‘I hate this’ Kamenashi announced with a deep suffering sigh, trying to cross his arms over his chest only to be reminded by a rather sharp pain on his right side that he couldn’t really do that right now.

            ‘Ne, Kame’ Taguchi said with a smile, ‘there’s no reason to feel that bad over it’.

            If he noticed the way Kamenashi’s eyes were throwing daggers in the general direction of his head, he decided to simply ignore it and went on. ‘It could have been worse’.

            ‘How?’ the other demanded immediately. ‘How could this get any worse than it already is?’

            Junno just stared at him, his expression going somewhat serious – that one he had on whenever he was playing his Gameboy, the one with the half closed eyes and very slightly pursed lips – for a coupe of seconds. That small, almost imperceptive moment, filled Kame with sudden hope. Granted, it was just a little, a tiny, fragile speckle of hope. Maybe, just maybe…

            ‘You could have broken both of your arms,’ he announced happily, and the room broke into giggles.

            Kame groaned. He should have known better. He was probably on a lot of painkillers to be capable of believing that Junno of all people wouldn’t take that moment as a cue to poke fun at him and his current situation. Yes, he decided, it was the medication’s fault. Dammed painkillers weren’t even working properly.

            ‘I was going to say that worse would have been if he had cracked a rib or two,’ Koki interjected cheerfully, ‘but for once in your life your suggestion is actually better,’ he concluded with a laugh, patting Taguchi on the shoulder with force enough to make the other bend a little under his hand.

            ‘It was quite a spectacular fall,’ Nakamaru added, to which all of the others inside the room suddenly sobered up and nodded in agreement, looking worried. 

            All but Kame. He closed his eyes and took a deep breath, trying to block their voices for a second, trying to somehow remember exactly what had happened.

            He remembered being on stage. He remembered getting ready to do the double back flip and then…nothing. His memory had this huge blank gap between getting prepared to jump backwards and waking up in a hospital bed with a cast on his right arm.

            ‘He also could have cracked his shell…you know? Kame … shell?’ Junno said, his voice cutting into Kamenashi’s thoughts. Koki slapped the side of his friend’s head, and while he wasn’t the one getting hit, Kame could already feel the beginnings of a tension headache starting.

            He closed his eyes once again and rubbed his forehead with the tip of his fingers. When he opened them just seconds later, Jin had magically appeared on the doorway to the room. Kame wondered how could have he missed the fact that Jin wasn’t in the room with the others before that.

            ‘They are giving out free jell-o at the nurse’s station,’ he announced. When no one reacted to this piece of news he cleared his throat and looked casually at the door on his back. ‘Red ones.’

            ‘Where?’ Koki and Junno asked in unison, quickly rising from their chairs. Nakamaru also rose, much more slowly, probably trying not to make as much noise since they were in a hospital. Ueda just turned a page on the plastic surgery magazine he was skimming through.

            Jin rubbed his nose, clearly trying to hide a smile with his hand. ‘Walk until the end of the corridor, turn right, end of the corridor again.’

            The three of them fairly ran  out the door and Ueda sighed audibly, closing his magazine. ‘They will probably need adult supervision,’ he said to no one in particular, and left the room as well, silently closing the door behind him.

            Jin approached the bed and sat on a corner while rummaging on the pockets of his oversized coat. Kame looked at him for a few moments, taking in the barely contained smirk and mischievous glint in his eyes. ‘There’s no jell-o, is there?’ he asked.

            ‘What?’ Jin said, looking up. He caught sight of Kame’s expression and gave a brief laugh. ‘No, no. There is jell-o,’ he explained with a smile, turning his eyes back to his pockets and finally seeming to find what he was looking for. ‘Just not any red ones--they ran out of those’. He extended his hand and presented Kame with a small plastic container and a spoon. ‘Want some?’

            ‘No, I don’t want any red jell-o,’ Kame replied with a sigh.

            ‘But it’s your favorite,’ Jin said, a little taken aback by his answer.

            ‘I’m just not in the mood to eat anything,’ the other said lamely.  Akanishi looked at him long and hard, suddenly assuming a serious air, like he knew there was something wrong with that particular explanation. An awkward silence suddenly filled the room but vanished quickly once Jin – seeming to let go of the matter - stuffed as much jell-o as he could inside his mouth in one spoonful.

