A/N: Just a little tidbit KhristynZoeBas and I wrote together for Hideyoshi and Rei. Hope you enjoy!

Everyone who has spent more than their fair share in one has an opinion on hospitals. Usually, it's associated with the feelings they've had while being entrapped inside. For this particular patient-- as a patient was exactly what he was, and always had been-- hospitals were quite frankly the most boring places on earth. Which was why, with multiple cords running from his hospital gown to the beeping monitor next to him, he sat with his knuckles supporting his puffed out cheeks. There was a book settled in front of him, although at this point he'd almost forgotten what it said. His eyes would occasionally flicker over the charts and anatomy pictures displayed atop the pages, but for the most part he simply stared in annoyance at overly patient nurse settled at a desk a few dozen feet away.

When the nurse happened to glance his way, the boy let out an exaggerated sigh.

"I wanna go outside."

The nurse, of course, simply offered him that patient smile of hers.

"I'm sorry."

The boy knitted his brow, pressing his knuckles more harshly against his cheek. No doubt there would be imprints against his skin when he finally quit pouting.

"Then let me go," he pressed.

"Not today, Rei-kun."

The six year-old gave yet another exaggerated sigh, rolling his eyes as an added effect.

"I won't fall off the playset this time."

The nurse chuckled and gave a small shake of her head.

"You know that's not the reason."

"Everyone else went outside," Rei complained.

"Not everyone. Some of the kids are still in their rooms," she corrected. "Perhaps you could go play with them."

Rei wrinkled his nose, eyes falling back down to his book.

"Nu-uh. Only Kimi-chan is any fun, and Shinyamura-sensei said I'm not allowed."

The reason for that was rather obvious. "Kimi-chan" happened to be a girl that had been revealed to have picked up a rather contagious virus. With his health, it would be dangerous for the boy to visit her. He, himself, was just barely getting over a respiratory infection that had caused rather serious concerns about the state of his heart. When his parents had been told all this, Rei had been allowed to listen. After all, most children wouldn't understand the medical talk that had been flying overhead.

Rei's eyes flickered over the textbook settled before him. Rei wasn't exactly most children.

"Hm..." the nurse mused, eyeing Rei with a rather familiar amount of pity. He really hated that look. "Well, I guess that means you must have already said hello to the new kid, then."

His eyes darted away from the book and back to the nurse. She laughed, the eagerness in plain view on the child's face, despite how he'd yet to move his knuckles from his cheek.

"A new person?" Rei asked.

She nodded, debating in her head how to deliver the information. Rei, a rather common face in the children's ward, was rather infamous for his stubborn nature. She assumed it came from being told what to do all the time-- most children disliked when they had no control over anything. Whatever the reason, she figured it was best to make it seem like Rei was doing the new child a favor by visiting.

"Mhm, he checked in earlier this morning," she explained. "Room 24 to be exact."

Rei's face raised just the tiniest bit from his hand.

"Eh? That close to me?" he questioned.

"Yup," the nurse replied.

"Hn..."

Rei glanced at his textbook, debating the idea about in his childish mind. It seemed like a bit of a defeat. He wanted to go outside, not to some other room in the hospital. Still... he wouldn't be allowed outside while they had a monitor on, not without an adult and his parents were both at work. So... maybe just this once, he'd give in. Who knew, maybe the kid would be older than him and he could take him out. Rei's face lit up at that idea and he shut his book before scrambling to his feet and tucking it under his arm.

"I'll be back later~!"

With that announcement, Rei grabbed onto the pole with both arms-- careful not to drop his book from beneath his arm-- and began making his way into the hall.

****

If only he hadn't been impatient. If only he hadn't rushed the stage managers working on fixing his harness before they rehearsed.

If only.

His lips drew down into a frown, and the seven-year-old tapped his free hand against his cast, ignoring the heavy weight of it against his stomach. He disliked hospitals - he'd never been one to get sick that easily, nor was he one to be as careless as he had been earlier in the day. Hideyoshi bit his lower lip, his teeth catching against skin as he did so.

