how to be a human being; hirofumi yoshida

x.

Saki stared up at the white ceiling for a long, long time, waiting as the dream she had awakened from slowly but surely faded from her memory. The sterile smell of medical equipment and the stinging pain from her bandaged hand told her she was in a hospital, that she had been taken here after being attacked by that horrific devil. She had never been in a hospital before. (Well, she probably had, when she was born, but she didn't remember that day in the slightest.) A soft snore from her left caused her to flinch, unaware she wasn't alone, the pain meds making her reactions to the world around her a little less precise.

Hesitantly, she glanced in the direction of the sound, flinching again when the snore came again, only to relax upon seeing who was sleeping beside her. To her surprise (and somehow, immense relief), Yoshida was fast asleep in a cushioned chair pulled to her bedside, his arms crossed over his chest and his head falling every so often onto his chest. He looked like this was a long-deserved rest, and she would agree, seeing as he had saved her from losing more than part of her hand...

Speaking of her hand, she raised her bandaged hand up above her face, the bloodied and gory sight she remembered flashing through her mind for a brief moment as she compared her memory from her current reality. The part of her hand that had been ripped off was back, and even though she was sure she would get an earful from a nurse later on, she slowly began to unwrap the bandages from her hand until there was nothing, but her skin left. There were stitches where the part of her hand must have been ripped, connecting her hand from what she was certain she had lost. Slowly, she bent her fingers, ensuring she retained control in her hand.

"You shouldn't be doing that, you haven't healed yet," Yoshida's soft, slightly hoarse voice from just waking up cut through the quiet, spooking her ever so slightly and sending her attention back to the once sleeping devil hunter.

Then, right when Saki was about to curl her hand again in surprise, his fingers interlocked with hers, ensuring they stayed out and unbent. She froze underneath the warmth of his touch, eyes darting to his as though she had been caught doing something she wasn't supposed to (and she had) and a stupidly annoying blush rising on her face as she recalled every detail of the dream she had from her pain induced sleep. Out of everything she could have dreamt, why did it have to be this annoyingly pretty boy taking her out on a date!?

She looked away in embarrassment but allowed him to keep hold on her hand. And even though all she could think about was that strange, strange dream, she managed to say, "Thank you for saving me. I would have lost more than my hand if you hadn't been there."

"Just doing my job as your bodyguard," Yoshida said with his little, quirky smile, "How's your hand feeling?"

There was a little pain in her hand, especially when she gently tugged it out of his grasp, missing the warmth and safety of his touch immediately, but other than that, the pain medication was definitely doing its job. Saki laid her hand down carefully on her comforter and answered him, "It doesn't hurt. Do you know how it was able to heal? I thought I was going to lose my whole hand."

"Had you not been under Public Safety protection, you would have. Makima brought around someone who can reattach limbs and healing missing bits of hands," he said easily, like such a thing was no big deal. Yoshida reached out and captured his hand with his once more, carefully bringing it towards him. "Still, you should keep the bandages on. Don't want to risk an infection."

With a care she was certain came from all the experience he had with his own injuries, Yoshida rewrapped her injured hand with a new set of bandages. She watched him as he did so, taking note of the way his brows furrowed ever so slightly as he concentrated and how the warmth of his skin brushed against hers every so often. Her hand was still numb from the medication, but she knew if her nerves were working correctly, she might have burst into flames from how intimate and careful he was being with her.

To avoid thinking about how close they were at the moment, Saki's thoughts went to what had happened the night before, remembering how the devil had demolished her apartment and chased her through the streets of Tokyo. She didn't want to think of the pain she would have experienced had Yoshida not saved her in time, seeing as the devil would have tried to pull out every bit of information Saki had on her own mother out of her before finally killing her. She wasn't afraid of death – how could she be? Her mother was the literal incarnation of...

"You're going to have to stay with me from now on, in my apartment."

"Eh? What did you say?" Saki asked, zoning back into Yoshida, who had long since stopped bandaged in her hand and was now giving her an update on the situation at hand.

His lips twitched upwards in amusement. "Your apartment is unlivable. And we decided if the devils are willing to attack you in your home, then you should be living with someone who can actively fight them off. Who better than your bodyguard?"

A part of her wanted to argue, that she would be perfectly fine living on her own once more, even if she had failed to prove so already. But another, deeper part of herself wanted to allow the relief that burrowed itself in her chest to show. Because if there was anything she had learned living on her own, it was that she hated being alone with her thoughts. Perhaps that dream of hers, of another reality, was what she could aim for. To stay at the side of someone who would protect her, who wanted her around, who would hold her hand so gently she thought she might die.

Maybe that was what being human was all about.