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"Okay, I believe you now, you're not selfish, you stupid hero," Foei said, his leg bouncing, his hands clasped tightly.
"You hear me? I believe you," he said, forcing himself to stop his leg from bouncing but only ending up wringing his hands tighter instead.
"You've changed. I know I didn't want to see it but me refusing to see it didn't change the fact that you did. I will give you a chance now, okay?" Foei said, getting no response, not that he had expected one.
Foei buried his face in his hands, sucking in a deep breath to keep even more tears from falling. He didn't remember the last time he had cried this much.
At first he hadn't even cried, the shock too big, everything a blur. The only feelings he had felt had been panic, then numbness, then panic again.
"No internal bleeding but he has some bruised ribs", the doctor had said.
"Had to pull some glass out of him but there should be no lasting damages from the cuts apart from scarring. He was lucky it didn't cut through any nerves," the doctor had explained.
"As for the head wound…there is no swelling of the brain which is a good sign but it all depends on when he will wake up now. We can't tell when that will happen and we can really only assess if there will be any lasting damage from that one when he is awake."
That had been when Foei had started to cry.
When he had realized they didn't know when Captain would wake up let alone what state he would actually be in, he just fully broke down.
It had been with slight surprise when he had realized that the person that had immediately pulled him into a hug had been Phat. Not a moment later Cher had been there too, hugging them both, which had been the moment that he had realized that Phat had been crying too.
Foei had cried until he had felt completely drained and then insisted on seeing Captain.
And that was how he had ended up here. On a chair next to Captain's hospital bed, too afraid to reach out because Captain's nearest hand was almost completely bandaged up and Foei was afraid he would break like glass if he did touch him.
Why hadn't Foei moved? Why wasn't Foei laying in that damn hospital bed instead? Why had he frozen up?
Foei looked back up at Captain, checking that his chest was still rising and falling, like he had done what felt like a million times the past few…well…he wasn't sure anymore how much time had passed honestly.
There was a light knock at the door before it opened. Foei didn't even look away from Captain.
"I'm not leaving."
A sigh, distinctly Cher's.
"You need to sleep at some point, you know?" she said, stepping fully into the room and closing the door behind her.
Foei leaned back in his chair and patted the metal arm rests.
"This is perfectly comfortable if I need some rest," he said.
Cher gave him a look. Foei gave her a look back. Cher heaved a sigh.
"Alright, alright. Just be glad Phat is such a charmer and already talked the nurses into letting you stay. Even he predicted you wouldn't leave," she said and Foei almost cracked a smile, just that it didn't quite want to fully form.
"Thank you," he said and Cher waved him off.
"You should say that to Phat later," she said and walked over to Foei, putting a hand onto his shoulder.
"It will be okay, Foei," she said, sounding a bit like she was reassuring both of them.
"I didn't even answer him," he said and Cher made a confused noise.
"During our presentation he confessed again and basically asked me out, in front of everyone, and I just…Beauty's mom called and then I panicked because Beauty was gone and then he helped me search and even got everyone else to help and just…I never answered him," Foei said, staring at Captain, hoping maybe he would wake up now and tell Foei that he had been an ass for leaving him hanging like that.
Foei would take it. Foei would take anything at this point. Captain could wake up and insult him all he want, he didn't care, as long as Captain woke up.
Next to him, Cher sighed and patted his shoulder.
"You can answer him when he wakes up," she said.
"If he even wakes up," Foei said, unable to stop himself, because honestly Captain looked half dead right now.
A pinch to his shoulder had him jolting in his chair.
"Ouch! Sis, what was that for?!" he asked, reaching up and rubbing the spot she had pinched.
"You were being too pessimistic. He will wake up, got it," Cher said, raising an eyebrow at him and the sight of her red rimmed eyes made Foei snap his mouth shut instead of saying anything back, simply nodding at her.
There was another gentle knock on the door and Phat entered, Foei immediately spotting the pain on his face when he saw that Captain still wasn't awake.
