Wake - Chapter 2: Straight Shot
Band: Alice Nine
Pairings: ToraxSaga
Genre: Angst, Crackish (at times), Drama, Romance, Suspense,
Rating: R
Warnings: Psychological Screwiness, a lot of it.
Summary: As the days fade, time marches onward. Or so it seems. Is this life real? Does it matter? Is anything real… or is it just a dream?
Disclaimer: I don’t claim to see the future, know much about psychology, or wish ill upon any person, living or dead. This is a work of pure fiction. I don’t own the people portrayed herein, I have no affiliation with the band or any of its members, nor do I have any rights to any copywrited material contained in this story.
What’s going on? Tora… are you there? I need you.
His head hurt. It was the second thing he became aware of slowly coming back from the darkness of unconsciousness. The second thing… what was the first? He couldn’t remember. Thinking about it made the pain that was already poking through his brain strengthen slightly until he gave up on trying and allowed himself to sink back into thoughtlessness. Now that he was waking up though, the pain wouldn’t let him go back to sleep completely.
Feelings were filtering into his body as he started to process more and more sensations around him. He could feel the air entering and leaving his body, he could feel his heart beating. That was all for a while until his awareness spread outward. Muffled noises reached his ears, someone was talking nearby but he couldn’t bring himself to understand the words. A slightly cool but not cold feeling to the air around him told him he was no longer outside. His limbs were lethargic when he tried to move them and he quickly gave up on that attempt, instead focusing on just opening his eyes.
His eye lids were heavy when he finally got them opened, his vision blurred in the beginning but starting to steady out as the voices he had been hearing dropped off and two head-shaped forms moved into his field of sight. He squinted, trying to bring them into focus quicker but all it served to do was make his head hurt again. He groaned, closing his eyes for a moment before forcing the open once more. The second time was easier than the first but there was only one person there this time and he was talking again, the words coming in muddled before he could force himself to straighten them out in his head.
“Tora? Can you hear me?” the other man was whispering. Tora blinked rapidly, finally able to make out Hiroto’s face over him in the bright lighting of the room. He nodded slowly in response to the question and looked around, mindful of his movements so he didn’t worsen the ache in his head, trying to figure out where he was and what was going on. There was something at the edge of his mind, nagging at him. Something important.
“Why am in a hospital? What time is it?” He asked softly, feeling the words scratch at his throat as they came out. He looked back at the younger guitarist, who seemed to be torn between joy and worry. He finally settled on a half-hearted smile, placing a gentle hand on Tora’s shoulder.
“It’s almost eight at night. You were in a car crash, a bad one. What do you remember of last night?” Tora blinked at him a few times, trying to sift through the murk of his thoughts and remember what had happened. A concert… talking to Saga afterward…
“I can’t… the concert… I talked to Saga… I don’t even remember leaving…” Tora struggled to sit up, looking around the room when Hiroto was done helping prop him up. “Where is everyone else? Nao and Shou… where’s Saga?” He would have been here, wouldn’t he? Tora remembered fighting with his lover, but surely he’d be there despite that. They were still friends after all.
Again, Hiroto looked troubled by something but he pushed it back for an attempt at the grin he usually wore. It struck a nerve in Tora’s mind, there was something he wasn’t remembering. “Shou went to tell someone you’re awake. Nao was asked to release a statement for the fans so I think he’s off somewhere doing that.” He stopped talking for a moment when a thought hit him. “I should actually text him that you’re awake so he can include it for them.” He muttered to himself, digging into his pockets in search of his phone.
Tora watched him for a moment, waiting for more. What about Saga? Until the door opened and an elderly looking doctor walked in followed by Nao and Shou. A large grin immediately spread across the drummer’s face upon seeing Tora sitting up in bed while Shou merely managed to look relieved.
“Welcome back Tora.” Nao said brightly while the doctor grabbed a clipboard from the end of the bed and began checking the readouts on the monitor next to Tora’s bed. He only just then noticed the IV attached to his arm and the wires leading from different parts of his body to the gently beeping machine.
