Silence, just straight silence. No thought...just undisturbed silence...for what seems to be an eternity...
5:36 P.M, Tokyo, Japan. Tokyo University hospital. Kojima's POV.
Beeeeeeeeep...beeeeeeep...beeeeeep...
A sudden sound pierces through my ears, startling me. What is this noise? it's faint at first, but it keeps on getting louder, and louder with each passing moment. Ugh, god damn it that's annoying...
The sounds of mechanical suction and expulsion soon join in as well. I can feel my chest forcibly rising and falling.
Wait...where am I? I wonder, but my eyes won't open...my mind is still hazy.
I'm cold, every part of my body is freezing save for one of my hands which seems to be cupped in warmth.
"...mmphhmhphmh..." I can now hear someone speak, but I can't make out a word that they're saying though, just garbled nothingness.
"...three days..."
Wait, three days? What three days? This voice sounds familiar...
"...and he still hasn't woken up..."
Is this...Seiji? I need to see... when finally, a ray of light painfully strikes my retinas and I snap them shut again. Fuck that's bright! I try again, and this time the brightness dissipates into a blurry mess of well...different shades of white mostly.
I shift my eyes to my right, where I see a fuzzy blob that sort of resembles a person.
"...uhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh..." Is all I can manage to say.
I hear a light gasp, "Yoshi...are you awake?" the figure asks. This sounds like...Seiji's voice. "It's okay, take your time."
I take a few seconds to try to muster up some of my waning strength, just so I can say something.
"S...s...ssss..." Shit, this is hard... "S...se-sei-Seiji?"
Seiji's POV.
The instant I hear his weak voice utter my name is the instant a flood of emotion comes running into me like an unrelenting riptide. Oh my god... He's... He's awake!
"Yes, Kojima. It's me!" I confirm as a tear escapes my eye and drops onto his new scar. He's okay! he's okay!
He smiles weakly, "Y-y-y-y-you-you're h-h-he-here." he says, his already near-incomprehensible words further muffled by his breathing mask.
"Yes, I'm here, and so are you."
A couple of seconds pass and he doesn't do anything but stare aimlessly at the ceiling, squinting, blinking, and eventually fully opening his eyes. Of course...he's not fully conscious yet.
"Wh-wh-where am I?" he asks, his speech is quickly coming back.
"You're in the hospital," I answer.
"Fuck," Kojima squints until his eyes are practically just black lines on his face, "can't...see shit."
"Well obviously, you aren't wearing your glasses, and you just woke up from being unconscious for nearly three days."
"Wait, what!?" just with those words he is instantly twice as awake as he was, "where are they!?"
Because of course he is much more concerned about his glasses than why he is in the hospital, or why he was out of it for days.
"They're on the tray beside your bed, but you probably shouldn't put them on just yet." I chuckle.
Kojima rolls his eyes and shakily reaches out to yank on one of his IV drips. "Why am I even here anyway? What are these tubes? Why does my shoulder feel...weird?"
I grab his hand and place it back beside him, "yes you are connected to an-several IVs and machines. So don't yank on anything!"
"...why? What happened to me?"
"You," I hesitate as I can feel a lump forming in my throat, "you..." remembering the note in my pocket, I try to swallow it back down, "you fell into cardiac arrest a couple of days ago..."
"What?" Yoshiyuki's eyes widen in surprise, his pupils shrink. He can't remember can he? "this has to be a joke." fear is suddenly present in his voice and his breathing becomes more jagged and uneasy. "heh, it has to be."
"Yeah... you did," I slightly nod in conformation.
He just remains still, for several seconds before relaxing a bit, "I see."
"Yeah..." I straighten up from my bent down position and let go of his cold hand and turn around, "here, I'll go get the doctor and tell them that you are awake."
"Wait, Seiji," I feel something tug on the hem of my shirt, "don't...leave...I don't want to be alone."
