Everything Tastes Bittersweet Inside Sterilized Rooms

The hospital's quiet. Too quiet. Even with Lev and Dad in the same room. They're not saying much this time around; Dad keeps pacing around in circles and Lev looks torn between keeping me company and checking his phone. I would honestly prefer another weird fan letter to this deafening nothingness.

"If you have something more important, you can go," say. Lev gives me a face and scrambles to put his phone away. Maybe that came out too harsh? "No, I'm serious, I know you have school."

"You visited me when I was at the hospital," he says.

"You almost died; this is just a torn ligament."

"But you're stuck here on your birthday. Come on, Aika, I wouldn't just leave you staring at the wall on your birthday."

It's true. I'm turning 19 today. And I'm stuck in a hospital the whole day because the medical team who tended to me recognized me and were convinced that I would immediately begin training again. So I'm stuck here until they can get a hold of Nevaeh.

I can't complain too much, honestly, because they were completely right on their assumption, but they can't keep me here forever. A sprained wrist does not require prolonged hospital stay. I might start punching people here if they don't let me out of this boredom box soon. Where is Nevaeh? I thought she followed us here.

Dad's just looked at his watch. Time's-a-passin', Dad, you and I both know it. "I think we should hold a little celebration here, then," he says cheerily. ...Are you serious?

Of course Lev's latched onto the idea immediately. "And Takumi and I can go grab our gifts, and a cake!"

"When Takumi returns, we should ask him," Dad replies. I know I can't stop them when they're like this. Not that I want to anyway. I can feel a smile creeping up onto my face already; they're sweet and I'm glad they're my family.

"I'll call Nevaeh," Lev says.

"Where in the hell did you get her number?" I ask. He just winks at me. "Oh, come on!"

"Is everything ok in here?" Oh, a nurse has just walked in.

"Yes, of course. I hope we haven't been too loud," Dad says.

"No, not at all! Just checking in. I've brought up Aika's brother as well."

In strolls Takumi. He actually looks... worried? Damn, is a sprain really that bad? I can still fight with that. And the knocked head. Oh. Can I?

"Hey, Tak!" Lev says immediately. He has never once in his life called Takumi that. Is he tired? On something? Caffeine, maybe?

Takumi's giving Lev a weird look and the both of us exchange a 'What the fuck?' glance before Takumi takes a seat beside Dad and thanks the nurse for letting him in.

"What are you doing?" he asks me. He's suddenly completely serious and it's caught me off guard. What does he mean? "You know what I mean."

...The hospital quarantine?

"The recklessness," he says before I can even get a word out. "You already had a head injury, Aika. Why are you taking unnecessary risks?"

Uhh, excuse you. "Not unnecessary," I retort. "Matt was aiming for my head and I had to block it. I was protecting it."

"Then Matt's an asshole for trying to give you brain damage."

"No, he's not. If I had blocked closer to my head, my muscles would have cushioned most of the damage. It looked more like he was faking me out."

"Then it is you being reckless that's gotten you here."

Hey, what the hell, Takumi?!

I'm this close to jumping off this goddamn bed and tackling him.

"Now, now, Takumi. It's Aika's birthday. She did her best and she came out of the fight. Now she's being treated properly. Cut her some slack." Dad's started his mediator speech. "We can talk later."

And that's that. Takumi knows it and he's slumped back into his chair like the moody teenager he is. There's a nice strained silence in the air now. Perfect. I want to set it on fire.

"Uhm, Takumi, wanna come with me to pick up Aika's gifts?" Lev's hesitating, but I don't think Takumi would explode at him. I wish he would though. I want to get in on the yelling match. I feel like yelling right now.

"We are thinking of doing a small celebration for Aika here in the hospital," Dad explains. "We can't miss a birthday."

I honestly thought Takumi would whine about it – he and Lev aren't exactly two peas in a pod – but he's actually getting up. "Sure," he says. All of his anger has suddenly defused. "Let's go."

Huh. Now it's just me and Dad.

"How is your arm feeling?" he asks, for the third time in the past two hours.

"It's fine, Dad. It hurts but it's in a cast so it's protected. I can't complain."

"You just seem restless is all."

"Uh, yeah, because I'm stuck in a hospital room instead of at home."

Dad sighs. "I know, sweetheart, but the team said they wanted to see us and Nevaeh together. She should be here soon."

"Why wasn't she with us on the way here?"

Dad shrugs. "She stepped out for a call near the end of your match. I will assume it is related to that."

"Probably."

"Do you want to watch a movie?"