“My name is Doctor Arai. How do you feel?” The doctor asked in a strictly professional voice, writing a few final notes on the board before glancing over at him. “Any head pain, trouble remembering anything, vision problems…” Tora merely nodded or shook his head depending on the questions as the doctor went down a list, checking and writing notes here and there. “The damage wasn’t as bad as to be expected in your case.” He continued speaking once done with his questions. “You suffered some worrying injuries, mostly cuts and bruising which we managed to stop from bleeding. Also some mild burns on your chest and back that have been cleaned and treated. The thing we’re worried about right now is the head trauma you sustained, though waking up now is a good sign…”
Tora reached up and touched his head curiously, noticing as he did the stitches and bandaging on his arms and hands. There was a thick pad of gauze covering a large area of his head. He didn’t notice the other man continued talking as he went over his body mentally, finally paying attention to the signals it was sending him; a slight burning in both of his legs, throbbing in his right side and chest, tightness in his back, and intermittent shots of pain through his head. Surprisingly, his hands were the only things that felt fine and they seemed to be the most heavily damaged from what he could see.
Tora
His head shot up in suddenly, surprising the doctor who was now bent over the machines once more having given Tora the information they had at that time. Shou and Nao blinked at him from their positions against the wall where they had been talking as the doctor performed his checks while Hiroto hadn’t moved from the bedside. They all looked at him curiously as he swept the room with his eyes, taking in all the shadows and corners where someone could be standing.
“Tora? Is something wrong?” Hiroto finally ventured carefully. Tora looked over at him in silence for a moment, the nagging feeling back in his mind.
“Why isn’t Saga here?” Silence surrounded him as he looked at each of them, noting the troubled light that entered each of their eyes at his question. “None of you have said a word about him since I woke up and yet he’s not here. Where is he?” They were silent, each shifting uncomfortably while the doctor paused for a moment as if to speak then continued adjusting the IV in Tora’s arm. It was Hiroto who went first.
“What do you remember from last night?” He looked at Tora seriously, any trace of smiling gone from his face. Behind him Nao took a small step towards him as if to support his words, while Shou crossed his arms and looked away.
“I already told you. We had the concert, we hung out for a little while afterward and then I guess I left. And… I don’t…” He stopped talking, brow furrowing in concentration while he tried to pull another memory into the foreground of his mind. It was elusive, finally sinking back as another increase in the pain in his head forced him to stop trying so hard. Nao nodded once.
“It’s ok Tora.” He said. “It’s just...” He glanced across the bed at the doctor, who was standing there in silence considering the four of them with a curious look on his face. Tora stared at him in disbelief, thinking now wasn’t really the time to be worrying about their publicity.
“Doctor.” Shou cut in smoothly, before anyone else said anything. “Would you mind giving us a few moments? I’m sure you have other patients to worry about, we’ll call you back if something happens.” The man started as if he hadn’t realized they’d want him to leave.
“Oh! Of course, just watch for signs of brain damage; headaches, nausea, hopefully nothing worse than that but we’ll handle it if it comes. Make sure to get some rest tonight and we should be able to discharge you tomorrow afternoon if you don’t lose consciousness again.” He checked one more thing on the clipboard in his hand before he slid it back into the holder at the end of the bed and left. Tora watched the other three nervously while they considered their thoughts for a while after his departure. Each seemed to be hoping the other would speak.
“Tora,” Hiroto finally ventured when the other two seemed content to stay silent. “The doctors told us not to stress you if you woke up today but considering you and Saga’s relationship… the answer to your question is going to be stressful which is why we’ve been avoiding it.”
“And why we asked Doctor Arai to leave.” Nao finally interjected. Shou nodded in silence. Tora absently let his hand wander up to the bandaging on his head again while they watched him. He was again trying to remember more of the night before but everything after the concert was blurry. Saga talking to him backstage. He had looked angry about something…
“You don’t seem to remember it,” Hiroto said quietly, “but you didn’t leave alone after the show.” Walking out to his car… there was someone with him? The nagging feeling in the back of his mind had returned. Could he have forgotten someone coming with him?
“No one was in the car with me.” He whispered, allowing his head to droop into his hand a little as he spoke. “I don’t remember anyone being there.” The throbbing was back in his head, right at the spot he had resting in his hand. He remembered something about a fight, Saga was angry at him… they were standing in the snow. “It wasn’t snowing when I left.” He softly told himself. He stared at his other hand as it lay in his lap, fingers clenching and unclenching at random.
“Saga was there Tora.” Hiroto said as gently as he could. “You somehow got thrown free of the crash, the police who are investigating said it probably saved your life…” Tora’s head snapped up.