"Hey guys," he said, walking over and putting his hands onto Cher's shoulders.
"I called us a taxi. The nurses agreed to let Foei stay but not more people, so we have to leave, but we can come back during visiting hours," Phat said and Cher gave a nod.
She walked over to the small wardrobe in the room and pulled out an extra blanket before walking over to Foei and draping it over his legs.
"If you need anything, you call, understood?" she said, making sure Foei was meeting her eyes.
"Yes sis," he answered and then turned his head to Phat.
"Thank you for convincing them to let me stay," he said and Phat gave him a small smile.
"It's no problem. I'm glad he won't be alone. His parents will first be able to be here sometime tomorrow probably. They're currently rushing back from their business trips. If he wakes up…"
"You will be the first one I call," Foei said and Phat gave him a small smile before walking over to the other side of the bed and carefully touching Captain's shoulder.
"Alright buddy, you better wake up soon and be better company for Foei, okay? I also don't think you need to build any more staircases, so you better really hurry up" Phat said, successfully confusing Foei and with one look at her, Cher as well.
"Alright, we better go now, the taxi must be waiting already," Phat said before anyone could question him about his words.
"We will be back when visiting hours start," Cher said, gently patting Foei's head.
"Alright, get some sleep guys," Foei said as Phat took Cher's hand and started to walk towards the door with her.
"We will. You try to as well, okay?" Cher said and Foei gave a nod, even though he didn't plan on sleeping at all.
When the door closed behind them he took a deep breath, before scooting his chair even closer to Captain's bed.
"You heard Phat. You better wake up soon," he said, leaning forward so he could rest his arms on the bed and his head on top of them.
His fingertips were only millimeters away from Captain's and he carefully stretched his hand some more to push his fingertips against Captain's.
"You don't have to build staircases anymore after all, whatever he meant with that," Foei added.
"And I will let you take me out on a date…fuck, I will take you out on a date," Foei said, sniffling a bit.
"We can go watch a movie and share popcorn and hold hands. Then we can go out to eat afterwards, candle light dinner and all, since you seem to like romantic and cheesy stuff," Foei added, thinking back to Captain's confession earlier today.
It had been kind of embarrassing to be put on the spot like that but apart from that Captain's confession had been honestly quite romantic. He hadn't sold out Foei's crush on Captain at all and with each sentence Foei had realized more and more that Captain was serious about him.
He had been hesitating for a moment because his brain had been yelling at him to be careful, that he still couldn't be sure Captain had changed, but the feeling deep in his heart had had his finger hovering over the 'accept' button pretty much immediately.
Because in the end, Captain had changed. He didn't flirt with other people apart from Foei anymore. He had started to listen to Foei more, to respect his boundaries better. When he realized that Foei really didn't want to deal with him at that moment he would back off. He was putting in the work.
Foei just wanted for him to wake up so he could make things right between them.
Foei just wanted to see his smile again and to hear him make jokes and listen to him laugh.
Foei just wanted him to wake up and be okay.
With a sigh, Foei looked up at Captain's face but he obviously still wasn't awake.
The monitor they had attached him to beeped steadily and his chest kept on rising and falling but Captain was still very much unconscious.
"Wake up soon, okay?" he whispered into the room, still getting no response.
Foei hadn't planned on sleeping but suddenly it was as if all energy had been drained from his body. He felt heavy, like he was made of lead.
Maybe he would just rest his eyes for a moment, that couldn't hurt, right?
He could vaguely feel Captain's pulse in his fingertips, the proof of him being alive he got like this being calming to him.
Before he really realized what was happening, sleep was already pulling him under.
-
The first thing Foei noticed when he woke up was his fingers now resting lightly tangled together with Captain's.
The second thing he realized was that the blanket Cher had given him yesterday was draped over his shoulders.
Based on the not too bad pain in his neck and back and the soft light filtering into the room he figured he had slept for a bit but not very long.
