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Nonexistent.
Epilogue
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Sora's POV

"Hashiba, wake up!" I felt someone shaking me, but I really didn't want to wake up yet. I opened my eyes long enough to glanced at the alarm clock before dropping my head back into my pillow. "It's only eight and Sunday!"

He wouldn't quit though and kept yelling at me to wake up. "You promised you'd go to the hospital this morning, remember?"

Oh right...

I some how pulled myself out of bed, rubbing the sleep out of my eyes as I stumbled down the hall to the showers.

So, it's been almost two weeks since that dream ended. Since then, a bunch of things have happened. First off, both Fujimori and me went straight to Nii-chan and Nanami to explain what had happened to us. Nii-chan flipped out on us at first because we had missed his math class, but things got straighten out. With their help, we were able to locate the hospital where Yuki, my younger brother was staying at.

When we first saw the real Yuki truly for the first time, me and Fujimori had been shocked. We knew that he was in a coma, he had told us that in the dream, but have you ever seen somebody while they were in a coma? With tubes and wires all over the place? But even though he looked much different than he had in the dream, his skin was ghostly pale and hospital equipment didn't quite help recognition, I knew it was him. And the name on his chart read 'Takashi Yuki', so we knew we were in the right place.

I remember the nurses had been so happy that we came. Apparently, Yuki hadn't had a single visitor since had been brought to the hospital on the day he was found beaten and unconscience in that small room. His adoptive "parents" hadn't even bothered to come. And after they had found out he was in a coma (after being missing for nearly a month), they dropped their parent ship and fled the country. Nice parents, hmm? That reminds me, Nii-chan is now Yuki's guardian. The final paperwork won't be done for another week, but after Yuki gets out of the hospital, he'll stay with Nii-chan and Nanami.

I don't know much about what happened to Yuki. Fujimori searched some newspapers from a few weeks ago and found an article about what had happened, but it didn't go into much detail. Just that police raided a suspected drug house and found a beaten teenage boy locked in a closet. It said he was taken to the hospital, and that was it. The doctors know a good bit of what happened to Yuki and Nii-chan knows because he's Yuki's guardian, but they won't tell me. Fujimori tells me to shut up and stay out of his business, that if Yuki wants me to know, than he'll tell me himself.

The nurses and doctors all day it was a miracle what happened on that day that we first visited him in the hospital. While Fujimori was asking the nurses if he'd ever wake up (they were telling him that each day he stayed asleep, the possibly decreased, but they were all hoping for him to pull through), when I went up and spoke to him.

I told him, "Hey, you, it's your big brother. Now wake up and introduce yourself properly!"

Lovely way to great the brother I'd never known I had, right...?

"Come on, your mind is fixed and you've got no reason to be sleeping anymore. So rise and shine!"

...well, Yuki must have thought so too, because he didn't wake up just then.

It wasn't until I got all mushy and sappy and told him that I forgave him for his mistakes and that "It is safe to wake up now" that he stirred and his eyes opened. Yeah, the nurses and doctors flipped out and Fujimori and me were ran out of the room. We were able to really see him a day later, though, and I finally did get to really meet my brother. Although he had bowed and introduced himself to me three times while in the dream, it was when we were here (in the real world) where it really counted.

Even after he woke, Yuki's still had to stay in the hospital for a while to recover from his coma. His body was weak, or something like that, and it's taken him a while to be able to get up and moving about, he's had to see a bunch of doctors for that. But they say that there shouldn't be any real lasting effects on his body, except for his voice. Because of some tubes down his throat while he was in his coma, they damaged his vocal cords, or something like that, and they say he most likely won't be able to talk very loudly or scream, but he's not the type to talk loudly anyways.

Fujimori loves spending time with Yuki, but everyone does, so that's no real surprise. He tells me that it's because Yuki's smarter than me and "it's a nice change to be away from an idiot, I like speaking to people with sense in their brain" and...I won't deny that my younger brother most likely is smarter than me. When he starts school (because Nii-chan says he'll be starting next term) he'll be in a grade below me, instead of two below.

Him and Nanami have gotten really close. I remember when I was in the hospital after my fall, Nanami had acted like an older sister...er, brother, to me, and it was really nice. Nanami's just the type of person who likes to care for and baby others and...Yuki's never been babied before and he loves the attention. When I walked into his hospital room the other day, I heard him calling Nanami 'Mother'...which is pretty weird...but some how suits Nanami perfectly and he loves it.

