"Kimihiro."
Watanuki moaned pitifully and tried not to move. He felt warm hands both on his arm and curved around the left side of his neck. It was very dark and he was so, so tired that all he wanted to do was go back to sleep.
"Kimihiro, please wake up."
Watanuki blinked his one eye open and tried to focus on the face above him, but his abysmal vision gave him nothing to see but more darkness. A slightly darker shadow moved a little. It kind of looked like it was the shape of a head. "Shizuka." He winced after speaking. The right side of his face felt hot, painfully so. The stinging was blisteringly sharp. "Aah..." he gasped in pain.
"Here," Doumeki's voice said above him, soothing and calm. "You need to take this."
The teenager whimpered as the heat on his skin grew and the pain intensified. "What? Nngh... Shizuka, it hurts..."
"That's why you need to take this," Doumeki's voice repeated. "The doctor said you have to take this pill every six hours, so you can sleep through the worst of it." He carefully lifted Watanuki's head and pushed the small pill against his mouth.
Watanuki sluggishly closed his lips around the drug and removed it from Doumeki's hand. He felt the cool, solid lip of a glass pushed against his mouth and sipped the water clumsily. It was difficult to swallow in the position he was in so he ended up coughing a little against the glass. His head was delicately lowered back to the pillow. He felt fingers slip through his hair and a kiss pressed into his temple. "Go back to sleep," Doumeki whispered. "I'll wake you up in another six hours."
He trembled as his body tried to relax again, feeling suddenly cold. "I love you," his drugged up brain bade him say. "I'm sorry."
A gust of breath flew over his ear. "Idiot. Don't say anything. Just sleep."
He was now visibly shivering. His whole body vibrated and his muscles were too sore to continue shaking yet they still did anyway. He felt strange. "Don't leave... don't... please stay with me..."
Doumeki lifted Watanuki's left hand. His fingers and thumbs smoothed the skin over the veins on the shorter teenager's pale wrist. "I'm not going anywhere." He'd never seen Watanuki so vulnerable before, nor so delirious to actually beg Doumeki to stay with him. The stress of seeing his partner in such a state was causing an ache deep down in his chest.
Watanuki's breathing was heavy even as he drifted slowly back to sleep.
Doumeki rested only lightly. It was difficult to fall into a deep sleep with the worry heavy on his mind and the still-there ache swiftly sinking deeper into his gut as he heard Watanuki's pained gasps next to him during the night. In the end he didn't even need to set an alarm to wake up in time for the next dose. He found himself rolling over every half an hour and checking the time. It made for a very fitful rest.
Eight o'clock in the morning Doumeki sat up and reached for the bottle of medication on the short table next to the futon and the pitcher of water he had set down the previous night. He filled the water cup again and sat next to his partner and tried to once again wake him up.
He was still delirious. It took Doumeki three times asking him to open his mouth so he could take the pill before the boy stopped crying enough to listen. It was like his left eye was simply leaking tears of its own accord – once the boy was awake the flow did not stop, even though he was not wracked with sobs.
After he barely managed to swallow down more water he asked Doumeki if it was raining, and if the orange tabby he found in the gutter was still dead, and oh god please tell me I'm not dreaming again. They're so real sometimes that I get confused if I'm awake or not and I really don't want you to be just a dream... I don't want to die all alone like that cat...
Doumeki urged Watanuki to go back to sleep, his worry increasing with each word the drugged boy uttered. Was he supposed to be this way while on the medication? Once Watanuki's one good hand was not squeezing his tightly enough to cut off the circulation Doumeki got up and went in immediate search of his grandfather and mother.
Haruka was found in the kitchen going over some bills. Perhaps not so surprisingly it looked like he hadn't received much sleep the night before as well. "Grandfather?" Doumeki asked as he neared the kitchen table.
"Hm?" Haruka looked up from the papers before him. He took in the dark look on his grandson's face. "Is anything wrong?"
"I don't know." Doumeki rested his hands on the table and resisted the urge to lean against them. "Kimihiro's been delirious the past two times I've woken him up for his pain medication. I don't think he knows where he is right now and he was worried that I'm just a dream."
Haruka laced his fingers together. "I see. How has his pain been?"
"Really bad, I think. He keeps crying whenever he's awake and gasping as he sleeps."
Haruka stood up from the table and pushed the chair back in place. "I'll call the doctor and see if this is a normal side effect of the medication. I'll get your mother and we'll change Kimihiro-kun's bandages as well." He walked around the table and squeezed his grandson's shoulders just slightly. "I know you are stressed right now, but it is all the more reason for you to go meditate. Keeping calm during the height of anxiety is your goal right now. Don't worry, your mother and I will make sure Kimihiro-kun is all right."
