"What did you do?" Misaki exclaimed, stopping dead in her tracks in the center of the emergency waiting room.

Hei glanced down at his splinted arm where it rested in a sling against his chest, then turned helplessly to Grandfather before facing his fiancee again.

"Um," he said. "Just fractured the ulna. In two places." When Misaki only continued to stare, he added, "I'll have to see an orthopedic specialist, but the doctor doesn't think I'll need surgery. The cast should be off before the wedding, don't worry."

"I'm not worried about the wedding, I'm worried about you!"

"I'm fine."

Misaki gestured at his arm. "Obviously you're not fine! Why didn't you tell me you were hurt?"

"I sent you a message -"

"Hei, sending me a text that says Going to the ER with grandfather, everything's fine does not exactly convey the message that you broke your arm in two places! And it certainly doesn't ease my mind, after waking up with you not there!"

For the first time since they'd run into each other in the lobby, Hei looked - really looked - at Misaki. She was wearing sweatpants with a windbreaker thrown over the old t-shirt that she always wore to bed. Her ponytail was slightly askew, and her low-heeled work shoes had clearly not been a deliberate choice, but rather the first pair that she'd grabbed.

"I didn't want to put you through any more than I already have," he said quietly.

"Let me worry about you, goddamn it!" Misaki snapped. Then she sighed and pressed a hand to her temple. "I'm sorry; I'm tired, and you know I hate it when you try to take everything on yourself."

"I know. I should have told you more; I'm tired too."

She reached out to hug him, then pulled back her hand uncertainly. "Does it still hurt?"

"Not as much now that the splint is on; and the doctor gave me a prescription for the pain."

"Which you're going to take?"

She knew him far too well. "Which I'm going to take," he agreed.

Misaki cast him a small grateful smile, then turned to Grandfather and said in choppy but understandable Mandarin, "Thank you for coming here with my irresponsible finance; I'm sure it wasn't easy to convince him."

Grandfather, who had been standing placidly beside Hei throughout their entire argument, smiled calmly. "He did want to wait for you. But the pain was obviously getting worse, and I insisted."

In truth it hadn't taken much convincing at all. His arm had been throbbing horribly; that, coupled with the long, emotionally exhausting night, had left him too tired to make any decision, reasonable or otherwise. Grandfather had suggested walking down with him, and he'd accepted gratefully.

"Insisting strongly is the only way to get him to take care of himself," Misaki said.

"Yes; he didn't want to go to the doctor the first time he broke that arm either. His mother finally had to splint it herself, at home."

Misaki stared. "First time?"

"I think I was six?" Hei turned to Grandfather, who nodded. "I fell off the kitchen roof; it had been raining and the tiles were slippery."

"What were you - no, wait, I think I can guess. You were upset about something and wanted to get away from other people for a while?"

Hei blinked. "How…"

"How many times have I found you on the roof at headquarters, or on our balcony in the middle of the night, when you're trying to work through something?" Misaki wrapped her arm around his waist, careful to stand on the opposite side as his injury, and kissed his cheek. Then she glanced up at the big clock over the reception desk, and sighed.

"If we head home now, I'll have just enough time to get ready and make it to the morning debrief. You," she added with a soft poke to his chest, "are calling in sick. No arguments."

"Don't go," Hei blurted out. Misaki gave him a confused glance; he continued, "You're supposed to be on your flight home from Osaka right now, so you were already going to miss the debrief. Go in after lunch like you were originally planning. Stay home with me instead."

Misaki gave him a blank stare. "Miss the debrief?"

"You'll give Kouno a heart attack if you show up out of the blue when they're all expecting you to be away," Hei pointed out.

Misaki snorted. "He'll just be disappointed not to have an excuse to slack off. I mean…I guess it would be alright to miss it? I've never just stayed home from work before…

"You were home when I had my concussion."

"I worked from home; you slept through most of it. What if an important report came in over the weekend?"

"The world won't fall apart if you're not there to hold it up," Hei told her quietly.

She still looked unconvinced, so he added, "I'll make us all breakfast?"