"Hey, I'm just getting the doctor, I'm not going anywhere okay?" I assure, as his grip on me loosens. I look back and see his fear stricken, teary eyes meet mine, immediately sending a dagger into my heart, "I'll just be a few seconds and I'm coming right back."
I give him a tender kiss on the forehead before slowly walking out of the room.
Just as promised, I come back within a minute and sit down beside him. Then within that minute the doctor comes into the room, clipboard in hand.
"Yoshiyuki Kojima was it?" She begins, "I see that you're awake."
"...barely..." he responds.
"That's pretty normal, how do you feel?" She asks, looking at all of the equipment.
"...Weak, tired, fuzzy, I can feel all of the things I'm hooked up to, my shoulder feels...weird, and my stomach hurts," he answers.
The doctor only replies with a nod and jots something down on her clipboard.
"What happened to me?" Kojima sighs. He hasn't seen his shoulder yet...
"You relapsed into sudden cardiac arrest three days ago, so we implanted in implantable cardiac defibrillator into your left shoulder. We also found that the nutrient levels in your blood are low as well as a peptic ulcer in your stomach," she explains.
The almost nonexistent hint of color in his face slowly disappears into nothingness and he narrows his eyes as he gulps, "cardiac arrest...huh?" his words and tone of voice sound empty; completely devoid of emotion.
"Yes sir. Now we will have to do a physical examination later on as well as several tests to see what went wrong."
"My heart, that's what went wrong," he jokes, the void of emotion still present but slowly coming back as I can hear his voice crack in uncertainty.
The doctor lightly chuckles and writes something down on her clipboard, "I will return shortly with a nurse and we may begin the physical okay?" And with that she quietly exists the room.
"Well this is great," he scoffs, carefully crossing his arms so that he doesn't do much damage, "my heart fails me for the second time-no this isn't even my heart. It's her's and I've failed it."
"No, that's not it at all!..." My voice tapers off. I can feel another lump build up in my throat and my chest feels heavy.
"Hey, are you okay?" He asks, reaching out and touching my warm hand with his cold fingers.
A storm of emotion comes crashing into me, setting up a tsunami of tears that gush from my eyes, and I immediately wrap my arms around his frail body and squeeze him.
"I'm just so happy to know that you're alive!" I sob into his messy brown hair, refusing to let go, "when I heard what happened the pain was unimaginable! I thought that you had died!"
"Well I didn't, and there's no way I could have either."
"What makes you say that!?" I cry.
"Because," he smiles lightly, "the moment I say goodbye to you, is the moment when I have said and done everything to you, and I will always have something to say or do to you. In other words: I'll never say 'goodbye' to you either, Seiji, and I didn't say goodbye did I?"
This immediately makes me stop in my tracks and I lift myself up and look him in the eyes. He remembers that night! "I love you so much!" Tears soon drip again, but they're tears of happiness. This man is my soulmate.
"I love you too!" This time he hugs onto me and doesn't let go, "more than you'll ever know..."
The next day, same location, 3:30 P.M.
*knock, knock, knock, BANG!* The sudden loud noise completely jolts Kojima out from his half-asleep state and makes his heart skip a couple beats.
"What the f-"
"YOSHIYUKI KOJIMA YOU LITTLE MOTHERFUCKER!" The room door swings open and bashes against the wall, surely leaving a dent behind as three figures walk through the door frame. Umi angrily rushes to the last curtain and pushes it back with fire in her eyes.
"Woah! Umi calm down!" He tries to stop her by defensively putting up his hands, but it's too late. She's already on the hospital bed, all up in his personal space.
"WHAT WERE YOU THINKING!? CARDIAC ARREST AND A STOMACH ULCER? WE WERE WORRIED SICK," she yells.
"Well you yelling in my face and stressing me out isn't exactly helping that ulcer, in fact it's making it worse!" he winces.
"Yeesh! Umi! not so loud the guy is just starting to recover from a freaking heart attack!" Ryoku says in a hushed tone, pulling Umi off of Kojima and giving her a pinch on the bicep.
