It was quiet. So serene. I enjoyed the moment.
Turning my head, I found Shigure lying beside me. He looked tired but no less handsome than usual. Had it been a month already? Had I been so sick that time had just skipped past? Or had they been so worried about me that they let him come back to me early? Or perhaps he'd been injured? I hoped not.
I wriggled over and snuggled up to him, leaving a kiss on his jaw. I had missed him. Missed him so much. His arm automatically wrapped around me and a return kiss landed on my face, but he didn't really wake up. He must have been very tired. I let him sleep.
It turned out that Shigure had pushed himself to the limit. Knowing that I wasn't well and wasn't doing well without him, he had rushed through his work in order to return to me early, whereupon he had passed out. My heart tightened upon hearing that.
"Look after your health better," I poked him who was sitting by my bedside through our link since I couldn't do it physically. He was still nodding off after sleeping for the entire day and night. He was that tired. "If anything happens to you, what will happen to me?"
*"Can't you just use words of power and be healed?"* Shigure grumbled at me internally while he smiled externally and found my hand to play with it. There were visitors in the room.
*"The Creator Father said there's a reason for me being so unwell and asked me to be patient,"* I replied. *"He didn't explain much. Whether I understand it or not, the Creator Father knows what He is doing. So don't worry too much. I did die and He gave me a choice. I came back to be with you and to keep my promise with you. I'll support you in your work."*
Upon hearing that, Shigure leaned over to give me a long, deep and intense kiss, ignoring everyone else in the room. I felt kind of dizzy when he was done and touched my swollen lips with my tongue in a daze. Then he hurried out of the room.
"Whoa," Miki-san gasped. "What was that for?"
Miki-san had been moved from our ward to the rehab ward, but she made it a point to visit me daily. We'd become friends, I believed.
"I don't entirely know," I looked at the door after Shigure, noticing through the link that he had gotten aroused and had run to hide before his feelings became too obvious.
"You guys are so close," Miki-san sighed. "I'm so envious. I wish I could find a man as good as yours. Handsome, hardworking and loving. When will I find my Mr Right? How did you meet your Shigure-kun?"
"Ah," I thought back to how he had painted with me before I had gone in to meet Director Worth. It felt like it had been another lifetime ago. "I was struggling with work," I said, looking at the wall as if that old painting of the Director's was there. "The Director asked him to help me and it went from there."
"So he was like your knight in shining armour?" Miki-san grinned.
"Oh, not at all," I shook my head, remembering the first time I had seen the prowess of his vest with its myriad pockets and all those books. "He was my friend, armed with a library and pockets containing just about anything I needed."
"Huh?" Miki-san looked puzzled, as if trying to imagine it.
"Nevermind," I twitched my nose. "He helped me report the bullies at work, saved my life and taught me that I wasn't just a barrel scraper."
"It sounds like a wonderful story," Miki-san said in a dreamy voice.
"One day, he'll be strong enough to save me before I get hurt and almost killed too," I nodded.
"You mean he usually arrives a little late to save you?" Miki-san asked with disbelief. "That's not so romantic."
"No, but he notices the things I like and pays attention to what I care about. He can pre-empt what I want to do before I do it and can make all the plans needed, because my brain just isn't wired that way. He does all or most of the behind the scenes work so that I don't have to work so hard. He brings me my favourite foods and drinks right when I need them and he pays attention when I speak. He respects my choices and decisions and doesn't force or trick me into anything I don't want to do. I think he's the perfect guy," I felt my cheeks growing hot and wanted to pat them but couldn't. "It wasn't his fault that he was late whenever I was in trouble. He got waylaid or was busy with something more important."
"What's more important than you?" Miki-san asked hotly.
"The innocent civilians," I smiled at Miki-san. "Don't you think? That's why we do this type of work in the first place. To enable the public to live their normal day-to-day lives in safety. No matter what happens to us, we aren't as important as those tens of thousands of lives that keep the nation running. I'm proud that my husband can prioritise what is more important and not let me distract him from his work."
"You might be alone in that…" Miki-san shook her head at me. "You can be more selfish in your relationship, you know."
"Having this relationship with him is already selfishness on my part," I smiled at Miki-san. "I was the one who chased him first and demanded he give me his baby after all."