He glanced over at Grandfather, who smiled in agreement. At last, Misaki smiled as well. "I guess I can't say no to breakfast," she said.

~~~~o~~~~

"Fending off a steel chain with your bare arm - what were you thinking?" Misaki said as she unlocked the apartment door.

"I was thinking I had to end the fight as soon as possible," Hei said mildly. "Once I had hold of it, I had control."

He didn't mention the little detail about using his power; the knowing look that Misaki gave him told him that he didn't have to.

He hadn't told Grandfather anything more about the fight before; what little he'd needed to explain to the doctor had been in Japanese. When he glanced over now, the old man was nodding.

"Neutralizing a weapon should be the first priority," Grandfather said. "It is unfortunate there wasn't a branch or something you could have used instead of yourself though."

"There wasn't anything close enough to hand. Jiang's bag might have worked, if it hadn't been twenty feet away."

Misaki cast Hei a curious look at the exchange. "Still, you should have called the patrol sooner - oh, let me take that," she said to Grandfather, and hung up the light sweater that Hei had insisted he put on before they went to the emergency room. "Hei, do you mind if I hop in the shower? I barely feel human right now."

He didn't mind, of course, but as soon as she disappeared into the bedroom Hei felt the acute awkwardness of having a visitor in a place that rarely saw them.

"Um, so," he said, stuffing his uninjured hand in his pocket. "This is home."

Both of them were generally tidy people, so the place wasn't a mess, he was relieved to see.

As he led Grandfather into the apartment, however, he realized for the first time how little of himself was there. The walls were decorated with artwork that Misaki had picked out for herself over the years; the bookcase was filled with her books and her tchotchkes. He had to fight the urge to show off the new sofa; normal people weren't proud of something as, well, normal as picking out a sofa. Were they?

"Oh, that's Misaki and her mom, before she died," he said, following Grandfather's gaze. "And this is her and her dad, at her graduation from the police academy. We don't…we haven't really gotten around to taking any photos of the two of us. Not yet."

Hei really didn't want to explain why not; but Grandfather didn't ask. Instead, the old man nodded as if he understood perfectly and said, "Well, if you take a nice one in the future, be sure to send us a copy. Your grandmother would like it."

His throat constricting a little, though he couldn't say why, Hei nodded. "Do you want tea? We can sit - oh, hang on."

The tiny dining table next to the kitchen was covered in the usual organized mess of Misaki's case files; his own messenger bag was still sitting on top of the pile where he'd dumped it Saturday night.

"Sorry," he said, and began to collect the papers one-handed, but Grandfather waved him away.

"Do you both often bring work home?" the old man asked as he tidied a pile and set it neatly on the floor. "That's very dedicated."

"Misaki used to; she doesn't as much anymore. I've decided to take the exam to be promoted to detective, so some of this is study material."

Hei felt a surge of pride at Grandfather's nod of approval, and detailed the requirements of the examination as he started a pot of coffee. The sticky note explaining that he'd gone to meet Jiang was still stuck to the carafe, he noticed; clearly it had been his text from the emergency room that had woken her rather than her usual alarm.

"You drink coffee?" Grandfather asked as the scent of the fresh brew began to fill the small kitchen.

Hei shook his head. "That's for Misaki. I usually have chrysanthemum tea, but we have a couple other types if you'd prefer something else?"

Grandfather had nothing against chrysanthemum, and smiled with silent approval as Hei drained away the first and second brews, and served him the third.

"Did you think I'd forget everything you taught me about making tea?" Hei asked as he gathered the ingredients for breakfast.

Grandfather blew on his mug before taking a small sip. "Of course not."

"I wish I'd paid more attention when Grandmother was making congee. I still haven't figured out the right ratio of water to rice."

"Call her and ask."

Hei blinked. "Call…"

"It's early, but neither of us sleep much these days. She'll be awake by now."

He could just call, Hei realized. When he tried to remember the number, the digits danced hazily in his mind; upon taking out his phone, however, his fingers dialed almost of their own accord.

She was indeed awake, and answered on the second ring. With the phone on speaker so that he could work while he listened, Hei let his grandmother explain to him all the benefits of a variety of ratios, which ones she preferred for precisely what circumstances, and why.

"But why do you need me to tell you, dear? Your fiancee must know all this already?"

"Misaki's Japanese. We usually have an omlette for breakfast," Hei told her as the most expedient explanation.

"That's right, poor thing. When you come home, Yafang and I will teach her everything she needs."

"In your own time," his grandfather reassured him quietly when he'd hung up the phone. "When it feels right for you."

"I know." Hei lifted his santoku blade from the magnetic strip that held his cooking knives; then he sighed in frustration. He could fight almost as well one-handed as he could uninjured, as long as he didn't attempt any advanced acrobatics; but how was he supposed to mince garlic without his left hand to guide the knife? He couldn't even smash the cloves with the flat of the blade with just one hand.

"Those look like quality knives," Grandfather commented over his mug of tea.

A smile brushed Hei's lips. "I bought these when I first moved in; Misaki's not allowed to touch them. But I don't know how we're going to eat for the next eight weeks if I can't even chop anything…"

"I'm sure we'll survive somehow," came Misaki's wry voice. She entered the kitchen looking much more like herself; though the only concession she'd made to the idea of a morning off was to not tuck her blouse into her suit pants. "What do you need help with?"

Hei eyed her warily, and she crossed her arms. "I won't destroy anything if you're here to watch. Though you'll have to explain things in Japanese, or I might accidentally commit vegetable murder."

He had to smile at that. "Fine. Do you remember how to mince garlic?"

His favorite part of the weekend was always cooking a leisurely breakfast with Misaki. It was the closest feeling to home that he ever had in Tokyo, as well as being something normal and non-work-related that they could do together. Now, with Grandfather rolling up his sleeves to help rinse the rice, Hei found himself unable to keep from smiling.

"Maybe I'm still half asleep," Misaki said as Hei seamlessly switched from giving her instructions in Japanese to continue the comment he'd been making to Grandfather, "but I'm having more trouble understanding your Chinese than usual."

"You're understanding quite well," Grandfather said. "Tian's found his Shaanxi again, that's all."

While the congee was simmering, Hei took the opportunity for a quick shower. It had been a long night. When he returned to the kitchen, he found Misaki showing Grandfather the kite that they'd made together on their first date.

He stood in the doorway for a long moment, just watching the two of them together.

"Hei, I was just telling your grandfather he should come down and see the office," Misaki said when she glanced up and noticed him standing there. "Would - didn't you promise you would ask for help with the buttons?"

"That's why I'm here," he said mildly. "I got half of them."

"You shouldn't have even tried on your own. You need to give your arm a chance to heal before you break it again." Misaki finished buttoning his shirt, then helped him arrange his arm in the sling.

Hei let her fuss over him; then the three of them settled down to a long, hearty breakfast, while Hei reveled in an indescribable feeling of contentedness.