Chapter Text
“Alright kiddo, you ready?”
“Not a kid.”
“Sorry Keagan.”
Keagan grunted and grabbed his bag. To be honest, he was a little anxious- not that he’d ever show it, of course. He’d never been to whatever it was called before. Therapy? Yeah, he’d been a few times. But something as intensive as what’s-it’s-name? Nope. Never.
He blew out a shaky breath. May clapped a hand on his shoulder.
“You’ll be okay,” she assured him with a smile, “it’s like therapy, but with other people.”
Keagan rolled his eyes. “Group therapy, that’s the word you’re looking for.”
May snorted and slapped him upside the head. “Get going, you little twerp.”
“God, you’re using Tony-talk, please stop hanging around him so much.”
“Hey, someone has to make sure he’s not blowing you up, yeah?”
“Pepper can handle that.”
“And be a CEO at the same time?”
“Okay, fine.” Keagan rolled his eyes again.
May sighed playfully and pulled him into a hug. Keagan grunted.
“May-” he gritted, “you’re suffocating me.”
May squeezed him harder.
“May!”
She released him with a final pat on the back. He wheezed and sucked precious oxygen back into his lungs, bending over.
“Please don’t ever do that again,” he coughed.
“Can’t make any promises.”
Keagan sighed and stood up straight. “I’m going now.”
“Alright! Have fun, Keeg!”
He scrunched his nose up at the nickname. “Bye. See you at- what time does it end?”
“Six-thirty.”
“This thing is three hours?”
“Well, it is called Intensive Outpatient.”
“Yeah, getting the intensive thing now,” Keagan muttered, “okay, bye.”
“Bye!”
Keagan adjusted the strings of his drawstring bag over his shoulders and started making his way through the grass and up the old wooden stairs. He winced when the stairs creaked under his feet. How old was this place?
Silence. He’d kind of half-expected a sarcastic response from someone. He really was alone in front, then. That suited him just fine. Nothing to distract him from.. whatever it was he was going to do in Intensive Out-whatever.
He opened the door and stepped inside.
No one was there, which- to be fair- May had made sure they were at least ten minutes early. Of course no one was there.
He dropped himself down on one of the waiting chairs. There was some sort of loud whooshing noise. He looked around and saw a little speaker sitting just outside every door. He scrunched his face up. Were they white noise machines?
“Is someone out there?” a woman’s voice called from inside the room in front of him.
Keagan stiffened. A moment later, a chair rolled into view. A woman with short brown hair smiled at him.
“You can come in!” she invited, “you’re a bit early.”
Keagan shrugged and followed her instructions. He stood, a little awkward, at the entrance.
It was.. unusually nice, for a therapist’s office. Comfy chairs, a chalkboard, a window view of the garden outside, pillows and blankets, candles- the whole shebang. It looked more like someone’s living room than a medical office.
“You can sit anywhere you want,” she spoke again. Keagan startled and turned around. “You’re Peter, right?”
“Uh- yeah,” Keagan muttered.
She smiled. “It’s okay to be nervous. Everyone was at some point.”
Keagan nodded slowly. He set his bag down on the floor and sat down in the chair closest to the door. An easy way to get out if he needed to.
His hands felt like they were buzzing with energy. He drummed his fingers against his knees.
Maybe he should just leave. He didn’t really need this much therapy, he was fine in regular therapy. He’d probably be intruding anyways, like he always did. It’d be better to just leave now.
He went to stand up, but his legs refused to move.
Well- one session couldn’t hurt, he supposed.
He stopped trying.
He sat in anxious wait until one by one, people began to trickle in.
First, a girl with long brown hair who kind of half-smiled, half-grimaced at him. She didn’t say anything. She just sat down in a chair in one of the corners and hunched her shoulders up to her ears.
Next, a girl dressed completely in some kind of sports uniform, complete with knee-length socks and a high ponytail. She nodded in his direction and said “oh hey, new guy,” then started a conversation with the first girl.
Third, a feminine-looking guy with round glasses and beaded bracelets going all the way up to his elbows. Keagan gawked. He didn’t say anything, he just nodded in greeting and sat down.
Fourth, an androgynous yet somehow feminine-looking person with dark red hair and a flannel tied around their waist. They smiled at him and sat down across from Bracelet Guy.
After a few minutes with no more arrivals, the therapist spun her chair around and glanced at everyone in the room.
“Does anyone know if Violet or Sam are coming?” she asked, tapping her pen against her clipboard.
“Vi’s gonna be late,” Sports Girl said, not looking up from her phone. Keagan stared uncomprehendingly. Why was she on her phone? Wasn’t that against the rules or something?
