Okay, please forgive the long AN here:
So a quick disclaimer…
Elements of this fic are combined from personal experiences from both my own and my family's medical history.
While I have tried to make this fic as accurate as possible, combining these experiences with internet research, I am not a medical doctor… nor do I have any medical background outside of CPR and basic first aid… one of the reasons I haven't endeavored this type of fic before.
Last, the medical system described here is undeniably Western/American.
I am too unfamiliar with the medical establishment in Japan. Even with research I was afraid of being culturally inaccurate, so I am writing what I know. This said, I ask my foreign readers to please grant me a little leniency if my details don't jive with your medical experiences.
And even with my extensive personal experience of the medical system in the US, I have taken a few liberties... So know that, please, before you point out all this story's shortfalls.
Homesick: Chapter Three
It took a bit to get Hiroki into the cab Nowaki hailed outside the train station; the walk from the platform to the curb had greatly increased his pain.
Nowaki directed the cab driver to take them to the Tokyo Kosei Nenkin Hospital. Though there was another hospital a bit closer to their apartment, this was the one he was doing his residency at, so he was more familiar with both the facilities and the staff and he would be able to be close by if Hiroki was admitted.
Once Nowaki managed to get Hiroki settled, he continued to gently grill his lover while his keen blue eyes observed him with mounting concern.
Hiroki sat there, head back against the seat, eyes closed, his breathing shallow, answering questions far more willingly than Nowaki ever expected. Nowaki was unaware, however, that Hiroki was doing so because it helped distract him from the pain.
Halfway to the hospital Hiroki's breathing finally evened out. Seeing this, Nowaki gratefully gathered Hiro-san's hand in his own.
Hiroki turned his head slightly and opened one hazel eye to regard Nowaki. Then he closed it and turned his head back slowly.
Nowaki offered a quiet breath of relief when Hiro-san didn't grumble about this bit of PDA and his hand remained in his, unmoving, outside a weak squeeze of acknowledgment.
Nowaki raised his eyes just in time to catch a disapproving sneer from the cab driver, who'd been watching them in the rearview mirror. Nowaki met the cabbie's eyes evenly, challenging him to say something, until the driver finally dropped his gaze uncomfortably, and looked away.
By the time they'd reached the hospital, Hiroki seemed to have revived a bit, though he still had difficulty getting out of the cab.
He handed Nowaki his wallet on their arrival so Nowaki could pay the driver. (Nowaki had been in such a hurry to find Hiro-san, he'd left their apartment without grabbing his own.)
Hiroki looked up at the hospital's imposing structure as the cab pulled away.
"I'm feeling better. Nowaki. Do we really need to make all this fuss?"
"Yes, Hiro-san," Nowaki said firmly. "Are you going to be okay standing there for a minute while I get you a wheelchair?"
Hiroki scowled. "I don't need a wheelchair."
"Hiro-san, I don't want you moving any more than you have to. I think you already have been far more active than you should have been." Nowaki stated this calmly. Then his voice took on a far sterner tone than Hiroki was accustomed to.
"Now either you can ride in the wheelchair, Hiro-san, or I'm going to pick you up and carry you into the waiting room like that damsel you mentioned earlier."
"You wouldn't do that," Hiroki snorted.
He was shocked at the heat in Nowaki's eyes.
"Try me."
After remaining silent a moment longer than was necessary to demonstrate his disapproval at being ordered around by someone so much younger, Hiroki sighed deeply.
"Fine."
A minute after he disappeared, Nowaki returned with a wheelchair and Hiroki sank down into it feeling far more grateful for the contraption than he let felt himself blush, however, as Nowaki moved behind and began pushing him.
"I imagine you've been waiting for this moment."
Nowaki stopped short. "What do you mean, Hiro-san?"
Hiroki tipped his head back to regard Nowaki.
"I know you've been wanting to push me around for years." His eyes were still pained, but there was a bit of a humorous glint in them, despite his serious expression.
Nowaki ran a tender hand through Hiroki's damp hair.
"Now I know it's serious, Hiro-san, when you start cracking jokes."
"Shut up, Dumb-ass," Hiroki muttered without malice.
Despite his protests, Nowaki checked Hiroki in. He also ran through all of his symptoms with the nurse whose duty it was to float the waiting room interviewing patients to expedite the diagnostic process and prioritize admittance to the E.R. examination rooms.
Hiroki was both surprised and pleased with how professional Nowaki was in discussing his case with the nurse.
He also noted how responsive she became when she realized she was dealing with another medical professional (either that or she was reacting to the general "Kusama Effect" Nowaki seemed to have on women).
Not long after this another nurse called Hiroki's name to usher him back to the examination rooms.
Hiroki looked at Nowaki in surprise when the younger man stood up and started pushing the chair along the smooth tiled floors.
"What are you doing Nowaki?"
"I'm going back with you, Hiro-san," Nowaki answered simply.
"What? Why? I can do this myself." Then Hiroki added nervously, "I'm a full grown man, you know… I mean won't it look weird you coming with me. Two men together, I mean."
"I don't care how it looks, Hiro-san; you're my family and I'm staying with you."
Hearing the resolve in Nowaki's voice, Hiroki ducked his head and blushed, knowing that any further protests he might offer would fall on deaf ears.