Captain still wasn't awake, as he could see even when lying down.
Once he lifted his head he expected to find Cher in the room but instead there was a stern looking woman sitting in a chair on the other side of the bed, tapping away on her phone.
When she noticed the movement, she looked up from the device and Foei automatically nervously swallowed.
That had to be Captain's mom.
"Uh…hi," he croaked out, first now realizing how dry his throat was.
Reluctantly he sat up fully, letting go of Captain's fingers so he could grab the water bottle Cher had placed next to his chair sometime yesterday and drink something.
"Hello, you must be Foei, I assume?" the woman asked, arching up a perfectly done eyebrow.
"Yes ma'am," he said, putting the water bottle back down and resisting the urge to grab Captain's hand again. He wasn't sure how much Captain's mom knew about what was going on between Captain and him after all.
"You didn't go home at all, did you?" she asked and Foei shook his head.
"No, I didn't want to leave him alone," he said. He wouldn't sell Captain out but he figured that making clear he cared about Captain couldn't hurt.
"That's fair. Thank you for staying by his side. From what I've heard from him, you're very important to him," she said and her eyes told Foei immediately that she saw right through everything.
Foei suddenly kind of felt like crying again. He was important to Captain…
"No problem," he choked out.
Before either of them could say anything else the door to the room opened and a man walked in with quick strides only to come to a sudden stop, seemingly both at the sight of Captain and the other occupants of the room.
"How is he?" he asked, walking around Foei's chair and taking a look at Captain, wincing when he got a closer look at the cuts on his face. That had to be Captain's dad then.
Foei vaguely knew the story about Captain's parents and how Phat and Cher had tied into all that. The last he had heard they weren't divorced yet but not on good terms either.
"The doctor said there's no change yet but they hope he will wake up within a day or two. If it takes longer we might have to be concerned but for now he told us not to worry," she said, clearly just as unhappy as Foei was about the lack of things they could do to help Captain.
"Alright, let's hope he wakes up soon then. Uh and you are?" Captain's dad asked.
Before he could say anything, Captain's mom was already speaking.
"He's Captain's best friend from uni. He was there when the accident happened," she said and Foei caught on that she had answered for him because Captain's dad had not quite caught onto the fact that his son's apparent rambling about Foei meant that he liked him.
"And they let you stay overnight?" he asked, eyebrows furrowing.
"They said it would be good to have a familiar face around when he woke up, so I volunteered," Foei said, briefly catching the eyes of Captain's mom and seeing her barely there smirk at his improvisation.
"Ah, okay…" Captain's dad said, clearly a bit unsure about what to do next.
"How about you grab us all some coffee and something to eat, dear," Captain's mom said to his father, the term of endearment clearly not meant with any endearment at all.
"Yes, yes that's a good idea. I will be back," Captain's dad said and left the room almost as quickly as he had walked into it.
"I apologize for the awkwardness. My husband and I are not on good terms at the moment, part of why Captain hasn't told him much about you yet," she said and Foei nodded in understanding.
"I know and I very much understand," he said before he could think it through and almost winced at her eyebrows going up.
"Uh I'm Cher's cousin and I basically live with her half the time and so I just…heard…about things. First once the case was done though obviously," he rushed to explain and Captain's mom smiled at him.
"Don't worry, I'm not mad," she said and Foei took a deep breath.
"I'm starting to see why my son likes you," she said and Foei almost choked on his own spit at how direct she was. He hadn't expected to get approval from her that quickly.
"He hasn't talked to his father much lately but he still talks to me. At first he was just rambling on about how annoying you were but there was a bit of admiration in there right from the start and then it just turned into more and more compliments," she explained, a half smile, half smirk on her face.
"He told me how he planned to confess again and how he wanted to ask you out. I figured you said yes?" she said, looking pointedly down at Captain's hand that Foei had been carefully holding while asleep.
Foei swallowed nervously.