"Dummy, you're going to be late." Fujimori states as he sees me re-enter the dorm room after my shower.

Love, huh?

Speaking of which, you notice how touchy-feely lovey-dovey me and Fujimori were being during the dream? I suppose life-or-death events will do that to you. I love Nao-kun. And Nao-kun loves me. Not that we'd say that outloud, of course, but it's pretty clear between the two of us.

We usually act like the same as usual, especially around others. I don't think either of us are ready to show our affection out in public. Sometimes, though, we'll hold hands when we're walking down an empty hall. Remember that pink elephant plushie I had--my favorite thing ever? After a visit to Yuki where I walked in and he was napping, I couldn't help thinking that he looked very small curled up in that hospital bed...which is stupid, because he's not that much shorter than me and I've only got about twenty pounds on him. But I couldn't stop thinking that and...so at the end of it, I gave him that pink elephant. Which he loves, thank you very much. I do pride myself in giving the best gifts, you know!

Oh, wait, what was I talking about? Oh, yeah, I gave it to him because I didn't need that plushie to snuggle with in bed anymore. I have my Nao-kun. Usually Fujimori and me start the night out in our own beds, but sooner or later during the night one of us will get up and we'll share a bed. Once we get over being so damn shy around each other, maybe we'll start the night out in the same bed.

"Hey!" I called as I enter the hospital room with the chart for 'Hashiba Yuki' on the door. Oh yeah, Yuki spoke with Nii-chan and he had his family name changed to what it truly was. I see the formilar dark haired boy glance up at me from his bed, where he is eating a perfectly disgusting looking hospital breakfast.

"Good morning, Sora!" He's got this huge and silly grin on his face (Fujumori lovingly calls it the 'Hashiba Trademart', but that goes for our same shade of blue eyes). I think it means the world to him that I visit him.

Like I said before, he likes the attention. Fujimori told me that it was nicer to think of it as 'attention-starved', but it's nearly the same thing.

I'd love to say that Yuki and me get along perfectly, but...what, we're brothers, what did you expect? Even though we've only known each other for a short time, it feels perfectly natural to pick on each other...alright, so I do most of the picking on him, but I figure I've got a lot of time I need to catch up for, right? We've even ended up in full-scale arguments (it's been two weeks!) , where I yell and storm away and he throws an object and cunning words at me. But after a few, we usually just pretend that it never happened, or maybe someone will say sorry. We usually just like pretending it didn't happen, though, because Yuki's a big cry baby.

So, yeah, that's life, I guess.

"Guess what, guess!" He asks in that soft, yet fully excitable voice of his. I shrug. "A doctor spoke with me yesterday evening, I'm allowed to leave tomorrow afternoon!"

I grin. "So that Nanami can fuss over you even better from home? You'll love that."

His face turns a bit pink. He doesn't like to admit that he likes the attention. "Otasan doesn't 'fuss', Sora, he just is very helpful."

"Suuure...momma's boy!" I'm smacked with a pillow, but I can't respond to that threat because his breakfast tray is still sitting in front of him and although the nurses are sweet, they'd knock me to next Tuesday if they find me 'rough housing' (as they call it) with Yuki. "You're in for it, you know that, right?"

He grins with a playful smirk. "I'll just have Nao-chan come to my rescue by kissing you."

It's my turn to flush hot pink and he grins, knowing that he has won. He thinks it's funny that me and Fujimori are so damn shy with each other. "H-hey, that's not fair!"

Some people would rather live in a dream world. And some people like to spend all their time with their heads up in the clouds. But I think I like the real world best, no matter what it throws at me, because...that's life. And life, of course, is just a fancy word that means that you exist.

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END.

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So...there you go. Ended up eight chapters total, two more than I first figured, but a few chapters were pretty short, so whatever. Oh, any grammar issues in this chapter (like 'me and Fujimori' instead of 'Fujimori and I') are on purpose for a reason, it's Sora's POV.

Oh...and I've already posted my next Sukisho fic.

Odds and Ends: Girl's School Adventure.
description: set after Nonexistent, there is a dance set up with an nearby all girl's public school. Can Sora and Sunao work together with the girls to help plan...and why exactly is Sunao in a girl's uniform?