K hung up the phone and faced the teams of Nittle Grasper and Bad Luck, minus Hiro, whom K had just been on the phone with. For once, the gun-brandishing manager was grim-faced. "I have good news and bad news," he said into the tense silence. "The good news, is that Shuichi will make a full recovery." He let the sighs of relief die down before continuing. "The bad news--Yuki-san might not make it."

Suguru gasped. The rest of the room was silent for a moment.

Sakano mumbled something about 'waking nightmares' before fainting. Tohma stared blankly at the opposite wall looking like he was torn between sobbing or breaking something--preferably someone's neck.

Suguru took a deep breath in and out, then another. This news was so unexpected; and not only would it harm Yuki if he didn't make it, it would harm Shuichi, which would harm Bad Luck, and it was likely that Suguru would lose a lead singer--and a friend.

Tohma inhaled deeply and rose from his seat. He mumbled a few curses under his breath and headed for the door. His eyes were glazed over; he felt like crying, whether it was for Yuki, or Shuichi, or both, he didn't know.

"Where are you going?" asked Seguru suddenly.

"To see Mr. Shindou. And possibly check on Eiri, if I'm permitted."

"I'm coming," the youth replied immediately, standing up so fast that he knocked his chair over.

Tohma looked surprised for all of one second. "As you wish." That said he left the room and headed for his awaiting limo.

Suguru took surprisingly long, graceful strides and at least half of the room thought that they were looking at a darker-haired version of the president of NG. Ryuichi probably would have commented, but he was crying, hugging Kumagoru close.

"You don't trust me." Straight forward and to the point. Tohma was exactly 20 paces ahead of his cousin.

"You're right," Suguru replied evenly. "I don't."

Tohma looked back. "I really do not wish to harm him."

Suguru glared daggers at his cousin. "That doesn't mean you have his best interests at heart, either, Tohma. You've been known to toy with that boy's emotions and I'm not taking any chances."

Tohma smiled to himself. Suguru was very right, but at the same time very wrong. True, Tohma didn't much care for the boy, but Yuki did, and that was all Tohma needed to want to protect the singer. "I didn't know you cared."

The young keyboardist sighed. "It's hard to know that guy so well and not go to one extreme or another. I don't see how anyone could hate Shuichi; and I very well don't, so I care about him very much. He just seems to get under your skin."

Tohma stopped for a minute to let his cousin catch up to him. They didn't get along well, but he wanted--needed--the company.

Suguru, suspicion dropped for the moment, glanced curiously at Tohma's face, then jumped in front of his cousin to get a good look at his face. "You're not crying, are you, Tohma-san?"

Tohma touched his cheek to find that it was wet...VERY wet. Signaling that his was, in fact, crying. "Hn."

Suguru smiled pleasantly and fell once more into step beside his relative.

The walk to the car continued in a relatively comfortable silence. Tohma told his driver where they were headed and opened the door for Suguru.

Still with the pleasant smile on his face, Suguru slid into the backseat for the ride to the hospital.

Tohma got in beside his cousin and slammed the door. He turned his cell phone off.

They rode in silence.

When they got there, the keyboardist followed his cousin to the front desk, then to the room Shuichi was staying in. When the nurse opened the door for them, Suguru had to hold back tears at the sight of his lead singer lying in the bed, looking so helpless--it hadn't sunk in until now.

Tohma who had stopped crying during the car ride, felt tears slide down his cheeks. His put a hand over his mouth and made a choking sound that resembled a sob. If this was his reaction to Shuichi, then he wasn't sure if he wanted tosee Yuki.

Suguru, meanwhile, hadn't noticed his cousin since they'd walked in. He pulled a chair next to his friend's bedside and sobbed openly. Being young, he was not afraid to show his tears.

Tohma motioned for the nurse to leave and shut the door after she left. He walked up be hind his relative and put a hand on his shoulder. 'God I'm such a girl.'

