[C] Close Call

Maks was out of it, they had dosed him up heavily but he remembered what had happened in sharp detail.

They had been on a job and a fight had broken out, it was a simple fist fight and in that scene Alyosha was unmatched, together they were ending the dispute.

They were evening out the numbers when someone grabbed him from behind. He barely felt the blade itself, he was was high on adrenaline but he remembered the sickening gurgle he had made when he tried to speak and the taste of blood in his throat.

He'd heard Alyosha's enraged roar as he clutched his own neck, then he was picked up and barked at to hold his throat and stay awake.

Then he woke up here, feeling fuzzy. He didn't recognize this room but it smelled sterile like cleaning chemicals.

Alyosha was perched in the chair beaides the bed, his leg bouncing out of control. He clutched his pack of cigarettes tightly, every now and again twisting the packet in his grip.

He looked like a hot mess. His hair was tangled and parted into awkward looking locks; something that happened when his hair dried naturally after getting wet. He was shirtless. His own body had a few little patches on it from the nicks he had gotten during the fight.

He looked like he was on the thin line of wanting to lash out and break something or curl up and cry.

He just wanted Maks to be awake and be all right.

His eyes blinked open, looking around sluggishly before they landed on Lyo.

He'd never seen the man looking like such a wreck before and he tried to reach out to run a hand through his hair but his arm snagged on the piping currently protruding from his skin.

In his haze he promptly gave up on that, his hand stilling on the bed.

"H-"

He began, the sound coming out hoarse, the pain radiating from his neck causing him to wince.

His eyes flickered upp to his boyfriend as soon as there was movement.

They were bloodshot and red-rimmed from crying and staying up for far too long to make sure his boyfriend didn't fall into critical condition while he was asleep or something.

"Shut the fuck up and let yourself heal or I'll knock you out for another two days. Personally," he growled.

Alyosha sounded rough, but his words weren't exactly angry. He sounded desperately stressed and worried.

He hated seeing Lyo like this, it gave him no satisfaction to see the man stressed out and worried about him.

"I'm okay."

He mouthed rather than speaking, granted he felt like he was hit by a bus, but he was alive.

Two days, he had been out for two days?

Now he just felt guilty for being sneaked up on.

"You don't look like you're fucking okay."

He doubted he looked much better at the moment.

He ran his hand through his hair and it snagged in the knots. A few strands caught in the sticky medical tape keeping gause pressed against his split knuckles and yanked out. Lyo didn't even flinch.

"Just...rest." Gone was the rough voice now. He just sounded lost and scared.

Lyo looked how he felt, thankfully the medication flowing through his body was keeping most of the pain at bay.

His hand pet the space on the bed beside him.

He wanted to comfort Lyo and be comforted. He didn't want the man to be afraid of losing him, he wasn't going anywhere.

It took more than a slit throat to keep him down.

It took a long moment of deliberation before Lyo stood from his chair and moved to lay on the bed.

His arm moved hesitantly to wrap around the younger man. He was scared that he'd break him. Over the past two days, Maks had looked so delicate nad breakable.

He didn't want to do anything to hurt him further.

"You're a fucking idiot."

He didn't know whether he was talking to Maks or himself.

Maks gave a little smile as Lyo spoke, leaning in against him.

He was tender but as long as he didn't move his head too fast he could move.

His free arm wrapped around Alyosha, he couldn't tilt his head up to kiss the man so he simply pressed a small peck to his chest as his hand gripped onto the man's bare back, clinging to him gently for comfort.

"You're not doing anything dangerous at work for a while."

He ran his fingers gently through Maks' long hair.

"Eighteen fucking years old and you've already had your throat slit." Tears started welling up in his sore eyes again. He clenched his eyes shut to try and stop the tears from falling.

"Don't scare me like that again."

Maks didn't in him to pout and argue, not when Lyo looked like that, not when he knew that if the tables were turned, he would be the exact same way.

When Lyo's eyes started to well up the hand he placed on the man's back slid to his chest, slowly drawing a heart on his chest.

That would have to do for an 'i love you' at the moment since if he spoke Lyo was going to scold him again.

A watery smile lit up Lyo's face when Maks' hand pressed against his chest.

"Idiot," he muttered affetionatelly, pressing a hard kiss to Maks' forehead.

"Do this again and I'll be the one to deal the final blow, you hear?"

Maks smiled back as his head was kissed.

This was definitely something he was never going to let happen again.

Having Lyo worrying about him wasn't something he wanted.

All he wanted now was to curl up with Lyo until he felt better, until they both felt better.

"A doctor should be around soon."

His fingers ran through Maks' matted hair, trying to carefully detangle it. Something he should probably be doing with his own hair.

"Their rounds are ten AM. They're always twenty minutes late. You could set your watch by them."

He'd noticed that over the past two days. The little things that pissed him off about this hospital. "We can see what to do next then."

He hoped that they could go home, he'd feel better back at there apartment, but it wasn't as if he could argue his case.

