For Morgana, and anyone else that may need it.

Yup, this one is for you. I sat still for nearly an hour after reading your PM. I tried to think of a response, but every time I did, this story popped into mind. And a one shot turned into a two shot turned into this. I hope you like it, and I feel the need to apologize - You've inspired me, and I don't know how that's going to make you feel. But regardless, read on.

The early morning breeze blew across the land, shaking trees and carrying birds overhead, helping them sing their sharp tunes as they looked for the days meal. Circling and circling the bushes and trees of the world, these birds passed over a large town, flying in between power lines and along walls, underneath overpasses and over rooftops. Heading away from the noise of the main city, these hunters found themselves near a quieter area, in the shadow of a large mansion.

On the top floor of that mansion, through the farthest window to the right, a young girl with flowing purple hair could be seen at a mahogany desk. Her head was bent over a small notebook, her form obscuring its' contents from all outside view. At the top of the page was an elaborate sketch of a tomb, with a skull and crossbones over it, a scythe sticking out of the ground to mark its' location. Underneath the picture, in sharp handwriting, she scrawled.

Yesterday I dreamed my gravestone would be in the shape of a shinigami's weapon. I liked the way it looked, implying I'd died of some brutal death - maybe a murder or a rape? - but it wasn't lifelike enough for me. I would have preferred if it had been more jagged and twisted, looking dangerous; not just some pole sticking up from the ground with a blade growing out of it. It wasn't even symmetrical.

Leaning back and looking at what she'd put down, purple eye running over the lines again and again and again, she scribbled it all out, writing a simpler sentence underneath. When she was done, she blew softly on the ink to dry it, before shutting the book, opening it again from the front and flipping through every page she'd written in. Pictures of graves flew by at amazing speeds, the same phrase underneath each one. 'Yesterday I dreamed...'

When she found the page she'd just finished, she nodded to herself in satisfaction, putting a small ribbon to mark her place before closing the book up and locking it away in a drawer, standing up and leaving her room, the last thing she wrote floating in her mind.

Yesterday I dreamed I died a bloody death. I wonder if it will happen today, and free me from my misery?

It was the sound of tires squealing that started everything.

The warm summer breeze blew down the suburban street, billowing sheets hung out to dry and playfully whistling among the homes. Picking up a bit of loose dirt, the wind carried it from the ground and right into the eyes of a walking pedestrian. Coughing and grimacing, the pedestrian let his eyes water until they cleaned themselves, wiping his face and sighing dejectedly.

Sawada Tsunayoshi, failing high school student, was walking down the sidewalk on his way home. He'd finally been freed from the prison of summer remedial lessons for the day, and was looking forward to getting home where he could relax and play video games with his two younger brothers.

The seventeen year old was not what some called 'enthusiastic'. He never put forth effort when it came to studying or exercise, causing him to fail every test and always be last in gym class. He never built up the will to date his middle school crush, even after following her to high school and watching her bounce from bad boyfriend to bad boyfriend. He never looked for anything to do when he wasn't in school and didn't participate in any clubs, so he had no idea what he was going to do when he graduated - if he graduated - from Namimori High. Even his body reflected his personality; Tsuna had gone through his growth spurts and was still a head shorter then all his other male friends, had no muscle on his body, and sported an uncut mop of hair sticking nearly straight up out of his head. And with no ambition, he didn't feel the drive to make things better. In fact, Tsuna was a firm believer in the first law of gambling: only bet on a sure thing. And Tsuna knew that the only sure thing in life was what you'd already experienced, so why change?

It had served him well, in a strange way. His paranoia and outright fear of possible danger kept him under the radar of bullies and disciplinarians. His at times pathetic attempts to get the attention of his crush had earned him at least a cursory acquaintance with her and her friends. Tsuna had even earned the pity of his father's boss, and was guaranteed a job at the company the old man owned. His life was comfortable and safe.

Fate, on the other hand, was not so kind to the people around him that day.

Tsuna meandered past a small park a few blocks away from his home. From one of the rose bushes next to the sidewalk, the head of a cat poked out.

