Hevn sighed and flipped listlessly through a magazine entitled "World's Destinations," which seemed a cruel magazine to keep in a hospital waiting room. Every page seemed splashed with a different beautiful, exotic destination, as if to tauntingly say either "You are too sick to go here," or "If you weren't sick, you'd be here." Taken at their very meanest, the glossy pages sneered "If you weren't paying off hospital bills, you could go here."

She set the magazine down and looked at her silver watch. "He's late, as usual," she sighed, running a hand through now shoulder-length blonde hair. She hadn't wanted to cut so much off, but it had been necessary to remove all the burned parts.

"Sorry to keep you waiting, Hevn-san. I am usually so punctual. If I had known it would upset you, I would have ripped out the tubes with my bare hands."

She looked over her shoulder and sighed at Akabane, who was leaning over the back of the plastic bench. His hair was as wild as ever, draped around his face in a way that made her wonder how he fit it all under his hat. His skin was a bit off-color, but she could not tell if that was his usual paleness or if his hospital stay had drained him of what little color he had. "I can tell by the sarcastic tone in your voice that you're already feeling better," she said, standing up. "And you're right, this is the first time I've seen you in a week that you haven't had some kind of tube in you."

The hospital had insisted on keeping him far longer than they usually would keep a patient with his condition, but the fact that they could not pinpoint why an artery wall would suddenly nearly burst on someone as young and healthy as he appeared to be had made them hesitant to release him. They'd been giving him the run-around, pulling every genetic disorder test they could out of the book, and yet had found nothing. At times, Hevn had watched the frustration on their faces and had wished she could tell them what had happened, but she knew that revealing Akabane's abilities would only lead to more trouble than they were already putting him through.

He looked up at the nurse, holding the back of the chair. "I really do not need a wheelchair. I can walk."

"Hospital policy," she informed him shortly, then looked up at Hevn. "Are you… the one who is driving him home?" The pause in the woman's voice made Hevn suspect that she was going to ask about their relationship, but then had realized that would also be against hospital policy.

She nodded, and then turned her attention back to Akabane, who was folding wrinkles out of the hat lying in his lap. "Stop being so stubborn," she said. "Enjoy soaking up the sympathy of being an invalid for a little while." She took hold of the back of the wheelchair and started pushing, her heels clack-clack-clacking on the marble floor. "So, what did your doctor say?"

"He said that they could not find the cause of my sudden illness no matter how hard they looked."

She looked away, even though his face was already turned away from hers. "I'm sorry," she said quietly.

"Do not be, Mi- Hevn. I did what I wanted to do," he paused in his speech, "and I have no regrets."

She found herself blushing. His comments could range between so cold and cutting that she could not believe she would ever want to talk to him again, and so sweet that she wanted to melt into his warm arms. Strangely, he seemed to know just how to balance the sweet with the sour to keep her from getting too angry or frustrated with him, and yet get just enough bitterness that she truly did not become comfortable in his presence. It was… well, he knew when to be strong and he knew when to be soft, and his judgment on those issues rarely ever wavered.

Along those lines, while he had been in the hospital she had really not been given the chance to explore their budding relationship. It had been impossible to get as much as a kiss without someone suddenly popping into the room. Sometimes, that someone was one of Akabane's co-workers. He did not exactly have friends among the transporters, but he had a few drivers who were worried that his prolonged absence could result in them losing job opportunities. The main problem, however, had been that one head nurse who always seemed to be around whenever Hevn was around, and seemed to have made it her mission to make sure that she could jump into the room and shout "The patient is not up for horseplay!" whenever she got so much as close to an intimate moment.

In her head, she had an image of herself, surrounded by shimmering drops of light, in a drop-dead gorgeous nurse's uniform. She was holding a little spoon. "The patient needs to take his medicine! Say ah!" she was saying. Her eyes glimmered with little starts of beginning romance. She couldn't wait to get home…

When they arrived back at the apartment, what she found herself saying in actuality was, "Stop itching yourself down there. It looks gross, and it can't be good for your wound."

"I am sorry, Hevn-san. They made the incision through the groin muscle, and my hair is just growing back and it itches," he complained, sitting sideways on the mat. Hevn sighed inwardly to herself and nearly collapsed onto the radiator with frustration. She had been expecting living with him… to be a little sexier. The idea that he might do unrefined things stereotypical of men, such as scratch himself, had never crossed her mind before. It just didn't seem like he was capable of being uncouth. After all, he had never been anything but a gentleman while her parents had been around.

"You're going to irritate your stitches if you keep doing that," Hevn informed him. "You're rubbing germs from your clothes into the cut."

"Sah, I suppose you are right. Perhaps I should wash it," he commented, switching over to dully poking it with one finger. The wound itself itched, and he was having a hard time convincing himself not to scratch it. Unfortunately, it seemed, not even super-healing abilities could make a wound less scratchy.

His comments made Hevn's ears perk up, causing her to lift her head and smile. Finally, she would get some real sexy nurse and sick patient interaction. She'd spent the whole week he had been in the hospital longing to further their relationship. It was about time something finally went her way.

"I can wash your back," she volunteered.

He raised a suspicious eyebrow at her. "In the shower?" he asked. For the first time in her life, Hevn regretted having put in a showerhead.

"I suppose you're right," she agreed with a slight pout. "I was only trying to be helpful."

"Thank you, Hevn-san, but after a week of having strangers attempting to give me sponge baths I think I will rather enjoy taking a hot shower by myself."

"Well, okay," she said, getting some terrycloth towels out of the closet for him. "Toss your dirty clothes out here and I'll get your pajamas ready for you."