His left arm in a cast, several scrapes along his legs and another matching set of casts around his ankles, bound him to the accursed hospital bed. All because of the faulty harness. He still remembered the sheer panic when the wires started to unravel from the harness, threads snapping as he dangled in midair. He remembered falling, his small hands flailing as he fell and fell, then the sound of his small body landing upon the stage, the crunch and snapping sound of his childlike bones as he screamed, black spots dancing in the edges of his vision before he was knocked out completely.

He remembered the dread which burdened his shoulders when he'd been told he couldn't walk again for at least two months. Months he could've spent rehearsing for the play he had been dreaming of acting in. He remembered his mother's disapproving look as she shook her head at him, saying that the show was canceled. Canceled. All because of his stupid, stupid accident.

Hideyoshi leaned against the pillows, blue-grey eyes half-lidded in the electronic lighting. There wasn't anything he could do at the moment, and it annoyed him to no end. His gaze flitted to the open windows to the left of his hospital bed, eyeing the tops of the sakura trees. A single petal drifted in, settling on the sheets.

He sighed heavily, closing his eyes. As he did so, a faint knock sounded on the door, and his eyes fluttered halfway open.

Must be the directors... He thought. Come to offer their fake pity.

"Come in." He said shortly, reaching for the novel his mother had left by his bedside table. He'd only turned to his bookmarked page when a short head of blonde hair walked into his hospital room.

A... kid? Like me?

"Hello~" the kid greeted, pushing an electronic monitor into the room as he stepped inside.

It took Hideyoshi a moment, but he quickly realized that the wires running off the monitor dipped into the front of the kid's shirt. That meant the slow, methodic beeping was the sound of the kid's heart.

"... hello..."

Without adding anything onto his greeting, the kid slowly crossed the room. He paused upon reaching the bed, shifting his monitor around so it was settled next to Hideyoshi's currently unused monitor, then without asking climbed onto the empty space at the end of the bed. Then, with a grin, he offered his hand in Hideyoshi's direction.

"I'm Sarumara Rei," he announced. "Your room doesn't have a nameplate yet."

Hideyoshi blinked, surprised by the kid's utter closeness. He didn't seem to mind, but the dark-haired boy still adjusted his almost immobile legs beneath the sheets, stifling a wince. Who knew, the latter might just move his injuries completely by accident. There was always that risk.

Uncertainly, he reached forward, grasping the boy's hand and giving it a brief shake. "I'm Saiki Hideyoshi," he said quietly, keeping a calm tone - just as his mother taught him.

"Hm... Hide-kun," Rei announced rather decisively. "Nice to meet you!"

That matter settled, at least to him, the blonde dropped his hand in his lap and studied Hideyoshi with a cocked head. After a few seconds, he grinned.

"You broke a bunch of stuff, that's why you're in here, huh?"

He flinched, his lips pulling down into a tight line as he replied, "Yes, I did. Unfortunately so."

"That sucks," Rei said, absently kicking his legs back and forth over the side of the bed. "It musta hurt."

Hideyoshi blinked, stunned. His gaze lingered, rather inappropriately, at the wires connected to the smaller boy seated before him. It was obvious who was 'hurting' more - and it wasn't him.

"Aren't you hurting more?" He questioned softly, color dusting his cheeks as he belatedly realized his slip of the tongue.

"Hn?" Rei hummed questioningly, then followed Hideyoshi's line of sight. "Oh, these things?" He held one of the wires up, continuing to kick his feet back and forth. "These aren't nothin'. They're just here to make sure that if my heart does something funny the nurses can catch it. I'm fine~"

The boy's tone was rather matter-of-fact despite the nature of the words he'd spoken. As if it was an every day that a six year-old said those words. His expression was beaming once again, hands having fallen back to the covers of Hideyoshi's bed.

He furrowed his brow, not at all pleased with the boy's nonchalance about his condition. "How come you're so accepting about this?" Hideyoshi frowned, "a mistake with any of the machinery and--" he caught himself, flushing even darker.

He wasn't always so open about his thoughts, much less concerned about a stranger. But he was, and that was what bothered him the most.

There was something about this boy - Sarumara Rei - that had him worrying so easily. Maybe it was his nonchalant attitude or his vulnerable-looking physique, or.. was it something else?

