A/N: Thank you kindly for reading, I appreciate the support, and I'm sure my partner Capslock-Nanao does too. She wrote this chapter, so I thank her. The only thing I did was minor edits on things, but ah well. She wrote it, thank you Nana-chan!3

Always,

Dusk

Nanao opened her eyes in the hospital. The first thing she noticed was that everything hurt. The second thing she noticed was that everything hurt just a little less than it had in the ambulance. The third thing she noticed was that she could turn her head, and she did, looking to her right. Then she understood the second thing. She was hooked up to what was most likely some sort of painkiller. She watched the doctor shows, she knew what they did after accidents of this calibre.

She looked over to her left. There lay the little acrobat boy. He was sleeping, or maybe he was in a coma, or maybe he was dead. Nanao wasn't quite sure.

Then her eyes travelled down the bed, and she almost laughed. Almost, because it would have hurt. Laughed, because from the stain on his bed sheets, she could tell he was not dead.

"Oh, Miss Ise, you're awake!" Nanao turned her head again. A nurse with blonde hair rushed into the room. "How are you feeling?"

"If these are painkillers, they're doing a lot of good," Nanao said, glancing over at the medicine bag in reference. "If I might make a suggestion? The other patient is probably worse off than me, why don't you check on him."

The blonde nurse seemed to be used to patients giving orders, because she did so at once. "Oops! Looks like we've got a bed-wetter!"

Nanao wondered how a woman of her age could be so naive.

"I'll be right back, Miss Ise," the nurse said. "As soon as we can get you out of bed we'll do a few X-rays, see what's up."

"Can you sit up?" the nurse asked. Nanao was tempted to smack her, but resisted, as this nurse was apparently taking care of her. And her hands hurt.

"Yes, I am fairly sure I can sit up," Nanao said patiently. "If my spine was broken, which would prevent me from sitting up, I probably would not be talking."

"Yes, but there's also your collarbone, your skull, even your tailbone could prevent you from sitting up!" the nurse said. "We don't know what's broken yet."

Nanao lost patience. "Excuse me, I am an adult, I know if I can sit up or not."

The nurse didn't seem to notice her tone. "All right, then! I'll help you out!"

Nanao sighed and took the nurse's hands. She helped her onto the little seat. "Stay right there," the nurse told her, withdrawing. "Don't move."

Nanao was about to say she wasn't planning on it, but it would have taken too much effort.

The x-ray machine clicked several times. The nurse peered at the screen. "Well, we can't be too sure until these are developed, but right now you look like you've got a few broken ribs, which isn't too bad. And that might be a hairline fracture there on your arm, can you move it at all?"

Nanao tried to. "Not really."

"Well, I might be right, then. I'll send these to the office to get printed; we should have them back in a few hours. Until then, we'll take you back to your room. Your brother has been trying to visit you all week."

"Excuse me, week?"

"You and the acrobat have both been in comas for about a week," the nurse said. "Sorry I forgot to mention it."

"Has the acrobat woken up yet?"

"I don't know. Let's go back and check on it, shall we?" The nurse helped Nanao back up into the cot and rolled her back down the hall as she pondered the nurses use of "it" instead of a gender.