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#and chronically ill/hospitalized kids look up to him so much bc they wanna be as strong n cool as him!! they wanna be just
danidoesathing · 4 years
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ok! i’ve got the beginning and end written, it’s the middle that i need to write still, and it’s disgustingly sweet (i’ll post it to ao3 when i’ve got it finished bc i refuse to upload an unfinished work). also lemme know if you wanna read the ending as well, i wasn’t sure (it, too, is fluffy to hell and back)
Chapter 1:
Tim hated this. He hated it all. He’d rather be anywhere else in the world if he could, he could’ve been at home in his room with his laptop and Jay to talk to, but instead he was here with his mom who thought that she had any right to his life after leaving it for good (when he was twelve years old in a mental hospital too, who did that to their child?) and apparently forgot why she did, since she wouldn’t shut up. He’d had enough by the third hour of the “vacation” she took him to, and maybe if he hadn’t hated pity as much as he did, especially from the one that caused him to be pitied, he would have enjoyed the five-star hotel stay more, rather than feel like he was stuck in one long panic attack. He had managed to get away, though. He excused himself to the bathroom and felt grateful she had allowed him that much. He didn’t pay too much attention to the walk to the bathroom - he was trying to breathe in and out regularly and count to ten and pay attention to what he felt and all the other coping methods they taught him in the ten years he spent in the psych ward. He only realized there was someone else in the bathroom when the person (Tim assumed they were male, this was the men’s bathroom) sighed and firmly said, “I need more time, you can’t just ruin my entire life to gain a few weeks.” 
Brian had really been looking forward to the week he’d spend on his own - privacy and being alone weren’t really concepts that his family understood, and it had only gotten worse when the marriage proposal came. He’d tried to explain countless times that he was gay and that he would rather marry a frog than the fake, manipulative, entitled, rude, homophobic, racist, bitchy, but most importantly rich girl his parents had chosen for him to marry. As if he’d spend more than a minute within a five-mile radius of the piece of shit who wanted his money and his name, nothing else. When the call from his mother (Brian had stopped calling Carol Thomas his mom years ago, when she first started denying his issues and instead punished him for things he couldn’t control) came, he escaped to the bathroom since it was closer than his room, even though it was a lot less private. He didn’t think anything would go wrong, it wasn’t busy at the restaurant and even if someone entered, they would probably leave him alone to suffer in his misery. 
Brian hadn’t noticed the tired man who slunk into the bathroom at first, but when he saw the defeated slump of his shoulders and how utterly exhausted his eyes looked, his mother demanded that he come home the next day. He was pretty sure that everyone within the state could hear his sigh, and he thought about how he had gotten so sick of his own family that this was the case with every conversation he had with them. After his final compromise, he hung up without saying goodbye or waiting for Carol to respond. He knew what she would have said anyway, was far too familiar with the same conversation.
Tim hesitated, trying to figure out what to do - he couldn’t just leave and pretend he’d heard nothing, but he didn’t know this man, like, at all, so he also couldn’t try to comfort him or ask him what was wrong, because something clearly was. 
“Family problems,” Brian said into the silence, which was probably just a few seconds long but to Tim’s anxiety-ridden mind it was a lifetime of waiting. 
Tim smiled slightly. “I’m familiar.” 
Brian made an interested noise.  “You tell me about your life, and I tell you ‘bout mine, alright?” 
He understood what sort of deal this was, he was used to therapists and doctors and psychiatrists trying to take his brain apart and figure out what was wrong with him, to try to fix him (or that’s what they said, but he wasn’t sure there weren’t any other reasons behind their words). He despised being treated like a wild animal who could lose his mind and attack at any moment, with a single wrong move. They had treated him like he was dangerous and they pitied him for it, but Brian, he hadn’t looked scared of Tim. He hadn’t acted like he was trying to play it safe - rather, he had tried to make Tim feel comfortable by making himself as vulnerable as Tim was. He realized that he didn’t want to strangle Brian. I’ve spent so much time with psychologists that I’ve started acting like one, analyzing everything and everyone’s actions. Tim laughed internally at the thought. 