“Saga’s not… he can’t be…” He couldn’t bring himself to say the words past the fear that had instantly filled his chest but fortunately, all three of them started shaking their heads immediately.
“He’s not dead.” Nao said with relief clear in his voice. “The cars started on fire somehow and he got knocked out by the impact…” His voice continued but Tora couldn’t hear him anymore. His hands fisted in his lap as missing parts of the night came back to him in a rush.
“Let me take you home Saga.” He pleaded. “Let me do that at least. I don’t want you to get hurt.” He felt Saga’s arm tense under his touch as the other man turned to glare at him through the falling snow.
“It’s too late for that Tora-san.” The bassist said pointedly. “I’m already hurt.” The words cut into Tora’s heart immediately. He didn’t want to hurt the other man. He let his hand fall back to his side limply, wishing he didn’t feel the way that he felt. Wishing with all his might he could just love Saga the way the other man seemed to love him and not question himself on it…
“…found you guys a while after the crash. You were some distance away in the road and Saga had managed to get out of the car but his clothes were still burning pretty bad. They took him to surgery right after the ambulance got here and that was hours ago…”
The headlights were right in his eyes as he tugged uselessly on the steering wheel, trying without success to get it to go in some other direction, anywhere as long as it was away from those bright lights. Saga was next to him, staring at his face in shock as a horn rang out, unnaturally loud against the sound of screaming tires.
“I’m sorry.”
“Who said that?” Tora whispered, staring unseeing at the wall across from his bed. “Who apologized?” Nao fell silent, obviously confused when Tora didn’t elaborate on his words.
“What are you talking about Tora? No one apologized.” He ignored Nao for a moment before shaking his head painfully and moving to try and get up out of bed.
“I want to see him.” he said, more to himself than any of them. Even as Shou moved to keep him sitting, he continued to make his attempts to stand, increasing the throbbing in his head by slight increments.
“Tora you can’t leave!” Hiroto said quickly as he also moved to the side of the bed and grabbed hold of one of Tora’s arms. “You just woke up, you can’t go walking around the hospital.”
“I need to see him!”
“He’s still being operated on you idiot.” Shou said hotly as he succeeded in pulling the larger man fully back onto the bed. “Even if you were fit to get up and walk, they wouldn’t let you see him anyway.” Tora continued struggling for a moment longer despite the fact that he was weak and in pain before he finally gave up and lay back with a sigh. Hiroto immediately let go of his arms while Shou waited a while to see if he was faking them out before also releasing his hold and stepping back.
“Actually…” Nao said once they had all calmed down. “They have operating rooms with observation rooms connected.” Tora stared at him in silence as he addressed the room at large. “I could talk to the doctor and see if Saga’s in one of them.”
~~~~~~~
Half an hour later, Tora found himself tucked into a wheel-chair in a small room staring through a large sheet of glass into a brightly lit operating room. Lying on the table feet from him surrounded by tubing and machines and people, was Saga. His smooth skin was paler than usual, dark shadows under his eyes and a small collection of bruises marred his otherwise perfect face. Tora stared at him in silence, ignoring the three bandmates behind him talking to one of the doctors who had been working on their friend. He had heard what he needed to hear already. Burns on most of his torso and legs, broken bones and bleeding in bad places, possible brain damage…
He wheeled himself closer to the glass, placing a hand on it as if he’d be able to touch his lover on the other side. His mind was racing, not as fast as usual considering his own recent brush with brain damage. It was enough to make him hate himself for the conversation that had taken place right before the crash. Saga had gone into a possibly life threatening situation thinking Tora didn’t love him anymore.
“I only wanted time Saga. I didn’t want you to go away for good.” He said quietly so the others in the room wouldn’t hear him, wishing he could actually go into the operating room, maybe hold the bassist’s hand and tell him he wanted him to wake up, tell him that Tora was doubting now but they could only fix that together. He heard Nao say something about giving him some time to himself and a faint echo of the door closing as the room cleared and he was left alone with his thoughts.
He stared at Saga hard, as if his eyes would fix everything, and suddenly Saga was staring back. Tora recoiled in surprise managing to suppress any noises that would have come tumbling out of his mouth by pure strength of will as Saga continued staring back at him through the glass. For a small moment they just stared at each other, Tora’s face filled with shock and Saga’s amused and half-smiling. And then, ever-so-slowly, as if he didn’t want to frighten the other man away, Saga raised his arm and held it out towards his lover.
