Consciousness returns to me, first in small soft pieces of light and dark, then all at once. My eyes open and I stare up at an unfamiliar ceiling. I'm not in my bed either. A cast covers my left arm which lies on stiff white sheets and not the RoboKnights comforter that has been on my bed since I was ten years old. My right leg is held up at an angle by some sort of complicated stand and pulley arrangement.

That's right. There was an accident. I vaguely remember a loud noise and blurred spinning pain...and blood, lots of blood.

"Oh! You're awake."

I turn my head, feeling a sharp stab in the ribs on my left side, and see a strange woman getting up from one of the visitors' chairs. She's not a nurse and she's not my mom—unless the accident caused amnesia—but no, I remember my mom and this isn't her. She's about my mom's age, very pretty and strangely familiar. I try and think back on all the teachers I've had, but I don't think she can be any of them.

"Wha-?" I try to speak, but my throat is parched from having carefully, conditioned, dry air pumped down it.

"You're in a hospital." The woman smiles down on me. "You've been asleep for nearly three days. Your mother was here earlier, but she had to go to work. I've been watching over you while she's away."

"Who—?"

"Oh! I'm sorry. I didn't introduce myself. I'm Fukui Makoto, Kyoko's mother." She bows, deeper than what is appropriate.

Remembering Kyoko, panic seizes me and I try to sit up though the sling holding my leg and the broken ribs make that impossible. "Kyoko-san!" I fall back in bed gasping in pain.

Mrs. Fukui touches me gently on my good arm. "Don't worry. She's fine, thanks to you. In fact, she's at school today."

The image of her lifeless, blood-speckled body lying next to me flashes in my memory. "What do you mean? How is that possible?"

She looks at me sympathetically "Do you not remember?"

"It's all kind of a blur," I mumble.

Mrs. Fukui smiles at me. She really is pretty and I realize why she seems familiar. I can see her resemblance to Kyoko and I wonder if Kyoko will look like this someday.

"Kyoko doesn't remember much either. Perhaps that's for the best. She just remembers feeling a jerk when you grabbed her before the accident. She woke up in your arms." Tears rise up in Mrs. Fukui's eyes. "You were unconscious then, but you had protected her with your own body." Her gaze slides down my body from my bandaged head and broken arm to my leg in traction. "Kyoko is alive and well because of you." She turns aside to hide her face, produces a tissue and dabs at her eyes sniffing.

I don't know whether to feel relieved or scared. I'm pretty sure Kyoko had died in that accident. I also feel like I'm forgetting something—something important. Hearing that Kyoko is actually at school, however, brings a smile to my face. "I'm glad."

"So, you don't have to worry about her." Mrs. Fukui takes a deep breath and turns back to me. "You just concentrate on getting better. She will come see you after school." A strange knowing smile crosses her face. It shines with hidden glee. It's the face of someone who knows a secret that they want to talk about. "I didn't know Kyoko already had a boyfriend," she says in a teasing tone, "and such a nice young man, too."

My face burns with embarrassment and my heart reminds me that it is still beating. I can't believe I'm lying here talking to my girlfriend's mother like this. This is not how I imagined meeting her parents, but then I hadn't expected to meet them so soon. If my temperature and heart rate are being monitored at some nurses' station, then somewhere a nurse has to be panicking right now. "Uh, yeah..." I turn away.

"I didn't mean to embarrass you," she chuckles with amusement, "but I am very glad she was with you when the accident happened. I would ask you to take care of her but you've already done that." She bows deeply to me—deeper than seems appropriate. "Please continue to take care of my daughter."

"Um, yes. I am in your care." I stumble over my words. Mrs. Fukui's response sounded like a parent accepting a man's request to marry her daughter.

The awkwardness passes and we chat some more before she decides to leave so I can get some rest, but she promises to return with Kyoko. I thank her for all the attention and, moments after she leaves, I abruptly fall back into sleep.

* * *

I wake to a whispering voice. "Is he in here?"

"Yes. But be quiet. He may be asleep and we don't want to wake him."

I take a deep breath and open my eyes. Kyoko and her mother stand just inside the doorway peering around the corner at me. Joy explodes inside me at the sight of Kyoko's face.

"Did we wake you?" Mrs. Fukui asks.

"No. I was just resting." The truth is I am growing tired of lying on my back. I want to turn over but my leg and ribs complain every time I so much as shift while attempting to make myself comfortable.

They both approach my bed wearing the same smile. Kyoko really is a younger version of her mother, except for the large bruise on the left side of her face. She is also walking with a limp, favoring her left leg. She's not as unharmed as her mother implied.

"You're hurt!" I say.

Kyoko laughs. "Not as hurt as I would be without you."

Their eyes beam with adoration. It is, frankly, unnerving. Just being the focus of all this attention is embarrassing enough, but since I don't even remember what I supposedly did, I can't convince myself I deserve this.