He skipped a little in fright, almost making a surprised squeak under his breath. But the stray was gone as fast as it had come, the bush shaking momentarily then standing still, showing the small feline had left Tsuna's immediate vicinity.

His heart beating faster then it had all day, the high schooler shook his head. "Damn cats." he muttered. The park was beautiful, but not that popular. For whatever reason, stray cats loved the place, hanging in the tree branches and digging in the flowerbeds. They scared little kids and repulsed older adults, so no one liked visiting the area. Tsuna only knew about it because he'd walked past it hundreds of times on his way from and to home.

Home - the place Tsuna really wanted to be right now. He attempted to increase his speed and get away from the park, but took no more then four steps when he received yet another shock.

"No, don't go that way!" A soft voice called out, hidden by a tree in the middle of the park.

This time Tsuna did give a little yelp, spinning on his heel to find the phantom that was whispering to him. He saw another cat dart across the park, and wondered for a moment if he had found the thing that spoke to him. But just as he had the thought, a young girl followed the cat, bent over slightly with her arms reaching out, like she was trying to grab it. Purple hair flew out behind her.

Tsuna shook his head. Purple hair... "Kids these days."

He turned again, slightly disgusted at himself for being afraid of nothing and dead set on going home. A little voice in the back of his head whispered that this kind of thing always happens in threes...

The purple haired girl played softly in the grass with the only things that really entertained her - the cats that called this park home. She'd tripped over one of them months ago, quite literally stumbling into their lives. Their tsundere aloofness had drawn her to them, and ever since then she'd come back, sometimes with food, and other times with toys, to pull a small amount of amusement out of the day before her mother demanded she return to the mansion.

Oftentimes she would pull long grass out of the ground and wiggle it in front of any cat that approached her, smiling slightly when they would bat at it. She had been doing it with a brown tabby she'd nicknamed 'Ken', after one of her brother's friends. Ken the cat had about the same temperament as Ken the human, so she thought the name fit.

Ken batted at the grass like a boxer, swiping low then high. Chrome was using all her wrist strength just to make sure he couldn't catch it. Suddenly, his ears perked up, and he looked at the sidewalk that was hidden by bushes. Letting the grass go, Chrome shook her head.

Anytime someone walked down that path, Ken would repeat the same pattern. He'd run into the bushes, poke his head out, get a good look at who was coming, and then...

With a mighty fling and a low meow, Ken flew out of the bushes, right past Chrome. She stood, brushing off the back of her one piece.

He shouldn't keep doing that if everyone that walks that way scares him so.

Watching Ken run, she noticed immediately that he was heading for the edge of the park. On the other side lay a roadway that was often used by cars that wanted to avoid traffic by cutting through the residential area, usually above the speed limit. If Ken tried to cross that stretch, he could be in serious danger.

Taking off after him, she called "No, don't go that way!" as if somehow Ken would understand what she was saying. She ran after him as fast as she could, bent over to pick him up. But she couldn't gain on him - she didn't have a powerful body as it was, and Ken had four legs.

She followed him with abandon, as they quickly left the shaded center of the park, passing by bushes and small trees. Even as they left the park and stepped onto the street, the girl continued her pursuit. If she'd been more aware of her surroundings, she may have stopped at the sidewalk, realizing that Ken would cross the road fine. If she'd been thinking through her actions, she may have stopped to wonder why the cat suddenly tried to speed up when it hit the roadway. But instead she concentrated on trying to grab the cat.

The last thing she heard was the revving of a motor.

Looking back on that day, Tsuna didn't know what it was. Maybe he smelled fumes or burning rubber. Maybe he heard an engine humming. Maybe, as he swiveled his head after seeing the girl, he caught a glint of silver. Maybe he was just psychic - his friends seemed to think as much. But whether it was one or all of those reasons, or something completely different, Tsuna never knew. He just stopped in his tracks and stared in the direction his suddenly far away home was as dread spread down his spine.

Then that noise shattered the idyllic scene. The horrible ripping of rubber as breaks were slammed against tires shot through him, silencing all other sound. Tsuna easily heard the dull yet resounding thump that followed, right before the car shifted gears and sped away.

