"It's good to see you're awake."
I don't know how typical it is, but every time I've woken up after sedation has been abrupt, like I had simply gone from total unconciousness to opening my eyes and thinking, 'Hm, I'm awake' without passing through any of the usual stages in between. Now, of course, everyone does that from time to time, but only by involving adrenaline in the process, which usually isn't how it works for me.
At that point, my subconcious still hadn't linked Shizuru's voice to the 'panic' button the way my concious mind had, so, for better or worse, that time was 'typical.'
"Mwehuh?"
Powers of speech and motion took noticably longer to engage than coherent thought did... or at least longer than the illusion of same. Eventually, though, I had put my mind together enough to take stock of my situation.
I was back in a hospital room - the view out the window looked almost identical to my last stay in that building, so I knew I had to be in about the same section, perhaps even the exact same room. My left arm was completely numb below the shoulder, and looked to be lying limp but carefully bandaged, and there was an IV in my right. Mikoto was zonked out in one of the visitor's chairs, and Shizuru was perched in the other with a notebook and Japanese Lit. textbook open in her lap. "How does your arm feel?" she asked.
"It doesn't," I reported. "How should it?"
"It shouldn't. Your muscles and tendons were badly torn - the doctor said that you should avoid moving it at all for at least the next couple of weeks. He'll be coming by to discuss it with you later."
"Thanks." Something occurred to me. "What happened with the Lingere Monster after they put me under?"
She told me.
I blinked. "Holy fucking shit."
"Quite." I found myself absently wondering just how many people had been driven to tears of frustration by that composed little smile of hers.
Grarrrrgh! Shizuru, the hell? GAH!
I'm sorry, but wrapping my head around her speech and thought patterns is giving me fits, because as calm and restrained as she is, she doesn't take it all the way, y'know? It's a struggle trying to strike the right balance between 'noble lady' and 'normal'...
*sigh*
Ja, -n
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"V, did you do something foolish?"
"Yes, and it was glorious."