By early Tuesday morning, Kirie can't keep sitting around in Eyes' loft doing nothing - especially because she doesn't have all that much vacation time to use. Eyes, to his credit, doesn't disagree with her returning to work - she does, after all, spend her day in a building with the police - but insists on his driver taking her there instead of allowing her to take a public train.

"Do you really think we're still at risk?" she asks, looking over her shoulder at him as they descend the steps outside his building to the waiting car. "It's been pretty quiet, you know."

"Being complacent is not the appropriate response to a threat," he answers. "I expect an update from the investigators this morning."

She sighs. "Do you really think they're going to find anything?"

He doesn't lie. "No."

"Ugh…"

"Here." He steps around her as they reach the waiting car, coming forward to open the door to the back seat for her. "I will contact you if I hear anything of importance."

"Such a gentleman," she teases him, placing her shoulder bag inside the car before turning to say goodbye (and tell him she can open her own damn door next time). For a split second she wonders, almost casually, why there's a red dot on his chest - no, actually, his collar -

She stops thinking and instinct kicks in.

"GET DOWN!"

Eyes doesn't move. Kirie lunges for him just as she hears the faint sound of a rifle firing behind her - it's not too far away, in fact it's entirely too close for her to be comfortable with it - and as they're falling to the ground she feels a flash of lightning along the outside of her upper arm, followed by the sound of bullets uselessly striking the stairs behind them.

"KIRIE!" She has never heard Eyes Rutherford sound so… human. Panicked is probably the right word in this case, truthfully, but she gives herself some leeway there considering she's probably just been shot. Or at least nicked. "What - are you - are you - ?!"

"I'm fine." She rolls off of him, onto her back, and stares up at the sky; everything seems bright and saturated and she reminds herself to breathe, that she has at least a few seconds of adrenaline until the pain arrives, that there will only be blood and pain and all of it is temporary. "You're okay?"

"Yamada-san!" He sits up and calls for the driver, who Kirie can hear is already out of the car (like an idiot) and rushing over to them. "Call an ambulance. Now. Please."

"I believe I saw the shooter," the driver blurts out, kneeling down beside them. "Lying atop of the building across the street, I only happened to look when I heard the first shot - "

Kirie glances up at his face. "Black hair?"

"Y - yes - it was tied back. And the gun had a very long barrel."

"Forget the ambulance - " She tries to roll onto her side and cringes. Bad idea. The adrenaline is going fast. The colors of the sky are fading. "Eyes. Get my phone."

She doesn't have to look at him to know he's bewildered. "You have been shot, Kirie, you must be taken to the hospital - "

"I said get my phone! Let me call Kiyotaka and then you can do what you want with me. It's not like I'm going to die from this." She manages to sit up; a glance at the arm of her coat confirms it's both torn and already soaked with blood, and a glance is really all she needs to get pissed about it. That asshole has no idea how long it took her to find a peacoat in cream.

Eyes reaches into the back of the car (staying on his knees, she notices, in case the shooter is still around - smart man) and comes out with her bag; she doesn't bother to wait on him and instead digs inside for her phone herself, using the hand on her left arm to find the device, flip it open, and navigate through the contacts list to Narumi Kiyotaka. Beside them, the driver is on his own phone, his tanned face lined with stress. "I can contact an ambulance, but it may be faster to drive to the hospital, considering how close we are…"

"That's fine," she says to him; then, to the man who answers her call on the first ring - she has to give Kiyotaka credit for being an early riser - "The man who threatened Eyes Rutherford is - or just was - on top of the Mizuho Financial Building three blocks west of Waseda Station. His name is Coen… something. Ugh - Smit. He is armed and dangerous."

Eyes seems to have just realized that Kirie took a bullet for him. Literally. She spares only a glance at the horrified expression on his face before refocusing her energy on her phone call. "Got it?" she asks.

"I'll send units immediately," he responds. "But moreover, you sound a little… weak, Kirie-chan. Is everything - "

"No time," she says, and closes her phone with a snap. Beside her, Eyes has stripped off his suit coat and is now beginning to wrap it around her injured arm. "Okay," she says, biting back a groan of pain, "now we can go to the hospital."

