Chapter Two: Awakening

When Akihiko resurfaced for the second time, he felt much more awake than before and unbearably restless.

He felt an unknown weight pressing down on his stomach, and found while his head seemed unbearably heavy, his legs didn't seem to want to move.

Damn it all.

Sighing, he decided to open his eyes. He slowly lifted his heavy lids, only to be blinded by a bright light. He instinctively moved his right hand to shield his eyes, and heard a sudden squeak beside him.

A woman had been holding his hand.

More than that, it seemed the second she realized he was awake, she burst into tears and gave him a nearly back breaking hug.

"USAMI-SENSI!"

WHACKJOB!?

Akihiko was pretty sure he had no idea who this crazy woman was, even as she clung to him and got the front of his gown moist with her tears as she babbled nonsense. He awkwardly patted the top of her head with his left hand as his eyes readjusted to the new light, trying to rack his scrambled brains as to who she was.

When she finally pulled away from him, he got a better look at her. Her bright green eyes were filled with relief, and her slightly greasy strawberry blonde hair was neatly tied back into a bun, small pieces of her bangs escaping from their bobby pins. She was wearing what seemed to be a formal gray suit, and when he looked at her slightly familiar face again he noticed her smudged makeup and the imprint of his scratchy hospital sheets lightly indented on her left cheek.

To him, it looked like she had been here for quite some time, possibly even sleeping overnight at his bedside while holding his hand.

He must be important to her, but if that was true, why couldn't he remember even her name?

A sudden idea struck his mind, making him panic before he spoke.

"You're not...my wife, are you…?" he asked cautiously.

Her eyes bugged out of her head before she nearly doubled over in laughter.

This chick just keeps getting weirder and weirder he thought.

"No..no.." she gasped for breath as she wiped tears from her eyes, still giggling. "Really...Usami Akihiko? My Usami-sensei? Straight!? Ha! That'd be a clear sign that it was the end of the world for sure."

Akihiko's jaw hung open at her words.

Is she calling me gay!?

Is it really THAT hard to believe that I could be straight...a slight tick formed in his jaw.

"Well then, if you're not my wife, then who are you?" he said grumpily, crossing his arms across his chest.

She gave him a confused look.

He doesn't know who I am? Maybe the anesthesia just hasn't worn off yet...she thought.

Shrugging, she stepped aside and smoothed the front of her pants and pushed most of her bangs behind her ear, before giving him a deep bow.

"I am Aikawa Eri, your editor and close friend. We've worked together many years, and together we've produced many best selling books and BL mangas over the years," she stood back up straight and gave him a thumbs up. "Basically, you use that genius head of yours to crank out good stories and I fix 'em up. Simple, right?"

"Though," she placed her hands under her chin and looked dreamily off into the distance. "I really do love working with you when we need to produce the next volume of one of your BL series - my heart starts racing just thinking about it! Where will the characters go next? Will the tsundere uke finally admit his feelings!? Will they think of some new position!? Or, will a rival seme come into the picture, potentially threatening the state of the couple's relationship and bring out the main seme's fiercer side that's never been revealed before!? " the last thought made her squeal and blush with delight.

Meanwhile, the banged up and bruised Akihiko seemed stupified at Aikawa's words, still frozen in shock as she took his hands again and began babbling to him about the newest creation he had come up with - though still numb to her words, the only thing he managed to catch was "sexy time on a ferris wheel".

"Okay okay, I get it." he sighed, lightly pushing his fangirling editor away.

He closed his eyes and massaged his forehead, trying to rid himself of the almost certain migraine he would have later. Finally adjusted and feeling fully awake, he was suddenly aware of just how achy he felt. When he opened his eyes again, they widened suddenly at the sight of his casted legs.

Aikawa froze and fell silent as she saw her author begin to process his condition.

Akihiko couldn't feel his legs.

Panic welled in his chest as he removed the blanket from himself, revealing his bandaged torso.

What the-

Suddenly stiffening, he slowly lifted his hands to feel his head. The rough gauze scraped against his fingertips and he hissed quietly in pain when he applied pressure to areas on his skull, his heart rate quickening when he realized just how badly injured he was.

He met Aikawa's eyes with a slightly panicked gaze.

"What happened?"

HOLY CRUD.

A BUNCH of people reviewed/followed/favorited this story after I posted the last chapter and said such nice things! (Except YOU, Allison. Be happy, this story is mostly dedicated to you, after all c:)

It really made me happy! Though, I'm usually pretty shy so I really wasn't even expecting anyone to even consider reading this...but I'm so glad! Now I really have a motivation to write!

Though now...I'm kind of nervous 0_0 (Can you tell? I got nervous since this'll probably be an angsty story so I attempted to put some humor in it...am I funny yet)

*sweats* I better not screw this up…

Crap...I feel like I should make these chapters longer, too...ah, well, I'm hopefully going to upload more today anyways...I actually got most of my school work done early today so I could write the rest of the day...fanfiction DOES make you more productive!

I hope you're all having a super kick-ass and productive day!

-OopsIThoughtICouldFlyy 3