The park spun through his vision as his head swiveled back to where he had last seen the cat. His bag hitting the concrete sidewalk was as faraway a noise as the thorny roses tearing at his pantlegs. The fluid motion of raising his arm and pushing away obscuring branches, sliding under others was done completely on instinct, the mind unaware of the body protecting itself. His vision narrowed into a tunnel, a spotlight following the tire tread marks back along their path, his eyes widening as the black marks mingled with red, a small grin tugging at his lips as he finally found the disturbing subject of this worldly painting. And the small voice in the back of his head cackled that he'd been fooled, there was no way human arms could bend that way.

For every two beats of his heart, he took three steps, and by the time he finished exhaling, the toes of his outdoor shoes were above the edge of the pavement, hovering centimeters above the growing pool of viscous fluid.

Scavenger hunt over. He'd found the cat...and the girl.

His vision attempted to telescope towards what was left of her head. That purple hair that had briefly flown through the air was matted down, clumped together and darkened to a black - he knew it was dyed - wrapped over her face the way a coroner would cover the face of a body after an autopsy. He wondered if she even had a face anymore.

From somewhere that he should have seen but his horrified mind wouldn't comprehend, the cat gave a sudden and final caterwaul of pain, and Tsuna was shocked back to his senses.

"What is your emergency?"

He would have dropped his phone had he not been squeezing it in a death grip. Pulling it away from his ear, he stared at the number, dumbfounded and amazed. He had dialed for emergency services and started a conversation without knowing it.

"Hello?"

Bringing the phone back up to his ear, he spoke through a suddenly dry throat. "There's been a hit and run. Someone's been run over."

"Where are you?" The voice of the operator was formal, but crisp.

Tsuna began slowly reciting information, like he was in English class and had to read the next part - only this came easy. As he gave the operator their location, his name, what he saw happen, and a rough description of the car, he found his brain was horrifyingly analyzing the body. With sick curiosity, his eyes roamed up and down her broken form, images burning into his very soul that he would never be able to scrub off.

"Thank you." Shuffling papers came from the operators end. "We ask that you stay on sight till paramedics arrive."

"Sure." Tsuna said absently.

"Also, may you give me a rough description of the girl's condition?"

"Dead."

"...Excuse me?"

Shaking his head and taking a deep breath, Tsuna spoke clearer. "Sorry - her body is...twisted...blood is coming out of her head..."

Tsuna fought off a burp, tasting bile in the back of his throat. "Oh god...I think I can see her intestines."

"Have you moved her in any way?"

Tsuna shook his head, feeling his face slack at the sight of the purplish-gray tubes. "No..."

"Good - if she does have head trauma, disturbing her could lead to even worse complications."

Tsuna was still staring at her body. Something had caught his eye when he'd seen the organs...

"Is there anything else you can see?"

"...Hello? Are you still there?"

Shoulders shaking, he let out a giggle. "Hey, hey, get this." a smile spread across his face. "Did you know that bone looks kinda yellowish when exposed to air? The same color that it is on the inside-"

Toppling over, Tsuna upended the contents of his stomach onto the sidewalk. Retching, he felt the tea he'd had earlier wash up against the roof of his mouth before dripping out, some splashing on his uniform. Groaning, he fell back onto his butt, eyes twisted in pain, smile long gone.

"Did you just vomit?"

He groaned back into the phone.

"Did you get any near our victim?"

He groaned at a lower octave.

"Good."

Slowly, Tsuna leaned back, laying down on the sidewalk, only slightly careful not to put his feet into the mess he'd just created. Sirens sounded off in the distance. Inevitably, this led him to once again looking at the girl's body.

He thought something seemed off about her, now that he was closer to her level and looking from a new angle. Something besides her body being impossibly broken. But it was hard to tell what caught his attention when everything was so grotesquely alluring. Her face hidden by bloody hair. Her legs and arms, broken, bent, and twisted. Her torso, ripped open by the high speed impact. Even the blouse she wore, torn and ruined, that just barely covered her chest now-

Tsuna gasped.

"What? What is going on?"

Tsuna watched very carefully, doing his best to feel if any wind was blowing. But not a heavenly caress touched his body - his hairs were on end for a completely different reason. He watched as the fabric across her chest drifted up by a fraction and resettled. Drift up and resettle. Drift up and resettle.

