A/N:Did you enjoy that cliffhanger at the end of last chapter?! xDDD

Blip… Blip… Blip…

I groaned at the annoying noise, not wanting to wake up just yet, I was way too comfortable right now. I frowned as a dull pain ached through my back and chest when I shifted.

"Guys, he's waking up!" I heard Hilary's voice.

Someone leaned on my bed. "Kai? How are you feeling dude?" It was Tyson.

I opened one eye, shutting it immediately again when I was blinded by so much white. "Where's Ray?" I asked, my voice hoarse.

I felt a hand squeeze mine. "I'm here."

I dared to open my eyes again, slowly this time and blinking to adjust to the light, when my vision cleared I realised I was lying in a hospital bed. Still blinking, I attempted to sit up so I could see better, but Ray and Tyson held me down gently.

"Slow down there man, you've been through hell and back." The Dragon smirked at me.

I cocked an eyebrow, the memories coming to me in a haze. "What happened?"

"We escaped." Ray grinned at me, before faltering. "But not without getting hurt in the process."

I looked around; Tyson's head was bandaged, Max had a few cuts and bruises on his face, Kenny seemed alright, if not a little shaken up. My gaze settled on Ray and I nearly gasped, he had a huge bruise on the left side of his face and a large bandage across his chest; I glanced down and my eyes widened as I spotted the cast on his right leg.

"Ray…" I whispered.

He chuckled softly. "I broke my leg when we landed, I was caught off guard when the bullet went through us."

"What?!" I snapped my head up, wincing as pain shot through my chest.

The Tiger rested a hand on my shoulder. "Take it easy. Boris shot at us and the bullet went through you first and then me, luckily it didn't hit anything important…" He trailed off, looking away.

I frowned. "What's wrong?"

Ray looked back at me, tears brimming his eyes. "We nearly lost you Kai, the bullet was so close to your heart! I don't know what I would have done if you'd…" His voice cracked.

Ignoring the pain, I grabbed his arms and pulled him towards me, crashing his lips against mine; my bottom lip quivered as I felt his tears spill onto my face, I tried desperately hard to hold my own tears back.

"Oh my! I hope I'm not intruding!"

We broke apart and looked to see Mr. Dickenson in the doorway of the room, rubbing the back of his head sheepishly.

"Not at all sir! Come in." Kenny offered the older man his seat.

Ray tapped me on the shoulder. "Shift over." He murmured.

I did as I was told and moved over in the bed, to which Ray climbed into the bed with me, not so gracefully as his cast limited his movement. He slung his arm around my shoulders and gently pulled me into his chest, I sighed and welcomed the embrace, noticing that Mr. Dickenson was watching us with great interest.

"It's so nice to see you finally have someone to turn to Kai, my boy." He smiled warmly at me.

I raised my eyebrows at him. "You're not bothered that it's Ray?"

"Of course not, you can't help who you fall in love with!" The elder beamed. "I did have my suspicions that there was chemistry between you two."

I looked around to see Ray smirking. "Hmm, who in their right mind wouldn't check out the great Kai Hiwatari once in a while?" He laughed.

"You were checking me out? Since when?" I frowned at the Neko.

He flashed me a cheeky grin. "Since I met you? You were an arrogant dick at first though."

"Cheers." I grumbled.

Mr. Dickenson cleared his throat. "Anyway, onto more pressing matters. Thanks to the evidence that Kenny has provided, Voltaire and Boris are being charged with kidnapping, GBH, child abuse and attempted murder." He shuddered at the last one. "They'll be going away for a very long time."

"Good! They deserve every second of it, after what they did to Kai and Ray!" Tyson's fist shook.

To my surprise, Hilary wrapped her arms around the Dragon. "That evil man hurt you too!" She gently rubbed his head where the bandage was.

"I had a slight concussion Hil, poor Kai here has the most injuries out of any of us!" He argued.

I raised an eyebrow. "Out of curiosity, what has my Grandfather done to me this time?"

Kenny grabbed the clipboard at the end of my bed, adjusting his glasses so he could see better.

"Gunshot to the chest with entrance and exit wound, 2 broken ribs and 3 fractured, nasal fracture, severe abdominal bruising and urethral rupture." He read aloud.

Max huffed. "Hearing that makes my blood boil; I'd kill to get my hands on those two and give them a piece of my mind!"

