162 Waking up

Darkness… And nearly still silence were it not for the steady beeps of a machine. That constant and enduring rhythm was all Arata heard as his eyes slowly opened to the light of the world. A warm glow from the sunset illuminated the room he was inside, which was an otherwise ordinary white sterile hospital room.

His vision was still somewhat blurry and his head pounded. When the boy went to hold his throbbing head with his right hand, something kept it from moving. Slowly, Arata turned to see there was a girl sitting along side him, sound asleep. It was none other than Erina, who had tightly gripped his hand as she rested her head on top of his bed. The rest of her body was sat on a chair moved to be besides him.

He tried to rack his brain to understand the situation. It would be a shame if he got amnesia again, but through physical means rather than psychological. Slowly the images of what happened began to fill into his mind. He had gotten hit by a truck saving the life of a child. Which resulted in him being knocked out and that was all he could remember.

The boy wondered what happened while he was out. Hopefully he wasn't in some coma which would involve missing out on a significant portion of his life. Judging by his own appearance and that of Erina's, it couldn't have been that long if that were the case. Perhaps it was time to give a message to the staff and see if anyone had answers for him.

"Hello?" He called out to the quiet hallways. "Is there anyone there?" Arata would've gotten up, but all the needles stuck into him made that a challenge. Thankfully they were IV bags without any appearance of blood, so that allowed Erina to stick around. There was also an intense pain radiating from his thigh making him wish he never woke up.

"Hmm?" Quietly, a nurse peeked her head into the room. There she found he was finally awake, which prompted some level of excitement and a call to one of the doctors.

"I'm glad to see you're doing okay." The doctor, who was the one who operated on the boy, said. "Looks like vitals are all doing well. Are you feeling any pain?"

"It's mostly my leg." Arata answered. While they chatted, Erina was still sound asleep.

"You're one lucky boy." Said the doctor. "We had to operate right there, and your life was in the balance for a little bit." The chuckle sounded like one of relief as the man explained what happened. "You should be thanking your friend. She donated blood for you."

"She did!?" Arata was in disbelief over the news. Last time he checked, this girl was absolutely mortified of anything relating to blood. "Wow, she really overcame her fear just for me?" He ran his fingers through her hair as he thought about what she must've went through for his sake.

"Anyway, I'll be contacting your parents so they can take you home." That was oddly quick. Arata would've thought he'd need to stay for some time just to make sure there wasn't any potential complications.

"Miss, you should wake up." The nurse gently shook Erina's unconscious body a bit to try to stir the girl. She didn't seem to budge all that much from the push.

"I'll take care of her." Said Arata, as the nurse and doctor left the pair alone. "Hey, Erina…" He whispered to try and get her to wake up. "Hey, it's me, Arata."

"Mmhmm." She finally moved a little bit from the prodding. "Who?" She got her head up and rubbed onto her eyes to try and clear her vision. The girl shook her head for a bit and looked right at Arata.

At first, she seemed to be in disbelief over what she was seeing. The girl shook her head again to make sure this wasn't an illusion. Then she pinched herself to ensure this wasn't a dream. Then she literally took her hands and rubbed them all over his face to also make sure he wasn't some hallucination.

"A-Arata?" Tears started to drip down her cheeks as she came to realization that this was entirely real. "It's… It's really you?"

"It is." He replied with a smile. "I'm awake now."

"Oh my gosh!" Her yelled out and dove over him. The pair engaged in a long tight embrace. "You're finally awake…" Erina's voice was broken up as all of her emotions flooded out. "I was so worried you were going to die…"

"Well, thankfully I'm still alive." He cried a bit too. It meant a lot that someone he cared so deeply for was here in this moment. "The doctor's told me everything… Thanks so much."

"Oh, uh." She got shy when he said those words to her. The kind of things that would get her feeling nervous when Yogi did it, were now coming from Arata. It was weird to notice it now, but in a sense, she felt that way about words coming from him for a while now. "I just did it because you needed it." Erina played it off as if it was nothing. Which would be true were it not for her phobia.

"Well, I'm just glad that we can see each other again." He was too excited about being able to leave to take note of her behavior.

The pair waited until his mom and dad arrived to come and pick him up. The two of them had a similar reaction as they rushed over and tightly hugged their young son. Arata's dad was much more emotional about it, considering that he couldn't even be there when his own son's life was at risk.

"I'm glad to see your friend was here to keep you company." His dad thanked Erina for everything she had done. It was interesting to Arata now that people had accepted them as just friends. When they first got to know each other, a lot of people mistaken them as lovers. The way they acted around one another now versus then must've appeared different to the outside world. "You really didn't have to do this."

"It's okay." Erina assured them that it was no trouble for her to do this. After a little bit of chatting and official signing of release, they were able to leave. Arata couldn't walk both due to procedural reasons, and because his leg hurt too much for him to put any weight on it. So the boy was taken out on a wheelchair. Erina was nice enough to offer to help out by pushing him back home.

"You know, we really can't thank you enough." They repeated their continued gratitude for her. It was making her feel a little uncomfortable being held in such high regard with them.

"Just asking, but how long was I out?" Said Arata. He still had no clue on what the date was. For all he knew, it could've been a year since he entered that coma, even though the doctors said he didn't suffer any brain damage. Perhaps he should've asked them back when they were explaining things about how long he was out.

"You only got hit by that truck yesterday." His mom told him. Considering how distraught she was back then, her tone was oddly relaxed about what happened. Probably because he was surprisingly well after the incident, such as the lack of broken bones.

"It's only been one day?" As the sun was setting, it really had only been just 24 hours since he was knocked out cold. "Wow, I really am lucky." Arata was grateful for what his life really had been about.

Now that he was thinking about fortune, this reminded him of that fortune he received back during new years. Whoever, or whatever that was, they told his life was going to be on the line as someone else had their own inner confrontation. It seemed that it really came true if him nearly dying occurred. But who was the test for then?

It didn't seem like it was for his parents. Perhaps it was for Erina? Kind of an odd test to force her to confront her fear of blood. Also rather simple, but it was only a fortune. So this wasn't some spirit testing her to become something she currently wasn't. At least, he hoped not considering the supernatural aspect of that conversation.

"Looks like we're home." His dad said, which presented them with one minor problem. They only have stairs, so he would have to be carried to be brought inside. "Well, I can pick you up and drop you down at the couch."

"Actually, I can do it." Erina offered way more than she really needed to for the family.

"It's fine, you've already done-" Arata tried to tell her that she didn't need to push herself. However, before he was able to finish his sentence, the girl picked him up from the chair. Given his relatively small statue, it wasn't hard for her to carry him up in her arms.

"I want to." She reminded them that her actions were from desire, not obligation. "Just focus on getting well, we're all going to help you any way we can." Erina referenced all of the others who cared so much for him now. He thought about the others, who he was looking forward to seeing after this moment. They all must've been worried sick about his health, so a ton of visits were going to be sent his way.

"Thank you." He said as she lay him on the couch. His parents went into the kitchen to grab some food and drinks for everyone as they rested up. "For everything."

"It's nothing, really." She smiled and took his hand for a moment. The pair stared at each other in the eyes, losing the feeling of the outside world for this little moment. For her, she wished they could stay together like this forever.