His gentle touch woke me up. Small brushing movements, exploring my shoulder. His beautiful hand. I waited patiently, as his fingers traveled downward, floating down to my chest. Fingertips brushed my chest scar, then flowed down my belly, exploring. They ended on a new sensation. A clicking noise, as his fingernails tapped. So strange, but not unpleasant.

He was checking my new device. So that's where it was. After a few moments, his hand traveled back upwards, and stayed in the middle of my chest like a creature trying to get cozy. It rose and fell with my breaths.

I let us stay like this for a while. As I took my bearings, I realized there was no more beeping. No machines. There was nothing on my fingertips, no monitor hooked there. No blood pressure cuff on my arm. I wasn't hooked up to anything. The weight of the blankets let me know I was home.

Home. I sighed silently in relief.

"Hmm? Are you awake?" He asked so quietly. A long breath came from him, and his body slid towards mine, his arm wrapping around me as he pressed himself to me.

"Yes. Good morning."

He kissed my ear, and a smile spread on my face. His lips were so warm. He kissed below it, and another landed on my cheek. Then on the edge of my mouth. Finally, he kissed my lips, and I breathed him in as he lingered. He got up on his elbows, half over me, as he deepened the kiss. I moaned into his mouth a little bit, and he parted from me, just to kiss me again even deeper.

He parted from me again, and that smile... It was my everything. The back of his hand smoothed my bangs upwards, touching me tenderly, lovingly. His eyes searched every bit of my face, taking me in. I puckered my lips, and the beauty of his kiss met them again.

The joy of kissing him. Just love, wanting to be near each other. A "good morning" greeting. Adoring each other. It was like a dream.

"Good morning," he breathed, still so close to my face.

"Good morning," I said again, smiling.

He gave a little giggle. "You already said that."

"I know. I wanted to say it again." He was so adorable.

"Good morning," he giggled. He swept my hair up more, and kissed my forehead. I made a small noise, and he giggled more. "Too cute," he sighed.

"You're too cute," I said, sticking out my tongue a little.

"Give me that tongue." His eyebrows raised, and before I knew it, he was kissing me again. I moaned as his tongue went into my mouth, searching for mine. He took over, commanding in his movements. My toes curled, as I let him take me.

I sat in my wheelchair in our bedroom as he played with my hair. He'd brushed it carefully, like it was a dear thing, spraying it with water and making sure every tangle was out. It was getting so long now, almost past my shoulders. There were a lot of roots showing. Strangely, I wasn't embarrassed about this. He seemed to adore my hair, so it didn't matter to me.

"Hmm, what should I do with this? What are you in the mood for?" He asked, still combing it. "Should I curl it? Or do you want a wig? A longer style?"

"Hmm." I wasn't sure. All I knew was, I felt a lot better than yesterday. I was able to sit like this for so long. Was the device this helpful? What had happened overnight to make me feel like this? I was just grateful to be able to enjoy him playing with my hair, every minute of it. "Do what you think would look cute."

"Cute? Hmm." His lips puckered a little in his thought. My belly did a flip flop, seeing him do this. "Ah! I know. You used to wear it like this, in your videos."

"Like what?" In my videos? Which ones? A smile was on my face automatically. What had he watched?

"You'll see," he grinned. His hand pulled a drawer open, and he grabbed my pink curling iron. He began unraveling the cord from it expertly, the cord making little rhythmic clicking noises. My belly pinched at his expertise. Whenever he displayed his knowledge about things like this, from hair to nails to makeup, I wanted to take him straight to bed. That was my little secret.

He leaned down and plugged it in, and let it heat up on the counter of the dresser. I saw him eye me in the mirror, and a sneaky smile came about on his face. He grabbed the comb in front of us, and began combing my hair finely as we waited. Soon, he stopped combing and just started petting my hair in love. I closed my eyes, feeling his large hand stroking. There he went again, never able to stop touching me. How I loved every lingering contact.

In a minute, he started curling my hair. I watched in the mirror, as he meticulously went around my head little by little. The curls were tight, and bounced as each one was released. Finally, he curled my bangs, in the style I used to wear when I could do my hair myself. He took that section of bangs over my right eye, and curled it under, making a bangs piece that made waves off to the side, curling around my chin. The end result was beautiful, almost like Shirley Temple if Shirley Temple had a million inches of black roots. It was still gorgeous, though.

He turned off the curling iron, letting it cool on the dresser. He opened another drawer, and out came small elastics. He dug around in there a little more, and out came two cute, matching hair clips with white roses on them.

Ah, now I knew exactly what he was referring to. A content smile appeared on my face. At this, he smiled in the mirror, making me sigh inside.

With such expert hands, he gathered my hair on the right side of my head, twisted the elastic around it. Following this came a white rose clip, beautifully finishing off the ringletty pigtail. He did the same on the other side. Leaning down, he undid my brakes and turned my chair towards him. He got in a squat, and used his fingers in front of his face to determine if my pigtails were on an even plane. They were, and he stood up, admiring his work with a grin.

