A/N: God, my updating schedule is terrible. It's been just over 6 months since I last updated. I'm so terrible. Sorry. I've been really busy trying to adult since I'm almost ready to graduate college and I've finally got some free time this summer right before I go on a much needed vacation. Especially sorry to those who read here on since I submitted this chapter on another fanfic site a month ago and completely forgot to submit it here until just now.

"Fuck." Haruka grumbled groggily, pulling the blanket high above her head as light filtered through her eyelids.

'Why the hell is it so bright in here? Did that bastard rip my curtains again?' She noticed that her blanket was much lighter than she remembered. "Oh hell." 'Did he rip my curtains off AND replace my blankets with them?' Haruka tried to roll over to bury her face in her pillow but hissed when a sudden pain shot through her back and side. 'What the hell?'

The narcoleptic woman threw the thin blankets aside and immediately realized that she was in the hospital, if the ugly gown was anything to go by. She noted the flowers in a vase on her bedside, the card on them clearly written by the child she shielded. There was a bouquet with no card hidden slightly behind the flowers in the vase. Haruka then remembered what landed her in the hospital and scowled. "Fuck," she cursed, covering her face with one hand.

Haruka heard the door creak open, shut, then open again a moment later. Curious, she looked up and saw Shinra enter, phone in hand. 'He must've texted Celty that I was awake.' "Yo Shinra~!" she chirped, replacing the scowl with a bright smile.

"Haruka, how are you doing? Does anything hurt?"

"Everything from my waist down feels numb. I can't move anything." Though what she said would send any normal person into a panic, Haruka was everything but a normal person. She poked and prodded her legs and hips, slightly amused when she couldn't feel the sensation of her flesh depressing underneath her finger.

"Well that makes sense since some of the nerves responsible for your lower body were slightly damaged upon impact. You're very lucky that the damage inflicted was not enough to leave you permanently paraplegic. The numbness with fade away as you recover," Shinra explained. The underground doctor noticed Haruka's curious glances at the bouquet of flowers. "Shizuo left them yesterday. He wanted to tell you that he's sorry. He was really upset," he supplied.

Haruka tilted her head to the side, ceasing her playful prodding. "Why would he feel guilty?"

"Well he did hit you with a vending machine…" Shinra deadpanned.

"Actually, it was a yield sign. Ironic. But I meant why would he feel guilty when it's my fault for jumping in the way? That seems stupid of him."

"Shizuo blames his lack of control. He thinks that if he could just control his power, he could've stopped his swing before it hit you," he explained as Celty burst into the room. "Speaking of which, what's up with you jumping in the way of a raging Shizuo to save a kid? That's not something you'd normally do."

Celty ran up to Haruka's bedside and frantically checked her injuries. Haruka ignored Celty's fussing, her eyes darkening at Shinra's question though the smile remained on her face. "Some stupid, lingering, wretched sentiments swept over me for a moment. It was but a small lapse in judgment that shouldn't happen again."

The dark undertone in Haruka's cheery voice sent a chill down Celty's spine. She and Shinra glanced at each other for a moment, worried about their friend. "Anyways," Shinra started, changing the topic, "Celty's been really worried about you. You've been out for a day and a half. Your back and right side are heavily bruised from impact with the wall, sign, and ground. There's about 50 stitches keeping that deep laceration in your side where the sign dug in closed. You've got some cuts and scrapes strewn about the impact areas and a small fracture in your skull. They disinfected and stitched up the deep laceration on your head above the fracture. You're lucky the head wound wasn't more severe; you would've died if you weren't so hard-headed." Though the last part sounded like a jest, Shinra wasn't playing around. Just a bit deeper and Haruka would've died. Celty and Shizuo would've been devastated.

"Maybe it would've been better if I did."

Both Celty and Shinra immediately protested, shocked that Haruka would say such a thing; Shinra's brow furrowed and Celty was visibly upset as she quickly mashed on the buttons on her phone. However, they were stopped as a knock on the door interrupted the tense atmosphere.

The door opened to reveal the child Haruka saved along with his mother. The mother noticed the two visitors in the room. "Oh. I'm sorry. I didn't mean to interrupt. We can come back later," she apologized.

"Ahaha! You're fine, you're fine! Come on in~!" Haruka chirped, waving the new guests in. Now seeing the two when she wasn't blacking out, she noted that the neither the mother nor the son appeared Japanese.

The boy ran up to Haruka's bedside, hiding something behind his back. "I made this for you, Miss! Thank you for saving me!" The boy then showed what he was hiding: a flower crown. Various flowers of different colors were weaved into the crown.

"A flower crown?" Haruka asked, her arm tensing as she took the crown. Shinra seemed to be the only one who noticed, watching Haruka closely and shifting a little closer.

"Yeah! The yellow-haired man told me you like flowers yesterday, so I made you this!" the child explained happily.

The boy's mother approached, wrapping an arm around her child. "I'm truly grateful to you for saving my little Alex. I'm so sorry you got hurt because of it. This wouldn't have happened if I had just kept a better watch on him." The woman bowed deeply.

"Ahaha. It was no problem. But Alex, huh? Sounds foreign. Are you tourist or something?" Haruka asked.

"Ah, yes. We're just here visiting relatives. We live in America."

"Interesting. Well, I hope you enjoy the rest of your visit and watch out for raining street signs and vending machines."

"Um…. Thank you?" The woman had an uneasy smile on her face. "We'll be going now. I hope you recover quickly."

"You and me both. Bye bye." Haruka waved. Once the mother and child left, Haruka tossed the crown carelessly into the trash can and knocked both the bouquet and vase of flowers into the trash, miraculously not smashing the vase. The fake smile wiped off her face and the air around her suddenly became tense and suffocating. "I'm tired. Goodbye." With that, Haruka rolled to her side, ignoring the pain, and pulled the blankets over her head.