On their way back, Keiji was surprisingly quiet and Koutarou noticed that he looked really tired.

"Should I carry you again?"

The other one only shook his head faintly.

"I'm fine."

Koutarou watched him with a doubtful look on his face but didn't say another word.

When they finally arrived at their ward Koutarou could already make out Keiji's mother from far away. She looked worried and the silver haired teen felt guilt building up. When the woman spotted them, she rushed over in an instant.

Before Koutarou could even open his mouth to apologize for them being late, she had already raised her hand and a stinging pain formed on his cheek.

"This boy is sick to death and you think it's a good idea to take him on one of your silly adventures? Didn't your parents teach you to think?!"

Koutarou looked up to her with terrified eyes, but the woman only turned away to her son who was leaning against her side weakly.

"It's okay, darling" she said in a calm voice and stroked a few strands of messy hair out of his face. "Let's get you to bed, okay?"

Koutarou watched as Keiji nodded and together with a nurse, both of them disappeared into Keiji's room at the end of the hallway.

When they were gone, the silver hair boy lifted his hand and placed it onto his stinging cheek. Tears were piling up in his eyes. He walked back to his own room then, crawled under his blanket and didn't move until it was time to go to sleep.

The next day, Koutarou was woken by a nurse announcing that his surgery was going to happen in a few hours. His parents were there too, but they spent most of their time talking to a handful of doctors. He just stayed curled up in his bed, not in the mood to get up at all. That was until there was a knock on the door.

At first he assumed it was a visitor for one of the other kids in the room. However, when he heard someone shuffling closer to his bed in small steps and halting at the side of it, Koutarou finally turned around and his eyes widened in surprise.

"Akaashi, what are you doing here?"

The other one smiled shyly and sat down at the edge of his bed. Koutarou noticed he looked a lot better today.

"To wish you good luck for your surgery obviously."

Koutarou's heart fluttered in his chest and he immediately felt relieved.

"So you're not mad at me?"

Keiji shook his head before lowering his gaze apologetically.

"Of course not. My mum had no right to dump this on you."

"But she was right, it was my idea. I shouldn't have coaxed you into this without thinking..."

He bowed his head and started to fidget with the end of his blanket. Keijis's mother must've been so worried and afraid, Koutarou realized that now. He had been too, after he saw how strained Keiji looked all of a sudden.

"It's just... I had no idea your condition was that serious. I just wanted you to have a good time and then it almost ended up in your collapsing. Your mom had all right to shout at me..."

"Yet I'm glad you took me with you..." the other boy declared. "I really enjoyed that day with you."

His calm voice made Koutarou look up again and his eyes widened in surprise. "You did?"

And when Keiji smiled, the bright characteristic beam on the silver haired boy's features finally came back too.

They continued talking, mostly about how Koutarou was still pretty much scared of his surgery. However, it wasn't as bad as a few hours before since Keiji's calm words managed to soothe his worries a lot.

Eventually, his parents came back and they were absolutely eager to get introduced to the boy "Koutarou didn't stop talking about for a whole week." Keiji blushed at their words and Koutarou thought it was the cutest thing ever. He had blushed as well, though.

When Koutarou had to get ready for his OP and it was time to say goodbye, Keiji grabbed his hand and squeezed it softly.

"See you later then, Bokuto-san."

"Yeah" was all Koutarou had managed before he watched the other boy letting go again and leaving the room with his own heart fluttering in his chest.

Out of the corner of his eyes he could see his parents exchanging weird looks, but he didn't give a damn. He just desperately hoped the other boy would let him hold his hand again, as soon as everything was over.