We laugh and talk until my mother gets off work and joins us. She and Mrs. Fukui chat like old friends and I gather from their conversation that they have spent a lot of time together at the hospital after the accident. A few minutes later, Mrs. Fukui begins to gather her things. "Well, Kyoko, I'm afraid we have to go pick up your brother from cram school and fix dinner."

"But, Mom! I just got here!"

"Oh, let her stay," Mom says. "I can bring her home when we leave."

"Are you sure that won't be too much of a bother?"

"Not at all. Besides..." Mom tosses a glance my way. "This is their first chance to see each other since the accident." The two mothers exchange knowing smiles.

"OK, then I'll be leaving first."

"Let me walk you out," Mom tells Mrs. Fukui, then turns to Kyoko. "I'll get us something to eat. You stay here with Michi until I get back."

I swear I see her wink at Mrs. Fukui. They cover their mouths and leave with muffled fu-fu-ing.

I give Kyoko a wry smile. "I think they're up to something."

Kyoko takes my hand, holding it in both of hers. They are warm and soft. I feel my pulse throbbing in my fingertips. She stares down at me with an adoring look. I don't dislike it, but at the same time, it's a little unnerving. "Thank you for saving my life."

"Ah, well..." Both pleased and embarrassed, I reflexively start to scratch at the back of my head but I can't make myself pull my hand from hers. My other arm isn't going anywhere either. "I don't know about that. I don't even remember what happened."

"When I woke up in your arms, I knew."

Her eyes glisten and I am afraid she's about to cry. I look away. Time passes. "Mom sure is taking her time coming back."

Kyoko just smiles at me and I wonder what she's thinking. After a minute she says. "I knew you were worth it."

"Worth what?"

"Worth waiting three years for."

I blush, stunned, not knowing what to say. Then to my shock, Kyoko leans over and kisses me on the cheek.

My breath catches in my throat. I can't breathe. My heart pounds deafeningly in my ears. I stare up at her in shock and her smile broadens. She couldn't have made her feelings any clearer, even if she had blurted out I love you like in some embarrassing romantic drama.

I swallow hard to clear my throat. I feel like I've just jumped into the deep end of a pool, or launched into space, or started off to explore some unknown land. I don't know if this will lead to joy or disaster. All I know is that I can't turn back now even if I wanted to.

* * *

Days pass and Kyoko and her mother are in almost every one of them. Dad visits me on weekends when he can get away from work and he's there when they discharge me. About a week later both of our families get together at a restaurant in something like a celebration of Kyoko and my survival.

Dad pushes me across the restaurant's parking lot in a wheelchair when we see the Fukui's drive up. Our fathers meet for the first time and introductions are made all around as we enter and are shown to a table.

"I hope you don't mind that I brought my sister," Kyoko's mother mutters to my mom, with a glance back to the tall older woman who had come with them.

"Not at all. The more the merrier."

"She's just come for a visit and I didn't want to leave her behind alone."

Mom nods and gives her a series of small accommodating bows. "I understand."

"Plus," Kyoko's mother adds in something like a stage whisper, "she can watch Yuki so we can talk."

We sit at a long table with me and Kyoko at one end and Kyoko's aunt and little brother at the other. Our parents sit across from each other at the tables' middle, our mothers chatting non-stop--mostly about me and Kyoko. Our fathers watch them silently. Dad looks at Kyoko's father, rolls his eyes at my mom, and shrugs. Kyoko's father returns a nod and a wry smile. With that understanding, the subject of baseball is eventually brought up and they learn they both favor the same team. Once player statistics are mentioned they become just as bad as the women.

The food is brought to our table and Kyoko insists on helping me even though it is only my left arm that is broken. She even feeds me at times while our dad's look on with curious expressions. Our mothers, however, smile as if it is the sweetest thing they have ever seen.

"She will make a good caring wife, someday," my mom says.

"Well, we've already seen that your son knows how to protect and care for the ones he loves," Kyoko's mother says.

An unsettling suspicion creeps over me. Our mothers smile at us while Kyoko's aunt examines us with a crooked, knowing smile. Even though Yuki stares up at the ceiling rolling his head back and forth across his chair's backrest, the entire situation feels odd. Both families eating together like this, Kioko-chan's aunt looking on like a nakudo or matchmaker at a yuinou or engagement party...

There's no way this could be that. We're much too young. At least my mom didn't bring any bridal gifts.

At that moment my mom sits up as if she just remembered something. "Oh! Kyoko." She turns and digs through her purse. "I saw the cutest hairband and thought of you." She produces said hairband and passes it down to Kyoko.

"Kawaii!" Kyoko exclaims, examining it before putting it on. "It's so cute! Thank you."

Mom waves a hand dismissively. "It's nothing."

"I'm happy that you thought of me."

As they talk, I stare at the hairband. The band is covered in an intricate design made from twisted and braided strands of white hemp, just like a tomoshiraga...which means "together until the white hair." A strand of white hemp is one of the nine traditional bridal gifts exchanged at a yuinou. It represents a long-lasting marriage.

My whole body goes numb with shock. I'm told the food was very good. I don't remember how it tasted.