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Seeing Priam like that shook something terrible lose in Yu, tentative foundations he’d been trying to form, perhaps without realizing it. He couldn’t imagine how Sterling must feel having known him for longer.

He thought about the little motions Priam should have been engaging in, fingers through his hair, the distracted scratch of nails against scalp, the way he should have stood, or rested.

Here, in this place that smelled of … chemicals, bleach, and worse things. He knew that the wires and plastic shells, the plaster and the needles were all there to help Priam, he knew that, he’d died hard to listen to what they had been willing to share with them as they weren’t family.

But he couldn’t shake the whisper in the back of his mind that these said-same needles and tubes were sucking the life out of him instead, making him want to gather him up and run.
Fingernails dug into his arms to try and hold himself together, leaning into Sterling when he could because he was afraid to take his hand. He’d squeeze too hard, or might let himself slip.

But when Priam spoke, he gripped Sterling’s arm hard enough to bruise, sucking in a breath too fast and too hard.

“They're ok.” He answered, he sounded so much calmer than he felt. You hid when you were afraid… if you could. He could be strong for Priam.

He breathed a sigh of relief, but even that hurt.

"Oh," he said, not because he didn't want to say more, but because he wasn't sure what else there was for him to say. He wasn't sure how he was even supposed to process what was going on. It took him a few seconds longer and, when the room was spinning, he just closed his eyes. It hurt his neck to try and pick it up to see them.

Jarvis was here. Sort of. The dogs were okay.

"I'm so sorry," he said softly. "He was on business. He shouldn't be in town."

He shouldn't be in this bed.

"...You two should be focusing on work. And school," he said; his jaw hurt. He wondered if it was because it was stiff from intubation or if he'd hurt it.

Hurt it from...

His heart rate picked up suddenly, beeping on the machine, but Priam just drew in one calming breath, and then another, and it seemed to mellow out. He waited for the sound of the door opening, some nurse coming to check. It didn't come. Good. He didn't want to talk to anyone else right now. He didn't want to talk about whatever happened.

Whatever happened.

There was a black blur in his memory, like he knew it was there but he couldn't access it. When he tried to draw the memory, it played like the static of a VHS. The illogical part of his brain told him he needed to rewind it. The logical part of his brain reminded him that he hurt too much to do anything.

He remembered falling. Just a split second of the wind running through his hair.

He wanted to ask if he was in one piece, but that wasn't fair to them. If he wasn't, they were going to have to break the news to him. It would be better for a doctor to explain it, anyway.

He wiggled his toe. He couldn't feel much of it, and--what a surprise--it hurt. But it meant his nerves were working. At least a little bit.

It was a start.

He wasn't sure if they'd said anything or if he'd imagined the silence. It was a second or a minute or an hour--he still couldn't tell. "...I fell," he announced, like they wouldn't have figured that out already. It felt like he was just discovering it, himself.

"...I don't remember where I was. I was working. Busy night, we were swamped. I was so tired. I am so tired."

His voice felt like he was croaking; he wanted water. He wanted Sterling's backing. Yu's Chicken. He wanted his couch. His books.

Home.

Oh, but Yu and Sterling were here. That was close enough.

"...Are you two okay?"

Sterling’s eyes lingered on Yu for a moment and his heart felt full. He felt such a rush of affection for his boyfriend, and for the other male laying on the hospital bed. He moved a few steps closer and swallowed hard, running his hand up and down Yu’s back. They would have to talk about this. About Priam. About their feelings for him when they were home. When they had more reassurance that he would truly be okay.

“We...we’re holding up okay. And you should know, Priam Wisteria, that you mean more to us than school or work ever could. And, Yu, we will. We will bring him home. Priam, when you’re allowed out of here, I think you should come and stay with us until you recover fully. The dogs are already there, and that’ll free up Jarvis so he doesn’t have to take a bunch of time off work I...I mean.” Sterling flashed a look at Yu, hoping that this was an okay thing to offer, but for some reason, he didn’t think it would be unwelcome.

“We love you, and we’re here for you, no matter what you need.” Again, the words just seemed to tumble out, but again, he didn’t feel as though they were the wrong thing to say at all. “I’m so glad that you’re awake…” His voice broke then, his facade of calm shattering. He tried to hide it though. Sterling breaking down was the last thing that Priam or Yu needed right now.

Yu’s grip, thankfully the hand focused on the chair tightened enough to make the plastic creak, like if he kept pushing he was going to owe the hospital a new chair.

His throat bobbing with the hard swallow as he tried to not panic about the pain that Priam was in. His stomach curled into an almost painfully acidic fist and gridding hand into the poured plastic seat was the only thing he could think of to ground himself short of risking actually hurting Sterling, which wouldn’t do.

