The sharp, steady beep of a heart monitor cut through the room like a knife. The noise was deafening during the first few nights he’d stayed here next to his friend. It was absolute torture, and a steady reminder that he’d fucked up. Now it was nothing more than white noise to him.
Piere’s been in a coma for over 8 days now, and even though the doctors assured him countless times that he would wake up and he just needed to be patient, it did little to settle his nerves like they’d hoped it would.
Kiren was resting his arms and head on his friend's hospital bed, blue eyes trained on his sleeping face. He could feel the sharp sting of tears begin to prickle at the corners of his eyes while he thought back to those last 2 days in the woods.
“Piere please, you have to stay awake please—“ Kiren choked out, “You need to open your eyes—“ he was on the verge of tears as he shook his friend, desperate to keep him awake and alert. They were almost there, they could make it to safety— “Please, god Piere please just open your eyes!”
Through blurry vision, he could see his friend’s emerald green eyes peer open, the faintest smile on his face, “We are… so don’t let me stop you…” his voice was frail and quiet, “Just leave me, please. You need to get to safety…” his eyes closed once more, being far too weak to keep them open for long.
“I’m not going anywhere without you,” Kiren choked out, cradling his best friend to his chest as he stood back up on shaky legs, “You’re coming with me, you told me—you promised me we’d do this together. You can’t leave me—why didn’t you tell me about your back?! Piere, we could have been taking care of it!”
He only got a small, tired grunt in response. Piere already naturally ran hot, but this was BAD. He was running a high fever from the infection spreading through the heavy cuts on his back, and he was so weak he could hardly speak, let alone get up and move on his own.
Kiren felt fresh, hot tears roll down his face as his anxiety spiked, “Please,” he whimpered, “Please just hang on, just hang on, Piere, we’re so close to the border just—“ his words caught in his throat as he choked on a sob.
“M’ sorry…” Piere mumbled so quiet Kiren almost didn’t hear, “M’ sorry… m’ sorry…” he repeated like a broken record, voice shaking with each step Kiren took as he frantically ran forward, weaving his way through trees and trampling over ferns and other underbrush.
With every step he took, it was getting harder and harder to take the next. Kiren was so unbelievably exhausted himself. He was battered and bruised over the week and a half long escapade through the woods on their way to Eswood, kingdom of the Kitsune. He was starving, he was tired, he felt disgusting after having rarely bathed since escaping the castle in Thaibi.
Eswood was the only place they could take refuge, the only place he could take Piere—
“Don’t be—stop apologizing—“ each breath Kiren took was more labored and haggard than the last. He couldn’t keep at it like this. He was about to run himself into the ground.
Piere had gone bone chillingly quiet, his breathing slowing steadily. Kiren couldn’t stop crying as he thought that his only ever friend was dying, and there was absolutely nothing he could do to save him. He felt so helpless and he was losing Piere, and he’d only had him in his life for two weeks—and his friend was going to die and there was nothing he could—
His ears picked up on people talking, and without hesitation he yelled out, “HELP! Someone please help!” His own voice sounded foreign to him as he called out.
Looking at Piere now, he definitely didn’t seem like he was on the brink of death. Curled up on his side, bandaged hands almost balled up into loose fists. His chest was heavily bound in fresh bandages, the lacerations on his back having been cleaned out and making good progress healing from the infection that spread through it. His breathing was steady and even as well.
It was almost 11pm on a Wednesday, the 23 of September. The room was dark, and everything was quiet and calm. So when Piere whimpered and shifted slightly, Kiren was immediately alert.
And when those emerald green eyes flickered open for the first time in eight days, it took Kiren a minute to process what was happening. When he did, he jumped up, “You’re awake!” He called out and viciously wiped at his eyes, brushing away the tears that were running down his face, “You’re really—“ he choked out but couldn’t help the instant grin that spread across his face, “You’re—“
Piere looked up at the other boy owlishly, confusion etched on his face as he watched his friend ramble. Kiren leaned down, held Piere’s face in his hands, and pressed an excited, relieved kiss smack dab in the center of his cheek before running around the bed and out the door to flag down the nearest nurse to tell them the good news.
In his wake, Piere still laid in bed, now more confused and alert than ever. His brain now thoroughly fried as he tried to wrap his head around the fact that the really pretty boy sitting next to his bed just kissed him, and then when it clicked that the really pretty boy was Kiren his face erupted into a deep crimson and he felt his pulse quicken.
Point proven by the increase in the frequency of the beeping on the heart monitor he was hooked up to. The traitor.
What happened? It all felt foggy in his brain.
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