Hideyoshi wasn't sure.

Rei cocked his head curiously once again. There was an edge of childish innocence to his expression that even surprised the nurses on occasion, given the circumstances that had the child living in this place.

"Why shouldn't I be?" he asked. "Okaasan and Otousan worry. The nurses worry, too. If I worry, that'd be too many people."

As he finished speaking, he laughed, shifting his hands back so he could lean back. The movement cast his shaggy bangs into his face, blocking view of his eyes as they caught over the edges of his dull frames.

"'Sides, I'm gonna be a doctor. I gotta be good with this stuff, right? Doctors are heroes and heroes don't get scared."

Even heroes are human.. Hideyoshi mentally protested, but outwardly he sighed, turning his head away. There was no arguing with a person who had that kind of light in their eyes - like they believed in what they were saying fearlessly.

Rei seemed to be one of those people.

"So, so," Rei suddenly said, turning his head and making his eyes visible once again. "Watcha wanna do, Hide-kun? I'm bored and you're the only person I'm allowed to play with!"

The dark-haired boy frowned, picking at his disabled arm's cast. "I can't necessarily go outside, now, can I?"

"Neither can I," Rei replied with a dramatic sigh. "Sucks, right?"

Hideyoshi sighed. Reaching for the novel he'd apparently forgotten, he held it out to the boy, shifting slightly to the left as he offered the space beside him. "There's always reading aloud. I've yet to finish this book."

It was a Western novel, from a series he had taken interest in rather recently, though it was already years old. There was a picture of a dark-haired boy riding what appeared to be a broom on the cover, just beneath the words, Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone.

His lips twisted up into a half-smile. "It's a short book, and the story's interesting.." he trailed off uncertainly. Was this boy even interested in reading books? Much less of the fantasy genre? "..Is.. is that okay with you.. Rei?"

"Uh-huh!" Rei replied, taking the book and flipping through it curiously. "This is the one about that magic school, right?"

Without waiting for an answer, he glanced at the back and skimmed the page. Due to the abnormal amount of time he had to himself, he was rather advance when it came to skills like reading. After all, he needed that in order to read the texts he did. He frowned for a bit as he realized it was in English, his brow knitting together. After a moment, it smoothed over as he decided that even his limited skills should be enough to read it. He might not have been able to talk the language, but he could read the letters well enough.

"Sounds neat! Where'd you leave off?"

Hideyoshi blinked, newfound respect for the smaller boy beginning to take root. The book wasn't exactly that well-known in the recent years, but perhaps it was something that Rei had long known about?

He reached for the book with his free hand, thumbing through the pages until he found the correct one, marked with the pressed sakura he had been using as a bookmark. "There. Right about the scene where Harry started talking to the snake."

Rei's eyes lit up as he found the spot. He then scooted back on the bed, maneuvering around the equipment attached to Hideyoshi's legs so that he could settle with his back comfortably against the wall. The wires attached to his own chest moved with him and hung tantly in the air between him in the machine which had been pulled slightly forward with the action.

"Okay... let's see..." he began and cleared his throat. "I'll start here..."

The dark-haired boy closed his eyes, leaning back to lie against the pillows with the intent to listen. Rei's voice soon filled the air, each word flowing smoothly from his lips as he happily read line after line to his new friend. Before either of them knew it, time had flown by and the blonde's own eyes began to slid shut, despite the occasional pinch to the arm he would give himself in an attempt to wake up. By the time the nurses came to tell him that it was time to return to his room, both boys had fallen fast asleep. The younger had curled up, the book still clasped in his hands as his head rested on the legs of the older. Hide, himself, had simply fallen asleep in the same position he'd relaxed in to listen to the story.

She laughed to herself and stepped back into the hall. She'd find someone else to carry him back to his room, but that could wait a few moments. That relaxed, peaceful smile on the younger boy's face was rare these days. She'd let him relax a few more minutes before jolting him back into the real world. The two of them deserved that much, she figured.

It was just a nagging feeling in the back of her mind, but the nurse was certain that neither of them were in for an easy life.