Disclaimer: Yadayadayada, not mine =)

A/N: It liiiiiiives!

Chapter Seven

Natsuki floated in a sea of colour that faded in and out of brightness. Even when she squeezed her eyes shut, it penetrated the lids, inescapable. It was nauseating and disorientating, and if there had been a surface she would have fallen down upon it. Every part of her ached as her stomach twisted, and even unable to feel what was supporting her, it was impossible to find relief or comfort.

She opened her mouth to groan, but no sound came, and the silence was deafening. She couldn't even hear her heart pounding, though she could feel it against her chest and in the throb of her ears. She tried to shout. There was nothing. She flailed, and the movement sent her into a spin she had no way of stopping. Panic set in, quicker than she was rotating, and as the colours whipped around her, her mind called desperately for Duran.

He came to her.

She wrapped her arms around him, his solidness stopping her from spinning, giving her something to ground herself. Pushing her face into his neck, sweet darkness overtook her vision. The coolness of his body eased her weary pains, and the gentle noise of his mechanical breathing soothed her, her own breathing slowing until it matched his, the silence broken. She could feel his snout in her hair, nuzzling.

She didn't try to think, or make sense of where she was, it wasn't necessary. Just being close to him, feeling their connection, it was enough. She felt safe. She felt calm.

She didn't care if she never left.

Haruka paced impatiently outside the hospital room where Natsuki's mangled body lay, unable to escape the sounds of the machines keeping the blunette alive. The wheezing of the unconscious girl being forced to breathe, the beeping of the monitor counting out each heartbeat. It was driving Haruka slowly mad, knowing the life of Kuga was dependant on machines that the hospital could so easily turn off.

The doctors had tried to make her leave; she wasn't family, or a partner, and she wasn't really allowed to stay, not while Kuga was in such critical condition, it was against the rules. She'd told them loudly where they could put their protocols, and security was very nearly involved. It wasn't until she told them who her father was, and that she was waiting for his assistant to arrive, to organize for their patient's transfer that they relented.

Natsuki was in such a bad state that they hadn't wanted to keep the life support on, but if she was going to be transferred, no doctor actively wanted her death on their hands. Let the mouthy blonde guard her door, let some other doctor pull the plug - as long as it didn't take too long. They were insistent that the blunette couldn't recover from such severe trauma, and she was taking a bed from a patient who might pull through.

They didn't know what she was.

So Haruka paced, unpausing until she saw Asahi hurrying down the hallway towards her, having been directed after given a brief description of Haruka's noisy self.

"Suzushiro-san, what on earth is going on?" he said, his tone issuing less of a demand for information, and more of a polite but bewildered request instead. Neatly dressed in a black turtle neck under a brown suit, he looked distinctly uncomfortable.

"I need you to authorise the transfer of a patient, from here to our private facilities."

Now he looked uncomfortable and confused.

"But if they were a private client-"

-they're not. They are to be treated as I would. No bill."

His uncomfortableness stiffened into a palpable tension at the request. Most of the Suzushiro money had come from construction, and the clinic was a new addition to their portfolio.

"I couldn't pos-"

"-You have to-"

"-I can't! Your father would never stand for it Suzushiro-san, the clinic is a business, not a charity. He'd be furious."

His voice was firm, but he couldn't help but wince when he saw the anger in the gaze that Haruka levelled on him.

"I don't care! You authorise it now Asahi-san, I want the transport here in less than an hour, and I want her taken care of!"

Her voice was furious, shaking, and tinged with an edge of panic. He tried to understand it, but couldn't. If it were Yukino that had been injured, she would already be at the clinic – benefitting from being a long term family friend – and he didn't know of Haruka having any other friends.

"I've said I can't Suzushiro-san-"

"-and I've said you will! We wouldn't be having this argument if it wasn't for her!"

"I should think that's obvi-"

"Baka! I'd be dead! Or at least unconscious! Are you telling me my father values my life so little, that we can't take care of the woman who saved my life?!"

