Twist woke up in excruciating pain. He let out a loud groan, struggling to open his eyes. He felt hazy as if he was underwater or something.

"It's nice to see you come to." An old nurse toddled over to him. "Blakk was very worried about you; you've been out for almost a week now."

"W-where's Kaiya? Is she okay?" He managed to get out. His vision was blurry and restricted. He guessed both his eyes were swollen and bruised.

"Oh she's fine, she spent almost the entire week by your side you know, but Blakk sent her out on a mission about an hour ago. We'll let her know you've woken up as soon as she gets back."

Twist just let out another pained groan. "Damned Shane…"

"Now, you'll be feeling a bit out of it for a while," the nurse went on, "but we don't want to put you on a smaller dose of pain killers." The nurse tapped on one of the IV's in his wrist. "We can probably remove the other two though now that you're awake. Do you think you'll be able to eat on your own?"

"Y-yeah." Twist managed to croak. "But I'd really love some water."

"Of course dear, I'll go get you some right now." The nurse smiled as she pulled out the needles that had been sustaining him for the past week. Twist winced and the old lady gave him an apologetic smile as she put a strip of gauze over where the needles had been. Just from looking at it, Twist knew there would be more bruises there to add to his array.

"Twist!" Kaiya exclaimed as she ran towards his bed, startling the teen out of his dozing. She rushed over to him, placing her arms around him in a gentle hug. "Oh thank goodness, I thought we had lost you!"

"Kaiya, are you crying?"

Kaiya looked up suddenly, quickly turning her face away to wipe away the tears.

"It's nice to know you care." He jested, trying to move a thickly casted arm to pull her closer into him.

"Shut up you idiot. You had everyone worried."

"As long as you were the one who cared the most." He slurred, the pain killer keeping him from being fully coherent.

"Have they not taken the dosage down yet?" Kaiya noticed, leaning over to check the IV bag.

"Nah, still in pain though."

"Really? Didn't they give you a topical or a different medicine if this one isn't working well enough?" Kaiya's hands were suddenly fluttering all over the place as if there was something that nearby that would help Twist feel better. "At least some ice or softer pillows or…"

"Kaiya, Kaiya, darling, I'm fine."

Kaiya sat back down on the edge of the bed blushing.

"Did you really spend the entire week here?"

Kaiya's blush deepened.

"It's sweet, don't be embarrassed. I appreciate it, really." He tried to smile at her, but he wasn't exactly sure what his face did, and he was pretty sure it looked hideous. Kaiya didn't seem to mind though; she just smiled back at him.

"Look at you," she gingerly touched his battered face. "Why would you run off doing stupid things on your own?" She sighed.

"You're one to talk."

"That doesn't count."

"Does too," Twist said seriously.

Kaiya just rolled her eyes brushed a tangled piece of hair out of Twist's face. He tried to smile again, and from the small chuckle Kaiya gave, he knew it looked hideous.

"I'm glad you're okay." She smiled again.

Twist wanted to just reach out and stroke her face and comfort her, to play with her hair like she liked- even if she wouldn't admit it. He wanted to smile at her- for real. He wanted to do so much to show he appreciated how much she cared. However, his range of motion was extremely limited, so he went with the one thing he could do, tell her how much he appreciated her.

"I love you."

Kaiya froze for a moment, startled. "You know, we really should look at changing your IV drip…" She said, leaning over him again to look at the bag.

"No, I'm serious, Kaiya, you know I am."

Kaiya looked down at him, wide-eyed and blushing furiously. She knew he was; it wasn't the first time she'd heard him say those words. It wasn't even the second time. She had heard him say those words almost a hundred times when he thought she couldn't hear him. She just never wanted to admit that she was starting to fall for him too. This was the first time he had openly admitted it to her, whether it was really because of the IV or not.

Her face melted into a gentle smile as she moved to snuggle with him. "You too," was all she could bring herself to say despite how much time she had to think about it in the past week, but from the little spike on the heart-rate monitor, she could tell it was enough for Twist.