By the fourth movement, Tsuna was finally able to put it into words.

"She's...breathing."

Pain.

There was pain, but not as much as she might have thought. Or maybe there was too much, and she just couldn't comprehend it all.

But there was definitely pain. And a strange feeling of detachment. Like she wasn't whole anymore.

She wondered if her arms had been ripped off. But then, they wouldn't hurt this much if they did.

A frightened caterwaul swirled in her mind. So the car got Ken too.

That caused her more pain then any wound she'd suffered.

Who knew the cost of her dream would be such an innocent life?

Shooting up to his feet, he stumbled over, ignoring the earlier warning against disturbing her, nearly screaming into the phone "She's alive!"

The sirens were louder now, maybe twenty seconds away. His phone tumbling out of his hand, Tsuna's knees hit the ground, the teen not giving a thought to the cracking noise he heard clattering next to him of his phone breaking against the bloody roadway.

Now that he was right next to her, looking down, he realized his earlier descriptions weren't entirely accurate. When she had been hit, the resulting collision had knocked her over and caused her to roll - her long hair wrapping mostly around her head. But what Tsuna hadn't seen before was that her left eye was exposed, staring up at the clouds above them. With short and pained gasps, a matted lock blew up and down over her mouth as the girl instinctively attempted to keep her body functioning.

But that wasn't what really affected Tsuna. The final straw for him was the streak running from the corner of her eye, down her cheek. With the dirt and grime plastered onto her face, it was easy to watch the tears rolling down.

His own eyes welled up, choked sobs bubbling up from his chest.

Color. She had never appreciated color this way. It was all so strange. Dying, that is. It really put everything into a new perspective.

She thought she would feel relieved. It was all done. She had hoped that not even memories of her brother would interrupt her serenity. But in her final moments, all she could feel was a lonely bitterness. 'What a waste this has been...'

Then a noise. like someone talking underwater, beat at her temple, catching her off guard.

"Live." He begged. Her pupil dilated, shrinking quickly then expanding again. Like she was surprised someone was calling out to her. Such a sad and disturbing thought broke Tsuna, and he just began babbling at her.

"Please live. Don't go here. Not like this. Not like this..."

His eyes squeezed shut, and the tears fell onto her, mixing with her own.

"LIVE!" He screamed. The echoes were drowned out by the ambulances, which pulled to a rough halt nearly next to them - with more squealing tires, causing him to flinch. The emergency workers were out as soon as the car had fully stopped, back end splayed open as they brought out a gurney.

The noise had crescendoed. It had begun as a thump against her temple, before turning into a running stream, trying to wake her from the haze masking her very existence. The stream got louder, before turning into a torrent, one word blowing past the haze and the bitterness to register in her very being.

And like she'd been ordered, her body began fighting.

"Move!" One of the workers snapped at Tsuna while the others surrounded the body of the girl. Tsuna, in his shocked haze, stood up quickly and backed away, watching them work.

Standing on the sidewalk, swallowing back more bile as they - from what it appeared to him - peeled the girl off the pavement and put her on the gurney, rushing back into the ambulance, Tsuna realized that he probably just watched someone die, and couldn't do anything about it. He didn't call out to her, to keep her from running into the road. And he'd spent so long in shock...if he'd reacted faster, could he have gotten the call out a few seconds earlier? Thirty seconds? A minute? Or if he'd paid attention when learning first aid instead of staring at the clock, maybe he could have done something to help the victim? At the very least he could have given better information to the emergency operator he called.

But no. Instead he sat on the sidewalk, cried, threw up, and screamed. Like a child. Like a brat.

A feeling of dread creeped up his spine again as two police officers approached him. He felt the need to cry out to all of them, to explain that he was useless, lazy, incompetent. There was nothing else for him to attempt.

This was the extent of what he could do.

The colors had softened. The air she'd clawed into her lungs felt different now. The pain ebbed and flowed in strange ways, growing for a moment in places before disappearing nearly completely. And in her head, that word bounced. It brought into dark focus the pit of loneliness she'd fought so hard against acknowledging. But it also reveals a small nugget of pure and unbiased curiosity that called out to the word as the word called back, like a child's melody playing in her soul.

