Guardian had gone home for the night, and I stood at the window watching the lights of the city, the cars driving by floors below, but I wasn't looking at anything in particular. All of my energy was focused on just standing. Since Aki had told us that he would be discharged, my body felt heavy with relief, as if only the adrenaline I still felt from the attack was holding me up. I knew Aki was okay, I knew the men who attacked us were going to be caught, and I knew I didn't have to worry about school with a few famous musicians helping me study. All the stress drained from my body, but with it, so did my energy.
"Natsu?" Aki said softly from the bed behind me. He had been sleeping, dozing here and there when he needed to. "Can you help me, I have to pee."
I smiled at the request, such a simple task made more difficult by his injuries, but it gave me an extra chance to prove my worth to him. "You don't want to call the nurse?" I asked. "I'm not really qualified."
He shook his head, lifting the safety bar on one side of the bed. "The nurse taught me how to get up without hurting myself. She said I have to be mobile a lot after I go home even if its painful." He waved to invite me over. "Come on, I'll show you."
He rolled onto his side on the bed, and swung his legs over, pressing himself to sit fully upright from his position sitting leaning back in the bed. He took a few breaths, but they were shallow, as if expanding his chest fully was too painful. With his feet on the floor, he used his palms to push off the bed and stand. He had a slight tilt forward in his stance, as if he was trying to protect himself. He reached out one arm for me, and I cautiously went to his side. With his arm around my shoulders, he was heavy, as if he was using me to take some pressure out of the gravity. I didn't help him walk as he lead the way, and I was sure he didn't need me at all to help him, but was using the excuse to be closer to me just as I was.
"Wow my face looks terrible right now." He commented, as he rolled himself smoothly back into the bed. I helped him pull the blanket back up. "But they promised me they set it perfectly, and as long as I take care of it while it heals, I won't look any different."
I sat down in the chair beside the bed, leaning over onto my folded arms. I took a moment to look at him. His eyes were rimmed with blue and purple bruises, but I could see Aki in them, still strong and confident. He had come back quickly. There was a cast plastered to his nose, all the way up to his eyebrows, and cotton was in his nostrils. His nose and the surrounding area of the cast were crusted with dried blood.
"You look exhausted." He said, breaking my daydream.
I nodded. "I am, but I don't have anything to worry about anymore."
He patted the bed beside him. "Come lay with me. Get some sleep." He said.
He had said it so easily, as if it wasn't a daunting task to somehow get into bed with a victim of three broken ribs. "How can I do that? I'll hurt you."
"You won't, don't be afraid of me. I'm injured, that's all. I'm still your Aki, okay?" He held out his arm, inviting me in. He had confirmed my exact fear, somehow being aware of what it was that made me so hesitant, even if I wasn't. Seeing him injured, taken out of his usual setting, was jarring for me, and subconsciously I didn't know how to handle it. "Lay on this side. The breaks are on the other side."
As I got into the bed and he held me close against his side, I felt as if we could have been at home and nothing had changed. I closed my eyes and concentrated on the strength of his arm around me, the warmth of his body. It was familiar, comforting, safe, just like always.
"Do you want to tell me what actually happened to you?" His voice was soft, not just because we were close, sleepy, but there was worry in it as well.
"I was going to tell you, I just didn't want to tell you right away and make you worry about me when you had enough to worry about." I said. "Honestly nothing happened. He touched me. Something would have happened if the police didn't come when they did though, I know that."
"I still want to kill him though."
"I know that too."
Sleep came to me so easily, laying against Aki's side, his arm around my back. In sleep, the rise and fall of his chest was a natural pace, and I thought he must have felt less pain compared to the short breaths he took while he was awake. I wanted to forget everything that happened to us, to just pretend it didn't happen at all. I was afraid to open my eyes, because I didn't want to return to the hospital, in front of a long road to recovery.
I heard the sound of a phone camera shutter, and opened my eyes after all. "Kota?"
Kota was standing at the foot of the bed holding his phone up. He had taken a picture of Aki and I. "Sorry, didn't mean to wake you. You guys look so perfect together. Here, I'll send you the picture."
As I carefully rolled away from Aki to leave the bed, he stirred. "Ah, good morning Kota. Did you bring coffee?"
"I didn't, but Fuji did. He's coming up, the nurse was showing him where to park the car. Also, drink your tea."
I laughed, looking at my phone, the message that Kota had sent with the photo popping up on the screen. He was right, we looked perfect, in a strange way. Aki was on his back, propped up by the angle of the bed, and I was curled into his side. His arm was around my back, my hand rested atop his hip, both of us black and blue. It was a strange memory to be fond of, but I was fond of it as I looked at the little details. I remembered what Aki had always told me, that finding the contentment in the littlest pleasures in life was what was most important. Even in the hospital, with Aki and myself injured, with the trauma of the night of the attack, I could look around myself and still be grateful for everything.
"I want to drink the tea but the tea doesn't taste like anything." Aki said. Fuji had come in, and was holding a coffee cup out to Aki's reach.
"When does all that stuff come out of your nose?" Fuji asked.
Aki cradled the cup in both hands. "The nurse is coming in soon to let me know. She's going to teach you all how to take care of me when you bring me home today." He had a mischievous look in his eyes, as if to say that he was going to make the week very difficult for them.
