I was told I seized half way through the night. That I was alive in my sleep, then dead.

I don't know what my boys were like when I was discovered. I can imagine flashes; I can see Tamaki yelling himself hoarse, can see Kyoya pressing his palms to his eyes, can see them fumbling for the guards outside our doors.

But I don't actually know. I woke up in the hospital wing a full day after I died.

And oh, boy. What I woke up to.

I looked to the man in the room, and pressed a hand gently to bandages around my head. There wasn't a wound, not anymore, but my head was still bald where the incisions and stitches must have traumatized the skin. They must have had to shave it or pin it back, because nothing brushed my shoulders. My brain slowly stuttered back to life.

I was in the medical wing. I recognized it, because the first thing the man (Sesshomaru, my brain chugged along that train of thought: ally- friend- brother-- Souta? No.) had done was give me the rundown.

He still knew me very well. Nothing, not even looming death- something I could at least earn- could compare to the panic I would have gone through had I woken up alone in an unfamiliar place.

The countless machines all led back to me like roads to Rome. Then noises slowly filtered in; beeps and blips ranging in different shrill notes. The artificial gasping of an oxygen machine. My head was so heavy that I could hardly keep awake.

First came the swift thought of the stone-marble-gem-curse-responsibility being used, but Sesshomaru negated my guess and refrained from discussing the topic with me.

I recalled with a memory that was spotty but an ample improvement to two days prior. Sesshomaru had been able to make his own sword, back when he surpassed his father, but my headache rendered me unable to remember its name. Did it also have healing properties? Bakusaiga? Did he use Tensaiga?

"Neither blades were used in this operation," he informed me, and I startled at realizing he could hear me mumbling. Sesshomaru patiently waited for me to get a grip on myself, but thoughts continued to run through my head with listless unproductivity.

"Kagome."

My attention caught, my eyes darted to his. Sesshomaru held them for a bit, then spoke in his slow, beautiful manner that always calmed me. He took out a scan of my skull and there was no lump. Almost anticlimactic in how easy it was on my behalf. My brother had taken care of me.

"I need to meet the... good doctor," I murmured tiredly. It was an old fashioned sentiment but an important one my mother had raised me with. Such a laborious surgery had taken hours to do, not to mention the prep alone...

Sesshomaru smiled at me. "You will," he promised, and continued the explanation.

When my brother spoke, I was coherent enough to savor a voice I'd been yearning to hear. Sesshomaru always spoke eloquently and never lied to me; being born in an era of fast talkers and slick people, the trait was something I'd learned to treasure. I had trust in him explaining this to me just as I had faith in him taking care of me while sick. Perhaps, after half a millenia, this should have changed. Perhaps old habits shouldn't have been allowed to fall into place, but he didn't even scold me for being lackadaisical. I must have been bad off.

I flinched with the start I gave. Bad off? I scoffed at my own slow thoughts. I died again, and almost didn't come back from this one. What would Tamak-

I spasmed, moving to get out of bed and toss my blanket off. Sesshomaru stopped me without even touching me.

"You're recovering. Lay down." He fiddled with my I.V. His gentle actions were in conflict with his harsh words; how I missed him. "Your nurse will be just a moment with food."

"No, no," I groaned, hunched with the pain in my head. "Kyoya and Tamaki…"

Relief shot through me as the effects of modern medical painkillers- something I had very little experience in- settled my brain into a pleasant fog.

"They'll be informed. Please, rest."

All this time, I had said only a single coherent line. Thoughts too big of a knot to untie, I resigned myself to Sesshomaru's fussing and tried my best to understand what was going on. Surely my good friend, my comrade, would take care of me. I let myself go again, despite the brief flash of terror that came with drifting off to sleep.

I was only half-certain I would wake up again.