Twelve

When I woke up, my eyes are met with the uncomfortable lights that are still dimmed, but headache-inducing. I sit up and look over to see a Zhan ge sleeping.

I smile. I'm surprised we could sleep through the night with no doctors disturbing us.

I carefully climb out of the bed and walk to the door. Before I walk out, I shut the lights off almost completely, but leave them on enough for me to at least be able to see where I am going.

I walk down the hall to the bathroom that's conveniently unoccupied. I do my business before washing my hands and face. I also swish water in my mouth and spit it out. It'll have to suffice until I can go home and brush my teeth.

On my way back, I stop at the vending machine again and get both of us water. I assume that Zhan ge will be brought some type of food pretty soon so I don't need to get anything for him to eat.

Once I got back in the room, I sat down in the chair, not wanting to risk waking Zhan ge up by climbing into bed and checking my phone. I text lawyer Yang and tell him everything is alright and that I'll be home sometime today.

Half an hour goes by and Zhan ge is still sleeping. I get restless and very bored so I decide to go down to the gift shop, hoping Zhan ge doesn't wake while I'm gone. I left my phone on the table though, so that if he does wake, he'll know I'm still in the building.

Once I get to the shop, I went in and starts to look around. There's so much to look at, from stuffed animals to jewelry, snow globes, and even things like toothbrushes and bandaids, which I find ironic for it being a hospital. I find that I'm internally arguing with myself. I could spend my money on something like new clothes or food, or a fluffy stuffed dog and a key chain that says Zhan ge's name on it.

I decide to go with the latter. Food can wait, the keychain cannot. I go to the checkout after also grabbing two toothbrushes and a tiny bottle of toothpaste in case Zhan ge wants to brush his teeth too.

Once I have my things, I make my way back up to Zhan ge's room. I can see through the small glass window that the lights are on now and so I assume he is awake.

When I walk in I see Zhan ge sitting up in his bed eating his cookies. "Hi," he says to me.

"Hey, you feeling okay?" I ask, setting the bag down on the end of the bed.

"Yeah I'm good. Not the first time I've been punched in the face."

"I got you something," I said as I pull out the stuffed dog and keychain.

Zhan ge catches the dog that I toss to him. "Cute, you know I can't keep it right?"

"I know. I was thinking, why are you at the actual hospital and not in the prison's infirmary?"

"Oh, it was flooded so it ruined all of the machines and stuff. They're only using it for simple things and no major injuries. Not that mine's that major anyway," He explains. "I have this though."

Zhan ge lifts the blanket and I see the thick metal band around his ankle, one you'd see on someone who's under house arrest.

They took the cuff off? I asked.

Yes, when I wanted to use the bathroom when I woke up.

"Oh, there's a guard in the hospital at all times."

Zhan ge shrugs. "I'm not going to question it. I'm just thankful to be out."

"True. I also got this," I say, handing him the keychain.

"If this doesn't stay on your keys until the day you die, I will haunt you," Zhan ge says, smiling at the chain with his name engraved in it.

"Oh, I plan on it. Although, maybe you haunting me wouldn't be so bad," I playfully respond. "I got toothbrushes and toothpaste too if you wanna brush your teeth, I'm gonna do mine now."

"Okay, thank you."

I go over to the sink that's in the room and turns it on, going through the simple routine of brushing my teeth, and once I finished, I go back over to Zhan ge.

"Are you even able to get up?" I ask. Zhan ge nods. "Yeah, he got me in my side pretty bad but I can walk." Zhan ge starts to uncover himself and climb out of bed. He makes a few huffs here and there but manages to quite easily walk over to the sink.

Once he brushed his teeth as well, we both get back into the bed, Zhan ge at the top and I leaning against the wall at the bottom.

"You should just act like you're hurt way more so they make you stay," I say.

"I thought about that honestly."

"Have any of the nurses came in yet today?" I ask.

Zhan ge nods. "Yeah, she asked if I wanted food and I said yeah so she brought me some. I ate it all though, it's so much better than prison food."

"You must've woken up right after I left then because I wasn't gone for long."

"Yeah, I was already half awake when you left, I was too tired to get up yet. What time is it anyway?"

I check my phone. "It's eleven now. Oh wow, it's late. I'm used to getting up at five-thirty."

"You were up late last night, though. I'm sure your body needed it."

"Yeah, it feels good. This feels like a luxury compared to prison."

"I bet. Do you want anything else?" I ask.

"I'm good but thanks, like really. It means a lot to me that you're here doing this. I would've been alone if you didn't come.

I crawl up next to him, there's just barely enough room for both of them.

"I'm happy I came. I love spending time with you. You make me very happy. Zhan ge smiles and looks at me. I don't hesitate to lean in and kiss him, I'm not going to waste any opportunities to do so.

"You're so perfect," Zhan ge says once we pull back from one another.

"I'm not perfect."

"You bought me a stuffed dog and a key chain, what more can you do?"

"You got in a fight and ended up in the

hospital for me, I think you've got me beat

on that one, babe."

Zhan ge smiles enough to give me butterflies. "Babe?"

I realize what I said. not even aware that I did at first. "Is that okay?"

Zhan ge nods. "Very okay."

"Just promise me you will never use any another pet name besides babe or baby."

"Well now I'm not calling you anything other than sweet pea or love bird," Zhan ge says.

"Fuck you."

"Would you please?"

"Zhan ge!" I shove his shoulder, Zhan ge not being able to contain his laughter.

"Alright, fine...sweet pea."

"I will move to a different country if you say it one more time."

Zhan ge grins. "Okay okay. One might say you'd fly in a plane like a love bir-"

I plug my ears and start going 'la la la la' as Zhan ge laughs and tries to get me to stop.

"I'm done, I promise," He says when I finally unplug my ears.

"I regret buying you the dog," I say. Zhan ge picks the stuffed toy up and hugs it with a fake pouty face. "But I love him so much.

I shake my head with a very fond smile. "Okay, you're too adorable to hold a grudge against."

After a little while, a nurse comes into the room. "Hi Zhan, how are you feeling?"

"I'm fine," He says.

The nurse looks at her clipboard that has some papers on it. "Okay, well you're going to be released in a few hours, once your ride is here. We just wanted to keep you overnight because you had a pretty bad concussion."

Sadness washes over his facial features. "Okay, thank you."

"I guess all good things must come to an end," I say once the nurse is gone.

"Yeah, you know, I'm really glad an inmate knocked me out, I'm glad I got to be here with you."

"You're so soft," I whispered.

"Shut up, I know," He says.

"I like it, and I'm really happy we got to stay here too."

Our last few hours at the hospital are spent joking around and kissing, quite a lot of kissing. It's the best I felt in a very long time.

Every time we kiss it feels different from the previous.