The others stared at the usually happy-go-lucky teen, shocked that he'd say something as dark as that. I stifled a yawn, suddenly realising how exhausted I was. Ray must have noticed this as he pulled me closer to him, allowing me to rest my head on his chest.

"Come now kids, Ray and Kai look like they need some sleep." Mr. Dickenson stood from his chair.

Tyson pulled a face. "Aww, but I wanted tell Kai about how Maxie fought off this huge guard!"

"Tell me later Tyson, right now I'm fucking exhausted." I told the younger teen.

Mr. Dickenson flashed me a disapproving look, before ushering everyone out. I sighed and relaxed into Ray's embrace, my eyes fluttering closed as he gently caressed my arm with his hand. Feeling the need to get more comfortable, I shifted and brought my left knee up, frowning when I felt something around my thigh.

"Hm? There's something on my leg." I mumbled to Ray.

I felt him stiffen a little. "Oh, erm. Yeah, you know Kenny said you've got a urethral rupture?"

"Yes?" My frown deepened.

He cleared his throat. "Well, it was that bad they've had to give you a catheter for the time being."

I paled a little. "What…?"

"It's no biggie, the doctors said that it'll more than likely be temporary." Ray attempted to comfort me. "Provided you don't strain yourself."

Hesitantly, I grabbed the white sheets that were covering me and threw them off my leg, revealing the small bag that was strapped to my leg; a long, thin tube extended from it, trailing up my thigh.

I growled. "You've got to be fucking joking."

"I'm sorry Mr. Hiwatari, but you will have to put up with it for as long as you need it!" The doctor argued back, getting annoyed with my persistence.

I scowled at him. "How do you expect me to train with this thing on?!"

"Simple, you don't." The doctor retorted.

In a vain attempt, I sent him a death glare. "So when can I expect to have it removed?"

"We're not sure yet, but we will monitor your recovery with regular ultra sounds." He assured me.

I crossed my arms in reply, willing for the doctor to wrap things up and release me already. A few days had passed since the incident at the mansion, and after much persuasion and bribing, the doctors were letting me go home early, under the condition that I rest as much as possible and refrain from training. Ray had been released yesterday, he was given a pair of crutches and painkillers to take; I on the other hand, was being confined to a wheelchair and being given a plethora of medicines.

"Are you listening Mr. Hiwatari?" The doctor laid his hands on his hips.

I narrowed my eyes at him and nodded.

"Good. Please make sure you rest, it's vital to your recovery." He almost pleaded.

I nodded again and waved him away so he could fill out my discharge papers, shortly after a nurse entered my room and went about helping me get dressed.

"Have you got someone picking you up, honey?" She asked me.

I gave her an impassive look. "A friend."

She didn't seem affected in the slightest by my coldness, she just carried on with her task before busying herself with other chores; I watched her with a bored expression as she bustled about the room. A faint knock snapped me out of my trance and I glanced to the door, my eyes meeting with Tyson's grinning face.

"Hey there buddy, you ready to get out of here?" He walked over to me and gently patted my shoulder.

I glared at him slightly. "You have no idea."

"Hiro is waiting in the car downstairs for us, has the doc come back yet?" The Dragon asked.

I shook my head, wishing for said doctor to hurry up.

The nurse approached Tyson. "Hey sweetie, I showed you how to change Ray's bandages, do you think you can handle Kai's too?"

"You betcha-"

"No." I interrupted him.

They both looked at me like I was crazy.

"Well you're in no fit state to change them yourself." The nurse scolded me.

"She's right Kai. Besides, who else could you trust to do it?" Tyson folded his arms.

I glared at them both. "I'm more then capable to do it myself, it's not something I haven't done before."

I could feel sympathy radiating from Tyson, he knew I'd suffered in the past and that I'd always dealt with it on my own. The nurse, however, didn't share such knowledge so she spun on her heel and walked out of the room mumbling something along the lines of "stubborn patients".

Tyson watched after her before turning back to me. "Look, we're only trying to help; I thought you'd gotten past this 'I don't trust anyone' nonsense?"

"I have, I just... hate being weak." I sighed, looking down at the floor.

The navy-haired blader chuckled. "Like I've said before, you're not weak. You are one of the strongest people I know, and that's what I admire about you Kai."

I glanced up at him, suddenly feeling a little modest. "I don't know why, you, Ray and the others have no problems opening up to people. You all make friends like it's the easiest thing on the planet."

