A regulated beeping dragged Kirin out of comforting oblivion. He resisted the pull out of darkness. It was free of pain and emotion, much preferable to the hurt and confusion he knew was waiting for him as soon as he acknowledged that noise and woke completely.

"- just moved -"

"- you hear me?"

Now there were annoying flies buzzing around his head. Someone shoo them away for him, please. He was trying to sleep here.

"Kiri?"

Kirin paused on the edge of diving back down into darkness. Only one person called him Kiri.

"Kiri? Wake up."

For that one person, he made an effort. He focused on the words and the beeping and on... feeling, which he hated. It was hard, and Kirin wanted to give up, oh, he wanted so badly to take the easy way out. But he knew, now, just how strong he could be. So he pulled himself up. He focused. And when he could feel a body around him again, he concentrated on forcing heavy eyelids open, on making his mouth move.

"M-mom?" he croaked. White filled his vision as his eyelids finally responded.

The head that moved into his blurry vision had been a redhead at some point, but was now salt-and-peppered with grey. It also did not belong to a female. Relief was obvious on Kaine Walker as he stared down at his grandson. "Thank god, Kiri."

The rest of Kirin's body wasn't being so co-operative, so he couldn't glare as he wished. He had to satisfy himself with snapping, "Kirin." Even then, it was far more of a rasp than any kind of satisfyingly intimidating correction.

Maybe Kaine was just in a good mood, because he didn't fight it. "Kirin," he agreed, eyes softening. "I'm so glad you're okay." He made Kirin want to turn away from that warmth and concern, because even dead tired and vision still blurry from sleep, Kirin could see the pain hiding just behind the other emotions.

Considering the white on white decoration scheme, the pain in his left arm and the alarming concern his grandfather was showing, Kirin could guess he was in hospital. s**t. No wonder Kaine's grief was so close to the surface. Called to the hospital for yet another relative suddenly rushed there for unknown reasons... It hadn't ended well the last time. And while Kirin and his grandfather kept a distance due to wounded edges rubbing the wrong way, Kirin wouldn't have wished this on the old man. Kirin had bad flashbacks just from being in hospital. How much worse would it be to sit bedside vigil again, waiting for another loved one to either recover or pass on again?

"Wha' happen'd?" Kirin forced out. He remembered Barren Pines. The fire. The zombies. The ******** talking cats and, oh yes, his amazing magic powers which included identity shielding. Hmm, that deserved more thought... later. Alright, then Sue and the Zodiacs and their Princess, and breaking that black shield. Followed by most of the senshi starting to collapse and un-transform... So Foramen had quickly taken the opportunity to rift himself away before he did the same. Huh. He didn't remember collapsing, but someone must have found him somewhere.

Kaine reseated himself. One of his large hands took Kirin's in his own (and Kirin was too weak to pull away, dammit). "One of your neighbours found you passed out on the stairs. They called an ambulance, and your landlord thought to call me. God, Kirin, I thought-!"

'The worst', Kirin knew. He'd expect the same if he got a call saying Kaine was unconscious in the hospital. But at least Kirin could relax knowing that no one from Barren Pines knew Sailor Foramen was Kirin Thompson.

After taking a deep breath, Kaine visibly calmed himself. Squeezing Kirin's hand, he continued. "The doctors say you're severely dehydrated and on your way to being malnourished. They've had you on an IV drip for almost 24 hours. God, Kirin, I- just- Why? Why would you do this?"

Wait, what now?

"I give you more than enough money to feed you, clothe you, buy yourself anything else you need. But when I checked the bank account I set up for you, wondering if you were having money problems, you haven't withdrawn anything for the past two months. So I can only imagine you've done this on purpose... Just, I don't understand why. I thought you were doing... better."

Kirin wasn't surprised that his grandfather didn't say Kirin was doing 'well'. They'd both know that for a lie.

"You liked living on your own. I thought you were doing okay at that Meadowview school..."

Meadowview? Oh crap. That was right. Kirin had been attending Meadowview - right up until two months ago when Barren Pines first appeared. And Kirin hadn't needed to withdraw anything from his bank account because BP had given full scholarships. Only Kirin was betting that since they'd all been brainwashed into think they'd been there for years, that now that it was destroyed, his grandfather wasn't going to remember anything about Kirin's 'other' school, so he couldn't even explain the money issue.

"Got more money out last time than I needed," Kirin managed to force out. Parts of his speech were a little slurred, some ending chopped off, all of it a bit rusty coming from a body that hadn't eaten much during a week of zombie invasion and then spent too long transformed, draining his energy and likely his body's fat reserves. Small wonder the doctors thought he'd gone loner without eating than he actually had. "Didn't need more out yet. Didn't mean this, really didn't. Not so stupid." He met Kaine's eyes, trying to force his grandfather to believe him. "Not stupid. Not crazy. Just... exams coming. Busy. Sidetracked. Forgot..."

"You forgot to eat? For over a week?" Clearly Kaine was not so gullible as to believe this.

But Kirin was a strategist, used to looking after only himself and making people believe what he wanted them to believe. His brain hadn't stopped constructing a plausible excuse while he and his grandfather spoke. "Did eat. Didn't stay down. Flu."

Kaine buried his head in his hands. He sighed. "Maybe letting you live on your own wasn't such a great idea. You can't even take care of yourself when you get sick. Your mother would-"

Even before Kirin could say anything, Kaine had broken off. This was one wound that was still too raw for both of them, even after three years. Especially raw today, in this setting.

"Tried to ignore it to study," Kirin said. "Know better next time. Call you, see a doctor, something. Not this. Feel like crap."

That earned a bark of a laugh. Kaine looked up, smiling wryly. "I bet."

There were a few minutes of almost companionable silence. Kirin was flexing what muscles he could, trying to get hands and feet back online before moving on to anything complicated, like sitting up. Kaine was just grateful to have his grandson awake and refuting theories of slow suicide. Eventually, though, Kirin got twitchy.

"How much longer m'I here?" If there was one thing Kaine understood and agreed with Kirin on, it was a distaste for hospitals. Kirin was hoping this would mean he could get out, oh, now?

No such luck. "At least overnight again. The doctors want you on the IV drip for as long as possible, to get your fluids back. They also wanted to see how you did with solid food, which they can now that you're conscious. And no," Kaine correctly interpreted Kirin's 'bitchface' expression, "I am not going to argue with them on this. I'm not taking any risks with your health, Kirin!"

Kirin had to subside on hearing that reason. His grandfather wasn't going to budge, and Kirin admitted (quietly, and only to himself) that it was only right for him to do so. As Kirin had kept pointing out earlier, he wasn't stupid. So here he was, stuck in the place he hated most, with a person he could only just manage to stand communicating with via letters, email, or the rare phone call, and his new magical powers were unable to fix any of this - had even contributed to the problem and made it worse.

Life kinda sucked, but at least he was alive.