Tora stared, frightened to see the solid looking flesh go right through the doctor standing at the edge of the table, then looked around to see if anyone else was noticing this, before leaning forward once more and resting his hand against the glass like it was before he had been surprised. Saga’s smile widened slightly, a small sad light entered his eyes, and then Tora blinked and everything was back to normal. The bassist was still unconscious on the table and the doctors and nurses still surrounded him.
“Tora.” He jumped, pulling away from the glass as if he had been burned and found Nao standing next to him. “It’s time to go back to your room. Doctor Arai says you’ll probably be able to leave tomorrow if we keep an eye on you for the next few days but you need to sleep now.” Tora looked down at his hand for a moment before meeting Nao’s eyes fully and nodding once. He felt his eyes go glassy for a moment as he glanced back into the operating room and then a nurse entered the room, taking hold of his chair and bringing him back through the halls of the hospital in silence.
Goodnight Tora
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
A.N: The crazy begins! MUHAHAHAHA! I mean… the kinda… crazy… *twiddles thumbs* It’ll get more fun as we go. This is the beginning of something I’ve been fondly referring to as Saga’s Ghost Act in my own head and nowhere else. Even though he’s technically not a ghost… well you get the point. Gotta ease into it and all. I don’t see this story being very long anyway. Ten chapters if that so count on some fun eventually. I won’t take all week to update next time either so no worries on that front. I’ll work on it. :D
Funny story for this chapter: I kinda creeped myself out writing the Saga staring back thing. I wrote that part at three in the morning in the complete silence of my house and I don’t know if anyone else’s place does this but my house has a habit of making these really scary random popping noises at night and well… you try imagining Saga all beat up silently staring at you while he’s being operated on all alone in the middle of the night and see how you take it. XP Yes, I’m a wimp. I’ll probably write something scary on accident and give myself nightmares one of these days. *thinks she should add ‘half-assed horror’ to the genres* Anyway, there’s your funny story of the week. Hope you enjoyed it, see you next chapter.
<3
[Previous] // [Next]
Pairings: ToraxSaga
Genre: Angst, Crackish (at times), Drama, Romance, Suspense,
Rating: R
Warnings: Psychological Screwiness, a lot of it.
Summary: As the days fade, time marches onward. Or so it seems. Is this life real? Does it matter? Is anything real… or is it just a dream?
Disclaimer: I don’t claim to see the future, know much about psychology, or wish ill upon any person, living or dead. This is a work of pure fiction. I don’t own the people portrayed herein, I have no affiliation with the band or any of its members, nor do I have any rights to any copywrited material contained in this story.
What’s going on? Tora… are you there? I need you.
His head hurt. It was the second thing he became aware of slowly coming back from the darkness of unconsciousness. The second thing… what was the first? He couldn’t remember. Thinking about it made the pain that was already poking through his brain strengthen slightly until he gave up on trying and allowed himself to sink back into thoughtlessness. Now that he was waking up though, the pain wouldn’t let him go back to sleep completely.
Feelings were filtering into his body as he started to process more and more sensations around him. He could feel the air entering and leaving his body, he could feel his heart beating. That was all for a while until his awareness spread outward. Muffled noises reached his ears, someone was talking nearby but he couldn’t bring himself to understand the words. A slightly cool but not cold feeling to the air around him told him he was no longer outside. His limbs were lethargic when he tried to move them and he quickly gave up on that attempt, instead focusing on just opening his eyes.
His eye lids were heavy when he finally got them opened, his vision blurred in the beginning but starting to steady out as the voices he had been hearing dropped off and two head-shaped forms moved into his field of sight. He squinted, trying to bring them into focus quicker but all it served to do was make his head hurt again. He groaned, closing his eyes for a moment before forcing the open once more. The second time was easier than the first but there was only one person there this time and he was talking again, the words coming in muddled before he could force himself to straighten them out in his head.
“Tora? Can you hear me?” the other man was whispering. Tora blinked rapidly, finally able to make out Hiroto’s face over him in the bright lighting of the room. He nodded slowly in response to the question and looked around, mindful of his movements so he didn’t worsen the ache in his head, trying to figure out where he was and what was going on. There was something at the edge of his mind, nagging at him. Something important.