The nurse ushered the couple into a small room and gave Hiroki a hospital gown which he reluctantly changed into. Now awaiting his first interview with one of the ER doctors, he lay on his back, grateful to be reclining.
Still, he was far from comfortable, as while he had been waiting to be seen, the pain that had so mercifully eased a bit earlier was gradually tightening its grip on him again.
He gazed up at the acoustical tiled ceiling intently while he worried his bottom lip with his teeth.
He was studiously trying not to look over at Nowaki. The younger man sat silently next to him, head down, solemnly studying his clasped hands in his lap.
The anguish of his flesh was not the only pain Hiroki was now laboring under.
Everything had been going well, as well as it could given the circumstances anyway... Until...
Nowaki filled out Hiroki's paperwork for him while he changed.
He was shocked at how little he knew about Hiro-san's medical history. He felt guilty that, despite the dire circumstances, he found himself oddly happy: all the questions asked by the forms were giving him a rare opportunity to learn more about his generally private partner.
This was the first time he'd heard that Hiro-san had badly broken his wrist doing kendo late in high school, thus ending his participation in that activity and affecting his piano playing as well.
He'd also never known that Hiroki's father's side of the family had a history of cancer. He felt his chest catch when Hiroki revealed that this had started with his great grandparents and their children, most likely the result of living within the proximity of Hiroshima's horror.
Going over this background, it also gave Nowaki a twinge in his heart, considering whenever he had to fill out these kinds of forms, all the family history sections forever remained blank.
Setting this to the side, Nowaki continued going through the list of Hiroki's health history.
He had just learned that Hiroki had been diagnosed with his pre-ulceric stomach in early college. Then traveling further down the checklist, Nowaki asked casually:
"Have you ever been diagnosed with or been at risk of exposure to HIV. If applicable please indicate the date and result of your last HIV test."
Nowaki knew Hiroki had been more than a little active before they met, though he never asked questions about this part of his partner's past.
"So when was your last test, Hiro-san?"
"July, negative," Hiroki offered without thinking as he slipped stiffly into his gown.
"Yes, but what year, Hiro-san?"
The ache in his gut clouded Hiroki's mind. He was too busy wondering when the doctor would get there or if someone might be able to give him something for the pain soon to think before he answered.
"This year, Idiot." Hiroki sighed, settling himself into the hospital bed.
"But why would you?...
"Oh."
Nowaki suddenly stopped writing. That was four months ago. Two months before he'd returned from America.
Hiroki stared into Nowaki's sad eyes, realizing what he'd just inadvertently disclosed. He dropped his gaze blushing furiously.
"Nowaki, I… I mean I'd been waiting nine months and I didn't know where you were or if you were ever coming back…"
Seeing the hurt this caused Nowaki pained Hiroki far more than all the combined discomfort of the last twenty-four hour hours.
"Nowaki, it was just a one night thing, it meant nothing…" Hiroki knew how lame this sounded. "I mean, didn't you…" his voice took on a slightly angry tone in defense.
"No, Hiro-san. I didn't," Nowaki said softly, dropping his own eyes.
After a few minutes of uncomfortable silence, Hiroki cleared his throat.
"Look now I've changed, I can fill the rest of that out myself." He reached out for the clipboard. However, he was unable to keep all the tremble out of his fingers.
If Nowaki had noticed this he didn't show it. He'd just handed the intake forms to Hiroki wordlessly, sat back in the chair he was occupying next to the bed, folded his hands in his lap, and had remained in that pose since.
At last Hiroki couldn't stand the silence any more, he who was used to cherishing it. He glanced over at Nowaki.
Feeling the weight of the other man's eyes on him, Nowaki looked up hesitantly.
"Nowaki…"
Just then there was a tap on the wall outside the curtained entrance. The curtain slid back and a bright looking middle aged man poked his head into the room.
"Kamijou-san? I'm Dr. Souichi." the doctor offered a slight bow once he'd entered.
"So what seems to be troubling you?"
A lot more than when I first got here, Hiroki thought wearily.
Yes, Another long AN:
A Public Service Announcement Brought to you by Daniel Lazerus... (Heh)
If you have been in a situation... male or female... where you might be at risk for HIV... (Essentially any time after unprotected sex- oral, vaginal or anal-outside a committed monogamous relationship) you should get tested (and not just HIV but for any number of STD's).
And now they have those handy dandy take home HIV tests like Oraquick… So no excuses…
Current HIV tests detect the presence of HIV antibody. HIV antibody is your body's response to the presence of HIV virus.
In most persons it takes a few weeks to develop antibodies that are detectable by current tests. 95% of people develop antibodies within 3 months after being infected.
It is recommended that people take a second test in 6 months, because 99% of those infected will develop antibodies within 6 months.
A positive test is positive no matter when the test was. A negative test becomes more and more a true and accurate result the longer after the possible exposure.
information taken from the San Francisco City Clinic website.
So technically, Hiroki should have had a more recent test (three months from that night) and... as a responsible partner he should have also told Nowaki about the possible risk of infection despite the fact his last test was negative.
But this is fiction... so I am not holding to this timetable in this story. Just didn't wish to be the purveyor of misinformation.
Anyway, ah… so I thought a little angst to go with the illness would be a nice combo. You know how I love me some angst.
I'm so mean.
Illness revealed next chapter. FujoshiNinjaNumber6... Yep, I believe you're correct.