"Too cute," he declared. He slid the hand mirror off the dresser, and held it up for me to see. I began to bounce, my pigtails jumping with me. It was too beautiful. It was a breath of fresh air that I didn't know I needed. "You like it?" He covered his mouth with one hand, and laughed.

"I love it." In the mirror, I was grinning. It was like a mirror to another world. To something from the past, but amazingly the present.

"I'm so glad." He was back in the squat, face to face with me. He placed the mirror on the floor, and held my hands on my lap. "I was trying to figure out a way to make you feel happier. I know we've been through a lot in the past few days." His eyebrows peaked, and I wanted to smooth them out, make that concerned look go away. My darling... I didn't want him to feel sad. We'd been so happy all morning...

"You make me very happy." I held his hands, rubbing the backs of them with my thumbs. I wanted to make him happy, too. How could I do that? My mind immediately went to food. Wanting to cook for him. But, there was no way I could do that... A twinge of aching descended upon my heart.

He came forward slowly, his eyes closing gently. I met him in the middle, and his kiss was beautifully wet. It was a soft thing, caring, dear. With a new, easy strength, I cupped his cheek, feeling his moving jaw as he kissed me, making my heart flutter in butterflies.

He parted from me, pressing his cheek in my hand, his eyes still closed.

"I want to do something for you, too," I said, unable to control my impulse. I loved him too much.

"You don't have to do anything. Your feeling better is the best thing," he replied, his cheek still caressed in my hand.

"But, are you hungry? I wish I could cook for you." My wish.

Suddenly, his arms were around me. Embracing me so hard. His chin was on my shoulder, his cheek pressed to mine. My arms went around him, too. Holding him to me. My love. We stayed like this for a long while. And after a while, I realized he was quietly crying.

His sniffled in my ear. "You saying that is the best gift I could ever receive," he whispered.

In the kitchen, we sat together at the table. It was surreal, sitting like this again after so long. Like I was in the past, yet again. It was impossible to think how long it had been. Was this device really so wonderful? What had been done so that I felt so good? No weakness such as from the previous day. I was alert, not at all tired.

"Eggs and tofu is so boring," Yami's mom said, her spatula going into the pan again, the lovely smells refreshing and becoming bolder as she flipped my breakfast in the final cooking stage. "Are you sure you don't want anything different? I remember you like sausage. We can go get some. It has to be turkey, though, right?"

"Yes. But, eggs and tofu is yummy."

"Don't be kind," she tsked. "We'll go get some sausage. I wonder if they sell the kind you like around here. Do you want sausage, too, Tetsu-san? I bet it would be tasty."

"Oh, you don't have to be so formal. You can call me Tetsu. We're family, after all." He waved his hand at her slightly, smiling. "Sausage sounds great."

"Good! Okay, then we'll go out later and get some."

Go out. My toes wiggled, something I hadn't been able to do in a long time. This simple movement of joy. This device was amazing. What had happened?

"Um, Sawai-san, what happened last night? I feel so good. How did I end up here? I was in the hospital." I enjoyed letting my toes wiggle, no tiredness at all as I did this.

Tetsu took my hand. I looked over at him, and he was giving me a hopeful smile. His other hand joined it, and he began rubbing the backs of my fingers. He looked so happy. It was a feeling like fresh air again.

"Well, should I tell the story, or do you want to, Tetsu?" Yami's mom asked.

"You can." Tetsu's face erupted into a grin, making my heart flutter again.

"Okay. Well, your doctor released you around midnight, because he felt the device was making you well controlled. We were responding to it's signals, and telling the nurses the correct things to do. He felt very comfortable with this. You were still asleep, so Tetsu signed you out. He carried you all the way to the car. I kept saying we could use a wheelchair, but he insisted. How amazing is that? He really loves you. It makes me so happy to see." She glanced back at us, grinning. I was grinning, too. She was completely right, seeing him now, gazing at me like this, adoring me. My toes wiggled more.

"Well," she went on, going back to cooking. "We got home, and your sugar spiked. It's the weirdest thing. Logically, it should have gone the opposite way. So, we gave you some insulin and waited a bit. We gave you some more insulin, and your reading stabilized. So, we all went to bed."

"It's amazing," Tetsu interjected. "I feel like, if we hadn't had the device, then it's likely that spike could have turned into an emergency in the morning, like what's been happening lately. However, we were able to catch it beforehand. It's really..." He sighed, grinning again so beautifully. I eased into another smile. "It's really... I have no words."

I opened my arms to him. He got an adorable expression of surprise, and then his arms went around me, so warm. His familiar weight was heavenly. My cheek rested on his shoulder, and I closed my eyes, so content.

It was like the sunshine after a tumultuous, terrible storm.