Chapter Text
Waking up was a very slow and very difficult process. Several times Viktor was aware that he was awake and then suddenly he wasn't. He was laughing with Sevika and then he wasn't, the room was spinning and then it wasn't, and then everything got confusing.
The next thing he was aware of was a light sensation in his hair, possibly fingers brushing through in a rather soothing gesture, and everything felt warm and tingly like he was buzzing with electricity but there was also a cold pressure on his forehead that helped him to feel less like he would just drift away and disappear forever.
Someone was speaking to him, he knew because they'd said his name and he'd nearly missed it. They were asking him questions and he answered them on autopilot without even processing them. His throat stung like an open wound and he could taste vomit and blood when he spoke but he vaguely acknowledged that someone was telling him to rest so he stopped trying to force his way through sludge to think and gave in.
The next time he was awake was quite a bit clearer. He had to fight to get his eyes open and to keep them that way and that alone was exhausting but he eventually managed. His vision was still blurry with sleep but with a bit of effort, he could make out the person in front of him. "Singed...?" He tried to say but it came out as more of a croak than an actual word.
It got the same results though as the man seemed to notice he was awake and a hand began running through his hair once again. He was able to make the brief connection that it had probably been Singed speaking to him earlier.
"Hello, Viktor. How are you feeling?" He asked softly. Viktor was grateful he kept his voice quiet since right now every little sound in the room sounded as if they were on maximum volume, drilling straight into his head.
It took him a long moment to process the question and to remember what it meant and it took him even longer to compose an answer but Singed waited patiently for him to do so and allowed him all the time he needed.
His entire body ached like he'd just run a marathon, his bad leg, in particular, seemed to have cramped and the pain was a lot worse than usual, his back twinged at the slightest movements, thinking felt like an arduous task, even just for simple things and his throat felt as if he'd swallowed blades. "Sore..." was the answer he came back with in the end.
"I see." Singed hummed, "Where does it hurt?"
"Everywhere." Felt like the most accurate response. The Doctor nodded with a sad sigh as if anticipating this result.
Viktor reached forward blindly, just looking for something to hold onto to keep himself present and quickly, a cold hand came to find his own with a small, comforting squeeze.
"You had a seizure, Viktor. Do you remember that?" Singed asked gently.
He didn't. Not exactly. He could remember a strange feeling like he wanted to be sick but not quite and he remembered a burning hot, tingly sensation but that was about it. He tried to envision what he should be remembering, the Doctor had mentioned seizures before but neither of them had been too bothered about them. Every now and again he'd blink and suddenly the Doctor was checking on him or stopping his head from hitting the table and then they'd just move on like it hadn't happened. Sometimes he'd feel tired or dizzy afterwards but it tended to wear off quickly. He'd never felt this bad after one before.
"Did I zone out?" He asked. That's how the Doctor had described them before. He'd said that sometimes he just went very still, like he was thinking about something, and sometimes he played with his hands or fiddled with things but wouldn't respond when spoken to, and sometimes he'd even go limp and the Doctor would have to grab him before he either fell or slammed his head into the desk.
"Not quite," Singed replied with a little awkwardness. "You had a different type of seizure this time, called a tonic-clonic seizure. You started convulsing and you gave Sevika quite the fright."
"Sevika..." He repeated quietly, trying to remember why she felt significant right now. She'd been beside him, he remembered that, and then he remembered feeling weird and wanting to go find the Doctor. His thoughts had been all muddled up and he remembered that he really hadn't wanted her to see it happen. He hadn't wanted her to worry, or worse, pity him.
"Yes, she alerted the rest of us and she stayed until you stopped seizing. She seemed very worried."
Well, so much for not wanting her to see it.
"We're not in the lab..." Viktor muttered, finally noticing that their surroundings were much brighter and warmer than usual.
"Yes, we're still at The Last Drop. Vander said that you could rest here until you're feeling better. You'd fallen asleep after the seizure and I worried that if I carried you back to the cave and you had another, I might have dropped you." Singed admitted.