Miki-san was speechless. She could only give me a double thumbs up in reply.
"Brave girl. Bold girl," she said. "Although I'm not a shy person, I don't think I'd be able to do what you did."
"We were dying, you see," I told her. "He was dying and I was desperate to do something, anything to make him stay. If he gave me his baby, I'd be able to at least keep a part of him if I lived and he didn't. I think it's different now. My feelings have changed. I think I just want him now. It's nice to have him all to myself."
Miki-san had her head cocked to one side while she looked at me more closely.
"You're one of those people with layers, I see," she observed. "Just when I think I've gotten to know you, you surprise me with something else."
"That's right," Shigure said, returning to the room with bags of takeout. The smell wafted toward me and Shigure had to grab a tissue to wipe my mouth before I drooled on my bedsheets. "My Uki-chan is full of surprises," he said tenderly, looking into my eyes with a smile.
Miki-san coughed, breaking us out of our own world filled with the slow descent into another sort of atmosphere filled with intensity and tension.
"Oh, yes, Hayashi-san, I brought you a share as well," Shigure said, passing her a box. "You said this morning that you were hungry for some gyudon, right?"
"Ooh, Nodoka-chan," Miki-san nudged me gently, "I think I might fall in love with your husband if he is so considerate toward me."
"You're the first friend my wife has made here in this country," Shigure said. "Being considerate is the least I can do to thank you for keeping her company. She came with me because of my selfishness, otherwise we could have stayed back home where all our friends are. Thank you for being her friend."
"She's the one who saved my life despite being in such a bad shape," Miki-san said excitedly, recounting that night for Shigure who narrowed his eyes at me and then lifted an eyebrow. "Isn't she amazing?" Miki-san gushed. "Her arms are broken and yet she managed to throw a cup and jug at both gunmen with such accuracy. I can only imagine how awesome she had been in active service. If it weren't for her, we'd both be dead and probably many more people would have been killed. Adrenaline sure can make people do amazing things. I still don't know how I wasn't shot when those men fired at us."
"Adrenaline sure is amazing," Shigure nodded. Internally he spoke to me, *"Uki-chan, did you happen to leave any details out when you reported the event to me?"*
*"You were barely awake, so I gave you the condensed version,"* I gave Shigure a weak smile. *"I only told you the important parts."*
*"How did you explain it to the police?"* Shigure asked.
*"Things happened so fast that I don't know what happened,"* I said. *"I threw the mug and cup and then I got shot."*
Shigure rubbed his face.
*"No wonder I was told to get the real story out of you. They have suspicions and wanted to know whether there was another unknown person involved or not. The angle of the bullets were all wrong for Hayashi-san's version of events. You'd better tell me the entire story, a split second at a time,"* Shigure told me, still unpacking all the food on the table.
"Mikiko-chan," a nurse stuck her head in the door. "Your nurse wants you to go back to your ward. The doctor is doing his ward rounds and you have to be there before he arrives."
"Hai!" Miki-san picked up the plastic takeaway bowl and cutlery, standing up to go. "Thank you so much for this, Nodoka-chan's husband. I'll see you tomorrow."
"See you tomorrow," I called in my whispery voice.
"See you," Miki-san hurried out of the room to return to her own bed.
"Alright," Shigure stared at me, opening the thick rice porridge he had brought back for me and lifted the head of my bed so that I was sitting more upright. *"Show me everything that happened."*
I replayed my memory of events for him which he watched through our link while he cooled the porridge down and fed me a spoonful at a time. His eyes narrowed and he got me to replay specific sections over and over again.
"I see," Shigure said with a heavy voice. *"No wonder. You know with this, they're going to want to put you to work again as well? They've been digging into our history. They already know more about us than I'd like them to, but if they ever find out exactly what we can do - especially you… Once they learn just how special you are, we might never be able to leave this country to go home. You know that right?"*
"It was an emergency," I told him. "I might have been killed even more dead if I hadn't done something and I couldn't let Miki-san die in front of me."