Honestly, not really. I want to keep wallowing in this anger for a bit. "Yeah, sure. What do we have?" I say instead.

We're halfway through The Rescuers, watching on Dad's phone with the two of us cramped beside each other to see the screen, when the angel of death finally walks through the door.

"Hi, sorry to interrupt," says the nurse escorting said angel. "Nevaeh has arrived. I'll grab the team and we'll be back in a jiffy."

Nevaeh sits down in front of us and exchanges greetings with Dad. Now she's turned to me. I'm bracing myself. "I leave for one second and you break something!" Oh, good, this is joking-around Nevaeh, not I'm-going-to-kick-your-ass Nevaeh. I guess I can thank Dad's presence for that.

"It's not broken." I don't really know what else to say, since I don't want a repeat of what happened with Takumi just as I've finally calmed down a bit. I just shrug and kind of laugh.

"Hi again!" Oh, the nurse came back quickly. "I just got told that you're having a little birthday celebration in here. Do you want us to come back in maybe an hour?"

"Yes, please," Dad says.

Nevaeh claps her hands together. "I knew I was missing something today!" she exclaims.

Nice. I shake my head.

"All right, we'll see you," the nurse says. "Here you go, come on in," she says to someone behind her.

In waltz Lev and Takumi... and Evren?!

"Oh my God, hi Aika, are you ok?!" Evren is visiting me? At the hospital? What is happening? "Ahh, sorry, Lev invited me after I said I was worried about you." Evren was worried about me? "I saw the end of your fight." Shit. "Is it bad?"

I realize I've been silent and gaping for a little longer than I should have been and finally collect myself. "Uh, yeah – I mean, no! It's a sprained wrist, but they're making me stay behind at the hospital to talk to Nevaeh... about my training probably. Or maybe they want to keep checking my head. I'm doing ok." I can't believe Evren saw me block so badly.

"Oh, good!" Evren's tone isn't her usual bubbly one. She almost sounds... nervous? "I hope it's ok to visit. I realized on the way that you were having a little birthday thing and I didn't know it was your birthday, so I don't have anything..."

"Oh no, don't even worry about it." Evren was thinking of getting me something? Have I... officially made friends with her? With The Commander of Space? Oh no, the blood is rushing to my ears again. What the hell, Aika? Get a grip! Stop being starstruck! "I, uh, wasn't trying to hide it or anything. I guess it just slipped my mind because of the NCC."

"Oh, ok, good." She sighs but her shoulders don't lower. "Hope you don't mind that I crashed this. I just wanted to deliver some 'Get Well Soon' vibes. From all of us." She gives me two thumbs up to punctuate her statement: a gesture I've never seen her do. I can't help my snort.

"Thanks," I laugh. "I really appreciate it."

She exhales audibly. "All right, I'll get out of your hair, then."

"Oh, you can stay, Evren," Dad says.

"No no, I don't even have a gift!" Evren turns to me. "Rain check on this one? I'll treat you to a date!"

"Sure," I smile.

She smiles back and quickly walks back out the door.

Wow, ok. I think I really have successfully befriended the Commander of Space. I can feel the hugest grin on my face.

The comfortable silence is brief. "I give you blessings for your 'date' later."

"Dad! What?!" I blurt out before I can process what he's said. He's just laughing.

"Oo, Aika and Evren," Lev sings. "Les choux!"

I don't even know what that means but I can tell from Lev's expression that it's still on the 'girlfriend' and 'date' track, so I give him my best swat with my good arm.

"A girlfriend? And the enemy, to boot! I knew you were going too easy on each other in training." God, now Nevaeh's joined this tirade. Why me?

"Guys..." I plead for them to stop. They just keep chuckling to themselves and teasing me about having a devoted significant other or whatever. I just figured out I've made it as her friend, it takes time to get to girlfriend status.

Wait.

What am I thinking right now?

"All right," Takumi, my saviour, finally steps in and distracts me enough to not dwell on my thoughts. "This cake is going to melt if we don't have it soon so let's get to it."

"We got you ice cream cake," Lev announces as Takumi opens the box. "It's generic because we didn't have time to get your name on it. But it's sweet!" It is sweet. This whole gesture is really sweet.

"Thanks. Really."

The cake is good, although the slices are kind of lopsided because Lev's using a plastic butter knife to cut the melting ice cream. It's nice, though, and I'm thankful for having such a great circle of relationships – both old and new, I guess.

But hospital visits are hospital visits, and the theme is always the same. I'm going to have to come to terms with my NCC prospects now that I only have one useable arm for at least the next few weeks.

And I still have to figure out whether Evren really did just ask me out on a date.