Shippo had been the one to further explain it all- the schematics of my surgery were so finely tuned it was awe inspiring, like seeing the blueprints to a miracle.

They struck as soon as my corpse was taken to the medical wing, cutting into my skull to seek out the mass. It was beneficial that I was already dead, in fact my brain needed to be damaged so the freshly damaged tissue could be healed. So well versed with the X-Ray was my surgeon that the extraction could be done in his sleep, but the entire thing had been postponed because they were worried about hurting me.

"Stupid, looking back on it," InuYasha had admitted, gold eyes darting away. "The results would have been the same, but you… I couldn't cut you open knowing I'd killed you. Being responsible for it twice would've sucked."

Sharply, I turned to face him. "You? You became a surgeon?"

InuYasha scowled, lightly pinching the skin on my arm. "What's that supposed to mean?!"

"Ow! Nothing! I'm just surprised you had enough patience to get through med school, much less a brain surgery!" I pinched him back.

"Ow!" He moved out of my striking range, before offering me a pudding cup as a peace offering. Though I grinned and took it, marvelling at how dexterous my fingers were again, I was still unable to the point of being unable to peel the plastic off of my dessert. In fact, the oddest thing- I must have put too much force, because I nearly punctured the little plastic cup.

InuYasha immediately leaned forward, and silently opened the wrapper for me.

I watched him make the considerate action in a sort of stunned silence, because the boy that I knew- the lonely boy who no one loved and who held no grasp of his own worth- was sitting in front of me as a kind and empathetic man. As a younger teen, the guy I knew would have (harmlessly) teased me for being weak; InuYasha had done a lot of growing.

"Y'know," I spoke quietly between fumbling spoonfuls of hospital snacks. "I take it back."

"Hm?" InuYasha grunted as he read through one of my many charts. The sound made me smile. And want to flick pudding at his dumb face.

"What I said. You do have patience." The sincerity of my words must have taken him aback, for InuYasha looked at me. One side of my mouth moved up, and I met his gaze.

"Thank you for waiting for me," I said.

"You, too," he said softly.

Author's notes:

I wanted to give him the chance to save his best friend.