Alright, here it is. Just a heads up, this one gets rough, so if you have any problems handling blood, read with caution. Other than that, please enjoy chapter nine.

Lunar Eclipse

Chapter Nine

While Sugawara emptied the contents of his stomach, Kiku recovered enough to run back behind her counter to grab the store's first aid kit. By the time Sugawara had slowly lifted himself off the floor, Kiku returned, white box in tow.

"Come on," she said, "Help me. He could die." Sugawara nodded as he ran with Kiku to Tsukishima's unmoving body. Sugawara had never been around any large amount of blood before, and he was completely unprepared for what he experienced. The pair knelt next to Tsukishima, and Sugawara was close enough that he could smell the heavy stench of iron that emanated from the blood spilling from the open wound. His nostrils flared and recoiled at the wet, metallic stench of warm, raw gore. Another bout of nausea threatened to force its way up Sugawara's throat at the sheer disgust the thought brought him. As he tried to pull himself out of his spiraling thoughts, he realized that Kiku was speaking.

"He's definitely alive," Kiku was saying beside him, "Look, his chest is moving, so he's breathing, at least." He pulled himself together enough to take a hard, critical look at his teammate.

"But listen, he's gasping. His breathing is shallow. You don't think the bullet hit his lung, do you?"

"I don't know. He could just be in pain."

"But - "

"It's not... just pain...I...can't...breathe."

The voice sounded strangled, feeble. Tsukishima wasn't just alive. He was awake. And he was dying.

"Stop, I can't do this."

Sugawara paused his story and turned toward Akiteru. He wore a look of visible anguish on his face and refused to look Sugawara in the eye. Amaya took her son's hand in hers and spoke softly to him, her voice noticeably strained.

"Akiteru, honey, he needs to get this off his chest. Let him finish." Akiteru stood from his chair, pulling his hand away from his mother's touch.

"No, I just...I can't do this now. Give me a minute. I'm going to the bathroom."

"Akiteru - " She got to her feet, hardly getting more than a step forward before her son interrupted her.

"Sugawara." He spoke without looking at the young man's face.

"Yeah?"

"Was Kei awake the whole time?" Sugawara paused.

"Yeah... Yeah he was."

Akiteru walked out of the waiting room without turning back.

It didn't take him long to find the men's restroom. He turned a corner at the end of the hallway and saw the door marked "men's" emerge in his field of view. Akiteru opened the door and, when he saw that it was a single bathroom, locked the door behind him. Finally sure that he was alone, he made his way to the sink and let his head hang over the side, his entire upper body supported by nothing but his arms planted firmly on the sink's edge. He lowered his head into the bowl and turned on the cold water. Then, cupping his hands, he splashed his face. Once. Twice. Three times.

Kei was awake. That one fact rampaged Akiteru's thoughts, filling every gap, leaving no room for even the smallest afterthought. His little brother was awake through everything. All the pain, the blood, the gasping for air - he was awake through it all. He morbidly wondered how many times Kei closed his eyes and begged for death. How many times did his baby brother wish he were dead as he choked on his own blood? The thought turned his stomach into knots. Suddenly nauseous, he ran to the toilet and leaned over the bowl, spending several minutes dry heaving until his empty stomach calmed down.

The shooter didn't even have the decency to make sure Kei was unconscious. Kei knew he was suffering. He felt the rage swell inside him and beat against his breast, desperate to escape and fulfill its hellish desires. For the first time in his life - Akiteru truly wanted to commit murder.

Shoving the thoughts away, he stood, returned to the sink, and turned the faucet off. Akiteru slowly backed up from the edge and lowered himself onto the floor, wiping his face with his shirt, reclining with his back against the wall. He tipped his head back and spent what felt like hours staring at the tiny cracks in the off-white plaster ceiling.

He almost didn't feel the tears trickle down his cheeks. He just kept thinking about it. Images of Kei on the floor of a convenience store, images of Kei covered in blood, images of Kei begging to be put out of his misery. He pictured him on a slab in a morgue, ugly surgery scar splitting his torso down the center, with his mother weeping - screaming - cradling his little brother's head, kissing his face, while he stood by fuming and blinded by anger and grief. Akiteru swore to himself that whoever this shooter was, he would not escape justice.

Unable to cope with his thoughts anymore, he reached into the pocket of his jacket, grasping for something to settle his mind.

"I apologize for my earlier outburst," Akiteru said as he re-entered the waiting room, "The hardest thing for me to deal with is the idea that Kei was awake, that he knew what was happening to him." Sugawara gave him a look that was a mix of sympathy and pity.

"It's okay, dear." Amaya said, hardly a whisper, a touch of fragile pain in her voice, "We're all dealing with this in our own way." She kissed his hand again. Ukai gave Akiteru a hard stare.