If he piped up about leaving before the doctors gave him the all clear he knew Lyo would have something to say about it.

For now he'd just relax, at least until Lyo was calm enough to mess around with.

Lyo was slowly beginning to relax.

It had been frightfully easy to stay up for two days straight when his only comfort was a shitty visitor's chair.

Now he was actually lying in a bed, he was starting to really feel the fatigue.

A yawn tore from the man as his tense, bunched muscles relaxed.

Maks' arm slowly stroked over Lyo's back, rubbing it gently as the man began to relax against him.

It seemed that they both needed some time to rest.

He curled in against the man, his body pressed to Lyo's, taking comfort in the man's body warmth.

The mixture of exhaustion and the gentle hand rubbing his back sent him off to sleep quickly.

He'd just let out his first soft snore when the two of them were interupted.

The door opened and in filed Maks' attending and a handful of student doctors.

The students went about checking Maks' vitals and IVs as the doctor looked at the two of them in bed together with a disapproving stare.

"I see you're finally awake."

He commented, checking his notes. He'd been baring the worst of Lyo's attitude the last two days.

"We'll be needing to redress your wounds, so Mister Belov, if you could kindly remove yourself from his bed we can get to work."

Alyosha was groggy as he looked blankly up at the doctor addressing him.

It took a long moment for him to realise what he had been asked and moved to sit up and transfer his heavy body over to the chair again. He slumped back against it, blinking slowly as he tried to clear the fog from his brain.

"Cut on my hip's infected," he murmured after a while. "You'll want to look at that after you've cleaned him up, doctor. Don't trust your students to clean out knife wounds. They fucking suck."

"Perhaps if you were so concerned about infected cuts you wouldn't have gotten into fights in the first place."

The doctor was an old man, he was short and blunt with people, but he was good at what he did.

The students stayed quiet and went about adding new readings onto Maks' chart.

The doctor went about removing the needles from Maks' arm and dressing the small wounds there, now he was conscious he wouldn't be needing those.

Slowly he adjusted Maks' bed onto a better angle and removed the tape and gauze from his neck. He had a large slash across his throat which was stitched neatly back together and painted with antiseptic.

The cut had wept into his bandages and the doctor began cleaning it out, applying a new layer of antiseptic and gently placing the gauze on top of it.

Maks tried his best not to wince as the wound was prodded.

"You're a lucky man, your external carotid arteries were nearly completely severed, they supply blood from your heart to your brain, if your inner carotids had been damaged any more than they were, you would have been brain dead before you hit the pavement."

Of course he had avoided telling Alyosha that before the man woke up, he had been on edge and bad news would have been met with an even worse mood.

"We don't get into fights for fun."

Lyo ran his hands through his hair again. "Perhaps you should be more concerned about infected cuts that should have been cleaned out and treated. Sending incompetent doctors into the medical world is a big no-no if I'm not mistaken."

Alyosha had levels of stress. When he started to get stressed, he began to swear more and get more physically violent. As that stress progressed, his swearing stopped and he began to get more articulate, cutting through people with sharp words.

When Lyo started to show his extensive vocabulary, you knew he wasn't happy.

His blue eyes narrowed into a glacial glare. "As his medical proxy, I should have been informed of the severity of his condition. In the even of an emergency, I would need all the information about his condition to make an informed decision."

He was pissed off that he didn't know just how bad his boyfriend was.

"You are lucky I haven't had you escorted out yet."

He replied to Alyosha's answer.

"If he had not woken up today, you would have been informed, the fact that he is so responsive tells me that you two were lucky this time.

If his motor functions are working then the cause for concern for brain damage is minimal at worst."

He continued as Maks' wounds were tended to and his levels checked.

Alyosha hadn't been the easiest person to deal with and the nurses here and dealt with the brunt of the man's abuse.

"As it stands..."

He started, padding toward Lyo without any concern for personal safety.

"You'll be pleased to know that we will keep him in for observation for tonight and if he passes his examination tomorrow morning, you'll be able to take him home."

With that he gently removed the dressing from Lyo's cut and checked over the infection, cleaning it out and treating it.

Lyo grit his teeth, looking beyond pissed off, but smartly keeping his mouth shut.

It probably wasn't a good idea to keep pissing the doctors off any more. Especially now that he had the threat of being escorted out hanging over his head.

His eyes dropped to watch the doctor clean out the infected wound. It was raised and red and hot to the touch. The yellow pus seeping out of it wasn't all that pleasant either.

It wasn't the worst infection he had ever gotten, but it certainly wasn't pleasant. His nose wrinkled at the smell.

"Home sounds good." He rubbed at his eyes as he slumped further into his chair.

"If you two behave I can try to schedule an examination of Maksim for later this afternoon.

If I am sending him home tonight however I want him brought in for a check up this weekend and if his stitches tear you have to bring him back through emergency."

He instructed.

He did feel for the boys, it was obvious how much turmoil seeing his partner in hospital has caused.

"You'll also need to change his dressings each day, and your own."

He added as he cleaned out the puss filled wound and dressed it.