'LIVE!'

Why?

Leaning back in the hard seat, Tsuna closed his eyes against the bright fluorescents in the ceiling above. He had a raging headache, smelled funny, was thirsty, and just wanted to sleep, but he couldn't muster the energy to leave the hospital.

The officers had questioned him in detail about what he'd seen and done during the accident. They were especially interested in the car, but Tsuna couldn't tell them much, just that he saw a flash of silver between the branches. After taking his statement, they offered to take him home, but he hadn't wanted to go back just yet - he didn't feel like facing his family's questions. Thinking it was the only other plausible location the police would take him, Tsuna instead asked if he could be brought to the hospital that the girl was being looked at.

On the way to St. Shamal's Hospital for the Feminine Inclined - though most just called it Shofi - the officers explained that a car color would actually help them narrow down their search by a lot. All they would have to do is keep an eye on local auto repair garages to see who would go in to get new tires and a bumper. Tsuna had to sit through a ten minute explanation of car interiors and how rapid breaking or accelerating could damage the tires, causing them to heat up to the point that the rubber would begin to melt; or how bumpers were easily damaged by any collision, even when hitting something as potentially soft as a human body.

"So if we see anyone that comes in and their treads look melted, or they've got a bad front end, we'll know we've got a probable suspect."

The officers were obviously just trying to give hope to the young boy they had in the back, but Tsuna didn't really care. He was used to looking pitiful, and had long ago gotten sick of the ways adults tried to cheer him up. His irritation mixed with the empty feeling he'd had since finding the girl caused him to be short with his mother when he called home from the hospital, using the excuse that the receptionist needed her phone back to hang up. He had tried to say goodbye to the officers who had driven him to Shofi, but they insisted they remain - he was a minor, after all. They needed to stay with him until one of his parents arrived, or he decided to be taken home himself.

So now Tsuna was stuck waiting in the hall, two officers sitting on either side of him like he was some delinquent. They'd been very pleasant and relaxed with him, but the high schooler was emotionally wiped out. Despite it only being dusk, he just wanted to curl into a ball and never wake up.

He looked past the officer on his right, at a closed door that the girl was apparently on the other side of. How many hours had it been since they'd begun operating? Was there anything they could even do with someone so broken?

A nursery rhyme his dad had learned overseas and often told him when he was younger came to mind. He began reciting it slowly, quietly, as activity around him picked up.

"Humpty Dumpty sat on a wall..."

Loud talking could be heard at the end of the hallway, the receptionist patiently talking with a voice that sounded like it belonged to an older woman. Tsuna didn't care.

"Humpty Dumpty had a great fall..."

The officers on either side of him stood up as the angry older voice came closer. Walking into his view, a lady that no doubt would have looked elegant in her younger years strode, giving him a once over and upturning her nose when she saw the disheveled appearance, the dark circles around the eyes, and the fading vomit stains on the end of his shirt and shoes. Beside her were two males: an equally older looking man in full suit and tie like he'd been ripped from work at an office, who looked away from the group, talking quietly into his phone; and a young man about his age, with purple hair tied back to reveal a zigzag hairline.

"And all the Kings horses, and all the Kings men..."

The boy stared at him, his icy gaze holding back whatever emotion he felt, observing Tsuna calmly with the same eye that the girl had looked so forlornly up to the sky with. Still feeling dead inside, Tsuna shrugged at him, raising his voice.

"Couldn't put Humpty Dumpty back together again."

The little conversations around him stopped. The boy he was talking to looked thunder stricken for a moment, before schooling his expression and looking at his feet. The two officers stared at him worriedly, the older women offended, and the office worker surprised - like he'd finally noticed Tsuna.

Feeling like everyone wanted him to say something else, Tsuna tagged on an awkward "Sorry."

He was spared from the limelight when the I.C.U door opened, a weary doctor exiting the room. The entire meta-group of Tsuna, the officers that had come with him, and the people that had joined them rapidly moved down the hallway, not quite breaking into a run as they closed in on the doctor.

"Well, what happened?" the woman demanded impatiently.