He sucked in a breath to ask if they needed to ask the Nurse, if maybe they should give Priam something for the pain, but then…

-Someone threw me -
The statement made his world narrow dangerously, a red haze at the edges of his world. The familiar brittle intensity of anger putting the world into a razor focus.

“Threw…. you….” He said almost a whisper. The words as sharp as a well honed knife. He didn’t think he’d let either of them see even this tip of his anger before, and this was a terrible place to let it show perhaps. But that someone had thrown Priam… PRIAM, of of those few perfect people gracing the world with kindness…

“Did you know them? What did they look like?”
His hand tightened for a moment on Sterling’s arm, enough for bruises before he caught himself and made his hand relax a little, made himself pull back
He needed to at least, not look like he was a prime candidate for throwing people off a roof before the nurse got here.

He let himself glance towards Sterling, no doubt in his mind he’d see shock and anger there too. But he just needed to see him to ground himself as well, to remind himself hat sterling was safe at least, to assure himself that both of them were alive, even if they weren’t both ‘well’.

Priam relaxed a bit at Sterling's touch; it gave him the strength to force his breathing to stay even, to keep his heart from pounding right out of his chest. "I don't know what he wanted. I didn't recognize him."

...The sharp smile lingered in his mind, and it felt like he could see just a shadow, a silhouette, and that smile.

"I couldn't see. He--there was a note, I..."

It was a foggy memory in his mind. "I found it in my files, it said--the roof, a time. He was going to jump. I almost didn't find it. I ran up. I don't think he was ever going to jump. He said--I don't remember what he said."

Bits and pieces were there, and when he wasn't expecting them they flickered in and out.

"I was so tired. I didn't even think it was real. I thought it was a dream. He said...he called himself 'Parisite'," he said, with sudden clarity. "Or a parasite. I can't--they don't think I jumped, do they? -- I didn't do this to myself. Please. They'll think I'm crazy if they hear that. There's no way anyone could get up to the roof without being personnel, but he--he wasn't wearing something you wouldn't notice. I'm not crazy," he said suddenly, sternly. "--Don't tell them I said anything about him. But I didn't jump."

He was almost babbling, like he had thoughts on it, but he couldn't cling to any one thought and so instead of focusing enough to make a comprehensive conversation out of it, all of them just tumbled from his lips.

“They don’t think you jumped.” Sterling said softly, smoothing his forehead, pleased that Priam hadn’t asked him to not touch. He felt as though he were doing something by offering at least a little comfort. “They think you fell, but they can’t understand why you were up there to begin with...there have been talks that you’ve been working yourself too hard.” He tried to keep his voice soothing, focusing completely on Priam and not noticing Yu acting strange at all.

“I’ll look into a Parasite or whatever. Maybe it really is someone from the psychiatric ward who got out. Regardless, he won’t hurt you again, I’ll make sure of it.” There was a strange, bitter edge to his voice. If this had really been an attack by the Negaverse...or by someone else on the side of chaos...it was partially his fault. He was Priam’s partner. He had sworn to protect him. To keep him safe no matter what...and he hadn’t been there. It didn’t matter if Priam had been lured out by a note...it didn’t matter. Nothing mattered by the fact that he hadn’t protected his partner.

An overwhelming sense of fear suddenly swept over Sterling and his knees very nearly gave out.

If Priam...if Priam would have died...he couldn’t have borne it. His eyes closed and he bit sharply on his lip, hard enough to draw blood, the sharp metallic taste shocking him out of his sudden depressive spell. “You’re alive.” He said out loud, softly, more for himself than anything else. “...That is the most important thing. We’ll take you home and care for you. We’ll keep you safe, Priam. Like...like I said before. We love you.”

Though, for Sterling...it almost felt like it was more than love. Much closer to what he felt for Yu than what he would feel for a simple best friend.

“I’ll protect you!” The protest was vehement, and followed quickly by “We’ll protect you, from… the doctors, from whoever that was. Whatever they were doing up there, don’t worry about us.”

He slid forward and tried to find a space to give Priam the comfort of his touch without adding pain, somewhere without needles or wires or tubes and laid his hand gently there trying to keep it from shaking. He wanted to hug him, to tell him things would be ok even if you could never tell.

“I can…” he hesitated, he couldn’t really take time off to stand guard, but… He could ask Karone maybe.

“I can get friends to help keep watch, between Karone, and Me, and Sterling, they won’t find you again. It means your Brother can…d…do what he does, he’ll know you’re in good hands. And when you’re out of here you can take the downstairs bedroom and uh… I’ll be there to cook and Oreo already gets along with the dog. We…we can get security cameras or something. We’ve got you… we’ve got you.”

He was rambling, but what else was there to do? He couldn’t ask his Boss any questions yet, he’d have to go see her after. Hell, he’d risk a confrontation with Cinnamon b*****d again if he could get answers.

“We’re ok… we just, we just want you to be okay.”