“Sure. I don’t have anything else to do anyway,” He responded, and told Brian about his current predicament with his mother, leaving out the parts in which he was at the hospital - he just said that he had a chronic illness and his mom had left him at 12 when he had been in the hospital for four years. 
“Shit, dude, that really sucks. She doesn’t have any right to your life now, you know that right?” Brian said at the end of Tim’s story, after a short pause to take it all in. “I’m going to sound like a whiny white asshole with my story now,” he added. Tim shook his head. “No, I don’t think so. After all, my life doesn’t invalidate yours,” he said, and the corners of Brian’s mouth twitched up. “I guess you’re right,” he said, and started explaining how his parents wanted him to marry a rich woman high up the ladder of status in the elite community he was born into, and Tim could feel himself tensing up and his mind starting to buzz. 
Brian noticed that the man in front of him was looking a little off, and stopped midway through describing that he only had the next week or so to find his soulmate, otherwise he’d be stuck with someone he hated for the rest of his life. “Hey, are you okay?” He asked softly, and the other man (Brian only just realized that he knew this man’s life story but not his name, and mentally reprimanded himself for not introducing himself and asking his name) took a shuddering breath. 
“Yeah, I’m fine,” he said, and Brian didn’t call him out on his bullshit. “Please continue, I’m way too invested in your life now.” He smiled, and Brian laughed. 
“Alright, but first, you have to tell me your name because I’ve realized we haven’t introduced ourselves and it’s killing me,” Brian said.
“My name’s Tim Wright.”
“Brian Thomas. Nice to meet you, I guess,” Tim rolled his eyes at Brian’s antics, but Brian knew he was amused, as evidenced by Tim’s light snort. Tim told him to get on with the story, (a bit like a whining child, but in a good way, Brian thought) and he responded with, “Okay, okay, I’ll get to it then.”
“There isn’t much left,” Brian warned. When Tim nodded his understanding, he continued from where he had stopped, and when he had finished talking about his current fucked-up situation, the other man had been shocked into silence. 
“You have to be kidding me,” he finally said. “There’s no way that that shit’s real and actually happening to you.” 
Brian shook his head and sighed. “I wish I was, but nope! My parents are just assholes who are outta their minds.” 
Tim thought for a second - he had to do something, but he didn’t know what he could to be able to help. He chewed on his lip, and after a minute or so, had an idea that he thought could possibly work. 
“How about we pretend that we’re soulmates?” he asked Brian, who looked taken aback but also as if he was considering Tim’s proposition. Tim was about to backtrack and apologize, maybe say something along the lines of or we can just not do that if you don’t want to I’m sorry for bringing it up you must think I’m so creepy and weird and can we just ignore this ever happened?  
But then Brian nodded thoughtfully, and said, “Actually, I can imagine how that would work. I’d call my parents and tell them that I’ve already found my soulmate and that I want to spend more time with you, and you’d talk to them in order to convince them further if they don’t believe me. I already know I’m gay, so my soulmate is definitely a man, so your voice being a guy’s wouldn’t be a problem and when I find my actual soulmate, if they sound different to you, we could just blame it on the phone being weird through the call. We could say that we wanna spend a few weeks getting to know each other before I leave, and during that time I could find my real soulmate. If I can’t, then we can come up with scenarios in which I’d need to stay longer until I do. Yeah, actually, this is a really good idea, Tim.” 
“Uh, really? I mean, thanks,” Tim said, still reeling from Brian’s rambling. “How are we going to do this? Do you like, I don’t know, wanna call your parents and I can talk to them?”
“Yeah, sure, give me a sec,” Brian fished in his pocket for his phone and Tim internally panicked while Brian called his mother. He would have had a panic attack, but before he could truly get worked up, Brian was already talking. 
“Hey mother, guess what happened - no, you’ll never guess - I found my soulmate! And he’s a guy like I said he would be! Oh, you don’t want my soulmate to be a man? Well, unfortunately, apparently the universe doesn’t share your homophobic views - oh come on, would I lie about this? You don’t believe me? Fine, I guess I’ll have to prove it. Mother, meet Tim.”