Suguru noticed, but didn't acknowledge, at first, Tohma's hand on his shoulder. He did, however, steel himself and stop sobbing. He sniffled once...twice. "Eiri-san is through that door, Tohma." His voice trembled. "You and I both know that he's who you want to see the most."

Tohma nodded. "I doubt I'll be able to handle it if this is how I'm reacting to Shuichi." It was the first time he'd called the singer by his first name.

The keyboardist looked up. After a moment he stood, and put a reassuring hand on his cousin's back. "Come on," he said softly. "I'll come."

"Let's wait til Shuichi wakes up." Tohma looked over to the boy in the bed. "Maybe he'd like to come with us. Besides I think the doctors are in the right now."

"All right." Suguru sat back down in his chair and gazed at Shuichi. "I never knew how much I cared," he said with a hollow little laugh.

"Neither did I." Tohma took a seat on the armrest of Suguru's chair, since it was the only other chair in the room besides the coutch, and that was bolted to the wall and to far away from the bed for his liking.

Shuichi chose this moment to open his eyes and groan weakly; and for a moment he thought he was seeing double--before he realized that he was looking at his two coworkers. Wait--what the hell was Tohma doing here? He looked bleakly at them. "Hi," he said in a bewildered voice.

Tohma offered a weak smile in greeting. "How are you feeling?"

"I'll live," he said with a little smile in return. "How's work?"

Tohma rolled his eyes at that. "Boring, chaotic in your department, and depressing." He wiped away a few stray tears.

Seguru smiled a little when Shuichi's eyes widened. But even Shuichi had the sense not to comment on this unusual sight. "So," Suguru said, steering the subject away from Tohma's emotions, "Have you spoken to Nanako-kun lately?" he asked.

Shuichi shook his head. "Nah, not since Wednesday." Wednesday had been the day of the crash.

Tohma nodded. He was listening to the noise coming from Yuki's room, he heard a door close and then silence. "I think that the doctors are finished with Eiri."

Suguru looked at his lead singer and chuckled. Shuichi's eyes had opened wider and he looked pleadingly at Suguru. Taking the hint, the keyboardist looked at his cousin. "Let's take Shuichi along, shall we?"

Tohma nooded his consent and offered his hand to Shuichi.

Suguru did the same and Shuichi took both hands, and, with heavy support, was able to stand up. He limped valiantly to Yuki's bedside and took the chair nearest the bed. Luckily there were four chairs in this room.

Tohma took the seat to Shuichi's right and scanned over Eiri. If he was crying in Shuichi's room, he was having a breakdown now. Eiri looked...he looked...not like Eiri. He was so pathetic; it was scary to see the once strong man confined to a hospital bed. There were tubes carrying both medicine AND blood to and from Yuki's body. Some were in his arms, his nose, and well...everywhere. The dark circles and pale skin completed the depressing picture.

Shuichi gazed at his slightly hysterical president for a few long seconds before doing something he never thought he'd do. He hugged his boss. It was a friendly hug, one of comfort; and after a moment he too was bawling his eyes out.

Yuki coughed and hacked up some blood, he was half asleep and most of his body was numb. He REALLY wished his throat was. It was so dry and it hurt like hell. He heard voices crying...Tohma...Shuichi...and he could tell that there was one other in the room, but he didn't care to open his eyes to see who.

Suguru rather felt he was intruding upon this little moment and sat on a chair some ten feet away. They all noticed Yuki cough, but no one really registered it besides the keyboardist of Bad Luck, who was at his side in an instant. "Yuki-san, are you all right?" he asked worriedly.

Yuki grunted in pain and turned his head to the side keeping his eye shut tighed. He coughed again and a drop of blood ran down his chin. Tohma near passed out when he saw it. He had a phobia of seeing other people's blood.

Shuichi, sniffling like mad, reached out and wiped the blood gently away with his sleeve, as much for Tohma's sake as for Yuki's.

