[FIN] Sorry to Say

[Suudonym]

Luke's father had not returned since leaving early that morning, except possibly unbeknownst to him during the times when he had been asleep. The only explanation he had achieved did little to assuage his heretofore baseless worries - Asch had been present at some point while he was unconscious but had apparently made no appearance since. Efforts to disregard the inexplicable cloud of anxiety that had plagued him since his waking had been largely unsuccessful, and the times he was left alone were spent with his imagination. He impatiently awaited the call that his condition was good enough to relocate him to a more typical recovery room where he would at least be able to have Mieu at his side.  

[BlackPidgeot]

Yuri had been sitting in that damned waiting room for what felt like an eternity. He'd scarcely eaten and only managed to get a few winks of sleep here and there. The man had sat in silence while the others had visited Luke. Mostly only speaking when spoken to.

However, judging by the happy feelings everyone had, nobody knew what had caused Luke to get a new heart. Including the red head himself. Once everyone else had seen Luke and things started to settle down, Yuri wordlessly arose from his seat and walked to Luke's room, appearing in his doorway.  

[Suudonym]

The slight, quiet change in the environment didn't go unnoticed, and green eyes found the form that appeared in the door. The first words that arose at the sight of his friend were of relief, "You're okay." He'd heard tell from others, of course, but it was still consolation to see for himself that Yuri had indeed not been wounded - not gravely, at least, as far as he could tell. "I couldn't really remember what happened, so…" Taking one bullet certainly hadn't disqualified every other armed individual in that room from using their guns, so it had been a bit of a concern.  

[BlackPidgeot]

At Luke's words, Yuri smiled lightly and stepped into the room. "Yeah," he said as he came to Luke's bedside and reached out to ruffle his hair. "Thanks." He then folded his arms and gave the kid a bit of a smirk. "But if you do that again I'm going to kick your a**."  

[Suudonym]

He wasn't really in a position to dodge or brush away the hand, much as he would have liked, and was grudgingly forced to accept it. Despite enduring displeasure over being treated as a child, however, he couldn't really argue that it wasn't nice to feel as though his friends were indeed glad for his well-being. "Don't worry; I'm not planning on it," he assured, shaking his head slightly. "Can't get much worse than all that, though, right? Things have to start looking up from here."  

[BlackPidgeot]

"... Yeah sure," Yuri said after some hesitation. Taking a seat nearby, the man wasnt sure what to say. Was he going to have to break the news to Luke? Shouldn't his father be doing that? Yet he remembered when the older man himself had found out.

"So, uh... How are you feeling?" He asked lamely.  

[Suudonym]

The lack of enthusiasm in Yuri's reply was noted with some confusion - it was strange, especially after the plain determination with which he had spoken during the small fiasco at the hot springs visit - but Luke attributed it primarily to tiredness.

"Better than I thought I would," he replied. "It's actually kind of weird. I mean, I'm tired and sore, but I can actually breathe like normal." He knew that he had been prone to shortness of breath, lightheadedness, and occasional pressure in the chest, but he hadn't realized what a labor it had become to simply live.  

[BlackPidgeot]

"Well, guess that means your new heart's working like it should." Your brother's heart, Yuri thought to himself. He had to admit, this was a good thing for Luke. He wasn't suffering like he had been before. But how was he going to take it when he knew? Not well he imagined, and a part of Yuri wished he didn't have to know.  

[Suudonym]

"Yeah," he said with some reluctance, gaze falling away. "I guess I'd rather not think about that. I'm glad and all, but what it comes down to is that someone else had to die for me to be alive." He realized that one aspect of the procedure he had never researched was whether or not he was permitted correspondence with the donor's family - but even if he was, what would he say? What comfort was there in knowing a loved one's death had saved a stranger's life?  

[BlackPidgeot]

"Yeah, that's true," Yuri agreed, for it was a fact no matter the heart may have come from. "But hey, at least something good came out of it." If it had just been that some died and life resulted from it, that would be one thing, but in this case someone sacrificed themselves to save Luke. How the hell did you tell someone that gently?

"You'll be using the sword again too before you know it."  

[Suudonym]

His acquiescence was quiet, "I guess." He supposed it wasn't too different from what he had done, blocking the criminal's barrel so Yuri wouldn't be shot. It was just harder to permit when he was the benefitting party.

He grimaced at the thought of the state of his swordsmanship. "Gonna need some serious practice, that's for sure." He added, as if in defense of himself, "You know at one point I could actually beat Asch in a serious battle," a pause, "but I guess that was mostly because I practiced really intensely up to then." The memory returned his persisting question to the front of his thoughts, and for a moment he wore an expression as though he intended to ask it, but he decided otherwise. He was only frustrating himself by continuing to pose the same old tired inquiry to people who wouldn't know anything about it.  

[BlackPidgeot]

Yeah, Yuri could relate to that. The fact that this whole thing had been brought on because Luke had taken a hit for him hadn't exactly sat well with Yuri.

There was pause as Asch was brought up. "Yeah? That's something. He seemed like a pretty capable guy." He then mentally swore as he realized his slight slip and tried a quick save. "We'll have to get you back up to speed with some practice."  

[Suudonym]

"You know him?" He knew that the majority of his friends at least knew of him due to the fact that he usually explained that he had a brother who was involved in a criminal organization - mostly because said brother happened to be an identical twin and it seemed prudent to share such information when the probability of meeting him wasn't that low. It was rarely mentioned to him, however, when such a meeting was encountered, and this information changed how he felt about that nagging question. If it was a question posed to someone who knew his brother well enough to make observations about him, then that wasn't totally unreasonable, right? The small worry reemerged unintentionally in his features, "This is kind of random I guess, but has he been around? My father said he was here, but…" But that had been all he had said.  

[BlackPidgeot]

"Yeah, I met him a couple times. Guess I didn't tell you about that, huh?" However, the inevitable seemed to finally come up Luke asked if his brother had been around.

There was another long pause as Yuri tried to decide how to best answer that question. "Yeah, he's been around," he eventually answered vaguely.  

[Suudonym]

He drew a breath and exhaled it in a long sigh. "It's not like he's particularly social, so I shouldn't be so disappointed that no one knows anything…" Asch usually hung around in the shadows anyway, only appearing when summoned or when completely unexpected. Another sigh, this one slightly put off. "What's up with him anyway? Only showing up while I'm unconscious - isn't that kind of rude even for him?"