Okay guys, people have criticized me for getting my medical jargon wrong, and stuff like that, so here's what I did. I rewrote chapters 18 to 21. It's not large changes, but they are significant. I urge you to read them, I only changed a few things here and there, but the plot is generally the same. Since reviewers like Clostridium (good name by the way, I'm inclined to Staphylococcus aureus and Escherichia coli myself, Clostridium botulinum is too deadly) and Elena have commented on my lack of knowledge in the medical business, I decided to do some research and the end result is me rewriting a few chapters! Thanks, by the way you two. I really appreciate it.

Oh, and I am sincerely sorry to everyone for being as Clostridium put it, amateur - ish. What can I say? I'm an idiot.

Anyway, here's the next chapter.

You Mean, Rukawa has a best friend?

Chapter Twenty Two

"I'm telling you, we're going in there!"

Sakuragi and Mitsui leaned in hard in the nurse's station, glaring down at a frightened looking young nurse behind the desk.

They had arrived in the hospital ten minutes ago, the rest of the Shohoku Basketball Team right behind the two of them. They marched imperiously to the nurse's station and not asked, but demanded to know exactly where Rukawa was staying.

So far the nurses were holding their own. They refused to disclose the information, informing them that the patient wasn't allowed any visitors except for the one allowed by the patient's parents, and no, they weren't included in that list.

"But we're his teammates!" protested Ryota. "Look at us, we have flowers and candy and everything!"

Indeed, many of the players were laden with a number of things, from flowers to chocolates to candy to get well cards, even CDs of girls shrieking their get well greetings. Once word got out that Rukawa was in the hospital, the entire female population of Shohoku High marched to the gym and buried the team beneath a number of gifts, gifts that they were carrying now.

"I don't see why those girls can't just come here and take these themselves!" grunted someone underneath a large rose bouquet.

"I'm really sorry, sirs," stuttered the nurse, "but we're not allowed to let you go in there without permission from the –"

But she was interrupted by her telephone ringing. She picked it up. "Hello?" she asked. She nodded a few times, said yes, nodded again, wrote something in a piece of paper, said that she understood and she'll do so right away, then hung up the phone.

The whole team looked curiously at her as she flashed them a smile. "Well you guys are in luck."

"What?" asked Mitsui.

"Are we gonna be let in?" asked Akagi.

The nurse nodded. "That was Ms. Yamato," she said, "I'm sure you know her."

"Red head!" cried Sakuragi happily.

"She said that you're to be allowed to visit," said the nurse, nodding in their direction, smiling slightly, "and she has a message for you to relay to Mr. Rukawa."

"Let's hear it then," answered Akagi.

Rukawa was bored.

He was bored out of his mind.

He grabbed the remote and violently changed the channel in the television, not staying in a channel for more than two seconds before changing it. He needed something to do. Something, anything at all, lying in bed without a thing to amuse him was driving him up the wall.

Which is ironic, because his torso hurts everytime he tries to move too much, much more if he attempts to drive up a wall.

When he got bored of switching the channels, he looked up at the blank ceiling, wondering if he'll have any visitors today. It was nearing sunset. Surely, if he had any visitors, and he prayed that they wouldn't involve any shrieking fan girls, they surely would have been here by now.The nurse said that he might, and she even hinted that it would be Kira. He hoped that what she said was true.

He doesn't truly care if he had any other visitors. He had assumed that he and Kira were now friends again. After all, if there was anything that can happen that can make you make up with your best friend, it was getting run over by a car.

He sighed. He was bored again, there had only been one message from Kira,which came with a bouquet of a dozen light pink roses this afternoon, during lunch, arranged beautifully in a white vase. The nurse had brought it in after his lunch, which he hated, because it taste like Styrofoam, but he didn't voice out his complaint.

He looked at the flowers, and the card that lay next to it. He picked it up, for the seventeenth time in five hours to read it again.

Hey Kaede,

I'll come visit as soon as I can, please take care of yourself.

I'm really sorry this had to happen to you. This is all my fault.

We'll talk later, ne?

Love you.

Kira.

Love you, Kaede read and reread that line over and over again, each time sending a tingling sensation at the back of his spine. He wondered whether Kira blushed as she wrote down the words, he had hoped she did.

When he read the note the first time, he thought that it was positively incredulous of Kira to think that this was all her fault. If anything, it was his fault. He was the one who decided to stop in the middle of the street, and it was he who didn't move when he saw the car careening towards him at racing speeds.

But, he thought, no one can possibly avoid that thing.

He positively blushed when the door suddenly opened an hour ago while he was reading it, and saw the doctor that was attending to him beaming.

"Lovely flowers, aren't they?" he asked. "You sure are one lucky man."

"I'm alive," he said bluntly.

"That's not what I meant," said the doctor cheerfully enough.

Rukawa had said nothing. He knew the doctor didn't mean that he was lucky to be alive. He already knew he was lucky to have Kira, there was no point in gloating it in front of anyone, especially a doctor. Rukawa merely glared him, who didn't seem to notice, as he checked the condition of Rukawa's torso.

Beside Kira's name was a small drawing of a basketball, which reminded him of something.

"Hey, doctor."

"Yes, Rukawa-san?" he asked.

"I'm still gonna be able to play basketball aren't I?" he asked. He had seen many athletes stop playing because of injuries, and he was determined to not become one of them. He still had games to win, dreams to conquer, and a certain girl to impress. "I will be able to right?"