            Kame laid his head heavily on a pillow and stared at the ceiling. Having only one functional arm wasn’t really that bad, was it? Sure he couldn’t dance, couldn’t reach for things without looking clumsy and weird, couldn’t write, couldn’t even fluff the stupid pillow under his head because the angle was all wrong and whenever he turned his side would…

            ‘Does it hurt?’ a voice cut through his thoughts, and Kame looked at the source of the sound, finding Jin holding an empty jell-o container and licking slightly red lips.

            ‘What?’ he asked, trying not to frown, trying not to let his face show any sign of discomfort. Was he making faces while starring at the ceiling? Was he making sounds? Why was Jin asking such a thing?

            ‘Does it hurt?’ the other repeated, licking the spoon clean of any vestiges of jell-o and still managing to look serious.

            ‘What do you think?’ Kame replied in annoyance.

            ‘Does it?’

            The back of Kame’s head hit the pillow again and he groaned loudly, placing his good arm over his eyes. ‘Yes Jin, yes it does. It hurts when I move and it hurts when I don’t. And it’s not only my arm. My ego is also seriously bruised after falling out of the stage in front of God knows how many millions of people and…’ his words were stopped by the feel of skin brushing his lips.

            Kame moved his arm out of his face in surprise and noticed that Jin had moved from his spot on the corner of the bed and was now standing by the side of it, looking way too gentle and understanding for someone who was almost getting his head chewed for making a simple question, and calmly holding two fingers gently against Kame’s lips.

            ‘Hush. I know,’ he whispered, and Kame felt sudden heat immediately rush to his face.    

            ‘One of the nurses told me you are getting released later today,’ Jin continued, removing his fingers and seeming oblivious to the other’s embarrassment, for which Kame was quite grateful.

            ‘Yeah. I can go home in just a couple of hours,’ he said.

            ‘Cool. Do you want a ride?’

            ‘On your motorcycle?’ he asked in shock, to which Jin nodded like he thought that riding a motorcycle with a broken arm was the most normal and logical thing in the entire universe. ‘No Jin, thanks, but I think I’d rather ride a cab,’ Kame answered with a indignant huff.

            ‘All right,’ Jin conceded. ‘Call me if you need anything, ok?’ he offered.

            ‘Don’t worry, I won’t call.’

            ‘AN-NEE-THIN-GUE,’ Jin repeated slowly, talking like one would to a child and completely ignoring Kame’s reply to his request.

            The other couldn’t help smiling at his friend’s insistence. ‘Sure Jin. I will call.’

*********

Kame’s head hurt. It hurt and he didn’t want to believe he could actually feel it hurting because that meant he was awake yet again and the entire night had been just like that. He would manage to sleep for a few, very brief moments, until something would wake him up.

Pain on his arm. The phone. Headaches.  

He had tried to take a couple of aspirin when the clock announced that it was seven in the morning and he was still awake, but he found he couldn’t really open the childproof bottle with just one arm. He threw the stupid bottle against the tiled bathroom wall and, when that also failed to open it, went back to bed, feeling worse than before.

After spending another three miserable hours rolling in bed, Kame finally managed to sleep for more than ten minutes.

That’s when the noises started.

Ringing noises. It wasn’t possible that there were ringing noises in his apartment because Kame remembered disconnecting the phone around one in the morning and his cell phone was off, but he was surely  hearing them.

Insistent ringing noises. Doorbell, his brain provided helpfully.

Sure, doorbell. Kame got up reluctantly and walked to the entrance of the apartment, hoping against hope that it wasn’t another flower delivery person or else he might just end up crying and begging for them not to knock on his door ever again.

‘Yo,’ the person on the other side greeted once Kame had the door opened.

‘Jin,’ he groaned, leaning a little on the wall for support and lightly banging his head on it a couple of times. ‘I didn’t call you. What are you doing here?’

‘I just thought you could use some breakfast,’ Jin replied with a lopsided grin.

Kame looked at the nearest clock. ‘It’s noon,’ he stated flatly.

‘Lunch then,’ the other suggested happily, slowly pushing the door out of his way and stepping inside the apartment.

Kame sighed in defeat and closed the door after him, turning to watch as Jin removed his shoes. ‘Did you bring any lunch with you?’

‘Of course not,’ the other laughed. ‘I’m making it,’ he announced with a flourish.

