Twice a nurse had arrived only to tell him there were no news.

Yukio looked at the rows of chairs where Kyoko lay sleeping head to head with Kuri. By the windows Sato-sensei walked the length of the waiting room. First left to right, stop and turn, and then back again. She had done so for the last half an hour, and remained silent throughout the time.

The clock on the wall showed half past two am, and a long day made itself felt in his limbs.

With a sigh Yukio rummaged through the last of his coins. Sato-sensei nodded when he shot her a questioning look, and he went to buy two cans of coffee. Come tomorrow his stomach would have him pay for his excess coffee-drinking.

“Black,” Yukio said as he handed over one hot can to Sato-sensei. He didn't have to. She had drunk nothing but black coffee since she arrived, but it was the polite thing to do.

Urufu's guardian nodded her thanks and opened her can. Yukio copied her, turned and walked back to where the undefined zone where waiting room and corridor melded into one. Back at the windows Sato-sensei resumed her walking, only broken by taking a sip of more and more lukewarm coffee whenever she reached a wall.

Yukio spent his time standing under a lamp and read the same poster he had read several times since Kyoko fell asleep.

A part of him wanted to shake her awake so he could get some much needed sleep himself. Another adamantly refused anything so unchivalrous, and a third told him he was a stuck up idiot. Kyoko wouldn't thank him for spending the entire night awake and leaving her to sleep through it.

He pushed the thought away and read yet another poster he by now knew by heart.

From the chairs he heard one of the girls stirring and moaning, and shortly after Kuri groggily sat up. She looked around her with panic in her eyes, until she recognised him by the bulletin board.

“Anything?” she asked and rose from her chair.

Yukio shook his head. “I'm sorry. They'll tell us when they know more.”

“What time...” Kuri stared at the clock above his head and scowled. “You let me sleep that long?”

He emptied the last of his tepid coffee and nodded. “No reason to wake you up.” Yukio looked at the windows until Kuri started turning. “Sato-sensei arrived a while ago.” There wasn't much point in telling Kuri Sato-sensei had been here for over two hours.

“You're late,” Kuri said. “I tried to reach you earlier, but they wouldn't let me through. I'm sorry.”

Why are you apologising?

“It's not your fault. You tried.” With those words Urufu's guardian abandoned the windows and walked to Kuri.

In the poor light Kuri looked like the older of the two women. Something in the way she stood showed her true age, and Yukio saw how Sato-sensei momentarily deferred to his fellow student.

I always forget who's the more experienced, he thought. And that she's not from here, he added mentally. What would Urufu have done?

The answer came surprisingly quickly. Yukio resolutely walked to Kuri and hugged her. “He'll be just fine. He always is.”

Sato-sensei glared at him with surprised eyes. She mustn't be too used to Urufu's alien familiarity with his friends no matter their gender. Kuri was the same, hugging people left and right.

“Thanks,” Kuri said and hugged him back. “You know him best so I'm sure you're right.”

I know him best? The very thought was absurd. He's my best friend, but I don't think I've ever gotten to know him. “Yeah, trust me on this,” Yukio said instead.

He let go of her and sat down beside Kyoko's head. Should I wake her and get some sleep? With Kuri awake it didn't seem like as evil an action as it had done earlier. They probably need to talk with each other.

Kuri looked at him, and in her eyes he saw that she had already read his thoughts. She nodded.

“You wake her instead,” he said. “I'll just take a nap.”

“Should I wake you if there are any news?”

“Yeah. Don't want to miss out on any updates.” Yukio could hear how unnaturally cheery his voice sounded. But I promised her Urufu will be fine. Doesn't that require me to be cheery?

He lay down on the seats Kuri had used before him. There was more than ample space for him. Closing his eyes he smelled Kyoko's hair and nudged himself a bit closer. This was the most like sleeping with her as he had ever come.

“Keep your mind out of the gutter,” Kuri's voice admonished him.

Did it show that much?

In response to his thought Kuri laughed as if she had read it.

Whatever the reason Yukio was glad to hear her laughing. There had been preciously little of that as it was. He dug his head even closer to Kyoko in an exaggerated show of affection and was rewarded with another laugh.

“What is he doing? Won't she wake if he continues?” That was Sato-sensei's voice.

For a moment Yukio felt a pang of guilt. She had to be just as worried as Kuri, but he hadn't given her feelings much thought.

“I plan to wake her anyway, so it's OK.”

Yukio wondered if Kyoko would agree with Kuri's statement, but in the end he felt rather certain she would.

Lying down his body slowly took command, and two long days' work made themselves felt. Yukio barely noticed when Kyoko woke, but he drowsily surfaced for a while when he felt her fingers digging through his hair. From a distance he heard her sharing the absence of news with Kuri and Sato-sensei.

I love you Kyoko. Urufu, get well.

***

The sound of Yukio's rhythmic snoring woke her for the second time in a single night. Kyoko's back ached from falling asleep lying on a row of chairs.

When she looked around she saw how Sato-sensei finally had fallen asleep as well. Kuri-chan stood reading posters on the bulletin board nailed to the wall closest to the nurse's office.

Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

Five am. She had slept for less than half an hour.

I'm sorry Kuri-chan. I left you alone.

Feeling sorry wouldn't make Kuri-chan any less lonely, so Kyoko got up, straightened her clothes and walked over to her friend.

“Anything?”

Kuri-chan shook her head. “Slept well?”

Kyoko grimaced and started stretching stiff limbs. “Does it look that way?” she asked.

“No,” Kuri-chan admitted. “Those chairs are just as bad as an airport.”

“Airport?”

“Uhum. I've had my fair share of sleeping like this during my travels.”

She's remembering her previous life. “What was it like?”

Kuri-chan shifted uncomfortably. “Lots of aching backs,” she said instead of answering the question Kyoko had really asked.

Kyoko let her fingers slide across the wall until they met the border of the bulletin board. “Have you had anything to drink?” she asked when the silence grew oppressive.

“Lots,” Kuri-chan answered, “but I could do with some hot coffee.”

Mentioning hot coffee made Kyoko realise how cold the waiting room was. She sauntered over to the vending machine and bought two cans.

While she listened to Kuri-chan opening her can Kyoko pulled Yukio's jacket tighter around him. Without even asking she added her friend's coat as extra cover. It would be morning soon anyway, and she harboured little hope that they'd be allowed to sleep like tramps in the waiting room when more visitors arrived.

An hour, at most, before they had to get any news on Urufu's condition, or else they were likely to be forced outside.

How did we end up like this? She still hadn't forgiven herself for switching her radio off when Urufu got hurt.

Maybe it was punishment. Girls her age should study rather than fool around with boys. One look at Kuri-chan made her resent that thought. Kuri-chan had never been jealous of her, had never wanted her to stay alone or thought that Yukio was bad for her. Those were the words of her parents, and even they had relented a little after Yukio came to her rescue that evening.

Kyoko glanced at Sato-sensei's sleeping form, and after some consideration she pulled the coat closer around the woman as well. She was still Urufu's guardian, no matter how much she had tried to hurt him and Kuri-chan.

“She loves him in her own way,” Kuri-chan suddenly said. “Never believe anything else.”

“How can you be so kind to her after what she did?”

“Because I'm older than you are,” Kuri-chan said. “Because I understand she was never vindictive.”

“What?”

“Kyoko, I'm rather certain she was forced to.” Kuri-chan smiled before she continued. “I wasn't at the beginning. I'll admit that.”

“I don't understand,” Kyoko said.

“You do understand that there are people who are aware of us arrivals?”

Kyoko did, and she nodded.

“I'm sure some of them don't like the way Ulf and I try to take control of our lives. For one, we're not behaving like the teenagers we look like.”

First Kyoko couldn't understand what was so bad about two teenagers behaving a little different, but then she had to admit that Urufu and Kuri-chan hardly were normal teenagers.

“Are you worth a lot of money or something?”

“Or something,” Kuri-chan said. “Yes, I think we might be worth a lot of money for the wrong people.”

I don't understand you. But that was only true to a degree. Somehow Kyoko understood that controlling Kuri-chan and Urufu could be valuable, but she couldn't see exactly how.

Kyoko sat down and leaned back. While she rested their conversation petered out into nothingness, and she watched how the cold, fluorescent light was slowly replaced by an ever increasing greyness as a new day broke.

She was about to fall asleep again when the sound of arriving footsteps stirred her fully awake. From the corner of her eye she saw Kuri-chan rise from a seat and hurry across the floor.

What's happening?

Kyoko looked up and saw a nurse accompanied by a doctor.

News about Urufu? Should I join them?

She decided against it. This was Kuri-chan's moment. She had waited the longest, and Urufu was closest to her. A glance to her right reminded Kyoko that there was another for whom Urufu was as important, and she rose.

“Sato-sensei.”

Urufu's guardian shook off the hand Kyoko placed on her shoulder.

“Sato-sensei,” Kyoko repeated. “You should wake up.”

With a groggy groan Sato-sensei woke and met Kyoko's stare.

“What?”

“Sato-sensei, there might be news about Urufu.”

Those words were enough to force the woman erect in an instant.

“Where?”

Kyoko pointed at where Kuri-chan stood listening.

Sato-sensei suddenly stood and blinked away any remaining sleep from her eyes. With worried determination in her face she took one step and then she rushed to Kuri-chan's side.

Kyoko remained by the seat Sato-sensei had occupied just moments earlier. It was only fair those two received the news first.

Please be safe! Please be well! Kuri-chan needs you, and you're my friend.

Even though Kyoko wanted nothing more than listening to whatever the nurse and doctor had to say, she forced herself to stay. Staring and hoping. She could at least do that.

I front of her the doctor seemed to finish relaying whatever news he had, and Kyoko watched Kuri-chan and Sato-sensei sag and then embrace each other. Then Kuri-chan slumped to the floor and began wailing like a child. She hugged Sato-sensei's legs and cried and cried.

Now was the time for Kyoko to join her best friend, and with leaden weight in her stomach she crossed the floor on wobbly feet.