"I know," Shigure said. *"I'm trying to think up a version of events so that they'll think you did it all physically. Since they suspect another unknown person was involved, I'll see what I can do to use the events you remember to help sway them toward that line of thinking. Try to avoid using any of your abilities if possible."*
*"Can't help it,"* I said. *"I'm constantly using my auto-interpret ability. My own grasp of the language isn't enough."* Switching to speaking around, I said, "I wish I was better at speaking the language."
"You aren't bad at speaking," Shigure replied. *"It's just that everyone seems to hear you speaking in the same accent as their hometown accent when you use it. It makes you suspicious."*
"You know, Kubo-san," said a lanky man entering the room. "Your conversation with your wife doesn't really make sense out loud."
I felt Shigure raise all our mental walls in defence, telling me that this was a man that couldn't be trusted.
"If I didn't know better, I'd say you were both so in love that you didn't need words," the man gave us a thin smile while we heard his mentally projected words speak at the same time, *"Since I know better, why don't the both of you be open with your many abilities and tell me what you were talking about mentally, hmm? I'm sure you both have more than one ability."*
"Oh, we're very in love," I agreed, as if I didn't hear the man's words and felt Shigure give me a thumbs up in agreement with my act. "So in love that he won't even give me my honeymoon. Shujin-sama, just when am I going to get my wedding ceremony and honeymoon, hmm? How long have we been married and how long have you been promising me it'll happen someday? Are you starting to feel a bit stingy now that I keep having to return to hospital? Don't tell me that you've used up all your money on those games."
On cue, Shigure started sweating bullets and stammered excuses.
"Nodoka-sama," Shigure raised his hands, "I haven't been lying to you. It really will happen when you are well and have come out of hospital. I'm just waiting for you to recover. The medical fees are being paid by the compensation we received from my clan. All my money is still there. It's still yours. Don't worry. I'll organise the biggest, prettiest wedding and a special honeymoon retreat all for our own once you've been discharged from hospital and are healthy enough for more physical activity."
At the same time he complained about the scenario I had made up on the spot.
*"Seriously? Do you have to be so hard on your poor husband? I'm wasting my money on games? And just in case you are even a little bit serious about this, let's have the wedding ceremony after we can go and find Homeward and everyone else. The honeymoon can wait until you are completely well again and ready for us to work on making that baby."*
"Oh?" the lanky man raised his eyebrows. He had a scrawny neck.
"Shujin-sama, is he your colleague from work?" I asked, pointing my chin at the porridge Shigure had stopped feeding me with. Shigure blinked nervously, playing the part of the timid husband, and then continued feeding me. "Why aren't you introducing us?"
"Nodoka, this is my colleague, Shimizu Ietsugu-san. Shimizu-san, my wife, Nodoka," Shigure introduced.
"Nodoka-san, how lovely to meet you," the lanky man lengthened his scrawny neck proudly like an elderly rooster who thought he was still in his prime.
"Please call me Mrs Kubo-Shigure," I replied. "I like being reminded of who I belong to now."
"O-of course," Shimizu Ietsugu shrank his neck again, seemingly taken aback by my boldness. "Mrs Kubo-Shigure."
I beamed.
"Ah, I really like the sound of that," I looked into Shigure's eyes and he looked into mine.
*"That's enough. You can stop with all this fake lovey-dovey business,"* the scrawny rooster squawked mentally, obviously uncomfortable. *"I know you guys can hear me. There's no point putting on this act."*
Shigure leaned over to kiss me and soon we were sharing increasingly heavy and intense kisses, completely ignoring the scrawny rooster.
*"Stop calling him and picturing him like that,"* Shigure implored, laughing on the inside. *"I might accidentally laugh out loud."*
I had superimposed the image of a scrawny rooster over my view of the man.
*"Who is he actually?"* I asked, removing the superimposed image so that Shigure wouldn't accidentally give us away.
*"He's the man who's keeping an eye on me for the government while I'm at work to ascertain that what I say is true and what I do is in line with my orders. You could say that he's my temporary partner,"* Shigure said.
*"I don't like him,"* I immediately replied.
*"Neither do I,"* Shigure replied, *"but we have to put up with him for now. As far as I can tell, he's a weak mental ability user and is more of an ability sensor than anything else. He's also a petty man who holds grudges. He can probably sense we both have more abilities than we have reported but can't tell what they are."*
*"Ugh,"* I made a face.