The driver cautiously stands, glancing around; a small crowd has gathered and the doors of the building have been thrown open, but there have been no further shots, thankfully. "Would you like some help getting up, Tsuchiya-san?"

"No, I can - "

Eyes bends down, slides an arm under her knees, and lifts her off the ground. "You are not walking," he says, and seemingly effortlessly deposits her in the backseat of the car before grabbing her bag and sliding in beside her. "Yamada-san, let's hurry. Please."

"Y - yes sir!"

Kirie exhales, cradling her wrapped forearm against her side and forcing down the waves of pain long enough to manage a joke. "You know," she says to her companion, as the driver hurries back to the front of the car and they almost immediately lurch into motion, "being a gentleman is what got you in trouble in the first place."

Eyes leans forward and cradles his head in his hands. "Please stop talking."

She'd laugh, but that would probably hurt, so she settles for closing her eyes and waiting out the rest of the ride to the hospital.

"You can go, you know."

"No."

"Seriously. I'm not going to die. And there are guards right outside."

"No."

"Don't you think you're being just a little unreasonable?"

Eyes gives Kirie what may be the coldest look he can muster from the chair beside her hospital bed. "No."

She sighs. It's nearly noon, and Eyes has been glued to her side almost the entire time that she's been in the hospital - save the time she spent in a trauma bed having her bullet wound cleaned, stitched closed, and bandaged by expert hands. The sniper's bullet had really only nicked her right forearm, but thanks to its speed, the damage and blood loss had been somewhat substantial.

Since then she's been made comfortable with some pain pills and placed in a private room (she can only guess whose doing that was), and altogether she's not unhappy with the way things have turned out. After all, Eyes wasn't killed and that's what matters.

But now he refuses to leave. He's been sitting by the side of her bed with his bloodstained suit coat in his lap for damn near an hour and a half, saying very little but making a series of concerned and angry faces. Neither his nor Kirie's phone have buzzed with any updates, but she knows he's contacted at least Kiyotaka.

She wishes he would just go away for a little while. The pain medication is making her drowsy and she really wants to get some damn sleep.

"Hey," she starts, "I'm sure one of those officers outside would give you a ride home if you wanted."

He frowns. "No."

"Seriously, Eyes. Go home." She sighs, fidgeting with the buttons on the side of her bed. "There is nothing you can do here. I'm fine."

"I am not leaving."

"Why the hell not?"

"Because this is my fault."

"Oh for god's sake." She rolls her eyes. "It's not your fault that I got nicked in the arm by some stupid Hunter with bad aim."

"That is not what I mean."

She opens her mouth to reply and is interrupted by a knock on the door of her room - followed immediately by Narumi Kiyotaka letting himself right in. "Well, well!" he addresses them, a broad smile on his face, "congratulations, Kirie-chan! Your impressive details - ah, and getting shot, of course - led us right to Coen Smit, who we believe is responsible for the recent threats on Eyes Rutherford's life. Well done!"

She snorts. "Glad I could help."

Eyes leaves his chair for the first time in a while, standing and turning to face the detective with clenched fists. "Do you think this to be some kind of joke?"

Kiyotaka doesn't waver, a smile still plastered across his face. "Oh, no, not at all. I'm quite grateful to Kirie-chan for putting herself in the line of fire so she could save your life."

The pianist takes a step forward; Kirie feels some shock as she notices just how close they are in height now, and - more importantly - how close to Kiyotaka's face Eyes has gotten. This does not feel like a good situation. "Her life was in serious danger," he says, his voice cold, "and perhaps if you had done your part to the extent with which you promised - "

"Eyes." Kirie leans forward in her bed. "Stop it. I'm fine."

"Yes, Eyes, she is fine. And we can all be thankful for that." Kiyotaka shrugs, turning his back on the pale-haired young man. "Well, I only wanted to let you know that we have your Hunter in custody. I suppose I'll go see Ayumu, since I'm already here." He raises a hand in a casual wave as he exits. "Rest up, Kirie-chan~"

She watches him close the door, then sighs loudly, sinking back into her bed. "That asshole doesn't know when to quit, does he…"

Eyes doesn't respond. For nearly a minute he stands in place, fists clenched, his face blank - and then suddenly he moves to the door and leaves as well, closing it firmly behind him without a single word to Kirie.