Sighing, the doctor closed his eyes, preparing for the no doubt painful conversation about to unfold.

"Are you the mother?" he asked. Making a twiddling motion with her hand, she dismissed the question.

"Yes, yes, now will you tell me how that good for nothing ever got into this mess?"

To the doctor's credit, he didn't bat an eyelash at the biting words the lady used to describe her own flesh and blood - which was better then Tsuna and the officers with him, all three of whom ran the gamut of horrified and angered expressions.

"She was hit by a car." The doctor began explaining. "There are multiple bone fractures in all four limbs, though individually each break is nothing terribly shocking - especially compared to her torso. Normally with this kind of accident we see much more damage to the limbs, especially the forearms, since people naturally try to defend herself - even if they are caught completely by surprise, there are still instincts that kick in when one feels threatened. I can only conclude with this pattern of injury that she was either bent over when hit, reaching out, trying to protect something..." Lowering his voice slightly, he added "Or just suicidal."

"Foolish girl." the woman muttered. "So is she dead?"

The doctor readjusted his glasses. "Not...yet."

Sighing angrily, the woman began wiping her forehead with a handkerchief. "I assume you have her on some expensive, over the top life support system that is going to cause my medical insurance to go through the roof?"

"Actually," he drew out the word, as if offended by the woman's last remark, "We've been miraculously successful at the operation." The doctor cooly explained. "When we found her, her organs had begun to fail, nerves weren't firing properly, and it wouldn't be a stretch to say she was bleeding out of every pore. But with simple surgeries, we were able to set her limbs back the way they were supposed to be, and work on cleaning her body so it may begin healing itself."

Smiling slightly, the doctors voice considerably warmer, he added "Your child has an amazing will to live. She's fighting with all her might to recover."

The woman scoffed, saying something that caused nearly everyone to flinch from the harshness of it. But Tsuna didn't hear it. The last thing the doctor had said hung in his mind. He remembered how he had freaked out when he'd seen her breathe. The things he had screamed resurfaced in his mind.

There was no way...

He looked back at the operating room the girl was resting in. The herculean effort required to hang on to life after that kind of accident astounded him. Leaving the conversation behind, he slowly walked toward the room, noticing a glass pane next to the door. In the long hours he'd been sitting, waiting for news, it had never occurred to him that maybe he could just walk up and look inside to check up on her.

Tsuna slowed to a stop, feeling meek. Peering into the room, he gasped.

The first emotion that he felt was delight. Right in the center of his vision, lying on a bed with tubes and wires plugged into her body, the girl he'd found slept, the rise and fall of her chest much more pronounced then it was back at the scene of the accident. And just like the doctor had said, everything was lying the way it was supposed to - her arms and legs, while in casts, were straight; neither her body or neck seemed twisted unnaturally; and even though there was a medical cap over her head, a breathing unit over her mouth, and a patch on her right eye, Tsuna could still clearly make out her face.

She was without a doubt the twin to the boy behind him. Their cheeks, jawlines, and ears were identical. Tsuna would guess even the hairline that her purple locks followed was zigzag. Which led to the second emotion he felt: pity. The uncaring woman talking to the doctor was really this girl's mother. Tsuna didn't completely get along with his dad, true, but deep down he thought they loved each other. He didn't think his dad said horrible things behind his back like that.

"You must be joking?"

Tsuna looked over his shoulder at the loud exclamation, watching as the girl's mother stared down the doctor, outrage.

"I am being completely serious." The doctors strained voice seeped down the hallway to Tsuna. "As it is, your daughter will have to go through rigorous physical therapy to maximize recovery, but she'll never be the same as she was. We may have to wait months for her legs to heal before your child will even be able to get out of bed. The muscle atrophy that will occur...and that is on top of the internal damage she has suffered. Her spine has been damaged, which may lead to long term complications if it doesn't heal right, and her organs are in danger of failing. If she'd spent a few more minutes on that road, they may have shut down completely. Then we would have certainly lost her."

"And all our lives would have been easier for it." The woman spat.

Finally showing signs of impatience, the doctor rubbed his forehead, speaking curtly. "Look, what worries me the most right now is the blood loss. Things like physical therapy and long term healing wont matter if her organs shut down, which is a very likely possibility if we don't get her body filled with more blood. Everything that has happened to assist your daughter's survival will be undone if we don't get more transfusions going."