"Thank you, Hevn-san," he smiled, taking the towels from her. She leaned over, intending to give him a quick kiss on the cheek as he swept past… and got a face full of door, as he had not seen her gesture and had shut the door behind himself.

She drew away and made a sour face at the closed barrier. How one man could be so suave, so seemingly romantic, so charming in every little movement of his body and at the same time be so utterly blind when it came to actual romance, she had no idea. She guessed it was just a symptom of his having the unfortunate luck to have been born male.

She was lying on the floor futon, reading out of a newspaper by soft light, when he finally emerged from the bathroom. He was wearing a light blue yukata, one that she had purchased him. "It looks good on you!" she smiled, patting the bed beside her. In truth, she was just glad that he would wear something she had picked out for him.

He itched his stomach and looked at her over the top of his black-frame glasses, flicking a strand of wet hair over his shoulder. "I have wet hair," he said. The sentence dropped off without being finished, but she knew the entire sentence was supposed to have been 'I have wet hair, so I can not join you in bed now.'

"So wrap it up in a towel. No point in you sitting up and shivering when I've already warmed up the bed," she said, continuing to stroke the empty spot next to her.

Slightly reluctantly, he joined her under the covers. "What's wrong, Akabane-san?" she asked, concern radiating in her yellow eyes. Had she done something to offend him? "You never used to hesitate before getting into my bed when we were pretending to be engaged."

"It was just pretend then, Hevn-san. I feel a bit odd sharing a bed with you now that we are not playing make-believe."

She choked back a laugh, not wanting for it to seem like she was mocking his concerns. Akabane was so absolutely gentlemanly. Of course she should have realized that a gentleman would be hesitant to sleep in the bed of a lady to whom he was not married. "It's okay. I promise to keep my hands off you, even if you are tempting." She realized that he had blushed ever so slightly. She did not know whether to be secretly pleased that she got to see his cute embarrassed face or kick herself for being too aggressive towards someone who seemed more comfortable with old-fashioned notions of courtship. "I'm only kidding. Snuggle?" she asked, holding out her arms.

He eyed her as though contemplating whether she had rabies, and then reluctantly let his shoulders down from their tensed-up position. "If you insist, Hevn-s…"

"Hevn is fine, but Hevn-san is just fine, too," she smiled, holding out her arms. "Come on."

A small moment of surprise washed through her when he put his head on her chest, wrapping his arms around her waist and shutting his eyes. This was different. In Hevn's experience, she was the one who got to lie with her head on her boyfriend's chest, her arms around his waist. Sometimes, she would even put her hands on her boyfriend's broad shoulders just to feel some comfort in how strong he was, and how protective being in his embrace was. She never had a boyfriend that had gone straight for being embraced instead of being the one to be embraced before.

Still, he looked very beautiful with his eyes closed, and she felt her confusion and slight irritation at his improper handling of the situation drifting away. Perhaps he just really liked breasts. She knew lots of men who would have paid good money to be able to sleep with their head on top of her chest. She reached down, gently brushing a small section of damp black hair out of his face. "Silly boy, you forgot to take off your glasses," she whispered, removing them and placing them neatly beside the bed before turning off the lights and falling to a deep sleep herself.

"What are we going to do?" she asked, even though she knew he was too asleep to listen, "about the fact that we can't tell anyone about our secret?" She pulled the blankets up around his chin, smiling. "We can worry about it later. Goodnight." With that, she put out the lamp and lay down to sleep.

If Hevn had known the storm that was about to brew across town at the Transporter's bar, she might have held even tighter to Akabane as they slept on that first night. Two drivers were having a conversation that would unwittingly mark the start of the battle.

"Rumor has it that Dr. Jackal is out of the hospital now."

Across from them, a pair of ears perked up. Saya Tanokuru smiled, showing off teeth that looked as though someone had filed the incisors into fangs. The smile was predatory, like a wolf overhearing that the door to the lamb's cage had been left open. That smile said, 'Poor little wounded Jackal. Perhaps I should pay him a friendly visit.'

"I heard. Did you also hear he's been hanging around an absolute babe of a mediator? What was her name again? Angel?"

"I know. Wah, a girl like her! Gorgeous," the other driver lamented. "If I had a babe like that…"

"Well, I guess he won't be needing his old mediator anymore, that's for sure!" the other driver laughed.

"Yeah, we were starting to worry about him!" his partner in conversation agreed.

"Excuse me, but what did you just say?" The two drivers jumped as the eavesdropper was suddenly standing beside their table, staring down at them.

"The- the Cat!" the offender whimpered, shrinking down in his seat. "What a surprise! I had no idea you were here."

Saya, otherwise known as The Cat, frowned. "Of course you didn't," the wavy-haired brunette spat. "Or else you would not have chosen to insult me in my presence." The two drivers squirmed as far away as they could without leaving their chairs. The Cat was known for unpredictable behavior when angered.

Saya swiped one of the men's drinks, sipping thoughtfully on it. "I think you had better think harder, and remember her name for me."

"She-she's a retrieval mediator! Something to do with angels! He-Hevn-san!" he cried finally, happy with himself for remembering. Saya looked over the top of the glass at him and finished downing the drink.

Saya set the empty cup down. "Had I finished before you remembered, The Cat would have had your tongue," Saya smirked, showing off hands that ended like claws. "If she thinks she's taking my best transporter away from me, she's wrong- dead wrong." With that, the door slammed loudly as the mediator vanished out into the night.

"It's true," the drink less driver muttered. "The hearing of a cat."

"And the temper of one," the other driver said.