"Sorry Yosh..." Seiji has a bit of a sheepish look on his face as he stands off to the side.
"Whew, okay," Umi calms down just enough so that she isn't yelling bloody murder anymore, "now this explains why you haven't been eating and why you've been more lethargic than usual."
"Huh?" Kojima just kinda blinks at her in confusion.
"Well, you haven't really been eating for the past week and a half, and you've been well, lethargic."
"Umi that isn't the case-"
"You've been stressed out, yes yes I know. But i'm not done. the recent drinking is also a factor as well as..." Umi then drones on about potential causes and whatnot for a solid ten minutes while everybody just tunes her out.
"Geez man no offense but you look like absolute death!" Ryoku comments.
"Sure feels like it," Kojima responds, rubbing his temples.
"You sound like it too! Like dude did you swallow a cheese grater or something?" Seiji pipes in, snickering.
"You might as well be a cyborg crossed with a zombie with all of those machines and the stitches on your shoulder, and the lack of colour in your skin!" Ryoku continues as he and Seiji laugh like hyenas.
"If you keep this up you'll be in that section right beside me looking like someone has just rearranged all of your insides and left you on a busy highway to get run over again and again," there is a big, evil grin on Kojima's face and he tilts his glasses so that they catch the glint of the fluorescent hospital lights for that extra "scary-shiny-glasses" effect.
"Yeah you just try that Mr. Computer Nerd who is so weak that they're confined to a hospital bed." Seiji counters with a snicker.
"...and that concludes my reason...hey were any of you listening!?" Umi stares at the men with her arms crossed.
"Umi. None of us are med students so we didn't even hear you!" Ryoku says.
Umi sighs, "you guys are hopeless..."
After about an hour and a half Umi and Ryoku start to pack up to leave for work.
"See you guys later!" But when they open the door, a woman nearly falls face first into the room.
"Ugh geez, I knew that I should have knocked..." The woman is fairly short at around 4'11.4 ft tall and has a somewhat slim physique. Her long, dark chocolate brown hair is tied into a low ponytail that is draped around her shoulder. She has dark eyes, pierced ears, and a horizontal scar across her right cheek. She is wearing thick, black oval glasses, little golden hoop earrings with a diamond at the tops, along with a lab coat, a long black skirt that flares at the end, and of course an Evangelion t-shirt that looks like it's been worn since the 90s. She quickly dusts herself off in a huff.
The three just nod at each in acknowledgement other before going their separate ways.
The woman walks down to the last curtain and pulls it to the side, gaining the attention of her son.
"Mom!?" He gasps in surprise, but instead of responding, she carefully hugs him, refusing to let go.
"Yoshiyuki... I'm so glad that you're okay!" Mirai cries, slowly letting go and touching his face like she used to do whenever they were sick when they were little.
"Of course I'm okay mom, there's no way you're not getting rid of me that easily!" He jokes
"Oh shut up you, you had me worried sick!" She stifles a laugh and smiles, "how are you feeling?"
"Really, really tired, my head is in a fog, I'm sore and weak, and my stomach hurts," he replies.
"Well of course you feel that way, you just went through cardiac arrest and had an ICD implanted. From what I hear from the doctors you also have an ulcer and nutrient deficiency," Mirai sits on the corner of the bed and gently places her hand on her son's leg.
"Sounds about right..." Yoshiyuki sighs, crossing his arms as best he can, "I stopped eating for about a week due to finals, I didn't even think about what it would do to me."
Just like his father... She thinks.
"Well that contributes to it, but something tells me that this deficiency has been building up for a long time am I right?"
"How the hell am I supposed to know!? I don't notice anything."
"You always have been bad at that. I'm not really concerned about how you've stopped eating under stress, you've done that ever since you were a kid. What does worry me is that I think that it's getting worse."
Yoshiyuki remains silent, because in a way she's right. But not for the reason she thinks it is. "I'll try and work on it."
"Good," she nods again before tackling her son once again "oh I missed you!"