Giving the woman he was speaking to a pointed glare, he added "And I'm sure the process would go much faster if we had a donation from a direct relative with the same blood type-"

"What, me?" The woman scoffed. "Poke holes in my body for a child? Never!"

Finally getting off the phone, the office worker next to her put a calming hand on her shoulder. "Now, honey..."

"I'm right!" She rebuffed. "That girl has caused us nothing but trouble. She hasn't made any friends since she was a child, spending all her time at that dirty park instead of at home or afterschool clubs. No one can ever guess what she was thinking - she's even distant with us! Every moment she's alive is a chore for her own family."

A word was muttered, silencing the woman's rant. Looking behind her in surprise, she finally noticed the state the boy was in. Even Tsuna could see the clenched fist shaking at the male twin's side.

Her voice only slightly quieter, the woman said with forced sympathy "You must understand Mukuro, your sister is a black stain on this family. She has never been able to move on from your father's passing, nor my sister's murder."

Tsuna felt horrified from what he was hearing. The police officers seemed to feel the same as him, actually taking steps away from the woman and her poisonous words. Even the doctor stage coughed, looking at the office worker - The stepdad? - for help. But he just pulled out his phone, saying something about 'the company' and 'missed meeting' before turning away and talking quietly.

Then he felt that same impulse he'd felt right before the accident. That he needed to move. That he couldn't just stand still and do nothing. Feeling his cheeks warm for some strange reason, he looked back into the intensive care unit.

The girl's eye was open.

When Chrome opened her eye, the first thing she noticed was that she couldn't see out of her right eye. She couldn't even feel it - there was just an empty space.

The second thing she noticed was that she could hardly move. Once her eye had adjusted to the bright white light of the room she was in, she noticed her entire body seemed to be bandaged in some way. Especially her torso, which was practically mummified. There was even something over her nose and mouth, preventing her facial muscles from moving properly.

And then she could hear her mother's words.

They seeped down the hall like poison gas, slipping underneath her door and floating up to her ears, one of the few parts of her body not covered. Chrome could say she was surprised, but she would be lying. Exasperated that she had no time to rest, maybe. But this? This was par for the course with her mother.

She had an inkling that there was some question she wanted an answer to, but she didn't care. Chrome saw no point anymore.

She stared at her feet forlornly, truly looking devoid of life. All of Tsuna's blood felt like it was pooling in his toes. Light headed, he swayed, incredible empathy building in him. And still that woman talked behind him.

"Your sister hasn't shown the slightest lady-like tendency. As a child she always clung to you like a big tick, playing boy games with your friends, shrieking like an annoying bat. And then there was her poor attempt at overcorrection in middle school, closing up like a clam and throwing away all her dirty toys and play clothes. But still she couldn't even master the piano or violin. She wasn't even that pretty! You must have felt as embarrassed as I when we would take her out in public. And then in high school she starts getting slightly better grades, then suddenly everyone is ready to look past all of her shortcomings? When has she ever contributed to this family?"

Tsuna could hear that woman sigh, a soft noise like she was patting the brother's - Mukuro, right? - head. "You must face it. Nagi is, well...a useless introvert."

BANG!

Everyone jumped, looking at Tsuna in shock. He had slapped the glass panel in front of him, his fingers splayed across it, pressing like he was trying to reach through it and touch the girl on the other side.

The girl - Nagi... - also seemed shocked by the sudden noise, her eye widening and flicking to him. He held her gaze, his mind going at a million miles an hour, trying to figure out what he could possibly do to make this right. But his mind just kept coming up blank, again and again.

Chrome had been shaken from her spiraling laments by the loud noise, her entire body flinching painfully. A nurse somewhere to her side gasped as well, looking around wildly.

In front of her, on the other side of a window, a boy about her brother's age stood. He had brown hair that could only be described as long, though why it was sticking up she had no clue. He was wearing a dirty school uniform for one of the high schools close to where she lived - though he should be on summer break at the moment, so she didn't know why he was dressed the way he was.

