaned lightly as she cracked open her eyes. "Shin?"

"The one and only!"

"Um... did I have a weird dream or are we... um..."

Shin chuckled softly to himself before leaning in and gently kissing Sayori, which made her eyes shoot open. "You mean we're..."

"Dating." Shin finished. "You're still okay with that, right?"

Sayori giggled. "I think I can live with that."

"Groovy. Alright, I don't know what time Monika and Yuri are swinging by, so you should do what you gotta do."

Sayori slowly got up and walked to the bathroom, while Shin made his way back into the kitchen, finishing up the coffee and helping Natsuki with whatever she needed. As Sayori walked into the kitchen, a knock was heard at the front door. Shin went and opened it, being greeted by his friends.

"Good morning, Shinsuke!" A bubbly Monika greeted.

"Morning." Yuri mumbled, nowhere near as awake as the club leader.

"Hey there, good timing! Breakfast should be done any minute, just finished some coffee."

"Thank goodness." Yuri muttered, which made Shin laugh. The three walked into the kitchen, Yuri going straight for the coffee pot.

"Hmph, hey to you, too, Yuri." Natsuki tongue-in-cheek quipped.

"Oh, sorry. Hello, Natsuki." Yuri blushed a little, causing Natsuki to laugh.

"Alright, sit down, everyone, grub's on!" Natsuki plated up 5 orders of French toast and bacon while Shin got everyone a drink, then the group sat down and started digging in.

"So," Monika said while reaching for a bottle of syrup. "Natsuki said that there was some exciting news this morning."

Shin looked up at Sayori, thankful that he wasn't the only one blushing. The giant smile across her face sent his heart a flutter, though, giving him the confidence to speak up. "Um, yeah. Sayori, you wanna take this one, or should I..."

"Um, well..." Sayori stammered over her words. "Um, Shinsuke and I had a conversation last night and... well, er..."

"We're kind of dating now."

"OH MY GOODNESS!" Monika nearly jumped out of her seat in excitement. "You finally DID it! So, who confessed first?"

"Well, I guess I got the ball rolling on that one." Shinsuke rubbed the back of his head. "I mean, Sayori confessed to me before, but I was completely oblivious that time."

"Well?" Yuri looked up at Natsuki with a smile, while Natsuki shot a scowl back in return.

"Seriously?"

"A bet's a bet."

"Wait, what?" Shinsuke looked confused, but quickly caught on as Natsuki handed a folded-up banknote to Yuri. "Wait, you bet on whether or not we'd get together?"

"Oh, we always knew that you two would get together." Yuri smiled, putting the cash in her sweater pocket. "From the moment you walked in the club, we could all tell that you two had feelings for one another, it was only a matter of time."

"Then what was that about?" Shin pointed toward Yuri's pocket.

"Who'd confess first." Natsuki barked. "I would have won that bet if you understood what the hell she was saying the first time."

The table erupted in laughter before Monika asked for the details. Sayori and Shinsuke would go back and fourth telling the previous night's story as they ate their breakfast, but towards the end a ringing erupted through the house.

"What the... is that the land line?" Shinsuke asked, confused. "Man, I forgot we even had one of those."

"Well?" Natsuki teased. "Are you just gonna let it ring?"

"Guess I'll be right back. You can handle the rest of the story, right, Sayori?"

"I think I can handle that." Sayori giggled. She began explaining the lead-up to their first kiss as Shin walked into the living room, grabbing the cordless and answering.

"Hello?" Shin greeted.

"Hello, is this Shinsuke Tanahashi?"

"Yes?"

"Son of Tatsumaru Tanahashi?"

Shin felt his stomach sink. "Um, yes."

"Mr. Tanahashi, my name is Officer Misawa. There was a... um, an incident with your father... boy, I've never had to do this before."

Ice ran through Shin's veins. "What happened?"

"Um... well, at about 5 o clock this morning, your father was in a car accident. Um... he's not doing well, sonny."

Shin dropped the receiver.

Xoxoxoxoxoxo

With the exception of the ticking of the clock on the wall and the beeping of the heart monitor, the hospital room was completely silent. Shin stared blankly at his father, trying to wrap his head around the sight before him. Large portions of Tatsumaru's body were bandaged up or in a cast, his face was a battered mess and a tube sat in his throat helping him breathe. Shin wasn't even sure how he'd gotten to the hospital, the afternoon up to this point a complete blur to him. All he knew was that his friends were in the waiting room, and his father was clinging to life before him. He wasn't sure if he'd been there for several minutes or several hours before a doctor walked into the room.

"Mr. Tanahashi, I presume?"

"Um, yes, sir." Shin stood out of his chair and extended a hand to the doctor.

"My name is Doctor Mitsuharu." He said, accepting the hand shake.

"How is he?" Shin said, his gaze returning to his battered father.

Mitsuharu sighed. "He's not doing well. Several broken ribs, a broken arm, we're waiting for test results to figure out just how bad the internal damage is and, as I'm sure you can see, he hit his head pretty hard in the accident."

"Is my Dad going to be okay?"

"It's hard to say, Mr. Tanahashi." Mitsuharu lowered his head. "I'll be honest with you, until we get those results, it's a 50/50 whether he survives this."

Shin felt his whole body go numb. He'd spent most of the past few weeks doing what he could to save lives, to help his friends, filled with endless worry, but never in his worst nightmares did he think something like this would happen to his father.

"I promise, I'll do everything in my power to make sure your father walks away from this, but unfortunately I can't make any promises yet, Mr. Tanahashi."

"I understand. Thank you."

The two talked for a few more moments, Shin filled out some paperwork, and the doctor left. Shin sat there a few more moments before feeling completely overwhelmed, causing him to storm out of the hospital room. He'd made it to the main lobby and tried to march right outside, but was stopped by his four friends who'd been waiting for him.

"Shin?" Sayori was the first to speak up. "Shin, is he okay? Is he going to be okay?"

Shin stopped and faced them with a pale, blank expression. "50/50. Test results."

"Shin, are you going to be okay?" Yuri softly questioned.

"I'll be fine. I'm sorry, need to be alone."

Shin turned to leave, but Sayori put her hand on his shoulder. "Shinsuke..."

"I need to think... please..."

"Shin..."

"Sayori," Monika stepped in, "I think we should give Shinsuke a little space right now." She turned to face him. "You have all of our numbers. Please, if you need anything..."

"Yeah." Shin said nothing else as he finally turned around and walked out of the hospital and shuffled back to his place absentmindedly. Once he'd got there, he collapsed on the couch and thoughts of the worst began to flood his mind. He let his head fall into his hands, gripping fist-fulls of his hair, thoughts racing faster and faster until he stood up with a scream. Realizing that his mind was only going to get worse, he marched upstairs, threw open the door to his fathers room and made his way to Tatsumaru's closet. He opened it up and fished through several bags and shoe boxes until he finally found what he was looking for. He clutched the object as he exited his fathers room and entered his own.

Shinsuke sat on his bed and stared out the window for a while before finally looking down at the bottle of whiskey held tightly in his grip. He thought for a brief moment on whether or not he should crack it open, but the memories of his battered father proved to be too much for him. He cracked the cap off, lifted the bottle up to his lips and began to guzzle.