Yuki felt someone wipe the blood from his mouth, but couldn't tell who it was, he opened his eyes to check, but he was greeted with a never ending darkness. "Shu? Is that you?" Yuki's voice was raspy and low due to his dry and unused vocal chords.

"Yeah, Yuki, it's me," he said quietly. "Seguchi-san and Seguru-san are here, as well."

Yuki kept his eyes open though he still could not see. "Hn."

"How are you feeling?" asked the singer softly.

"Better then I was." Yuki reached out for Shuichi desprately needing contact to know that there was in fact a world beyond the sight that he didn't have.

Shuichi, noticing this little struggle, grasped his fiancee's hand tightly and pressed it to his cheek, a gentle reminder that he was always there.

Yuki smiled when he felt Shuichi take his hand. "So how long have I been bedridden?"

"I'm not sure," he said. "I've been asleep almost as much as you..." he looked at Suguru. "How long's it been, Suguru?" he asked.

"About six days," the afore mentioned keyboardist said. Shuichi winced. That was quite a while.

Yuki grunted and sat up in bed. "I wouldn't do that if I were you." It was the first thing Tohma had said since the novelist woke up. Yuki merely grunted and resigned himself to leaning on the head board. "Anyone want to tell me what's up with my eyes? They were fine the first time I woke up."

"Why?" asked Shuichi, immediately concerned.

Yuki looked in the direction of the voice eyes looking straight through his lover. "You haven't noticed that I'm blind?"

Before Shuichi could panic, Seguru jumped in. "That's normal, Eiri-san," he said calmingly. "It's not permanent; it's just a result of brain damage. You must have bumped your head."

"It got slammed into a dashboard, no shit I bumped my head." He rubbed his temples. "And I need a new car. Did they catch the idiot who hit us, by the way?"

Everyone fell silent. After a moment, Shuichi spoke quietly. "He died in the crash." These words rang in deafening silence for a few seconds.

Yuki rested his head on the headboard. 'Thank god the sedatives are kicking in.' He began to drift into unconsiousness, which, to the others present, probably looked like he was dying on them, since he heard the heart monitor slow. Yuki whispered something for only Shuichi's ears before he fell asleep. "Even if I do die, I'll never leave you. Good-byes never last forever."

For a moment the pop star's heart stopped beating--until he saw that Yuki's own heart hadn't. Breathing a sigh of relief, he realized he was still crying. It was hard to stop, knowing how much pain Yuki was in. Shuichi grasped his lover's hand tightly, never wanting to let go. 'You're not going to die, Yuki,' he thought. 'You already said everything would be okay...I'll never be okay if you're not with me.'

Tohma was about to have another break down. He motioned with his head toward the door when he caught Suguru's eyes. He put a reassuring hand on Shuichi's shoulder. "I'm sure he'll be fine. We'll be back to check on you two in a day or two."

Shuichi nodded silently, never taking his eyes off Yuki. What everyone else didn't know, was that the blonde writer was still beautiful no matter how many tubes he had in his body, or how many bruises to mar his once flawless skin. Shuichi knew, though.

Yuki subconciously mumbled Shuichi's name in his sleep.

Upon hearing this the tears flowed faster down the singer's cheeks and he sobbed quietly. He didn't know what he'd do without his Yuki in his life.

Blood flowed out from the corner of Yuki's mouth and his heart monitor spead up for a minute before slowing back down.

Shuichi gazed at his lover and brushed his lips against Yuki's. "Why did it have to be you?" he asked ears that couldn't hear him. "I can't stand to see you like this..." He squeezed Yuki's hand, though gently because he didn't want to hurt him. He fell asleep, tears still flowing, with his head rested on Yuki's chest to listen to his heart beat.

Scene

Doctors rushed into room 102. One of the nurses ripped Shuichi away from Yuki as they quickly crowded around the novelist. A machine had gone off in his doctor's lab, signaling that Yuki's heart had, in fact, stopped beating. That clearly was not a good thing, not at all. They jumped his heart a few times then stood back a little to see what happened.

