The days wore on as Lali impatiently waited to be discharged. Jean visited after work every day with a meal.

“You’re quite persistent”, Lali snarled.

Jean ignored her and placed two beautifully arranged bento boxes on the bed tray. He scooped up a bit of it and moved it close to her mouth. She pulled away as much as she could without irritating her wounds. With a sigh of frustration, he dropped the spoon back into the bowl and commenced eating his.

“Now, I know I’m not the best chef in the world, but my food is not that bad”, he said frustrated as he took a bite of his own. “When you can walk, you can make your own food the way you like it”.

Lali said nothing as she stared at the food.

A blond-haired man, who often seemed to shadow Jean, cleared his throat to interrupt Jean’s brewing lecture. He leaned over and switched their plates.

“How is that supposed to help?”, Jean growled, “It’s the same meal!”

He stood to confront him. Lali leaned over, nervously lifted her spoon, and clumsily put a piece of egg in her mouth. Jean turned to her with a confused look. With one last glance at the man, he sat back down to help her. The man backed out of the room with a bow.

“I can feed myself”, Lali protested as Jean placed the spoon back into the bowl for more food.

“Don’t be difficult”, he grumbled, shoving a mountain of rice into her mouth, “You can barely lift your arm, let alone a spoon”

“I’ll manage”, she insisted.

“A stubborn little one, aren’t you?”, Howard interrupted.

She shot him a dirty look as Jean pushed more food into her mouth.

“Oy, doc, when are you freeing me from this place?”, she growled through the food.

“Not for a while my dear. To be honest, I’m surprised you’re still alive given the state you came here in”, he emphasized.

“I was fine, just a few broken bones. That’s all I needed you to fix, but you did extra”, she hissed.

He shook his head at her, “How’s the feeding going, Jean?”, he inquired.

“Still not great. After a few bites, she calls it quits”, he answered, staring at her protruding collarbone.

“Well that’s not good. If you want to get out of here, you’re going to need to get your weight up. A lack of nutrients makes it hard for your body to heal itself.”

"Tsk", she scoffed.

Due to the nature of Lali’s injuries, Howard decided kept her in the hospital for a month. He finally relented to discharge her after the constant nagging and failed attempts to escape, but instructed her to remain on a strict bedrest for two to four more weeks and instructed Jean on her home care and dietary needs.

“Keep her off her feet until she’s ready for physical therapy and get her weight up. If you need, I’ll arrange for a home nurse to come assist you”, Howard stated as the nurse prepared Lali in the clothes Jean bought her.

“There’s no need for that. I may not be practicing any longer, but I’m still a medic”, Jean replied.

“The military and women are two different beasts. You won’t be extracting bullets… at least not from her”, he implied, as a joke spread across his face, “Good luck. I’ll be in touch”, he concluded.

Jean sighed then looked down at Lali waiting in a wheelchair.

“Oh and…”, Howard lowered his voice, “when you’ve found out more about that “thing” let me know and I’ll bring Stace”, he cleared his throat uneasily with a glance.

Jean nodded as he watched the blonde man pull up to the curb in an SUV and hop out to start loading Lali in. They finished packing away the luggage and home medical supplies and drove off.

“Are you happy to be out of there?”

“Of course”, Lali said matter-of-factly, “Your uncle is looking in bedside manners”

“Well, luckily where he lacks he makes up in expertise”

Lali squinted her eyes at him, questioning whether that was true or not.

“Don’t give me that look”

The blonde man driving chuckled at their antics.

As they pulled up to the house, a slender black-haired man in a suit waited for them on the steps.

“Finished everything?”Jean yelled to him.

“Yeah”, the man replied nonchalantly.

“Then come help us unload the car”, Jean ordered as he brought the wheelchair to the side where Lali sat.

“Shouldn’t I be using the crutches?”, Lali protested.

“M-maybe only in the house for now is best”, he replied uneasily, “The outside hasn’t been outfitted to be barrier-free.”

Lali looked at the stairs leading to the front door and shrugged. Before she could protest more, Jean gently picked her up and placed her in the wheelchair. When they reached the stairs, the blonde man came over and helped lift it through the front door. While he was steadily putting it down, Lali patted his head with a giggle. His ears turned red and quickly retreated back outside. Jean pinched the bridge of his nose in shame, wheeled her to the sofa, and handed her the crutches.

“Now you can try to get up”

She made a grumpy face, then roughly pushed herself out of the wheelchair, only to lose her balance and flop heavily on the sofa a second later. Jean swallowed a laugh.

“Let’s take it slow from now on”

“Ha, ha”, Lali mocked.

The men came inside with all of the luggage from the car,and Jean gestured for them to come over.

“Lali, this is my head of security and lifelong friend, Yuki”, he pointed to the blonde-haired man, “And this is Sasha, another friend. There aren’t many guards on duty that stay in-house besides these two. The others are mostly on call at my company. There is a chef, his name is Kuki. He comes maybe once a week depending on my mother’s requests for him to feed me “proper” food. He’s really just a spy for my mother, so don’t pay him much mind”, Jean introduced.

Lali sat on the couch facing the door as the man named Yuki she had always seen, and the smaller black-haired man stood behind the couch opposite her. A smile suddenly crept across her face as she pushed herself up on her crutches and hobbled over to the one named Yuki. Gently, she hugged him, causing Jean’s face to twitch in slight jealousy.

“Um, Lali?”, Jean interrupted.

