Kade's vision faded in and out as he went in and out of consciousness.
The very first time he woke up fully, bolting upright in fear because he didn't know where he was, his entire body felt heavy, and sore, even with the pain medication he was undoubtedly being given granted there was a tube inserted into his forearm near his elbow.
First off, he was very grateful to Calico for being there during the night to calm him down when he woke up randomly because of the nightmares that haunted his sleep.
Secondly, he was tired of the stupid hospital room. He didn't care if he had a ruptured ribcage that almost pierced his lungs. He wanted out of the bland beige room.
Or maybe a can of spray paint as the lack of color made him restless.
Somewhere around day three of Kade being awake in the hospital, Derek had come in to see him and inevitably Calico given Calico hadn't left his side.
That was the one exciting thing that happened so far, when Calico explained to Derek about how he didn't want to go onwards with the arranged marriage.
At the time, Kade felt like he wanted to crawl under the covers and hide from Derek's fury, but to his surprise, Derek didn't seem upset at all.
In fact, he had said something along the lines of- he was relieved because he didn't want to force himself or Calico into trying to make the relationship work- because he didn't like Calico like that either.
At least that was out of the way now.
But on day five, Kade was about to start stabbing his pillow out of boredom.
He was even bored of doing his walking exercises that seemed pointless now that he could walk without limping or gasping for breath.
He sort of felt bad for Calico enduring his complaining all the time, but on the other hand, Calico could leave whenever he wanted too and chose to stay with Kade, so he didn't feel TOO bad.
The night of the sixth day, Calico tapped on Kade's shoulder in the middle of the night, making him flinch a little, but Kade turned to see what he wanted.
Calico had a thick jacket in his hand, extending it towards Kade.
Kade didn't need to be asked twice as he practically threw his legs over the side of his hospital bed, grabbing the jacket and throwing it on over his hospital gown before pulling on a pair of sweatpants and a pair of tennis shoes for once.
"Take it easy, remember you're still healing." Calico reminded him just like he did whenever Kade stood up.
In the middle of the night, the two snuck out of the hospital, escaping through Kade's window and strolling around the nearby park.
Kade had to hold onto Calico's arm, given he was pretty off balance still, and there was a bunch of slick icy spots due to the recent rain.
This year was probably the coldest one Kade had experienced, given though this was San Francisco, that wasn't a hard thing to accomplish as the temperatures were hardly under freezing.
So the fact that a light snow had flickered through the air, had Kade watching the sky with a smile on his face, his cheeks red with the cold.
But the color in his cheeks meant that he was alive, and that he was healthy, and that he was happy.
He caught Calico watching him with a gentle smile, and immediately Kade got defensive.
"What?" Kade said, his eyebrow raising as he nudged Calico's shoulder a little bit.
"Your dimple is back." Calico pointed out, reaching out to cup Kade's cheek, smoothing his thumb over the indent.
Kade flinched a bit, but he knew it was Calico touching his face, so the minor spark of panic faded as quickly as it came.
"It's back because of you you know." Kade whispered, making Calico smile even wider.