“Why am in a hospital? What time is it?” He asked softly, feeling the words scratch at his throat as they came out. He looked back at the younger guitarist, who seemed to be torn between joy and worry. He finally settled on a half-hearted smile, placing a gentle hand on Tora’s shoulder.
“It’s almost eight at night. You were in a car crash, a bad one. What do you remember of last night?” Tora blinked at him a few times, trying to sift through the murk of his thoughts and remember what had happened. A concert… talking to Saga afterward…
“I can’t… the concert… I talked to Saga… I don’t even remember leaving…” Tora struggled to sit up, looking around the room when Hiroto was done helping prop him up. “Where is everyone else? Nao and Shou… where’s Saga?” He would have been here, wouldn’t he? Tora remembered fighting with his lover, but surely he’d be there despite that. They were still friends after all.
Again, Hiroto looked troubled by something but he pushed it back for an attempt at the grin he usually wore. It struck a nerve in Tora’s mind, there was something he wasn’t remembering. “Shou went to tell someone you’re awake. Nao was asked to release a statement for the fans so I think he’s off somewhere doing that.” He stopped talking for a moment when a thought hit him. “I should actually text him that you’re awake so he can include it for them.” He muttered to himself, digging into his pockets in search of his phone.
Tora watched him for a moment, waiting for more. What about Saga? Until the door opened and an elderly looking doctor walked in followed by Nao and Shou. A large grin immediately spread across the drummer’s face upon seeing Tora sitting up in bed while Shou merely managed to look relieved.
“Welcome back Tora.” Nao said brightly while the doctor grabbed a clipboard from the end of the bed and began checking the readouts on the monitor next to Tora’s bed. He only just then noticed the IV attached to his arm and the wires leading from different parts of his body to the gently beeping machine.
“My name is Doctor Arai. How do you feel?” The doctor asked in a strictly professional voice, writing a few final notes on the board before glancing over at him. “Any head pain, trouble remembering anything, vision problems…” Tora merely nodded or shook his head depending on the questions as the doctor went down a list, checking and writing notes here and there. “The damage wasn’t as bad as to be expected in your case.” He continued speaking once done with his questions. “You suffered some worrying injuries, mostly cuts and bruising which we managed to stop from bleeding. Also some mild burns on your chest and back that have been cleaned and treated. The thing we’re worried about right now is the head trauma you sustained, though waking up now is a good sign…”
Tora reached up and touched his head curiously, noticing as he did the stitches and bandaging on his arms and hands. There was a thick pad of gauze covering a large area of his head. He didn’t notice the other man continued talking as he went over his body mentally, finally paying attention to the signals it was sending him; a slight burning in both of his legs, throbbing in his right side and chest, tightness in his back, and intermittent shots of pain through his head. Surprisingly, his hands were the only things that felt fine and they seemed to be the most heavily damaged from what he could see.
Tora
His head shot up in suddenly, surprising the doctor who was now bent over the machines once more having given Tora the information they had at that time. Shou and Nao blinked at him from their positions against the wall where they had been talking as the doctor performed his checks while Hiroto hadn’t moved from the bedside. They all looked at him curiously as he swept the room with his eyes, taking in all the shadows and corners where someone could be standing.
“Tora? Is something wrong?” Hiroto finally ventured carefully. Tora looked over at him in silence for a moment, the nagging feeling back in his mind.
“Why isn’t Saga here?” Silence surrounded him as he looked at each of them, noting the troubled light that entered each of their eyes at his question. “None of you have said a word about him since I woke up and yet he’s not here. Where is he?” They were silent, each shifting uncomfortably while the doctor paused for a moment as if to speak then continued adjusting the IV in Tora’s arm. It was Hiroto who went first.
“What do you remember from last night?” He looked at Tora seriously, any trace of smiling gone from his face. Behind him Nao took a small step towards him as if to support his words, while Shou crossed his arms and looked away.
“I already told you. We had the concert, we hung out for a little while afterward and then I guess I left. And… I don’t…” He stopped talking, brow furrowing in concentration while he tried to pull another memory into the foreground of his mind. It was elusive, finally sinking back as another increase in the pain in his head forced him to stop trying so hard. Nao nodded once.