That was probably for the best. Though Viktor really could have used a hug from Rio right now, he'd rather not crack his skull open on the rocks and the idea of moving anywhere right now when his limbs felt like lead was not particularly appealing.
"What time is it?" He decided to ask. The last time he'd checked a clock it had been about five in the evening but he knew some time had definitely passed since then.
Singed took his hand away for a moment, much to Viktor's dismay, to check his watch before returning it to its place, slotted in against the boy's. "It's around quarter past nine."
His mother would probably be at least a little worried but she'd learned by now that if he wasn't home he was with the Doctor and she'd grown to trust that the man would keep him safe. But even still, he'd promised to try and be back before it got late...
Seeming to sense his anxiety, the Doctor spoke up. "I sent Silco to go tell your mother where you are. I told him not to mention what happened, just that you were staying here tonight with Sevika."
Viktor nodded. He'd rather his mother not know right now until he at least sorted out his thoughts enough to compose a story that didn't sound as bad as what had actually happened. People had a tendency to freak out about these sorts of things, especially parents, and he'd rather not deal with the stress that came with it.
"Sevika's still here?" He asked, drifting back to that point.
"Yes, Vander says she fell asleep at the bar. She probably just wants to ensure that you're alright, she was rather panicked earlier." Singed explained.
Viktor tried to imagine that, tried to imagine Sevika worrying over him. It didn't seem right. He knew that somewhere deep down, she probably did care about him considering how much she did for him but the idea of her visibly showing that seemed so bizarre. He couldn't help but feel a little guilty that he'd scared her to that extent.
"Why don't you rest some more?" Singed suggested, brushing a hand through his hair. "You still look exhausted."
He still felt it too. And now that he had a better grasp of what was happening and what had happened, he felt a little more comfortable with the idea of going back to sleep. It did sound like a good and very appealing idea.
"Alright..." He relented and let his eyes slip shut again. The feeling of gentle fingers in his hair and the weight of another hand in his was enough for him to relax and fall asleep.
The next time he woke was a lot more normal. He could think a lot better now and the ache in his muscles had lessened at least a bit. The room around him was now drenched in darkness but he could just make out the Doctor asleep on the chair beside him.
Very carefully, Viktor slid his hand out from beneath the Doctor's and shifted to sit up, swinging his legs over the side of the couch he'd been lying on and looking around for his cane. Luckily, it seemed someone had brought it down and he found it leaned up against the back of the couch after minimal searching. He grabbed it and used it to get to his feet, trying to keep his weight off his bad leg as much as possible as it was still very painful. He'd probably strained it while seizing, he assumed.
The stairs were a horrible, not very fun task. It took him at the very least five minutes to get up as he tried various ways of climbing them without hurting his leg any more than he already had. He managed eventually though and decided he never wished to do it again.
The main area of the bar was dark but a little lighter than downstairs, small amounts of light managing to seep in through the windows and reflecting off the many glasses lining the shelves. Like Singed had said, Sevika was sitting in her usual seat with her head resting on the bar, fast asleep.
Climbing up into the tall bar stools was still a bit difficult, especially when everything in his body hurt, but Viktor had gotten the hang of swinging himself up with the help of his cane by now so it only took a few attempts for him to get it right.
Once in his usual seat, he tapped Sevika on the arm and waited for her to wake up. She didn't. So he tapped her again! And she still didn't. So he gave her shoulder a big nudge. And still, there was nothing. So he slapped the back of her head as hard as he could.
And she woke up!
"What the fuck..." She grumbled, lifting her head off the bar as if it weighed like lead. She rubbed her eyes with a big yawn before finally realising who had woken her. "Oh shit. Viktor! Shouldn't you be sleeping?"
"I'm not tired. I've been sleeping for hours." He replied, gesturing up at the clock Vander had put up the other week which was not proudly displaying the fact that it was four in the morning.
"I guess that makes sense." Sevika sighed, resting her head in her hand. Well, if he wasn't tired she at least seemed to be, though she didn't mention it. "Um... How do you feel?"
Sevika being nice without trying to cover it up with teasing was very strange and oddly enough made Viktor miss when she was mean to him.