“Hello Mrs. Thomas, it’s nice to meet you,” Tim said, and Brian couldn’t shake the feeling that something bad was going to happen, and he didn’t want Tim to be there for it. He hated his parents, and the thought of them hurting Tim in any way was unbearable. Wait, what? I met him like 15 minutes ago, why do I care so much about him? He was going to figure out his feelings regarding Tim, but then he saw how he was getting anxious, so he decided to intervene now and unpack his shit later. 
Grabbing the phone from Tim, he told his parents that he and Tim wanted to get to know each other by staying at the hotel for longer, and when they objected, he simply reminded them that he was his own person and as an adult, he could do whatever the fuck he wanted to do, slowly getting more pissed off with every word that his parents said. Knowing that he would snap if he listened to more of their bullshit, he hung up after letting them know he would stay for a few more weeks in Ohio, though probably in a motel (he wasn’t rich enough to spend weeks at a five-star hotel). He looked at Tim. “Are you okay? You looked pretty freaked out there, and I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have put that much pressure on-”
“No, no, you’re fine. I guess I just felt overwhelmed, sort of? I don’t really know why I felt so anxious, but I’ve been dealing with anxiety for, like, 16 years. I should be used to it by now,“ Tim assured Brian. "Plus, it worked, didn’t it? they weren’t happy, but they seem to have believed us, so you can stay for a few more weeks and try to find your soulmate. Actually, why are you searching in Ohio and not Alabama anyway? Aside from the obvious reason, of course.” he added. 
Brian frowned. “I don’t really know, I guess this just felt closer to my soulmate. You know how your mark is supposed to like, tingle and shit?” Tim nodded, and Brian continued. “Yeah, I guess that’s why - Ohio feels like I’m closer to finding them than in Alabama." 
"Yeah, I think I get it. It feels the same for me too, if I think about it - my mark feels weird and that’s never happened before, so I must be doing something right,” Tim said after thinking for a while, and Brian laughed.
“Hey, who knows, maybe we’ll find our soulmates in here, and maybe we’ll find them at around the same time - that would be so cool! You know, I think I rather like you, Tim. I’d like to be friends - if you wanna, of course,” Brian said, and Tim answered with an affirmative. 
“Well, you’re pretty cool yourself Brian Thomas, and I would indeed like to be friends, but I really gotta go. Emily’s probably going out of her mind, wondering where her son she found after 12 years went to,” Tim joked, and they exchanged numbers. 
“ So, I still have a week or so left, which means I’ll probably see you around the hotel and shit. Bye Tim,” Brian called as he left the bathroom, and Tim waved back before following.
  Chapter 2:
Brian walked back to his room, since he had already finished his dinner, and contemplated the last hour. He had gone from having to fight his parents for less than a week to find his soulmate to being given permission (well, sort of. Brian thought it counted if they had always encouraged him to do something until it actually got to the point in which said thing would be applicable - they couldn’t just change their minds because they were homophobic assholes) for almost a month doing whatever he wanted wherever he wanted to. 
Of course, there was also Tim. He didn’t quite understand why he liked Tim already, or why Tim had helped him, but he knew that he didn’t regret it at all. Plus, they were friends now, and he felt that they would only get closer with time. He’d arrived at his room by this point, and after entering, he decided that he wouldn’t get anything else done today. Within minutes he was in bed - no point pretending to be functional when there was nobody around to see it, and plus, he was very sleep-deprived and he should probably go to sleep to fix that. 
Since he’d been lying still with his eyes closed for over an hour, Brian believed that he was justified in going on his phone. However, once he opened his phone, he realized that he didn’t really have anything to do, and in a moment of boredom and apathy for his future, he decided to text Tim.
  savingprivatebrian [23:42]: Hey tim
  savingprivatebrian [23:42]: it’s me brian
  savingprivatebrian [23:42]: if you couldn’t tell
  He was surprised to see that Tim was online, and soon enough, he saw Tim’s typing bubble pop up.
