After the festival, at home, Kiri poked through the refrigerator before starting supper, and declared, "Sorry, I need to go shopping first."

Hikaru looked up from where she'd sprawled on the couch and replied, "OK?"

He looked at her and asked, "Do you want to wait here? You look tired."

"I am a little tired, but I want to go with you," she replied and stood.

He walked over and kissed her. "Walk or drive?" he questioned.

"Walk?" she suggested.

They walked hand in hand to the little store nearby.

--

At the store, they looked over the small selection of fresh vegetables and Hikaru laughed at Kiri's disappointed face. She bumped him with her hip and asked, "Do we need to go back for the car so you can go to the market?"

He blinked and laughed and picked up a bundle of onions and some celery and replied, "No, I'll just make you pasta tonight instead."

Hikaru brightened and he grinned at her.

They made their purchases and exited the store. They had barely gone a dozen paces away from the door, when Kiri stopped.

She looked at him in surprise and he kissed her. She smiled and returned the kiss, then gasped when he dropped the bags he was holding and pulled her close and kissed her harder. "Kiri!" she protested breathlessly. Her heart was pounding and dizzily, she repeated, "Kiri?"

As if from a distance she heard him ask, "Hikaru?"

--

She woke up in a hospital bed. Confused, she tried to sit up and look around. Kiri grabbed her shoulders and said worriedly, "Don't get up." He eased her back down and she stared at him.

"What happened?" she asked.

He groaned and pressed his face into her shoulder. "I think my heart stopped," he answered.

"What?" she asked again.

He pulled back and answered more coherently, "You went white and passed out in my arms. I think my heart stopped," he repeated. Then guiltily confessed, "I couldn't think clearly. I panicked, you wouldn't wake up, and one of the clerks called the ambulance."

He took a deep breath and just looked at her. "OK?" she asked uncertainly, thinking hard, "Am I pregnant?"

Kiri laughed helplessly and Hikaru stared at him in confusion. He looked into her face and replied, with tears in his eyes, "No, you almost died."

He started to cry silently, and Hikaru hugged him tightly against her. "What are you talking about?" she asked worriedly. "I feel OK, I think, just really thirsty."

He sat up suddenly and grabbed an all too familiar cup with a straw from the table beside the bed, and said, "Here, drink," he handed it to her and continued, "I need to tell them you're awake, I'll be right back."

He stood up and exited the room.

He came back a few minutes later with her mother and a nurse in tow. The nurse glared at them and reminded, "Only one visitor at a time."

Kiri bit his lip and his face was completely conflicted. Miri looked up at him and laughed and said kindly, "Kiri-kun, you can stay, I just wanted to see her face." She waved to Hikaru, who waved back with a puzzled look, and backed into the hall.

The nurse took her vitals and Hikaru asked, again, "What happened? Why am I hospitalized?"

The nurse looked up at her in surprise and answered briskly, "You had a problem with your implant, they had to do an emergency surgery."

Hikaru blinked. The nurse left and Kiri explained more when he saw her obvious confusion. Quietly he said, "Apparently you were bleeding internally." He came back to the side of the bed and clung to her hand. "You wouldn't wake up, but nothing was obviously wrong with you. At first, they ran pregnancy tests and stuff, then suddenly they rushed you into surgery."

He halted and swallowed, unable to continue for a moment. Hikaru pulled him closer and he leaned in, she shifted her hips over and patted the narrow space beside her. Hesitantly he slid onto the bed with her and she wrapped around him.

"Idiot," she whispered and kissed him.

He just stared at her and gripped her tightly.

"It's not your fault," she told him.

"What if," he began.

She laid her finger against his lips and said, "Kiri, I got my implant when I turned 15, because my mother always said she got pregnant when she and my father started kissing and then couldn't stop themselves. She always said it like it was one of her happiest memories, but it scared me. It had nothing to do with you."

He cried again and she held him. Tears welled up and she whispered, "I love you. I'm sorry I scared you."

A small laugh shook his shoulders though his tears hadn't stopped yet, and he told her, "I feel so useless right now, I shouldn't be making you comfort me."

She leaned into him and tasted his tears. He blinked at her. She touched his cheek then took his hand and sang quietly, "Even when I'm eighty, I'll want to eat ice cream, scream come out and play with me, and hold your hand." Then she kissed him and asked, "Marry me?"

"Yes," he replied, and kissed her harder.

--

They made her stay overnight. Kiri stayed with her, even though she worried that he wouldn't get enough sleep. "If I leave you here, I won't sleep at all," he insisted.

After the doctor talked to her first thing in the morning, she was quiet for a long time. They'd asked Kiri to leave while the doctor spoke to her, and then they'd agreed that she could go home, as long as someone would be with her and she didn't move around much for at least another 48 hours.

Kiri notified his boss, Ryuske, Kaoru, and Miri. When he finished on the phone he asked, "Hikaru, do you want to go home to your mother for the day?"

"What?" she asked blankly.

He repeated the question.

"You need to go to work?" she guessed.

He shrugged and said, "I should, but I don't want to. I just wondered if you would rather."

"No," she replied firmly. "It's selfish, but I want to go home and lay in bed with you." She blushed and added hesitantly, "But the doctor said we can't have sex for at least a week. Until after my follow up appointment."

"I don't care," he replied and kissed her lightly.

"I care," she muttered.

He grinned and teased her, "Patience sweetheart." He bit her ear and promised, "I'll make it up to you when you're allowed again."

They kissed until the nurse brought her release paperwork. Then they discovered they had to wait for Miri to come sign it. Finally Hikaru was allowed to go home.

--

Kiri carried her into the house like a new bride.