Doumeki didn't look happy at the prospect of not being next to Watanuki while he was in such pain but he relented to his elder's instructions. "I understand."
The priest smiled. "You're a fine young man, Shizuka-kun. I'm very proud of you and Kimihiro-kun both. Let the rest of your family help with your burdens."
Doumeki nodded. "Please tell me if Kimihiro's current state changes."
"Of course I will."
. . . . . . . . .
It figured the doctors weren't surprised at Watanuki's response to the pain pills. Apparently hallucinations were somewhat common. What was not common, however, was there to be any pain at all while he slept. The doctor on the phone had said it was possible, though never recorded before, that some of the hallucinations were manifesting themselves as old and painful memories and that was why the boy was in such duress, but after checking on him Haruka knew it wasn't merely that. The skin that was visible on his face and neck twitched constantly, the red areas visible beneath the bandages growing.
After the phone call Haruka and Akane knelt next to Watanuki to change the bandages on his hand and face. Haruka and his daughter worked in tandem, one carefully adjusting his head while the other unraveled the now soiled gauze.
Akane gasped sharply when the skin underneath was fully exposed. She stifled a choking sob behind one of her thin hands and looked away for a moment. "No, oh Kimihiro-kun..."
The priest was infinitely glad that Watanuki was currently sedated by the drug and Doumeki was outside meditating. He did not want either of them to see what Watanuki's current state was.
The skin on the right side of his face was bubbled and curved, the angry marks weeping and oozing puss. Grooves dipped into the marred flesh and trailed in angry red rivulets down his jaw and neck. His right eye was red and moist and so swollen shut there was no way to open the lids and see the sightless orb beneath. With trembling hands Haruka carefully finished unwinding the bandages on Watanuki's right hand. It was with another great horror that they discovered the limb nearly unrecognizable. His palm was swollen and blistered as well. A piece of bone was visible on the knuckle of his thumb.
"Oh god," Akane sniffed. She felt a tear slip down her cheek. "Dad, what can we do?"
Haruka went over the options in his head. There was very little in the way of magic for what he could do. He wasn't a magician, but some rituals were easier to perform with spirit energy than others. Healing wasn't too far of a stretch for his abilities, but it would be taxing. He could probably remove any signs of scars but he doubted there was anything he could do about the vision in the right eye. "Get me a bowl of ink, a brush, and heated stones. The only thing I can do is a very extreme version of Reiki healing. I've only seen this done once before by a different master of the art when I was much younger, and it left the master sleeping for days. At this point, though, it's the only thing left I can do."
Akane scrubbed the tears from her face and looked to her father worriedly. "Will you be okay?"
"Yes, but if we wait much longer Kimihiro-kun won't be."
The woman stood up swiftly and went to grab the supplies. "I'll be right back."
It was impossible to tear his eyes away from the gory appearance of Watanuki's skin. He'd never seen burns so bad on a person before. It was nothing like the pictures from medical records and photojournalists that worked in war-torn areas of the world. Seeing such damage to a human body in person was horrifying.
Akane was back as soon as the requested stones were heated over a fire. She set the bowl of them next to her father and assembled the rest of the supplies for him.
Haruka immediately set to work. After unbutton the teenager's sleeping shirt he grabbed the calligraphy brush and the small bowl of ink and started drawing the Reiki seals on the injured boy's skin. One on his forehead, one just below his neck, one on each shoulder, one on his heart and one on the inside of his right elbow. Akane watched as her father then placed the heated stones over the drawn ink in order, starting from Watanuki's head and working his way down. Once finished Haruka set the brush down and pushed aside the extra stones. He gathered his concentration and looked over his work, mentally going over the symbols and the stones and making sure he hadn't missed anything. He'd never performed this ritual before. It was something that was supposed to be practiced in great detail and never tried for the first time when desperate, but he was out of other options. If Watanuki's mother's ring and Doumeki's blood was not enough to protect him from spirits at the hospital then he could die even while the doctors performed surgery.
The priest extended his right hand over Watanuki, palm down and close to the boy's heart. He closed his eyes and concentrated. He cleared his mind and extended his senses to feel and recognize the energy in the air, the energy within himself, and the void of nothingness the wound left in the energy and life in the room. Once he had that energy in his grasp and harnessed it, he pushed it out of himself and into the boy in front of him.
Akane sat in silence while she waited for a visible result. Haruka must have sat with his eyes closed and his hand extended for upwards of five minutes. She was starting to wonder if anything would change at all. Just as she was about to open her lips and question her father she jumped, startled, at the sharp noise of a stone cracking.