"Better. Everything sort of hurts, though. Especially my leg." He shrugged.
"Yeah, sorry about that." Sevika cringed. "I tried to catch you when you fell but your leg hit the floor pretty hard."
"It's fine." Viktor brushed her off, "It's not as if it's your fault that I had the seizure."
"Doctor said you've had them before. How come you never mentioned it?" She asked, genuine concern in her words.
"I didn't really think I needed to. It wasn't something important enough to mention." He admitted.
She gave him a deadpan look. "So you'll talk my ear off about science but you don't think it's important to mention that you might suddenly drop to the floor and convulse. Right."
"When you put it like that..." He winced, feeling a little self-conscious all of a sudden. "I've never had one that bad before though. Usually, they're just small, Singed says I zone out or I look like I'm sleeping. I get a funny feeling before them too so I suppose I'd just assumed I'd be able to warn you if I ever needed to."
"Well, that turned out fucking fabulous, huh?" She scoffed, rolling her eyes and grabbing a drink from behind the bar, taking a swing straight from the bottle.
Yeah. Maybe not his smartest idea.
"Is that why you reached over to me? To warn me?" She questioned.
"Did I?" He asked, trying to recall the events just before the seizure. It was all a bit muddled up and murky.
"You reached your hand over. I thought you were just asking for another cookie but you didn't take it when I offered it. Just now I wondered if you might have been trying to warn me."
"Probably." He sighed, "I wasn't really thinking straight. For some reason, I was more fixated on making sure you didn't notice something was wrong than actually keeping myself safe. But maybe at the last moment I realised I should have probably warned you."
"Really?" She turned to him, "Did you not want me knowing?"
"I guess I just—" He huffed and rested his chin on the bar like a sulking child. "I... didn't want you to see me differently. I didn't want you to treat me differently."
She frowned, flicking his forehead with her fingers. "Why'd I see you different?"
"Well... I don't know, you'd freak out or something. You'd ask a bunch of questions and make it a bigger deal than it actually is. I know it probably seems like a huge thing but I don't even remember it! I'd rather you just treat it like another thing, something to be mindful of but not obsesses over, like... my leg, that sort of thing."
"Do you not want me asking questions then? I don't have to." She offered with a light shrug.
"No you— you can ask about things just not... not all... I don't know how to put it into words."
"You just don't want me to freak out about it."
"Yeah..."
"I can't exactly make any promises, but I'll try. I guess." She decided. "It probably won't be as bad now that I know what's happening."
He hummed, crossing his arms on top of the bar and burying his face in them. "I didn't want you to think I'm weak..." He mumbled.
She paused for a moment, unsure of the right response so he stepped in to make it a little easier for her. "Well— I know I am weak, it was just... just the thought of you knowing there was yet another thing wrong with me, I... I just—" He cut himself off with a frustrated sigh. "I don't want it to make everything different. I know it is but I just want to pretend there's nothing wrong. I don't want everyone to be worried if my leg's bothering me or if I might get sick or if I might randomly drop and convulse. I don't want you to treat me differently."
"Well..." She said, dragging it out to give herself more time to compose an answer. "Those things don't change the fact you're still annoying. And a huge pain in the ass. And really fucking annoying, did I mention? I probably won't shout insults at you while you're seizing on the floor but for the most part, I'm not gonna be treating you any different. You're still a weird, annoying, know-it-all who hangs about in spooky caves with mad scientists and lizards."
That was probably the nicest insult she'd ever given him.
He lurched forward, nearly toppling out of his seat, and wrapped his arms tightly around her, burying his face in her shirt to hide the fact that his eyes were suddenly very watery. And for the first time ever, her hands settled on his back and she relaxed.
"I'll let you have it this time since you've had a real shit day, but next time you try this? It's not going to fly. Got it?"
He nodded very enthusiastically.
"Cool. And do you think you could teach me what to do if that ever happens again? Doesn't have to be right now because I think I'm too tired to remember anything. Just... at some point."
"Yeah... I can do that."
"Great. I'll pay you in more cookies then."