"Go ahead and continue your story, Sugawara." Akiteru said. Sugawara nodded and picked up where he left off.

"It's not... just pain...I...can't...breathe."

Sugawara cringed listening to Tsukishima try to talk. His voice was weak and pained, hindered even further by his labored breathing. He was fighting to take his next breath. Sugawara couldn't imagine how much his teammate was suffering.

"W-were you awake this whole time?" he asked. A pause. A sharp intake of breath. Tsukishima very carefully lifted the arm covering his face and slowly rolled onto his back so that he was lying flat. His body shuddered and his face contorted in agony as he did so.

"... Yes."

"Why?" Sugawara asked.

"Because... if he didn't... think... I was... dead... he'd... have shot... me... again...I'm not..." Kiku interrupted him, putting her hand on his shoulder, before he could go on.

"Okay, we get it. Just don't talk anymore. If you are bleeding into your lung, talking is gonna make it worse." Tsukishima stopped talking. Kiku glanced nervously at Sugawara, a silent promise hanging in the air between them. I have no idea what I'm doing. Ready to save his life? Sugawara caught her eye and nodded meekly.

"Let's get down to business. Kei, we're going to do what we can to stop your bleeding, okay? Just stay with us." Kiku paused, swallowing hard before she leaned over Tsukishima and gently probed his rib cage with her fingers, trying to feel where the actual injury was located. The blood was gathered on his right side, around his lower ribs, but her main problem was that there was so much blood everywhere, soaking his t-shirt, staining the waistband of his jeans, and pooling on the floor as well. She was surprised he was still conscious. She'd never actually seen a person lose a lot of blood before, but she'd always imagined they would pass out pretty quickly. Looking at Kei now... she had no idea how long he would last.

Kiku found the wound a few seconds later. After probing around his rib cage some more, she found a small hole that, oddly enough, seemed to have a bit of suction to it. Did that mean his lung had been injured after all? She knew from her basic human anatomy course that the chest cavity was a negative air space. There wasn't supposed to be any air between the inner wall of a person's chest and their lung. Logic would dictate that, if there's a hole and there's suction, then clearly there's some combination of air and blood in the space that shouldn't be there. At any rate, there was no way they were going to be able to effectively staunch the wound without using some gauze from the first aid kit, and they would never be able to do that with his shirt in the way.

"Kei, we need to get your shirt off to bandage the wound. Can you get it off on your own?" Tsukishima carefully shook his head.

"Right. Then I'm going to cut it off. Koushi, I need the scissors, gauze, and tape from the first aid kit."

Sugawara simply stared at her for a few seconds in stunned silence at her sudden ability to take charge before reaching into the first aid kit. His hands quickly found the scissors, along with medical tape and a roll of gauze, and he placed all three within Kiku's reach as she kept her hands pressed onto Tsukishima's wound. Sugawara continuously fought the nausea that rose in the back of his throat as he watched the blood slowly engulf Kiku's hands.

Kiku lifted her dominant hand from the wound and fit it into the scissors' grip. She turned back to Sugawara.

"Okay," She breathed, mentally preparing herself for what she was about to do, "Koushi, I can tell from the look on your face that you don't really handle blood well, but I need my other hand to keep the shirt steady as I cut, so I need you to put pressure on the wound." Sugawara's eyes widened.

"M-me? Sure..." He scooted a few inches to where Kiku was now on her knees positioned above Tsukishima, straddling him at the waist, trying to get the best possible vantage point to deal with his injury. Kiku lifted her remaining hand from the wound, and Sugawara warily put his in its place. The first thing he noticed about the wound was how warm and sticky it was. He'd never made it a habit to memorize what blood felt like, but after tonight he knew it was a sensation he'd never forget. He could feel the slight suction as Tsukishima's most likely injured lung tried desperately to take in air. The wound was wet and fleshy, and underneath Tsukishima's continuous gasping, Sugawara could feel his teammate's rib cage try again and again to expand, writhing under his touch. Every time it did, Sugawara could feel more blood ooze from the wound.

Wait... Something isn't right here... Tsukishima's rib cage... Sugawara couldn't quite place his finger on it, but there was something...out of place about his teammate's lower ribs. It didn't take him long to realize what it was.

"Uh...Kiku..." Kiku looked up from what she was doing, her blood-soaked scissors halfway through Tsukishima's shirt.

"Kiku, I think one of his ribs is broken. Right around the bullet wound one of his lower ribs doesn't connect all the way." Kiku went back to cutting through Tsukishima's shirt.

"The bullet probably broke it. Actually, that might be why it didn't just go straight through him - hitting a bone dead-on would probably slow the momentum. He's lucky, though. If the bullet had gone straight through him, we'd have to plug up two holes instead of just one."