"Good morning family!" The nurse greeted us as she announced her presence in the room. She had been the nurse taking care of Aki since the night we had been brought in, and she brought so much warmth to the room every time she entered. I had come to enjoy her presence, as if she was a mother taking care of us all. "I see you've all had your coffee, so it's time I teach you some things." She waved for me to stand beside her on the other side of the bed, and gently held my chin to examine the bruising on my jaw and neck. "You're doing fine. How is your pain?"
"Just sore to the touch." I said. "I don't have a headache anymore."
She nodded with a smile, as if my answer satisfied her. She clapped her hands at Aki. "Hasegawa-san, up you get. Just like I showed you. Come sit here." She grabbed my hand while she waited for Aki to roll out of the bed and walk around it to sit on the edge facing her. She untied the top of his hospital pyjamas and helped him remove it, then told him to sit up straight and began unwrapping his ribs. "You can't have this on anymore. You have to start breathing exercises now. We're going to send a nurse to your home every day to help get you started. We're adding that to the bill your attacker is going to have to pay you." She had an expression on her face like she was finding so much joy in helping us, while causing the most inconvenience for the people who hurt us. "Natsuko-san, watch what I'm going to do here. You'll have to help him clean this wound. Stitches will come out on Friday when you come back for a follow up. We'll see about the nose then as well."
As the nurse unwrapped him, I saw the damage done to Aki for the first time, and everything else left my mind. His left side from his chest to his hip was various shades of dark blue and angry purple. The bruising was so dark, I could barely see the dragon claw tattoo. Three spots stood out in large black circles, and I assumed they marked the breaks in his ribs. There was a short but deliberate gash which had been stitched four times. Though Aki had well defined muscles, his frame was small, and the damage seem to be too heavy for him to carry. I watched as the nurse cleaned the gash around the stitches, and instructed him on how to breathe deeply, but I wasn't really taking it in.
"When you get home, you're going to be exhausted." The nurse said, and her voice cut my daydream short. "It's fine to sleep a lot because you're in healing mode now, but you have to get up and breathe, and cough, and walk around. Stretch your arms, even though it hurts. You can take the painkillers if you need to. Everything is going to hurt, but you have to do your best to do everything."
Aki smiled and chuckled softly. "Great, thanks." He cast a smile at me over the nurse's shoulder.
She handed him a folder stuffed with papers. "Your discharge papers and information you might find useful this week. Our phone numbers are all there as well, so if you have questions, call."
Fuji spoke from his spot in a chair in the corner of the room. He had been the silent observer with a level head, and I was suddenly glad he had been there. "Yamada-san is taking care of the charges for you. I think she's going to pay you a visit tomorrow after you've had a chance to settle in at home."
Aki sat back down slowly on the edge of the bed, his face giving away that he had spent all his energy. "Thank you so much, Fuji." His words were simple, but his voice conveyed a more deep meaning to them.
Fuji crossed the room and leaned over Aki to embrace him. Aki rested one arm and his chin over Fuji's shoulder, his eyes closed and his brows furrowed as if he was trying not to cry. As I watched their exchange, my heart ached for them. I couldn't understand the depth of their friendship even as I watched them interact day to day. Men were always so stoic with their feelings. But being a witness to that embrace they shared, I saw them both let their guards down so easily, and it was a pure expression of how they cared for each other. I felt like I understood them both a little more.
At home, Aki was moving slowly. The nurse had given the orders that he had to do everything normally, even if it was painful. Fuji and I didn't make any attempt to make the apartment more comfortable for him, as Fuji had told me that Aki was tough, and he would never admit that he didn't want things to be made easier. I could tell that Aki was doing his best to act like nothing was wrong, but as he milled about, he would stop to hold his side and take a breath.
Fuji set some bags down on the kitchen counter. They had been in the car when he arrived at the hospital, brimming with fresh food. "I'm going to cook you guys a few meals." He said to me. "I'll stay the night, just in case he needs extra help that you might not be strong enough for."
I nodded, but he wasn't really asking my permission. "Thank you. I'm going to go to Toshie-san's house down the street to thank her and tell her we're home."
"Here." Fuji handed me a gift box of cookies, one typical of giving to a neighbour who did you a favour. "Give this to her."
I stood on Toshie-san's doorstep for a moment before I knocked, taking a deep breath. After I knocked, I immediately heard shuffling feet behind the door, and she opened it as fast as she could. "Natsuko!" She didn't miss a beat taking one look at me, and suddenly wrapping her arms tightly around me. "I'm so glad to see you, how are you? How is Aki?"
She held my face in her hands, examining my face. "We got home just now." I said, and held out the box of cookies. As she took the box from me, I bowed deeply to her. "Thank you so much for helping us. If you hadn't have called the police I don't know what would have happened."
"I'm happy that I was able to help. You said you just got home?"
I straightened and nodded in confirmation. "Just now. We've been in hospital since the night of the attack. Aki has three broken ribs and a broken nose, but he's doing well. We have a friend staying with us tonight to help."
"If you need anything, please call me." She reached around the door to what I assumed was a table in the entryway and produced a notepad and a pen. She scribbled some numbers on it and handed the paper to me. "Anything, any time."
I folded the paper and held it with both hands as I bowed to her again before saying goodbye. I walked slowly back up the street to the apartment, taking a look at the street, the houses, the trees. There were no signs that anything had happened there. There was no blood on the street, the bushes and fences lining the yards were neat and tidy. The event that had changed our lives had been erased completely. I wondered if the other people living in the houses that lined the street had even been aware that an attack took place. I wondered if they had watched from their windows, too afraid to do anything to help. I wondered if they had heard the attack but didn't leave their beds to investigate.