The doctor looked at his torso, and then up at him and smiled. "There seems to be no extensive damage to any of your muscles, joints, ligaments and tendons. Just your ribs. They're broken."

"How long till they heal?"

"Give it about a month and a half, maybe two." he answered. "Don't aggravate them. If you do, it'd take longer to heal."

Two months, he told himself, it's justtwo months. His sensible side was sighing with relief, thinking that it could've been much worse for him, while his other side was screaming,Two months?Two frigging months? What the hell am I suppose to do fortwo months!

We could date Kira fortwo entire month, he countered, er, himself.

Twomonths? Justtwo frigging months? Come on, doc, saythree,four, even fivemonths away from the courts!

Inwardly, he laughed, but showed none of it in his face and he merely nodded.

That was an hour ago, and Rukawa looked up as he heard the door of his room opening again. Kira.

He had raised himself slightly in the possibility that it might be Kira, but slumped just as quickly when he saw that it was, instead, his team mates.

"Well, don't look so happy to see us!" said Mitsui, crossing his arms.

"Shut up," he snapped.

"You were expecting someone else?" asked Ayako, who looked delighted to see him awake.

Rukawa turned away from them.

"A girl, perhaps?" added Ryota.

"Red head!" shouted Sakuragi. Rukawa glared at him. "I would challenge you on a one on one but I'd have an unfair advantage, and I'm sure to be wiping the floor with you ass!" Then he did his tensai laugh.

Rukawa smirked. "I can beat you even if I'm just lying here."

"I'D LIKE TO SEE YOU PROVE IT KITSUNE!" he was on the verge of attacking him, but stopped himself abruptly, straightened up, and said, "I won't fight you now, kitsune, because you're injured."

Rukawa stared at him. So did the others.

Sakuragi looked more serious than he ever had been before. "But Kitsune, once you can play again, you owe me a one on one game."

Rukawa stared at him still, and found that he appreciated Sakuragi more than he ever did before. "You got it," he mumbled, "do'ahou."

"How you feeling, Rukawa?" asked Akagi.

Rukawa shrugged not answering.

"I'll take that as you're doing fine," said Akagi dully.

"Coach Anzai wanted to come with us," said Mitsui, "but he's away on some other business, he sends his blessing though."

It was then that between Mitsui and Ryota's heads, Rukawa saw a bunch of large overly decorated flowers. "What the hell is that?" he asked glaring at the arrangements.

"Well," answered Ayako, "word got out that you were here."

"I'll bet," said Rukawa dryly.

"Well, Kira had said that she absolutely forbade any of your fan girls to come anywhere near your room, citing that you won't be able to defend yourself from them."

Such a great girl, my best friend is.

"So when they heard that we were gonna visit, they made us carry all their presents to you." Finished Ayako.

And with that, the floor of his hospital room was laden with flowers, candy and chocolate, amongst many other things.

Rukawa glared at the gifts, and then turned to Ayako again. "So they actually followed the order?" he asked, thinking that if there was a word to describe those shrieking girls, it wouldn't be obedient.

Ayako grinned slyly. "Kira also threatened a restraining order over all their heads."

Such a wonderful, lovely, amazing girl, my best friend is.

"Speaking of Kira," began Akagi, "she has a message for you."

Rukawa looked up at his captain expectantly.

"She said that she's sorry that she can't come here right away, and that she'll be coming here tonight, maybe a little bit late and that she'll be staying the night because she wants to look after you, don't bother waiting up, and she might be bringing some food because she knows that you're bound to hate hospital food, and that you should take care of yourself and follow the doctor's orders. Oh, and she's bringing your Playstation II as well, with all the games and stuff." Akagi looked like he was trying to remember something, then said, "Yep, that's the whole message."

Yes! She's staying the night! YES!

Rukawa nodded. "Thank you, Akagi-sempai." not betraying any hint of the excitement inside him.

"No problem." grinned Akagi, who seem to know full well that the message was bound to cheer his ace up.

Rukawa then turned again to the presents in the floor. He saw Mitsui, Sakuragi and Ryoga eyeing some of the chocolate with interest. The rest of his teammates were clapping his shoulders and whispering words like, "Get well soon," and "Hope you'll be able to play soon," and "We've been real lousy without you," which was cheering Rukawa slightly.

"You can have those," he mumbled, pointing to the chocolates and candy and glaring at them, "I don't really want it. I don't think I'm even allowed to have any of those yet."

They took this as their cue to grab all the chocolates and candy they could find. They did look quite delicious after all.

Ayako took it upon herself to take the flowers and sent it to the far corner of the room. When she made the move to take Kira's flowers from the side table, he grabbed her wrist and said sharply, "No, that stays there."

Ayako smiled knowledgeably. "Of course," she said, "Sorry, I didn't see it was from Kira."

Rukawa turned away from her, and blushed lightly.

After a conversation with Captain Akagi about his, Rukawa's, career, which was easy and light, now that they all knew that he could still play after a month's rest, the nurse had come in and told them that it was time for them to go. Akagi patted his shoulder before going. So did the rest of the team, except Sakuragi who was glaring down at him.

"You better get well soon, kitsune," he said, "so I can beat you soon."

"That'll be the day," scoffed Rukawa, glaring at Sakuragi. "Do'ahou."

Sakuragi glared at him and turned around and walked to the door. "Feel better," he said, not looking at him, then added, "baka kitsune."

Rukawa was starting to think that Sakuragi might not hate him so much after all.