The small river stone that had been placed on Watanuki's forehead shattered into three pieces. Immediately the redness of his injured skin receded like a current of water, slipping further and further away. As his right eye settled down in size and the scars started to vanish the stone on his clavicle shattered as well. The stones on his shoulders and chest followed in swift order. Finally, after waiting another few minutes with baited breath the last stone crumbled to pieces on his arm. His right hand steadily regrew the correct shape of muscle and skin around his bones. The boy shook once, just slightly, then settled and stilled. All that remained behind of the terrible wounds was bright pink skin still covered with the remnants of puss and small bits of dried blood.
When Haruka opened his eyes his body nearly collapsed. The bowl of ink by his knees spilled over and coated his knees as he slouched to his side and his legs shot out with little control. "Father!" Akane jumped up in worry and hurried over to his side. She pulled his arm around her shoulders and kept him upright. "Are you all right?"
"... Fine," Haruka murmured. "I just... need sleep. Help me to my room."
The slight woman struggled to her feet and pulled her father up with her. The older man stumbled many times as they made their way down the hall towards his bedroom. At certain points she was nearly dragging him, but in the end she managed. She settled her father down in his futon and brought up the blanket for him. "Are you sure you're okay?" She fretted still.
Haruka closed his eyes and allowed his head to settle down fully. "Yes... I'll be all right. Clean Kimihiro-kun's face and hand, then bandage him up again. He's still... still healing. Let him sleep for another day. Gather the broken stones and... toss them... get rid of them. Bury them if you have to, but do not let them touch another living person." He himself was falling asleep quickly.
"I will," Akane nodded. She stood up and closed the door to her father's room. She padded down the hall quietly and reentered her son and Watanuki's room. With great care she cleaned Watanuki's skin clean of the gunk that remained on it and gently wrapped him back up in fresh gauze and a generous layer of anti-scarring medication. She'd have to remind her son to not give the boy the pain medication anymore, considering the terrible side effects he'd been experiencing. With a long set of tongs she picked up the broken pieces of stone and put them in a small bag. She decided she would bury the bag at the far end of the property where no one would choose to dig. She then cleaned up the spilled ink as best she could but there was nothing to be done for the stain on the side of the futon. She'd have to purchase a new one, most likely.
By the time everything was cleaned up and back in order it was late in the afternoon. Doumeki had not been seen since the morning after hearing the explanation from the doctors about the pain medicine, following his grandfather's order to meditate for six hours each day starting that day.
. . . . . . . . . .
"Doumeki-kun?"
Doumeki opened his eyes and allowed them to focus. The late afternoon sunlight had just started to turn orange with evening light. He looked up and found an unexpected person standing before him. "Kaseki-san." He stood up and felt the muscles in his legs protest angrily. He'd been sitting for hours by then in meditation. "Why are you here at the temple?" He hadn't even heard the boy come up to him.
The archery member from school extended a pile of papers and booklets to his peer. "I volunteered to bring you and Watanuki-san's homework to you. The teachers at school had everything for the week compiled for you both."
"Oh, thanks," Doumeki said. He took the papers and tucked them under his arm. He was grateful that his peers in archery at least tolerated his attachment to Watanuki. Kaseki was vocally supportive, which in Doumeki's mind made him one of the only trustworthy people at school.
Kaseki's handsome smile slipped from his face as he asked a question. "How is Watanuki-san?"
Doumeki frowned slightly. "Not well."
Kaseki looked immediately more concerned. "How bad is it? He was taken to the hospital in an ambulance, right? Is he still there?"
"No, he's here," Doumeki answered. "He's in a lot of pain, though."
"Can I see him?"
"No," was Doumeki's quick response. He thought about the abrupt answer for a moment. From the look on Kaseki's face it must have sounded callous. "He's not fit to be seen by anyone. He's delirious. The doctors said it's a side effect of the pain medication. He's been hallucinating since last night."
"Christ, I'm sorry Doumeki-kun. I shouldn't have intruded."
"It's all right. It's okay for you to ask." While there wasn't any special emphasis placed on any of his words, it was still clear that by saying 'you' Doumeki wasn't saying just anyone could ask, but Kaseki alone. He'd saved Watanuki from a couple of beatings himself, so he had a right to know.
"All right. Well, keep me posted, okay? The archery club is worried for him, too, but I won't tell anyone else how he's doing."
"Thanks again," Doumeki answered. "I'll let you know when he's well enough to see other people."
Kaseki smiled and waved a goodbye before turning around and walking away at a casual pace. Doumeki shook out the numb feeling in his legs and went back inside the house.