“It’s ok Tora.” He said. “It’s just...” He glanced across the bed at the doctor, who was standing there in silence considering the four of them with a curious look on his face. Tora stared at him in disbelief, thinking now wasn’t really the time to be worrying about their publicity.
“Doctor.” Shou cut in smoothly, before anyone else said anything. “Would you mind giving us a few moments? I’m sure you have other patients to worry about, we’ll call you back if something happens.” The man started as if he hadn’t realized they’d want him to leave.
“Oh! Of course, just watch for signs of brain damage; headaches, nausea, hopefully nothing worse than that but we’ll handle it if it comes. Make sure to get some rest tonight and we should be able to discharge you tomorrow afternoon if you don’t lose consciousness again.” He checked one more thing on the clipboard in his hand before he slid it back into the holder at the end of the bed and left. Tora watched the other three nervously while they considered their thoughts for a while after his departure. Each seemed to be hoping the other would speak.
“Tora,” Hiroto finally ventured when the other two seemed content to stay silent. “The doctors told us not to stress you if you woke up today but considering you and Saga’s relationship… the answer to your question is going to be stressful which is why we’ve been avoiding it.”
“And why we asked Doctor Arai to leave.” Nao finally interjected. Shou nodded in silence. Tora absently let his hand wander up to the bandaging on his head again while they watched him. He was again trying to remember more of the night before but everything after the concert was blurry. Saga talking to him backstage. He had looked angry about something…
“You don’t seem to remember it,” Hiroto said quietly, “but you didn’t leave alone after the show.” Walking out to his car… there was someone with him? The nagging feeling in the back of his mind had returned. Could he have forgotten someone coming with him?
“No one was in the car with me.” He whispered, allowing his head to droop into his hand a little as he spoke. “I don’t remember anyone being there.” The throbbing was back in his head, right at the spot he had resting in his hand. He remembered something about a fight, Saga was angry at him… they were standing in the snow. “It wasn’t snowing when I left.” He softly told himself. He stared at his other hand as it lay in his lap, fingers clenching and unclenching at random.
“Saga was there Tora.” Hiroto said as gently as he could. “You somehow got thrown free of the crash, the police who are investigating said it probably saved your life…” Tora’s head snapped up.
“Saga’s not… he can’t be…” He couldn’t bring himself to say the words past the fear that had instantly filled his chest but fortunately, all three of them started shaking their heads immediately.
“He’s not dead.” Nao said with relief clear in his voice. “The cars started on fire somehow and he got knocked out by the impact…” His voice continued but Tora couldn’t hear him anymore. His hands fisted in his lap as missing parts of the night came back to him in a rush.
“Let me take you home Saga.” He pleaded. “Let me do that at least. I don’t want you to get hurt.” He felt Saga’s arm tense under his touch as the other man turned to glare at him through the falling snow.
“It’s too late for that Tora-san.” The bassist said pointedly. “I’m already hurt.” The words cut into Tora’s heart immediately. He didn’t want to hurt the other man. He let his hand fall back to his side limply, wishing he didn’t feel the way that he felt. Wishing with all his might he could just love Saga the way the other man seemed to love him and not question himself on it…
“…found you guys a while after the crash. You were some distance away in the road and Saga had managed to get out of the car but his clothes were still burning pretty bad. They took him to surgery right after the ambulance got here and that was hours ago…”
The headlights were right in his eyes as he tugged uselessly on the steering wheel, trying without success to get it to go in some other direction, anywhere as long as it was away from those bright lights. Saga was next to him, staring at his face in shock as a horn rang out, unnaturally loud against the sound of screaming tires.
“I’m sorry.”
“Who said that?” Tora whispered, staring unseeing at the wall across from his bed. “Who apologized?” Nao fell silent, obviously confused when Tora didn’t elaborate on his words.
“What are you talking about Tora? No one apologized.” He ignored Nao for a moment before shaking his head painfully and moving to try and get up out of bed.
“I want to see him.” he said, more to himself than any of them. Even as Shou moved to keep him sitting, he continued to make his attempts to stand, increasing the throbbing in his head by slight increments.
“Tora you can’t leave!” Hiroto said quickly as he also moved to the side of the bed and grabbed hold of one of Tora’s arms. “You just woke up, you can’t go walking around the hospital.”
“I need to see him!”