She pulled herself away from him then sat on the couch in front of them. As she sat, she beckoned him to come stand next to her. He did as she asked as Jean continued his explanation.

“Uh, Sasha will be your personal guard from here on out.”

“No”, Lali replied, “I want Yuki”, she stated firmly as she pulled his arm to her chest.

“What?”, Jean breathed in disbelief.

“Call it… love at first sight”, she beamed mischievously.

Jean’s eyes opened wide. He pointed at her to protest, but couldn’t say a word in his frustration. He covered his face with his hands and sighed.

“Al-alright”, Jean relented, unsure of how to counter such absurdity.

With an exasperated sigh, he continued to explain the house and its inner workings.

“I’ve converted my room into yours for the time being as the elevator is too far in your condition”, he pointed to the door just at the top of the steps, “We’ve installed the stair climber for you to use…”

Lali around the open space and nodded.

“I’ll give you a complete tour…sometime later”, he said as he stood from the couch, “Yuki, a moment please.”

Lali watched them stroll away to have a whispered conversation. She stared at them, then glanced at Sasha, whose eyes were boring into her.

“What?”, she hissed at him

Sasha scoffed and walked away in the direction of the back of the house. Lali scrunched her nose up at him, then turned back to the two having a quiet conversation.

“Get in touch with Berns”, Jean whispered, “Have him find out all he can about those camps and her time there.”

Yuki nodded and whipped out an outdated flip phone to make a call while walking away. As Jean began to return to the couch area, clattering and claws on wood could be heard approaching. Lali saw a furry face coming and immediately stood.

“Puppy!”, she shouted as two large dogs raced into the living room with Sasha following behind with a smirk.

“Ah, yes. I have two dogs-”, Jean began.

The Bernese pounced on Lali, knocking her off balance. Jean swiftly caught her and threw a dirty look at Sasha, who ran over to restrain it.

“I-I’m sorry. Sam is too hyper for his size”, Jean apologized, “Old girl Grin here is much calmer”, he nudged his chin at the german shepherd waiting patiently for attention.

“Maybe it’s best to keep them outside until you can handle them”, he continued, gesturing to Sasha to take them out.

Lali shrugged as she regained her balance. Jean uneasily grabbed the wheelchair and placed it behind her.

“Maybe it’s best to sit”, he stated, “Howard did say to stay off your feet”.

Gazing at the wheelchair, Lali seemed reluctant to follow that advice. She began to step away with her crutches, but Jean quickly stepped forward to block her path.

“Sit”, he commanded.

Lali looked him up and down as a slight snarl grew on her face.

“Just until you are up the steps”, Jean remedied with his hands up.

She cut her eyes at him, “I’d rather be carried by Yuki”.

A visible twitch ran through him at her words, “T-that wouldn’t be appropriate… and Yuki is busy right now”, he deflected.

“Tsk”, she sucked her teeth in annoyance as she uneasily sat in the wheelchair, pushing her crutches into his hands.

Jean sighed in relief, then quickly rolled her over to the stair lift.

“Let’s get you upstairs and settled. I hope you like the changes”.

Lali didn’t answer his enthusiasm as the machine came to life. As it rose, she could see Yuki on the phone and hear slight mumbles from his conversation.

“Berns, it’s Snow.”

“Oh my, hey princess!”

Yuki sighed, “Listen, Green Eyes needs you to get some information…”

“When you gonna stop being his little dog chasing his shadow and come do some real work with me?”

“Berns”

“Okay, okay”

“I need you to find out about a reeducation center called Camp Appalachia and a woman named Lalianna Neumann.”

“Ooo, you wanting some deep shit, princess.”

“I’ll send over the documents we have that might be of some help”, Yuki ignored.

“You didn’t even let me agree or not.”

“Get back to me when you’re done.”

“Heartless prick”, Berns hissed and hung up.

Closing the flip phone, Yuki took a deep breath and walked to the bottom of the stairs. He met eyes with Jean’s just as he was pushing Lali’s wheelchair from the stair lift, and began to ascend. In a few bounds he was up the stairs, holding the door open for them to enter. As they glanced around, the bed was lower and smaller than before and a kind of lounge area was set up between the bed and windows.

“So?”

“Meh, the dark king vibe you had going before was fine as it was, but this will do”, Lali stated.

“Well you can always come see it in my room, which I moved to down the hall”, Jean smirked.

“Uh, no thanks”

Yuki gave a slight chuckle, then began to help her out of the chair.

“Just lift me”, Lali grinned at Yuki.

He shrugged and bent down to do as she said, but Jean put his hand on his shoulder. He gave him a weary look.

“Let me”

“No thanks”, Lali refused.

A look of confusion crossed Jean’s face as she snatched her crutches from his hands. He lifted his hand as though to comment, but instead resigned himself to watching her inch over to the bed. As she laid down, she called Yuki over to sit in the chair next to the bed and happily patted his head before settling into the pillows.

Jean stood awkwardly, “Might I know why you prefer my best friend over me?”

“Hm”, Lali glanced over at him, “Yuki is mine now. That’s all.”

“I am technically your husband.”

“On paper”, Lali emphasized, “but more of just a servant as stated by the state”.

“I won’t think of you that way…”

Lali nodded without answering and closed her eyes to rest. As sleep crept in, Sasha knocked on the door frame to inform Jean about something and they left together.

A quiet lull fell over the room with the sounds of Lali’s soft breathing and small taps from Yuki’s cellphone.