Six months to live (ZhanYi)

12

When I woke up, my eyes are met with the uncomfortable lights that are still dimmed, but headache-inducing. I sit up and look over to see a Zhan ge sleeping.

I smile. I'm surprised we could sleep through the night with no doctors disturbing us.

I carefully climb out of the bed and walk to the door. Before I walk out, I shut the lights off almost completely, but leave them on enough for me to at least be able to see where I am going.

I walk down the hall to the bathroom that's conveniently unoccupied. I do my business before washing my hands and face. I also swish water in my mouth and spit it out. It'll have to suffice until I can go home and brush my teeth.

On my way back, I stop at the vending machine again and get both of us water. I assume that Zhan ge will be brought some type of food pretty soon so I don't need to get anything for him to eat.

Once I got back in the room, I sat down in the chair, not wanting to risk waking Zhan ge up by climbing into bed and checking my phone. I text lawyer Yang and tell him everything is alright and that I'll be home sometime today.

Half an hour goes by and Zhan ge is still sleeping. I get restless and very bored so I decide to go down to the gift shop, hoping Zhan ge doesn't wake while I'm gone. I left my phone on the table though, so that if he does wake, he'll know I'm still in the building.

Once I get to the shop, I went in and starts to look around. There's so much to look at, from stuffed animals to jewelry, snow globes, and even things like toothbrushes and bandaids, which I find ironic for it being a hospital. I find that I'm internally arguing with myself. I could spend my money on something like new clothes or food, or a fluffy stuffed dog and a key chain that says Zhan ge's name on it.

I decide to go with the latter. Food can wait, the keychain cannot. I go to the checkout after also grabbing two toothbrushes and a tiny bottle of toothpaste in case Zhan ge wants to brush his teeth too.

Once I have my things, I make my way back up to Zhan ge's room. I can see through the small glass window that the lights are on now and so I assume he is awake.

When I walk in I see Zhan ge sitting up in his bed eating his cookies. "Hi," he says to me.

"Hey, you feeling okay?" I ask, setting the bag down on the end of the bed.

"Yeah I'm good. Not the first time I've been punched in the face."

"I got you something," I said as I pull out the stuffed dog and keychain.

Zhan ge catches the dog that I toss to him. "Cute, you know I can't keep it right?"

"I know. I was thinking, why are you at the actual hospital and not in the prison's infirmary?"

"Oh, it was flooded so it ruined all of the machines and stuff. They're only using it for simple things and no major injuries. Not that mine's that major anyway," He explains. "I have this though."

Zhan ge lifts the blanket and I see the thick metal band around his ankle, one you'd see on someone who's under house arrest.

They took the cuff off? I asked.

Yes, when I wanted to use the bathroom when I woke up.

"Oh, there's a guard in the hospital at all times."

Zhan ge shrugs. "I'm not going to question it. I'm just thankful to be out."

"True. I also got this," I say, handing him the keychain.

"If this doesn't stay on your keys until the day you die, I will haunt you," Zhan ge says, smiling at the chain with his name engraved in it.

"Oh, I plan on it. Although, maybe you haunting me wouldn't be so bad," I playfully respond. "I got toothbrushes and toothpaste too if you wanna brush your teeth, I'm gonna do mine now."