Location: Verona Clinic — King's Room
Interacting With: Each Other
@Altered Tundra
King barely stirred when Grant spoke. He was dazed, stuck in an endless loop of calming darkness that would at times turn red with pain. He was sleeping, maybe, dreamlessly snoozing despite the aches from his wound, but the drowsy darkness soon began to twist with unfamiliar colors. Oranges and purples swirled into ugly browns, anxiety, guilt, nervousness. These weren't his, King's mind whispered, they belonged to someone else, someone near by. The emotions pushed at his mind, tugging him out of his unconscious state slowly but surely until eventually his eyes cracked open again and he was staring up at the ceiling with hazy vision. Colors twisted from the chairs beside his bed, strong and unyielding emotions that might have suffocated King if not for his currently half-dim mind.
He moved carefully, tilting his head towards the source of the feelings, and his mouth opened slightly at the sight of Grant Wells sitting stiffly in the seat closest to his feet. Words came and went, lost to the rush of pain he felt when he tried to sit up. His elbows trembled as they pushed his back against the pillows, shaking with a well-known feeling of exhaustion, but still he didn't stop shifting until he was propped up limply against the backboard of the clinic bed.
"Grant." King winced at his own rough voice, tongue darting out to wet his chapped lips once before he continued on,
"What's up? You look pretty shitty." The corners of his mouth quirked up slightly, playfully, and his half-lidded eyes glimmered with a teasing light.
"Yeah," Grant said moderately low, half of a nervous chuckle escaping his mouth.
Looking at King, Grant felt a bit awkward being within earshot of him. So much time had gone by since they were this close to each other. He couldn't even recall how long it had been since they were even able to have a one-on-one moment. Added to the fact of what happened last night, Grant had it in his mind that something else should have happened to allow this to happen, not a tragic event.
"I was walking by, and I overheard a lady blame you..?" Grant wasn't sure if that's what he heard or not,
"I guess I just wanted to see if you were alright." He fixed his position in the chair as he felt himself in an awkward position.
"That was just... Mmm--Mom. She came to visit." King shrugged slightly, withheld a groan of pain as his head moved awkwardly, and he cast his gaze down towards Grant's feet.
"You know what she's like, right? I'm fine though... Probably." He lifted a trembling arm towards his head, tentatively stoking the bandage that was wrapped around his cranium while a small smile tugged his lips further upward.
"Yeah, I do.." Grant's voice suddenly went low. Distant. The all-too-familiar that came with knowing that kind of feeling he got whenever he thought of his father. The same was probably for King — it had to be. When he heard King's mother speak like that, painful flashbacks of his father entered his mind as if someone was tugging the strings that led straight to the memory lobe of his brain. That feeling of always being put down no matter the situation. It didn't matter if Grant was already feeling like crap, or if his mood was at an all-time high. His father always seemed to know how to kill it swiftly. He was like an executioner in that sense.
King blinked a haze of drowiness from his eyes again, lips pursing as he tried to scan Grant from head to toe. Poor kid, got caught up in last night's events too huh? King felt a pang of worry, small and old and familiar, a feeling he often held back in their middle school days. Closing his eyes slowly, he sighed, breath hissing passed his cracked lips like steam, and let his head settle slightly against the wall behind him.
"How're you doing, man? What happened to you last night?" He asked quietly, chewing on his bottom lip slightly.
As he thought about last night, Grant found it slightly difficult. It wasn't because he didn't remember what had happened last night. No, because he remembered everything. It just was too painful.
"Last night.." Grant paused. The image of Dani came to him. It flashed quickly.
"Dani almost.." Again he paused, eyes falling on King,
"If not for," Another pause. Grant shook his head lightly as if trying to gather his jumbling thoughts.
"Dani almost died last night. She would have if it wasn't for Malcolm. He saved her life." There, all at once, Grant said it. His voice was shaky, and a moderate amount of tears seemed to have started to fall from his two eyes, but he said it.
"Mal, Dani--?" King opened his eyes slowly and stiffened at the sight of Grant's tears. The worry in his gut turned to panic, a wish to stop the boy from crying, somehow, someway. King's mind literally whirred with thoughts, blossoming another heavy migraine that would have stunted him back into another daze if not for his stubbornness to stay upright and awake. Instinctively, as if some primal sense in him was telling him what to do, King allowed a blossom of warmth to form form his own emotional cloud. Good vibes, perhaps, and King created them without really know how or why.