"I missed you too...now get off I can feel these IVs going deeper into my flesh."
"Yosh, let her hug you all she wants, she's your mother who lives thousands of kilometers away." Seiji pipes in, holding some-sort of bag in one hand, and a bunch of controllers in the other.
Mirai immediately detaches herself from Yoshiyuki and latches herself onto Seiji, "don't think I didn't miss you too!"
"Of course," he tries to put his stuff down as gently as he can before hugging her back.
"Wooooow just jump onto him and leave me huh?" Yoshi scoffs.
"Oh shut up you're the one who wanted to get me off of you!" Mirai replies.
"I was being sarcastic!" He snickers.
"I could go over there and smother you in kisses," she threatens, immediately making her son try and back off as best he can.
"No!No!No! No don't you dare!"
Seiji just bursts out laughing.
"Soooooo Yoshiyuki, got any boyfriends yet?" she asks.
"Huh!?" Dragonfly immediately starts blushing like an idiot in the spotlight, "Ahhh...errr...n-no!I-I mean yes! I do!"
"Really!?" Mirai practically jumps onto the bed, "what's his name? Where's he from? How old is he? Does he like anime? Any disorders? Does he go to Tokyo U? What's he studying? What's his social security number? Have you two-"
"Mom! Slow down we've only been dating for a couple days so I don't know yet!" he responds flusteredly.
"Hmmm..." Her eyes shift across the room and points at Seiji, "You! Any boyfriends, girlfriends, or nonbifriends?"
Seiji just scratches the back of his head rather sheepishly and closes his eyes, "Well, yeah. Boyfriend actually!"
"Wow, you two both have boyfriends that you both approve of?" Mirai adjusts her glasses before climbing off of the bed for the last time.
"Surprisingly, he approves," the two lovers say in unison, locking eyes for a split second, before averting their gazes so it doesn't look suspicious.
"Uh-huh, and will I ever meet these said boyfriends?" She questions, before giggling, "I remember whenever one of you had a date, the other two of you would follow them around and spy."
Yoshiyuki just crosses his arms again and sighs, "No isn't really an option with you, you'll find out eventually."
"Nope."
"I'll talk to mine about it, he'll probably be fine with it," Seiji says, shrugging at Kojima.
Mirai suddenly feels her phone vibrating in her coat pocket, indicating that she's gotten a message.
'Mirai, heard you're in town. Meet me at the park at 12 tonight. You know which one,' and without even recognizing the phone number, she knows who it is almost instantaneously.
"Huh, so you actually showed up. In a way I'm not surprised."
"Pssh, I knew it was you the second I read your text. How'd you get my number anyways? I haven't lived in Japan for four years, nearly five at this point."
"Your sister gave it to me."
"Oh yeah right, you married my sister."
"Mhm, so where are you nowadays?"
"Right now I'm stationed in Argentina, then I'm in Russia."
"Of course, and how have you been?"
"Well I was great up until recently... wasn't expecting to almost lose him again..."
"I know how you feel, it's as hard on me as it is on you...you're crying."
"As if you know what I'm going through! You're the one who-"
"Mirai, he's my son too! And the moment I heard the news, I rushed to the hospital."
"You what?"
"I know, he's not supposed to know who I am, but I had to. There was something in my soul that pushed me to. And when I saw him clinging to life by machines, it shattered my heart into a million pieces."
"...I know that it's just...that was risky, too risky."
"I know, but you have to understand that I couldn't just stand there either."
"I couldn't either, that's why I came to Japan."
"Exactly. See? you can understand other people's feelings after all!"
"Oh shut up, I know what you do to y-"
"Shhhhhh!"
"What?"
"Someone might be listening."
"And how do you know that?"
"I can just feel it."
"Heh, you know, in a way... I kind of missed you."
A/N: Hey! Its me again, I uhhhh...haven't been very active because school+depression+anxiety isn't a good combo. But things should lighten up soon so fingers crossed. I hope you liked this chapter!