He couldn't reply to that straight away. Instead he stood there swallowing, trying to absorb what it was exactly that Haruka was telling him.

"What…what do you mean saved your life?"

The question calmed Haruka down considerably. It meant he was actually considering her request. However it did put her in a spot of bother – she knew instinctively that the truth would be no good. Metallic dogs and monsters made of shadow, she was having trouble processing it herself, and she had been right there. She hesitated for a moment, and then went with something a little easier to believe.

"There was an explosion. It…more than one. When the first one went off Kuga-san pushed me back, saving me from the blast. She tried to get me behind something safe, but I was in shock, I couldn't move, so she used her own…her own body to shield me from shrapnel when the…the others went off. She's…she's…she's all torn up Asahi-san," she explained, her voice hitching as she remembered what had actually happened. It was as she trembled that Asahi noticed the blood still coating her hands, and how fragile she seemed all of a sudden.

He couldn't recall ever seeing her look that way.

It was that that made the decision for him. He would just have to talk to Haruka's father, and hopefully it wouldn't be too difficult – the man loved his daughter fiercely, so Asahi was sure he would be grateful to the person who had saved her from something so horrific. Counting to three, he calmed himself and gathered his resolution, and then he made the call.

After that, everything happened quite quickly. The transfer was tense, unhooking Natsuki from one set of machines to hook her up to another set, drips being taken out and put in, and the very real risk of her flat-lining hanging over everyone's heads. Haruka kept as close as she could without getting in the way, riding with Natsuki in the transport, her hands on the blunette's arm, only releasing it when the biker was being moved into a private room, settling into a chair next to the bed. She had to stay close.

Part of her almost clingy behaviour was down to the shock and trauma, she knew that. For a good while she'd dismissed Natsuki – no, Kuga-san - as nothing but trouble. A selfish rebel who used others to get her own way. A breaker of school law, using her wiles to be manipulative, someone completely unredeemable. Someone who had then gone and sacrificed herself, oh so noble and heroic, completely different to the truant who caused the Executive Team constant issues. It was a source of needling confusion for Haruka, who had never misjudged anyone so far as she knew. It was all definitely a big part of her behaviour.

It wasn't the part she was focusing on however. Perhaps defensively, she had retreated back into her role as Executive Director, forming reasons for her behaviour that were unrelated to her feelings. Whatever that…thing that had attacked them was, it had attacked two students, which meant it was Haruka's job to find out more. Kuga had been able to fight it with oddness of her own, which meant she had at least some information. She was also a student, regardless of her behaviour. That meant that Haruka had a responsibility to make sure that the blunette was going to be okay, and then to question her for information that the Executive Team could act on. The thing that had attacked them, there could be more like it, and that meant that Haruka needed the information as soon as possible – which meant that if she could, she needed to be there when Kuga-san woke up. So staying by her side, it was simply being sensible. It was nothing to do with her rapidly evolving feelings. The tension between them before it all went to hell. It was nothing to do with that at all.

Haruka clenched her fingers into tight fists, her nails digging painfully into her palms, eyes unable to look away from Natsuki. The woman was infuriating. She was just supposed to be proving she was decent, not…not throwing her life away for someone who had barely said a good word to her. Why would she do something like that? It didn't make sense!

She started up angrily from the chair, starting to pace, her footfalls matching the steady rhythmic beeping of the machines monitoring Natsuki's vital signs, tearing her gaze from the woman, staring instead at the blood on her hands. Would Natsuki have been in the apartment tonight if it wasn't for Haruka? Would she have been so badly injured if she wasn't defending Haruka? The guilt was nauseating, and she had to get away.

Making for the door, she reassured herself that she would come straight back, she just needed to clean herself up. It wouldn't do for Kuga to wake up and see the Executive Director in a bloody mess; that would be horrifying, and a bad example besides. The blunette wasn't likely to wake up the five minutes it would take to give herself a quick wash in the bathroom. It would be fine, she reassured herself, perfectly fine.