Shuichi, on the floor and in pain, was disoriented. He caught enough snatches of conversation to piece together the face that his lover's heart had stopped. Unfortunately, his panicking self couldn't see past the solid wall of doctors and nurses that had been built around the writer, and all he could do was wait.

Yuki's doctor backed away when nothing happened and signaled for the other's to do the same, to let the now dead man's lover see him.

"Yuki!" cried the panic-stricken boy, streaking forward despite pain in his ribs. His eyes were blurred with yet more tears and he grasped his lover's hand tightly. "Yuki, please, please wake up!" he pleaded upon deaf ears.

Yuki was somewhere...where? He didn't know, but he saw a light, a blinding light, then darkness. He heard Shuichi, but he was crying...why was he crying? Something about not waking up...did that mean that Yuki was dead? No he he couldn't be, refused to be, he promised Shuichi that everything would be fine and he'd be damned if he broke his lover's heart! He heard Shuichi call out to him again...A solitary beep sounded throughout the room...follow shortly after by an other, and other as the formed a pattern that caused the blonde man's doctor to gasp. "He's...?"

Shuichi's eyes widened with shock and joy, then he laughed aloud. "He's ALIVE!" he said, and immediately got up and danced across the room.

The doctor motioned for the others to leave aside from two of Yuki's nurses whom he told to wait outside. "Ten minutes, no more no less." With that the doctor left the room to wait until he could go in again.

Yuki grimaced. "He gone?"

The pink-haired singer laughed again--everything was five times funnier than usual now. "Yeah, he is," he replied.

A pause.

"Oh, Yuki, I was so scared," he said quietly.

Yuki opened his unseeing eyes. "So was I. I didn't want to leave you...to break your heart..."

Shuichi gently stroked his lover's face, just savoring his voice and the simple fact that he was here to speak with him.

"Shuichi, promise me something, okay?"

"Hmm?" Shuichi's hand never stopped moving across Yuki's face.

Yuki smiled at the contact. "You will never EVER let me smoke again in my life!"

The pop star laughed. "So all this time I've been nagging you to quit, and now you realize how smart I am?" he teased.

Yuki laughed a bit and followed the hand to the arm, to the shoulder, to the neck...to the face. "...and that you will never follow me into death should I die..."

Shuichi blinked once...twice. "Yuki..." was all that came out.

Yuki moved his hand to the back of Shuichi's neck and brought the singer's face closer to his own. "Promise me..." Their lips were an inch apart.

"I promise," said Shuichi. And it was a promise he intended to keep.

"I'll hold you to that..." Yuki closed the short distance between the two. His doctor walked in a moment later to the sight and turned a bright red. 'I can always check on him later.' He walked out of the room and down the hall followed by two giggling nurses.

Shuichi savored Yuki's mouth upon his...for a few seconds he thought he'd never feel that sensation again. He ran a hand through his lover's unbrushed hair.

Yuki moaned and stroked the hairs on Shuichi's neck. 'He's going to have a mullet if he doesn't cut it soon...'

Shuichi kept one hand tangled in his lover's hair, and the other stroked his face. 'If only Yuki weren't in such bad condition,' he thought mournfully. He really had no intention of breaking the kiss any time soon.

Yuki ran a hand down his lover's chest to his pantline. He pulled away. "Just because we can't have sex doesn't mean I can't make you feel good."

Shuichi licked his lover's bottom lip. "That's not very fair to you," he said breathily.

"You can make it up to me during our honeymoon."

"That's a plan, then," Shuichi said.

Yuki smiled and captured Shuichi's lips again. He moved his hand to Shuichi's crotch and squeezed; his other hand traveled along Shuichi's back to his butt. "You may have to help a bit, koi."

Shuichi "mmph"'ed to show that he understood, and his tongue found its way to Yuki's ear again.

Yeki gasped at the sensation and moved his hands to the inside of Shuichi's hospital pants. 'No boxers...'