His head was spinning.
“How about Sam?”
“He’s sick,” Red-Hair announced.
“Aw,” the therapist pouted, “alright then, we’ve got six today. Carmen, wanna start us off?”
“Uh, sure,” Quiet Girl said. Her leg was bouncing fiercely in place.
“Alright, you know the drill by now, yeah?”
“Mhm.” She thought for a moment. “I feel kinda depressed today? I dunno. I’ve been really anxious too. I don’t know why. I slept okay last night. School’s just stressful right now.”
“Mm,” the therapist hummed. “What was the high point of your day?”
“Um.. I guess lunch? I got to eat outside.”
Keagan tuned out the rest. He was kind of confused. Why hadn’t the therapist introduced him? Or introduced herself, for that matter? Were they just completely unaware that he was new or something?
There was a buzzing in the front of his head. Going by the annoying sense of over-excitement that came with the buzzing, it was Peter.
”Can I do intros? If she asks for one.”
’Sure. I’m not really feelin’ it today.”
”Mood, lmao.”
’Did you just say ‘lmao’ out loud?”
Peter ignored him. Typical.
Sports Girl was still on her phone, and the therapist hadn’t said anything, so he assumed it wasn’t against the rules. He took out his own phone and started scrolling through TikTok to pass the time.
“Peter?”
Keagan startled and nearly dropped his phone. The buzzing became more persistent, until he was thrown back into co-consciousness. Rude.
“Uh- yeah, that’s me.”
“Hello!”
“Hello.”
“Could you tell me how you’re feeling today?”
“Uh.. fine I guess? Nervous.”
“About?”
“Being here.”
“Oh that’s completely normal,” Sports Girl interrupted, “I was nervous too.”
“You don’t even wanna know how nervous I was,” Bracelet Guy added.
“Guys, remember- no talking during someone else’s check-in.”
“Sorry Amanda!”
“Oh yeah, sorry.”
Keagan sputtered. Amanda? They were on a first-name basis with this chick?
At the flash of annoyance from Peter, he shut up.
“Uh.. should I introduce myself or something?” Peter asked.
“You can if you want.”
“Okay, uh- I’m Peter. I’m fifteen. I use he/him pro-”
“Are you a sophomore?” Sports Girl interrupted.
“No..? I’m a freshman.”
She pumped her fist in the air. “YES! Someone younger than me!”
“Julia, quiet please.”
“Sorry Amanda!”
Keagan blatantly laughed, and Peter had to stifle his. “It’s fine. Anyways, I’m a freshman, and I use he/him pronouns. I’m uh.. I have this thing called DID, it’s short for Dissociative Identity Disorder? And it basically means there’s other people in my head. I’m not gonna like, murder you or anything. But it is a pretty big thing. You’ll probably meet some of the others at some point. And.. yeah.”
“That was really brave of you, thank you for sharing,” Amanda smiled, “do you go by Peter?”
“I do, yeah. The others have other names, though.”
“How many are there?” Julia asked, hands on her knees and leaning forward.
“No idea.”
”At least seventeen.”
“Oh, Keagan says there’s at least seventeen,” Peter repeated out loud. “Keagan’s the gatekeeper, by the way.”
”Wow, objectifying much?” Keagan drawled. ”I’m so much more than my role. You wound me, Peter.”
“Shut up,” Peter laughed under his breath. “Sorry, Keagan’s being annoying.”
“Will we get to meet Keagan?” Red-Head asked.
“Um.. eventually yeah, probably. I’m sure he’ll come out sometime.”
Keagan sat back and sighed. This was boring. He’d expected something adrenaline-inducing, but this was just Intake all over again. Boring.
Peter pinched his thigh. Keagan yelped- he hadn’t realized he still had feeling in the body.
’Don’t call therapy boring,’ he scolded.
”Don’t tell me what to do.”
’I will pinch you again. You want that?’
Keagan rolled his eyes.
Thankfully, Amanda took his silence as a cue to move on. Thank god.
Peter was just in the middle of explaining the ups and downs of his day when the door creaked open, and someone else walked in- a girl with shoulder-length brown hair and a purple sweater, with a brown bag swung lazily over one shoulder.
“Sorry I’m late,” she said with a cool smile.
Keagan’s chest constricted, and he slowly inched his way toward the front again.
Something wasn’t right. Something was horribly not right.
“Hey Vi! Peter was just in the middle of his introduction,” Amanda explained, gesturing for her to come in. Violet sat next to him and brushed the wrinkles out of her pants.
Keagan stared at her with hardened eyes.
“I’m Violet,” she said, “nice to meet you, Peter.”