  Tim [23:44]: yeah 
Tim [23:44]: i saved your number
  Tim [23:44]: anyway whats up
  Brian smiled because of course Tim was awake, he totally seemed like the type of person who’s constantly tired and sleep-deprived.
  savingprivatebrian [23:44]: nothing
  savingprivatebrian [23:45]: i just couldnt sleep
  Tim [23:45]: i get that
Tim [23:46]: insomnias a bitch
  savingprivatebrian [23:46]: yep
savingprivatebrian [23:47]: so do you wanna just talk until we can sleep
  Tim [23:47]: please
He laughed at Tim’s response, and settled comfortably into his nest of pillows (perks of five-star hotels) to talk to Tim.
In the end, they both agreed to go to sleep at around 3:30 in the morning, after having texted for almost four hours. If he wasn’t so sleepy, he might’ve wondered why conversation was so easy when he was talking to Tim when he normally wouldn’t be able to even form sentences with people he knew as little as he knew Tim. Instead, though, he placed his phone on the bedside drawer, rolled over, and fell asleep within minutes, still with a little smile playing on his lips.
  Chapter 3:
  A week later, Tim’s mother left to go back to work, and Tim promised her that he’d come to visit every now and then. He was surprised to find that he was planning to keep that promise - after his mom explained her reasons, he learned that she hadn’t left because she wanted to, only because she had to. Her life had been easier without him, and that realization hurt. He had held her back her entire life, and he really couldn’t blame her for having done whatever she could to get rid of the reason she couldn’t be happy. He was over it, though. He had had more than a decade to come to terms with the fact that everyone he cared about would leave him eventually, when they realized that he would always be problematic, that he would never get better, and that he would always drag them down. Why would anyone stay with that?
Then came was Brian. Tim knew that he was falling, falling hard, but he also knew that Brian didn’t feel the same - they both wanted to find their soulmates, and even if Brian did like someone as fucked up as Tim, when he found his soulmate, he’d just leave. 
He had told Brian about his mom and how he felt, as well as why he was in a hospital for 10 years, and Brian’s only reaction was to hug him (they didn’t notice that no parts of their skin had made contact, Tim would later realize) and telling him that he’d never leave. That was a bigger deal than Brian realized, and he had broken down crying, which caused Brian to start crying too. They had spent about 2 hours talking about their problems, and Tim left Brian’s room feeling better than he had for over a month. They had only been friends for a few days at that point, but there was no denying that they had a connection - they were already so, so close (and if Tim wanted them to be even closer, well, no-one had to know). 
Jay had called, on the second day. He had asked what was going on and why the hell Tim hadn’t texted or called him - rightfully so, since they usually talked daily and it had been more than 2 days with nothing. Tim had ranted about Brian and his mom, but it had taken Jay about ten minutes into Tim’s monologue to point out that he was totally crushing on Brian, and Tim had found himself unable to argue. After talking for over an hour, Jay had hung up with a threat to Tim if he didn’t text him everything that happened. 
Tim thought back to that conversation many times over the following days - he could trust Jay to call him out on his bullshit and help him work through it, and he knew Jay could do the same. Whenever his anxiety convinced him that they simply tolerated his presence and actually hated him, Tim would text Jay (and now Brian) and Jay would not stop texting him until Tim had no doubt left about their friendship.
On his last day in the hotel, a week after he arrived and met Brian, he had breakfast with Brian to talk about what they were going to do, since this was Brian’s last day too. 
“Over here,” Brian called out as Tim walked into the restaurant in the hotel, from which they got free breakfast. 
“Hey,” Tim said when he sat down. “You wanna go get some food? I’m starving.”
“Yeah, sure. Just a second,” Brian put his stuff on the extra chair, and connected his phone to a charger. “My battery’s at 12 percent,” he explained at Tim’s questioning look.
“Alright, let’s go. What do you wanna get?” Brian asked when they entered the self-service area.
“Eggs and bacon first, so they cook, but I’ll look around anyway to see what’s there,” Tim answered while grabbing a plate.
“Why didn’t you get a fork and knife too?”
“Because I’ll drop them, Brian.” 
“Ha, weak.”
“Do you really want to try me?” 
“Geez, you’re just so scary.”
“I know.” 