King sent the cheerier feelings towards Grant, and just as they faded from his own cloud to hesitantly taint the other boy's the taste of copper met his lips. Blood. A nose bleed. King bit his lip hard, wincing as his head wobbled and then fell back heavily against the wall. Breathing heavily, King blinked away tears as his head burned with intense pain.
"Dude--" He breathed, voice tense,
"She's fine now, right? N-No need to cry, don't talk about last night." King forced a trembling grin, a nostalgic smile from long ago,
"Let's just forget about it."And, as if something told him so, Grant felt some sudden feeling of positivity rush through him. It was kind of like someone was embracing him. Grant blinked, trying to understand what just happened because, a minute ago, his mind was in a fading light. He was seeing the sight of Dani all bloody, but now, he simply saw her(along with his other siblings) around him in his room. In the next moment, Grant's sight then came back to the sight of King.
"I, uh — alright," that's all that Grant could say. He still was confused on what just happened, but a large part of him just went with it.
When Grant's eyes seemed to focus on King's face, he noticed that he was bleeding from the nose.
"Are you alright, King? You're bleeding. Do you want me to get the nurse?" Grant asked worryingly.
"No, no I'm fine." King rose an uneven arm to rub at his face, smearing blood across his forearm and cheek messily. Blinking away any lasting wetness, King let out a heavy sigh and settled back into the warmth of his bed, staring at Grant from below his eyelashes. Topics were lost to his concussion, swept away with thoughtless clouds of discomfort and pain. Reaching for something,
anything to walk about, King eventually sputtered out a cracked;
"How've you been lately?" And then sat back with worried, expectant eyes.
Somehow Grant doubted that King was as fine as he said he was, but he wouldn't push it.
"I don't know, I guess I'm doing alright for the most part." Grant said, shrugging lightly.
"And everything's okay with you... Dad?" King winced briefly at past memories, sniffling once,
"Don't answer that if you don't want to. in case he's still the same as back then." King smiled briefly, painfully, and then he allowed his head to loll to the side, waves of sleepiness threatening to shut him out from the conversation again.
"It's alright, I don't mind." Grant said, smiling.
"Besides, I don't think he's really all that thrilled with me currently," he said, a sort of smug chuckle escaping his mouth, which was odd since Grant didn't usually laugh that way. If anything, he always did so with a bit of nervousness in his.
"I'd think so, the bastard." King grinned sleepily,
"You, Grant, I'm glad you're doing okay. We don't really talk anymore, huh?" Memories of middle school days filled his mind suddenly, heavy, hazy images. Nostalgic events when they were young and friendlier. King groaned suddenly, eyes squeezing shut as agony rattled his skull back to dim blankness, and after a moment he cracked his eyes open again and awaited Grant's recollection.
"Not since before high school started," Grant said with slight disappointment in his voice.
"But I get it. When we all entered freshman year, we just drifted into different circles. I don't blame you for keeping regular contact." Through his obvious disappointment, Grant put on a genuine smile for King.
"Sorry, Grant-- Just, sorry." King sighed out an apology, lip trembling slightly,
"I wasn't a very good... Friend..." His voice lagged, eyes drooped, but quickly he pushed himself awake and turned his sad gaze towards Grant. The disappointment pouring off the boy was suffocating, but really, King couldn't help but feel responsible.
"Sorry..." He repeated.
"You don't have to apologize.." Grant said, looking at King
"I think it was all meant to be. I mean we have to go through some bumps in the road to find our way on the right track, right?" He said, kind of laughing. He probably sounded like someone reciting a fortune cookie that one would get from a Chinese Food take-out order.
"That's... Pretty gay, ya know?" King laughed, winced, then laughed again, eyebrows upturned despite his soft smile. Sitting back, he glanced towards the door, and then back towards Grant, feeling like
something had been rekindled. It was a faint tug, but he swore he felt a bit more comfortable with the boy. Coughing once, King nodded lazily towards a passing nurse.
"We gotta... Catch up sometime, but now I just want sleep. Could you... Tell a nurse to get me some pain killers?" King wanted to raise his hands up in a pleading fashion, but they felt much too heavy to move, and instead he closed his eyes and smiled.
"Definitely." Grant smiled as he stood up from the chair he was sitting in. As he turned around, Grant looked out of King's room door, and saw a nurse pass by.
"Hey nurse!" Grant called out. The nurse stopped.
"It seems he's ready for some of that wonderful medicine now," Grant said, glancing over to King.
When the nurse came into the room, he began doing someone with some pills. They were probably those pain killers that King wanted. They would probably kick in rather quick, so Grant left the room and started to head back to his own. His legs weren't feeling stiff anymore.
Dion
AlteredTundra