Shuichi's tongue gently licked the sensitive area between his lover's jawline and ear as Yuki moaned and his free hand traveled up and down Shuichi's back. He was frustrated not knowing what spots he could and could not touch.

Shuichi moved his mouth back to Yuki's lips and kissed him passionately, still remembering how it'd felt to think he would never feel those lips against his again.

Yuki growled into the kiss. One hand stroked his lover while the other twitched. "Shu..."

"Mm..."

Shuichi pressed one hand on the back of Yuki's head and kissed with more force, still savoring the taste of his fiancee.

Yuki moaned and moved his hand to toy with the singer's balls. At least now he could put the tubes to good use and use his imagination...

Shuichi whimpered and licked his lover's collarbone, then nipped at his neck gently.

Yuki made a noise that sounded like a mix between a laugh and a groan. "Mmm...Love you." By now the singer was panting lightly. "I love you too..." he said, barely audible. Shuichi suddenly felt tears on his face again and he buried his head--gently--in his lover's shoulder. They splashed onto the bed. "Yuki...I'm so glad you're here with me." Yuki began to pet the back of Shuichi's head as he stared at the ceiling. "Me too." Shuichi pressed into the hand that was still toying with his privates and made a little whining noise in the back of his throat. Yuki laughed and massaged Shuichi's balls as he moved his other hand away from Shuichi's hair and to the delicate tip of his penis.

Shuichi gasped and bit down on the sheets to prevent himself from crying out.

Then someone burst through the door.

Mika took one look at the scene and began screaming her head off. Yuki froze when he heard the scream, he REALLY hoped the sound hadn't come from the person he thought it came from. "Shu," His voice was cracked and almost a whisper. "Please tell me that's not my sister." Shuichi sighed, rubbed his eyes, and said, "Okay, I won't." As he looked at the hysterical woman, he realized half the hospital must be awake now. He ran over and covered her mouth with his hand.

Mika saw the flash of silver on the boy's left hand and stopped screaming, but snatched said hand and held it up to eye level. She looked from Shuichi, to Yuki, and back again. "Oh, no. No. No WAY."

Yuki rubbed his eyes, true he couldn't see, but he very well knew what Mika was 'no-ing' about. "Mika?"

"Eiri," she said in a dangerous voice, "Show me your hand."

Yuki flinched, he thought he'd never be afraid of his sister, but then again he also thought that he would never love another man. Reluctantly he held up his hand the silver band sparkling in the dim lighting.

"That," she said quietly, "is what I thought." She took a deep breath in. "YOU IDIOTS! WHAT THE HELL IS THE MATTER WITH YOU?" she screamed.

"Mika, shut the fuck up, sit down and I'll explain." Yuki put his hand down and sighed.

Mika stood there for a moment, breathing like a winded horse, and pulled up a chair next to the bed. Shuichi pulled up another chair--on the other side of the bed. 'I always was scared of her,' he thought.

Mika, in the meantime, sent continuous death glares in the singer's direction.

Yuki, should he have seen the glares would have attacked his sister, but as it was the only thing he could do was stare blankly at the ceiling, yet another thing to explain in the already complicated story. "First, I don't see what's so wrong about us being engaged." He paused to let his sister say something to that, if she hadn't gone into shock or something.

"What about our father! What is he going to think? I really wouldn't put it past him to disown you, Eiri, and I don't want that to happen to you!"

"Do you really think that I haven't already thought of that!" He spat back. "I really don't care what he says think or does! I love Shuichi and if he doesn't like it then too fucking bad!"

Mika was taken aback for a moment, before looking down at her hands. "You...He really makes you happy, doesn't he?"

Yuki turned his head in the direction of his sister's voice, he had a feeling that his lover was blushing. "Yes, he does."

"That's...really all I want, Eiri." She looked into her brother's unseeing eyes. "I just want you to be happy. If the brat can make that happen...so be it." At that point she stood up and walked toward the door, stopping in the doorway. "But...having sex in the hospital isn't a very good idea."

She shut the door behind her.