They had reached the omelette station, and they waited for their orders to be cooked in comfortable silence, which was new to both of them. Shaking his head, Tim decided to ignore his lack of friends while he was so happy and had the chance to spend time with someone who not only could tolerate him, but also wanted to befriend him. 
He was brought back to reality by Brian nudging him, and snapped his eyes onto Brian in alarm, quickly realizing there was no threat, there was just his food (paranoia had become a reflex at this point, and he wasn’t sure whether he was supposed to laugh or cry because of it). 
Throughout breakfast, Tim found his eyes lingering more and more on Brian’s lips when all social and conversational norms stated that his gaze should be on his eyes or overall figure to watch his body language and hand gestures, so like everyone else who’s ever been in this situation, he decided, okay, we’re going to put these feelings of attraction in a box, now close it, and yep! Push it as far away from coherent thought as you can, right up against the childhood trauma, self-hatred, insecurity, and look! It’s the box of fear of abandonment. Now, we don’t think about these, so surely this’ll be safe here. After cataloging everything into the dark basement of his mind, buried deep under everything else and covered in the mental equivalent of cobwebs and a layer of dust over everything, he simply looked away from Brian’s mouth and focused on literally any other part of his body, like, like- his eyes! That would surely work, wouldn’t it? You can’t possibly mess eye contact up, even though you’re, well, you, Tim. Don’t fuck this up with your social incompetence.
Yeah, no. After only a few minutes of trying to draw his attention away from what Brian would taste like, he found out that eyes are just as dangerous as lips, since he found that it was easier than it should be to get lost in Brian’s warm hazel eyes. He never realized that there were rings of different colours, and with the light framing his face, he looked otherworldly, like he didn’t belong to planet Earth or at least had some kind of magic coursing through his veins, just like warmth was coursing through Tim’s as he drowned in the ocean of brown and green filling Brian’s eye sockets. Because he was drowning, drowning, drowning as he forgot to breathe, move, do anything at all in the haze that came over him.
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lovelyparkers · 4 years
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sickly lovely cuddles
summary: peter visits you in the hospital! writing this for my fellow sick kids out there bc i'm in the hospital a lot and need this. to any of my chronically ill babes out there, i love u, keep fighting! and i love everyone!
warnings: hospitals, mentions of blood and needles, gtubes, ox tubes, overall fluff 1.2k+ words
peter was currently in the elevator headed to your floor in a NYC children's hospital. it was a bit far from his apartment in queens, but he would go miles to see you, especially when you were sicker than normal.
he carried a bouquet of fake flowers he got from a craft shop, because he knew real ones affected your allergies and ability to breathe. he wanted you to be happy and see that beautiful smile of yours, even if it was from fake flowers. and he even stopped in the cafeteria to get you and him cups of hot chocolate, a great replacement for your beloved coffee you oh so missed. (yes, us heart failure patients cannot even have decaf coffee! ever since my several heart disease diagnosis, i have left coffee behind and was given a hot chocolate replacement)
once he got off the elevator, he smiled, saying hi to the nurses at the nurse station and heading to your room. peter was obviously a frequented visitor and many nurses and a few doctors knew him by name.
upon reaching your door, he looked in the window to see you laying in bed watching tv. you had comfy pyjamas on and spider-man socks peter got you a few weeks ago. you had bags under your eyes and bruises on your arms from needle upon needle and IVs. you also had a grey beanie on, one that was peter's that he left here accidentally. it looked great on you.
he tapped the door with his foot to get your attention. you turned your head over slowly, expecting your nurse, but immediately peeled up when you saw peter. you smiled and waved for him to come in. he pushed the door open and set the flowers and hot cocoa on your tray table. (bruh i've run a tray table over my foot ONE TOO MANY TIMES)
"hi y/n/n," he said, calling you your favorite nickname.
"hi peter!" you said, reaching out to hug him.
he embraced you in a long and warm hug before smiling and motioned to your table, "i got you some goodies!"
"ooo what did ya get me?"
he picked up the fake flowers first, handing the neat bouquet to you.
"they are fake of course, because, ya know," he motioned to your nasal cannula, "your allergies make you breathe bad."
you laughed, adjusting the tube behind your ear, "yes, yes they do."