And then there were his eyes. His brown eyes, apologetic, embarrassed, sad. Chrome felt a wealth of emotion coming from him, so much so that her throat constricted, unsettled.

Then a fragment of a memory flashed through her mind. Of someone pleading with her. Of a question that gave her new life. All at once she put the pieces together.

She knew this boy.

Tsuna heard rushed footsteps behind him. The doctor came up on his side. "What do you think you're do-"

Seeing what he was staring at, the doctor's face went slack. "She's awake." the man whispered, in awe.

Then he was all business, pulling open the door to the intensive care unit and barking orders at a nurse Tsuna couldn't see. "Patient is awake! I want more people in here running tests and making sure nothing is wrong with her, I want to know why the anesthetics aren't keeping her down completely, and I want someone to actually be watching the patient instead of eavesdropping like a middle school fangirl!"

The doctor approached Nagi's bed, but stopped before he said anything.

Slowly, the injured girl raised her arm, reaching out for Tsuna like she was trying to hold the hand he had up against the glass. Feeling his eyes begin to water again, Tsuna tried to smile at her. Because he felt genuinely happy - the life had returned to her gaze.

"And who are you?" a snippy voice asked from right next to his ear.

Giving a little squeal of fright, Tsuna jumped, backing up rapidly when faced with the wrinkled face of that woman. Stuttering, he explained "I-I'm the one that called the ambulance-"

"Why did you do that?" The woman cut him off. "Didn't your parents ever teach you to mind your own business? And what are you still doing here? You've done your charity, now get out! This is none of your concern."

Tsuna's mouth moved, but no words formed. Instead, he felt the weight of an older hand on his shoulder.

"C'mon." One of the police officers said. "It's time to head home."

Giving the iciest glare he could to the woman, he added "Some people just aren't worth the effort."

"Yet you've chosen to save her life." that woman smirked. "Shouldn't you be out actually doing something, or do our taxes now pay for babysitting purposes as well?"

The hand on Tsuna's shoulder tightened. "Let's go." The officer ground out, guiding Tsuna back down the hallway.

Chrome watched as the boy was nearly jumped by his mother, then slowly escorted away. Panic engulfed her, causing her to stretch her arm to its' limit, hoping he would notice something, and stay a little longer. She had a question to ask him!

The high schooler looked over his shoulder and back into the intensive care unit as he was led away. Nagi stared after him, her eye telling him everything he needed to know. The fear, the uncertainty, the despair.

She didn't want him to go.

On impulse, he reached up and moved his finger, like he was writing in the air. He did it quickly, hoping no one else but her noticed. From the slight nod Nagi gave him, he assumed his message got through. Unfortunately, it seemed everyone else had also understood what his intentions were. That woman glared at him with a piercing gaze that would kill elephants as the police officers smirked, winking at him and patting his back. The doctor gave him a thumbs up, patting Nagi's cast as he got to work.

And as they passed by Mukuro, he reached out and grasped Tsuna's hand in a one-sided handshake, not looking him in the eye.

Staring at the hand he'd written with - the one Mukuro had shaken - he felt apprehension constricting his throat. Already he was regretting his thoughtless promise, but all of the people around him had borne witness, so he had no choice. He had to fulfill his duty.

I'll be back.

Don't get your hopes up - I have no idea when I'm going to update this one. But you're already experienced with that little habit of mine, aren't you? On that note, I feel I must apologize again; if I'd realized that you took my stories so dearly, I would have been much better about updating. Or at least, I'd like to think I would be. In reality I most likely would have buckled under the pressure and spit out some worthless crap that would disappoint you more then impress. But as they say, hindsight is a perfect 20/20.

Well, that was interesting. I should tell you all now; I've never been hit by a car, nor been that close to death, nor seen a body in real life, nor have the slightest clue whether the diagnosis given by the doctor is remotely realistic. I do know that most I.C.U.s don't have 'viewing' windows, but...I'm going to call artistic license on that one. In fact, though it pains me to say, I might just have to call artistic license on a lot of this story. But let's hope not.

Anyway, that's part one, I hope you enjoyed it. Keep your eyes out for part two, which is shaping up to be fairly shorter.