She blinks, dismayed. But she's not going to complain. "At least now I can get some damn sleep," she mutters, jamming her finger into the button that lowers the head of her bed.

It's late afternoon and dinner has already been served when Eyes returns, dressed in a fresh set of clothes and carrying her overnight bag. "Hey," she greets him, studying the calm expression on his face, "you okay?"

"Yes." He places the bag on the floor and resumes his seat beside her bed, watching as she uses a bulky remote to turn down the volume on a television mounted to the ceiling. "I apologize for leaving so abruptly. I needed to… calm down."

"Yeah. I can understand that."

He nods at the bag. "I believe you will be discharged shortly, so I returned home and retrieved a change of clothing for you."

"And you too, from the looks of things." She grins a little. "Sorry for bleeding all over your jacket."

He sighs, shaking his head. The room is quiet for a moment before he speaks again, his voice steady. "I have not yet thanked you for saving my life."

"Eh." She shrugs. "You don't need to. It was instinct."

"Even so… I cannot help but wonder what I would have done if you had been killed." He doesn't break eye contact with her. "The intent of this Hunter was more than likely to kill me. He threatened you based on what he assumed from your being seen in public with me, and thought - perhaps correctly - that doing so would draw me out into his view. I do not want to think about what might have occurred if his aim had been less true, or if, perhaps…" His voice trails off. "... a number of things might have happened instead."

"Well, you don't need to think about it. Because it didn't happen." She rubs absently at her bandaged upper arm. "I barely got hurt, that guy's with the police, and you're sitting here alive."

"But to take a bullet for a Blade Child…" His expression is troubled. "Even if the amount of pain you have experienced is as minimal as you claim it is - "

"Look, it's not about that." She waves a hand at him. "Like I said, it was instinct. I saw the sight on your shirt and just - jumped. It's not like I thought about it first, all "hmm, would a Watcher normally do something like this?" or whatever."

"But you might have thought about your actions first, in the past."

At that she pauses, because she wants to tell him he's wrong. But he's not.

"Yeah," she admits, "you're right. A long time ago, my default reaction might have been to just stay out of it. Because that's what I was supposed to do."

He nods slowly. She bites down on her bottom lip, thinking, and then continues: "But you know how I am. Even with the role I was playing, I've never been good at doing the whole… stand by and watch everyone tear themselves to pieces… thing." She manages a slight smile. "Letting you kids shoot each other up in a high school was bad enough, and then it all got worse…"

"I do remember that." He nods again. "You have… compassion."

"I guess." She rubs at her bandaged arm again; it's starting to ache and she hopes she'll get a prescription for something before she's discharged. "So really, none of what just happened should be a surprise to you, should it?"

At this he shakes his head. "I am still surprised."

"Why?"

"The Watcher I once knew might have wanted to save my life. But she ultimately would not have been able to."

She considers that for a minute, and then she drops her hand into her lap, twining her fingers together. "I guess things have changed since then," she admits. "And probably more than I realized. But… the most important thing is that I'm not dead, and you're not dead, so you don't have to worry about that. And that Coen guy is with the police, so he won't be bothering you. And that means you can go back to living your life, and I can go back to my apartment - at least once this shit with the tabloids blows over, too - and we can seriously try to stop talking about Blade Children and Watchers and everything that happened in the past."

He studies her face, and she's about to ask him what's wrong when he finally speaks, nodding slowly as he does so. "I agree."

"Okay." She taps her thumbs together. "So no more thanking me for saving your life or - anything like that, alright?"

He looks like he would prefer to protest, but also knows that agreeing is the safer option. "Yes."

"Good." She tosses the sheets off her legs. "Now go get me discharged so I can get the hell out of here. Hospital food is just as bad as I remember."

He stands, a slight smile creasing his mouth. "On that sentiment, I will fully agree with you."