Against Cass's will, she began to dream of him.

Memories of Yoji she had long since repressed began coming back in flashes.

She saw his smiling face look down at her as he took her hand… next, they were both on a Terces mission freezing in a mountain cave with a fire that wasn't nearly warm enough for either of them…then she was watching him fist bump Max-Ernest on his 18th birthday until the image changed to one of him holding her in the middle of a dance floor both of them laughing, his crimson face slowly leaning in towards her…

Then, raised voices from half remembered conversations filled her mind.

"I can't do this anymore…you keep putting yourself at risk for them…my life can't revolve around this anymore, it's too much pressure…you ALWAYS put Terces first…Cass? Are you even listening to me?"

"Cassandra…"

"If you can't handle my life choices Yoji…"

"Cassandra?"

A familiar twang of detergent filled Cass's nostrils. She opened her eyes to a brightly lit room with a woman standing over her.

"GYAAHAH" Cass jumped in her half-asleep state.

"Sorry, sorry we didn't mean to wake you up!" the woman said with her arms up in defence- the person Cass now recognised as her doctor. "We just wanted to let you know that your arm is healing well. You'll need a couple more days on this drip, but it looks like you're starting to recover."

Cass felt a huge wave of relief wash over her at hearing these words. There was finally an end in sight!

It was almost enough to block out that weird dream she was having only minutes earlier.

Almost.

Later that day, Cass eagerly awaited visiting time. At last she finally saw Max-Ernest walk through the doors to her room.

"Max-Ernest! You'll never guess, these new antibiotics are kicking in and they think I can be discharged soon and…" her voice trailed off.

There he was standing behind Max-Ernest looking as casual as ever. Wearing black skinny jeans and a black t-shirt with writing that Cass assumed to be Japanese Kanji in neon colours. On his feet, a pair of white and blue sneakers. Around his neck, sat an expensive pair of brand headphones.

He smiled at her and after what felt like hours (but in reality was only about 10 seconds) he said "Hey".

"Hey yourself." Cass replied all together unsure of what to say to her unexpected visitor.

Max-Ernest decided to break the tension. "So you're going to be discharged soon Cass? That's amazing news! You were getting so sick of it as well…I'm glad they found an antibiotic that worked for your infection, you know, I was just about beginning to wonder if…" he paused to look between the two. "…to wonder if you had anymore chocolate? No? Okay, I'll get some from the vending machine downstairs, you guys want some?" they both shook their heads no. "Okay, I'll be back!"

"Great" Cass thought. "Now it's just us two."

For a moment, neither of them spoke.

Then they both spoke at once.

"So, I'm glad to hear you're getting better now!"

"How was your tour?"

In spite of themselves, they both laughed.

Yoji was the first person to answer, "My tour was great thanks, lots of different places to visit and I was speaking with my manager- our plan is to release the headphones and sneakers next month which will be good for funding, right?"

"That's great!" Cass answered. She really was happy that his brand was beginning to take off but couldn't help but feel very detached from it all after her ordeal.

"Are you going to tell me how you got that wicked slash in your arm?" Yoji asked looking at her injury with concern. "Did they do that while you were…you know?" he quickly stopped himself from elaborating further in a public place.

Cass gripped her right upper arm where the bandage was. "It wasn't them, no. Well, not directly anyway…it's kind of a long story." She explained.

"I get it." Yoji looked down at his shoes for a second, this was a tale that would have to wait until later.

Max-Ernest came back into the hospital room with a look of utter defeat on his face.

"Sup, bro?" Yoji asked.

"It's horrible, WORST day of visiting ever!" Max-Ernest exclaimed. Yoji shot him a concerned look but, before he could ask, Cass interjected.

"They ran out of chocolate, didn't they?" Max-Ernest nodded his head whilst frowning at the window. "What will I eat now"?

"Erm, well maybe we can swing by the store on the way home?" Yoji appeared to sympathise, but Cass had one too many experiences of Max-Ernest's chocolate shortages to indulge him. Eventually, the three fell into a conversation about various sweet confectionaries and Yoji began to describe the different foods he had tried around the world. One by one, they began filling each other in on all the adventures and life changes they had experienced since they had last met. Max-Ernest told Yoji about Anthony "I'm happy for you, bro!" Yoji talked about his brother leaving high school "since when did he grow up so fast?" And Cass spoke about her recent experiments with sweat conserving clothing "gross!"

Cass experienced a kind of contentment that day that she hadn't known in quite some time; the three of them just talking for hours on end as if nothing had changed. Although they were now all adults with their own lives, they may have well still been those same three children in the fire station all those years ago spending a rainy afternoon over hot chocolate. Exactly how they used to.

Maybe having Yoji over wouldn't be so bad after all.

AN: Sorry if this chapter was a bit short! The next one will be slightly longer and from Yoji's POV. I hope everyone enjoys this story and, as always, thank you so much for reading! ^.^