‘Oh good,’ Kame said with no enthusiasm, briefly wondering where he had left the delivery menus. ‘Help yourself to anything you find in the kitchen. I’m going to change.’

‘Will do,’ Jin replied with a smile, moving to the kitchen.

Changing and brushing his teeth had taken longer than expected – what with pain lacing his arm whenever he tried to lift it and having to get toothpaste out of it’s tube one handed – so when Kame finally walked into his kitchen, he was rather surprised to find several utensils already dirtied on the sink and Akanishi cooking what looked suspiciously like an omelet.

‘There you are,’ Jin said, looking over his shoulder. ‘Get some plates and bring them here, I’m almost done.’

Kame did as he was told and watched in silence as Jin filled two plates with omelets.

‘I found some miso soup on your fridge so I heated it as well,’ Jin said, filling two bowls with the steaming soup. ‘Now,’ he smiled while placing the food on the small kitchen table, ‘we eat.’

They ate mostly in silence and when they were done, Kame had to admit that he was in a fairly better mood.  ‘You dirtied all of this to make a simple omelet and soup?’ he asked, pointing to the sink with some amusement.

‘A great chef is not always the most organized one,’ Jin replied with a smirk. ‘But don’t worry. Great chefs tend to be superbly generous whenever their friends are injured and they clean up after themselves.’   

‘Hah. I never thought I’d live to see the day that Akanishi Jin would clean…anything, really,’ Kame said, feigning horror.

‘Hey!’ Jin laughed. ‘What is so surprising about me cleaning up?’

‘Nothing, really,’ Kame replied, one finely shaped eyebrow arched up. ‘Except that you never do it.’

‘Heeey!’ the other protested again. ‘That is so not true. I do clean up after myself. You go and sit your ass in that lumpy couch of yours and you will see’

Kame giggled at that. ‘I bet I will have to drag my ass back here in fifteen minutes to clean the new mess you’ve made while trying to do something about the first one. I know you Jin, you were just not born to clean.’

            Jin simply shook his head slowly at that, smiling gently. His eyes caught Kame’s and the other couldn’t help but notice that the mischief that had been there not a second ago had been replaced by something…softer.

            ‘Maybe you don’t know me as well as you think you do,’ he said in a low tone, turning his back and immediately grabbing a sponge from the sink. ‘You are lucky I do know you.’

Kame starred at Jin’s back for a moment, feeling the sudden need to smile at the exchange. Maybe, just maybe, Jin was right.

*********

            Kame woke to sounds coming from the TV and something tickling his nose insistently. Opening his eyes, he was faced with a mop of dark hair falling on the couch right in front of his face. It didn’t look like his hair though. His didn’t have those pretty little ringlets he was seeing. Curious, he pulled at the strands, just to test a theory.

            ‘Aaah!’ the mop screamed, moving so that the strands escaped Kame’s reach. Nope, not his hair after all.

            ‘Oh, you are awake,’ Jin said, taking a moment to pause his game and twisting around to fully face the couch. ‘I was wondering how much longer you would be out of it.’

            ‘How long was I asleep for?’ Kame asked around a yawn, his eyes dropping a bit, not really wanting to focus just yet.

            ‘Seven hours,’ the other replied and Kame registered what felt like gentle fingers swiping his hair back from his face. That made him open his eyes wide, but the feeling was already gone. Maybe he had imagined it?

            ‘’Why are you still here?’ he asked.

            ‘Do you think I could just leave you sleeping there?’  Jin replied, looking surprised at the mere suggestion that he would do such a thing.

            ‘I can sleep on my own. I have done it before, you know?’ the other said, scratching an eye with his good hand.

            ‘But what if you rolled over your arm? What if you crushed your cast with your weight? What if you fell down on your back and couldn’t…’ Jin stopped when he took notice of Kame slowly rubbing between his eyes. ‘Painkillers?’ he offered, his previous litany completely forgotten.

            ‘Please,’ Kame accepted gratefully, reaching out a hand and waiting for the pills to magically drop into it, which they somehow did.

            Later he would blame the effect of those very same pills for the fact that he found himself inexplicably on his back on the couch and with his eyes closed yet again.

He heard a low voice whispering in his ear and it was the last thing his brain registered before sleep claimed him.

‘Call me if you need me,’ said the voice.

And the world went blank.

  ********************************************************

(On to part 2)