“He’s still being operated on you idiot.” Shou said hotly as he succeeded in pulling the larger man fully back onto the bed. “Even if you were fit to get up and walk, they wouldn’t let you see him anyway.” Tora continued struggling for a moment longer despite the fact that he was weak and in pain before he finally gave up and lay back with a sigh. Hiroto immediately let go of his arms while Shou waited a while to see if he was faking them out before also releasing his hold and stepping back.
“Actually…” Nao said once they had all calmed down. “They have operating rooms with observation rooms connected.” Tora stared at him in silence as he addressed the room at large. “I could talk to the doctor and see if Saga’s in one of them.”
~~~~~~~
Half an hour later, Tora found himself tucked into a wheel-chair in a small room staring through a large sheet of glass into a brightly lit operating room. Lying on the table feet from him surrounded by tubing and machines and people, was Saga. His smooth skin was paler than usual, dark shadows under his eyes and a small collection of bruises marred his otherwise perfect face. Tora stared at him in silence, ignoring the three bandmates behind him talking to one of the doctors who had been working on their friend. He had heard what he needed to hear already. Burns on most of his torso and legs, broken bones and bleeding in bad places, possible brain damage…
He wheeled himself closer to the glass, placing a hand on it as if he’d be able to touch his lover on the other side. His mind was racing, not as fast as usual considering his own recent brush with brain damage. It was enough to make him hate himself for the conversation that had taken place right before the crash. Saga had gone into a possibly life threatening situation thinking Tora didn’t love him anymore.
“I only wanted time Saga. I didn’t want you to go away for good.” He said quietly so the others in the room wouldn’t hear him, wishing he could actually go into the operating room, maybe hold the bassist’s hand and tell him he wanted him to wake up, tell him that Tora was doubting now but they could only fix that together. He heard Nao say something about giving him some time to himself and a faint echo of the door closing as the room cleared and he was left alone with his thoughts.
He stared at Saga hard, as if his eyes would fix everything, and suddenly Saga was staring back. Tora recoiled in surprise managing to suppress any noises that would have come tumbling out of his mouth by pure strength of will as Saga continued staring back at him through the glass. For a small moment they just stared at each other, Tora’s face filled with shock and Saga’s amused and half-smiling. And then, ever-so-slowly, as if he didn’t want to frighten the other man away, Saga raised his arm and held it out towards his lover.
Tora stared, frightened to see the solid looking flesh go right through the doctor standing at the edge of the table, then looked around to see if anyone else was noticing this, before leaning forward once more and resting his hand against the glass like it was before he had been surprised. Saga’s smile widened slightly, a small sad light entered his eyes, and then Tora blinked and everything was back to normal. The bassist was still unconscious on the table and the doctors and nurses still surrounded him.
“Tora.” He jumped, pulling away from the glass as if he had been burned and found Nao standing next to him. “It’s time to go back to your room. Doctor Arai says you’ll probably be able to leave tomorrow if we keep an eye on you for the next few days but you need to sleep now.” Tora looked down at his hand for a moment before meeting Nao’s eyes fully and nodding once. He felt his eyes go glassy for a moment as he glanced back into the operating room and then a nurse entered the room, taking hold of his chair and bringing him back through the halls of the hospital in silence.
Goodnight Tora
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
A.N: The crazy begins! MUHAHAHAHA! I mean… the kinda… crazy… *twiddles thumbs* It’ll get more fun as we go. This is the beginning of something I’ve been fondly referring to as Saga’s Ghost Act in my own head and nowhere else. Even though he’s technically not a ghost… well you get the point. Gotta ease into it and all. I don’t see this story being very long anyway. Ten chapters if that so count on some fun eventually. I won’t take all week to update next time either so no worries on that front. I’ll work on it. :D
Funny story for this chapter: I kinda creeped myself out writing the Saga staring back thing. I wrote that part at three in the morning in the complete silence of my house and I don’t know if anyone else’s place does this but my house has a habit of making these really scary random popping noises at night and well… you try imagining Saga all beat up silently staring at you while he’s being operated on all alone in the middle of the night and see how you take it. XP Yes, I’m a wimp. I’ll probably write something scary on accident and give myself nightmares one of these days. *thinks she should add ‘half-assed horror’ to the genres* Anyway, there’s your funny story of the week. Hope you enjoyed it, see you next chapter.
<3
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