Sown

forty-eight

Hanae woke up on the 18th day.

It was hard for anyone to have to see their family member in a coma. The thought that they were just sleeping stayed present in the back of everyone's mind and made the fact that they couldn't just simply wake up that much harder to accept. There had been times when Hanae would open her eyes, either squinted or wide. The first time caused Tatsui to leap from his seat and grab for his sister's hand, talking a million miles an hour while managing to not finish a single word. Tadou gripped his wife Natsuo tightly, holding onto her as strongly as he held onto the hope that this would end as quickly as it began. Of course that hadn't been the case. The nurse explaining that these things happen from time to time didn't squash their optimism.

She did indeed appear to just be sleeping. Hanae could breathe on her own and every once in a while she would twitch as if dreaming. Sometimes she would hold onto whoever was moving her limbs, Natsuo and Tatsui taking turns daily to administer their own form of physical therapy and stave off the inevitable muscle atrophy that had begun to set in. Her lips would twitch whenever anyone in her family would talk to her. It looked like she was trying to pull a smile ; in fact they knew she was. It wouldn't be Hanae if she wasn't smiling.

So when she closed her fingers around Tadou's hand, he didn't think anything of it. The faint whisper escaping his daughter was something he thought to be a figment of his imagination, a byproduct of the hope he refused to let go of. The patriarch continued his narration of Tanabata, keeping his daughter company while his wife and son were away.

" 'Orihime,' " he voiced quietly. " 'You may see Hikoboshi once a year. On the night -' "

" 'Of July seventh.' "

"You know the story so well, my Hanae," he mused, rubbing his thumb over her palm. Glancing away from the pale blue sheets of the bed, Tadou was shocked to see Hanae making eye contact with him. So many emotions assaulted him at once, so many things he wanted to say and do pulling at him. But Tadou was wise enough to know not to overload his just waking daughter. It didn't keep his hand from shaking when pressing the bedside button that alerted the nurse's station, the time he had to let go of her hand feeling much too long. Not until now had he cursed losing a limb.

That didn't keep his lips from trembling though. He didn't know whether to laugh or cry. So he did both, hiding his face in the periwinkle sheets just over Hanae's shoulder until he was forced to move away. Tadou didn't want to ; she had finally come back to him and he didn't want to go anywhere, but there was much that needed to be done that he was not in the position to do. So he let himself be taken outside of the room.

Tadou paced the waiting room, letting his tears run without a care. Knowing him so well for so long, Natsuo knew what they meant as soon as she caught sight of her husband. Tatsui, on the other hand, was not as wise. He panicked, fearing the worst, running to his father and leaving his mother behind. He cursed and demanded, grabbing and shaking his dad, his own hot tears bubbling to the surface. Tadou couldn't get a word in against his son - he only calmed when Natsuo gripped his wrist.

"Tatsui." It was the only thing she had to say. She stared at her son with a warm simper, comforting him without words, searching his brown gaze until he finally understood. She held her son when he began to sob, curses turning to praises. Tadou joined his family without pause, holding his loved ones as closely as he could with one arm.

They were allowed to see Hanae hours later. She had to go through a litany of tests and scans, samples of her blood being taken and pictures of her brain and organs being compared to ones from days before. Hemorrhagic strokes needed a lot of care, after all, and the doctors of Konoha General did not humor taking chances. The Umu family thanked the forces that be after hearing that the damage had begun reversing steadily, that the dark spotting on the scans of her kidneys, liver, uterus, and lungs had already started lightening. Hanae herself, upon hearing the condition she had been in, thanked the fact that her motor functions and brain activity were still functioning as normally as they should be.