A few days before the surgery, Connor grew nervous. He didn't sleep well---their temporary home was a nearby hotel where their parents were staying, and it felt better than an overstuffed armchair. But he still didn't sleep well. Blood soaked his dreams and he could virtually smell the burning flesh and hear the cracking of bones and ripping of skin. The sickening mixture seemed to hang in the air when he jolted awake, but he doubted anything he dreamed up was quite as bad as Akai's, who never seemed to wake easy. He kept reassuring both himself and Akai that things would go smoothly---that the limbs would feel right, and it would be as if he never lost his originals. But when the day came, it felt as if his heart were about to shove its way out of his chest. He wanted to be present during the surgery but knew he couldn't, but after the sedative was administered and before they wheeled him into the operating room, Connor was taken off guard by what Akai asked. He couldn't answer before Akai fell asleep.

He had to wait with the answer on the tip of his tongue for several hours. Microsurgery was required to attach the limbs to the nerves and string them the way normal nerves would fall, giving feeling and free range of movement, and a seamless look and feel. His mother had an arm around him, his father talked with Akai's parents, but Connor was silent. He wanted to marry the man, of course, but answering so quickly and under such pressing circumstances had him caught up.

When he was wheeled back to his room, Connor was the first in. He was glad to see the limbs were covered with a seamless skin the same tone as Akai's, and there was an extra monitor by the bed. He sat alongside the sleeping form and lifted his new arm, running fingers down the inside of his forearm and watching nerve endings light up and fire on the monitor. "Akai... you'll feel so much better when you wake up." Connor smiled, ignoring anyone else that might get close. "I hope you feel whole again..." The one thing Connor was afraid of was that Akai wouldn't feel normal. That he would hate himself, or wonder if Connor still loved him the way he did before.