Marching down the empty hallway, around a corner and past the office her father used when he was at the clinic, she kept her head down until she reached the bathroom. It was a single occupancy room, the kind of bathroom where there's a rail next to the toilet, and an emergency cord next to the light switch, and Haruka was grateful for the privacy it afforded her. Running the water at the sink until it was warm, she soaped up her hands and started scrubbing. It took effort to make the blood come off, tainting the water flow a dirty red-brown. Haruka couldn't get the image of a torn and dying Natsuki out of her head, the shadowy beast trying to finish her, it was stuck like the blood under her fingernails, and Haruka was struck by a wave of helplessness.

Was that…thing…was that what Kuga had been talking about only earlier in the day? The reason she had to fight to survive? How did she cope with that alone? Why didn't she ask for help?

Haruka laughed a short bitter laugh. Why didn't Kuga ask for help? Why would she? Who would believe her, a woman already judged as a delinquent? The blonde knew for a fact that if she hadn't seen the creature herself, she wouldn't have believed it were real, especially if the information came from someone with a reputation like Kuga's.

That could change though. It all could change. When Kuga – Natsuki – woke up, Haruka could get her to explain everything. She could listen. She could help. She wasn't the Executive Director of the Suzushiro Executive Team for nothing. Even if the blunette was a delinquent, Haruka could see now that Natsuki was protecting the school just like she was. The biker had been right, they weren't so different.

Scrubbing the last of the blood from her hand, Haruka considered admitting it if the rebel woke up. When she woke up. Which would be soon, hopefully, meaning that Haruka had to hurry back.

Out of the toilet, back down the hall, nearly around the corner when she heard her father's voice in his office.

"Kuga-san? Hello, my name is Suzushiro Takehiko…no this isn't a sales call, it's concerning your daughter…she hasn't done anything…I'm calling you because she's in critical but stable condition at the Suzushiro Clinic…yes it's private…no Kuga-san, there won't be a bill…I own the clinic and your daughter protected mine during an explosion, it's the least we can do…that's all the information I have, do you need directions to the clinic?...You're not coming? But her condition is…Of course Kuga-san, I'll let you know if her condition changes...Only if she worsens?! But…Of course, I understand, sayonara Kuga-san"

A pause.

"Asahi-san…if Kuga-chan recovers, make sure one of the guest rooms at the house it set up to receive her. Her father doesn't live in the area, won't be coming to see her, and cared more about the potential bill than her well-being."

"But the records I looked through suggest she's his only child?"

"The man shouldn't be a damn father in the first place. He told me to only call if she worsens, otherwise she can fend for herself. He was more concerned about the condition of her apartment than her!"

"It's despicable, a seventeen year old girl fending completely for herself."

"I'll be damned if a girl who'd use her own body to protect my daughter is going to have to fend for herself. She'll stay with us as long as she needs."

"Are you sure Suzushiro-sama? Her records show she's troubled, a year behind in school and a delinquent-"

"-Would an out and out delinquent act so selflessly Asahi-san? Look at the poor girl's situation – a dead mother, and father who views her as nothing more than a financial drain! She might as well be an orphan! She stays with us."

"Very well sir, I'll arrange it immediately."

Haruka heard movement towards the door, and quickly darted around the corner, unwilling to be caught eavesdropping. The word 'orphan' echoed with what Natsuki had said earlier, and the guilt twisted again in Haruka's gut. She hadn't realised – plenty of students lived in dorms and apartments, but they were all supported. Haruka had just assumed that Natsuki's situation was the same, and that she'd been squandering her potential in a selfish act of childishness. She knew better now though, and she was determined to be a better Executive Director for it. After all, if she attempted to understand why people were delinquents, she stood a better chance of being able to nip their behaviour in the bud.

She'd start with Natsuki.

Set in her resolve, she opened the door to the blunette's room, and then froze.

Sitting on Natsuki's bed, playing with her hair, making Haruka's face suddenly twitch unpleasantly, was the bubuzuke.

Shizuru.