When Kiku finished cutting through the shirt, she removed it from Tsukishima's body. For the most part, it was easy - until she reached the cloth that was touching the wound. If there were patches of blood that had started to dry against his skin, then the shirt would probably tear them off as she pulled it from its place. Given that the wound was bound to be sensitive, she had no idea how much it would hurt him, or how much it would damage his chances of living through the ordeal.

"Kei, how are you doing? You still with us?"

The blond gave a muffled "...Yes..." in response. If his voice was weak before, Kiku noticed, then that was nothing compared to what it was now. Now, he was hardly speaking above a whisper. It was a sure sign - they were running out of time. She took a second to look at Sugawara, to see how he was holding up. He seemed like a nice guy, but there was no way he could have handled this situation without her. He was staring at Tsukishima's wound, wide-eyed and pale. He probably had a phobia of blood, or something close enough to it. Or maybe it was just the shock of seeing someone he knew go through such traumatic injury. Either way, she was going to have to do most of the heavy lifting until the paramedics got there, because she had a feeling if Sugawara tried to do it himself, he might actually pass out.

"Okay, Koushi, I need you to remove your hands - not now, when I tell you to - so I can remove his shirt, okay?" Sugawara nodded, a faraway look in his eye.

"Okay... now." Kiku peeled the damaged cloth off the wound as quickly as she could, like ripping off a band-aid, eliciting a wince and a deep groan from Tsukishima. As soon as the cloth was gone, the plugged up, unclotted blood spurted from the opening as soon as the pressure was relieved. Sugawara covered the wound again before he could start dry heaving.

"Alright, good...I think. Now we need to clean it... or at least get most of the blood off." After looking around for a few seconds, she saw the cut pieces of Tsukishima's t-shirt, most of them, except for the part that was covering the wound and its surrounding skin, were actually somewhat clean. She gathered the tattered cloth into a wad and handed it to Sugawara.

"I need you to use this to wipe as much of the blood from his skin as you can, okay?" Sugawara nodded again. He took the wad of cloth and dabbed the wound with it, soaking up as much of the blood as he could while somehow managing not to throw up again. Once he had gotten just about as much as he figured the cloth would hold, he looked up to see Kiku holding a large folded wad of gauze.

"Okay, so I have no idea how to actually bandage someone, but given what we have, this is going to have to do. I'll press it to the wound, but I need you to tear off long strips of tape and hand them to me one at a time, okay?" Without speaking Sugawara took the tape from the floor and did as she asked. He watched as Kiku did her best to cover the wound, but it looked like a futile effort. A large amount of blood had already accumulated around the wound, and he noticed that Tsukishima's gasping was getting worse than it had been only a few minutes ago.

After a few seconds Kiku had covered the wound with her makeshift bandage and had it securely taped in place. However, they both knew that if the paramedics didn't arrive soon, it wouldn't be long before they would have to replace it and do everything over again. Hell, if they don't arrive soon, Sugawara thought, it's not going to matter.

"Good. Done." Kiku said, breathing a quick sigh of relief before jumping back into the action, "Kei? Kei, are you still with us?"

Tsukishima's answer this time around was even less coherent that his last. He gave them nothing more than an almost inaudible mumble, his head lolling around slightly on the tile floor, his eyes glassed over, staring somewhere beyond Kiku and Sugawara.

"Kei, I need you to answer me." He lifted himself very slightly off the floor, turned his head to one side, and hacked violently for what felt like minutes. As he coughed Kiku and Sugawara watched what could only be described as globs of blood fall sickeningly to the floor. When he'd finally finished, he relaxed again and let his head roll to the side, blood staining his lips. He closed his eyes.

"Hey, no! You can't pass out now, you need to stay with us, Kei, please!" Kiku shouted, her voice cracking as she called his name. She reached for his hand and squeezed it tight. At the sound of her panicked voice, Tsukishima slowly opened his eyes, keeping himself from slipping into oblivion. Kiku sighed in relief. He was still here.

It was at that point Sugawara truly noticed what was going on. His teammate's face was pale, his skin almost grey. Sweat poured from his face. He reached over to Tsukishima's neck and took his pulse. It was thready, beating fast underneath cool, clammy skin. He could hardly tell it was there. Sugawara knew - there was no doubt now.

"Kiku... He's in shock. From the blood loss. Pretty soon..." Sugawara whispered, hardly able to believe it himself, tears beginning to well up in the corners of his eyes, "Pretty soon... If the ambulance doesn't get here now... he doesn't have a chance... Kiku... He's gonna die..." She turned to look at Sugawara, tears forming in her eyes as well. The ambulance had to be almost here. There was no way he could die now, not after they were so close.

As if in answer to a prayer, Kiku and Sugawara's ears were filled with a sound that, in that moment, could only be comparable to an angel's chorus: ambulance sirens.

Wow, this is a long chapter. Anyway, I hope you enjoyed it. Constructive criticism is always appreciated :)