"andddd," he began before picking up the hot cocoa, "hot cocoa!"
"yay! gimme!"
he handed you a cup, brushing your fingers in the process.
"thank you peter," you said before taking a sip, "gosh this hospital hot chocolate hits different."
"of course, anything for you."
you smiled, both sipping your drinks.
"so, i'm gonna ask the dreaded question because that's who i am, how are you feeling today? physically? mentally? emotionally?"
you sighed, "well i had severe hypotension at 2 am and have been awake since, getting filled with meds while almost passing out isn't fun. oh and my iv is being annoying and keeps getting in the way as usual."
you pointed to the sticker and the long tube that was all over your room.
"geez i'm sorry," peter said sincerely.
"but hey," you lifted up your shirt a little bit to show your stomach, "g tube is removed!"
"yay!" peter literally screamed causing you to laugh. he knew how much you hated that darn g tube.
"but mentally and emotionally i'm doing...okay. better now that you're here."
"i'm glad," he smiled.
you took a big gulp of your steaming cocoa then started having a coughing attack because sometimes you forget to breathe when drinking.
peter stood up, rubbing your back, "you okay?"
you finished coughing and cleared your throat, giving him a thumbs up.
"yes now get in bed and cuddle with me," you demanded and adjusted the bed to yours and his liking.
"okay."
peter crawled into bed with you after kicking off his sneakers.
"watch out for my oxygen, don't wanna sit on it and make me stop breathing."
"oh my gosh," peter said shocked, he was always careful, "dont say stuff like that! you're concerning me."
you laughed, "i'm joking i'm joking! it wasn't even near your butt anyways."
you cuddled up into peter's side and watched tv together for awhile. he eventually put his arm around you which caused your heart rate to soar, sending a loud sound from your monitor and in game your nurse.
"oh gosh," you groaned.
"you okay y/n-" your nurse asked before seeing you and peter, "ooo sorry kids, hi peter."
"hi meg."
"your heart rate went up, just checking in."
"i'm fine meg, thanks," you said blushing and gesturing over to peter cuddled up with you.
"ah, i see. call me if you need me."
you waved.
peter spent the rest of the day with you, migrating from your room to the craft area, to the outside lookout. he pushed you around in a wheelchair when you felt too tired or weak. he fixed your sweater when it got caught around a tube or two. he laughed with you. and he hugged you. a lot. it seemed like stuff someone who loved you did, not just a best friend. you wondered if he liked you back. but how could he like a sick kid? you were gonna be in the hospital for awhile. he couldn't get used to that.
but oh, how he could and would. because he loved you. sick kid or not.
time was ticking towards ten pm. the time they usually kicked peter out even though visiting hours ended at eight pm. he rubbed your arm and fixed your beanie before getting out of bed.
you grabbed onto his arm, "stay?"
peter sighed and smiled sadly, "you know i cant. they kick me out at ten."
"lemme just ask meg, she won't mind if-"
"y/n, it's okay. i'll be back first thing in the morning."
"you will?"
"of course i will," he smiled, causing you to grin.
you yawned sleepily. you only stayed up this late when peter was here. usually you'd be out like a light by 7:30 or 8. but you managed when he was around.
you were still holding his hand at this point, his thumb rubbing across yours.
"love you," you whispered.
"i love you too," he whispered back.
he hesitated, then kissed you softly on the cheek.
"see you in the morning y/n/n."
"see you, pete."
he let go of your hand walking to the door before using some hand sanitizer and smiling at you.
"bye."
you smiled at him, blushing, while he left. he closed the door behind him. he peeked thru the little window on the door and blew you a kiss. you caught it and laughed. he laughed too. you waved again, and he walked away.
minutes later, you were out like a light, dreaming about that boy.
meanwhile, peter was on the phone with may, "yeah i'm on my way home...i'll be careful...ha yeah, yeah i do. i really love her."
hi guys hope u enjoyed! even my non sick ones. hope you're all healthy and happy. i love u all. know i'm here for u and don't hesitate to dm me if u need anything <3 love, your fave spoonie, juli
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