"It is easy Kai, but what isn't easy is maintaining those friendships, they require work from both ends. The amount of times I was ready to hand in the towel when it came to you, but then I'd see a glimmer of hope that we'd one day be best buddies." Tyson paused to take a breath. "Now look at us, basically reading each other's minds!" He grinned at me.

My chest tightened slightly, the thought of my friends caring for me so much they never gave up on me was overwhelming.

I looked down at the floor again. "Fucking hell Tyson, I used to be as cold as ice. Now look at me..." My voice cracked a little.

A pair of arms wrapped around me gently. "Hey dude, don't go crying on me now! It's still weird as shit seeing you do that!" He rest his chin on my head giggling.

I smirked. "Get off me if you want to live, Granger."

"Alright, alright." He stepped back holding his hands in the air, laughing.

That's when the doctor walked into the room, holding some papers. "It's nice to see you smiling Mr. Hiwatari." He remarked smugly.

I sent him my best death glare as he signed a few sheets of paper.

"Here you go, sign here and you're free to go." The doctor handed me the papers and a pen.

Scribbling my signature down, I passed the papers back to the doctor. "Can I go now?"

He gave me a stern look over his glasses. "Yes, but take it easy!"

It took all my might not resort to childish behaviour and stick my tongue out at him, but I did roll my eyes just to annoy him further. Tyson helped me into a wheelchair before pushing me through the door and headed to the elevator, once inside he pressed the button to go down and we waited whilst the lift descended. With a ping the doors opened and the younger teen wheeled me into the hallway.
"I am so ready to get out of here." I commented flatly.
I heard Tyson chuckle behind me. "Oh really? How ready?"
I turned to look at him and noticed a mischievous glint in his eye. "Er, pretty ready… why?"
The Dragon flashed me a grin and began to pick up speed with my wheelchair, causing me to grip the arms a little to steady myself.
"What are you doing?!" I hissed at him, conscious of the people staring at us.
"Having a little bit of fun!" He laughed, breaking out into a run.
Immediately I tensed up, fearing for my currently fragile state and aware that we could get into trouble; however as he rounded corners and bolted through the hallways I could feel that Tyson was in control. An unsuspecting nurse exited the room she'd been in, her head in the clipboard as she jotted down some notes.
"Ty, look out!" I warned him.
He veered to the right and zoomed past her, causing her overalls to whip in the wind he'd left behind.
"Hey! No running in the halls!" She hollered after us.
I turned around and looked at her, a grin creeping its way onto my face. "Sorry!" I shouted to her.
"Haha, she jumped right out of her skin!" Tyson cackled.
I let out a quiet giggle, every turn and human obstacle avoided tickling me even more so until I was laughing. Finally we reached the exit, zooming past an elderly patient with his zimmer frame who grumbled about rowdy teenagers having no respect. As we came to a halt, my sides and belly were hurting so much from laughing so hard, Tyson barely able to stand as he giggled away.
"Did-did you hear what the old man said?!" I cried between laughs.
The navy-haired teen slapped his leg and nodded, his mouth unable to form words from his laughter. I lifted my hand to wipe away a few tears that were running down my face, noticing a tall figure approaching us.
"Dare I ask?" Hiro looked down at us with one eyebrow raised.
Tyson shook his head, clutching at his belly. "Nah, you're better off not knowing."
I tried to straighten my face out again, but the corners of my mouth kept twitching.
"Hm, and I thought you were the mature one Kai." The older Granger smirked at me.
Narrowing my eyes at him, I decided against a retort and just stuck my middle finger up at him.
Tyson gave me a small slap up the back of my head. "Oh stop it you two, help me get him in the car please?" He directed at his brother.

Hiro rolled his eyes before begrudgingly helping me out of the wheelchair and into the backseat of his car, going to strap me in until I gruffly stopped him.
"I'm not an invalid, I can buckle myself in."
He shrugged. "Suit yourself." Backing out of the car and shaking his head as he walked around to the drivers side.
Tyson jumped into his seat in the back, his eyes smiling. "Glad to be out now?"
I nodded, sending him a smirk in return. "Thanks, I needed that."
"I knew ya did bud, just doing me job!" He winked and stuck his thumb up at me.
I deadpanned at him. "You're starting to sound more like your Grandpa everyday…"
"What?! No I don't!" He protested, clearly offended.
"Yes you do." Hiro piped up as he put the car into gear and began to drive.
As the two brothers bickered, I smirked and turned my head to look out the window and sighed, looking very much forward to getting home and seeing Ray again…