"I wanted to but then I got the call that our friend was missing and I just…ran out on him," he said with a wince. Captain's mom nodded in understanding.
"That's fair. You can tell him once he wakes up then," she said, leaning back in her chair and looking at her son like this was his cue to wake up. She gave a sigh when he didn't at the same time as Foei did.
They looked at each other for a moment and a small smile managed to cross Foei's face. Captain's mom was kind of scary but he felt like they could get along.
The door opened again and in walked not only Captain's dad this time but Cher and Phat as well. The hospital room was starting to feel a little crowded this way so Foei moved his chair up to sit closer to the head of the bed to give everyone some space.
Cher walked over to him and patted his shoulder before handing him a croissant wrapped in a napkin.
"Eat," she said with a pointed look, fully aware that Foei hadn't eaten in the past who knew how many hours.
"Alright sis," Foei said and took the food from her. It tasted kind of bland when he bit into it but he made himself chew and swallow and take another bite. He was a little afraid Cher would otherwise physically remove him from the room if he didn't eat.
"Hey buddy, still not awake huh," Phat said, walking past Captain's mom's chair and standing next to the bed.
"No change yet," Foei said after he had swallowed another bite of the food.
Captain's dad handed him a coffee, slight hesitation in his expression but Foei just thanked him and took it. He could do with something that would help him stay awake, as slowly exhaustion was starting to creep in despite his nap. Even the idea of leaving still didn't cross his mind though, he wanted to be there when Captain woke up.
When Foei was done eating and realized everyone was making kind of awkward conversation, he grabbed his phone.
He wasn't surprised to see a message from Beauty, asking about how Captain was.
She had been sent to the hospital with them yesterday but had been able to leave after the doctor had patched her up.
Foei shot her a quick text back, telling her that Captain still wasn't awake but that that wasn't cause for concern yet. He didn't want her to worry overly much. She had felt bad enough yesterday as it was.
With a silent sigh he locked his phone again and slipped it into his pocket.
When his eyes fell onto Captain again he saw that some hair had gotten into his face, probably from Phat cautiously ruffling it when he had arrived.
Without thinking he leaned forward and carefully fixed it, making sure to not actually touch Captain's head.
When he was satisfied the hair couldn't even bother an unconscious Captain, he leaned back in his chair again, happening to look up and right into Captain's dad's confused face.
Great.
Before he could question anything though, Phat was already pulling him into a conversation, sending Foei a subtle thumbs up.
He got his back. That was good.
The rest of the day passed kind of in a blur.
Everyone in the room occasionally left to get more food or to just walk a bit. With combined efforts of Phat and Cher and even Captain's mom, they convinced Foei to go outside to get some fresh air for a few minutes as well.
When he came back, Beauty and her mom were standing in front of the room and Foei pulled Beauty to the side for a moment as Captain's and Beauty's moms talked just outside the door.
"How are you?" he asked her, eyeing her still bandaged up shins in slight concern.
"I'm fine. I should ask how you are," she said and then gestured at his face.
"Did you get any sleep at all?" she asked and Foei coughed, realizing she had probably gestured at the shadows under his eyes.
"Not really, but that's okay," he said, immediately waving her off when he saw her eyebrows furrow in concern.
"I will sleep more at some point," he said and Beauty raised an eyebrow at him.
"You better, or I will tell on you to Cher," she said and Foei winced.
"You certainly know how to play your cards right," he said and Beauty smiled.
"I'm smart. I figure things out," she said and then her face kind of fell and Foei was reminded of all the mess that had happened before Captain had been hit by that car.
"Listen…I'm really sorry for keeping everything from you, okay? Cher said it was the best course of action and I went with it because I didn't want to cause you unnecessary pain. Not that that makes lying to you much better but I figured I should at least tell you my reason for doing it," he said, wringing his hands the whole time and Beauty gave a sigh.
"I've already forgiven you, you know?" she said and Foei blinked at her.
“You have?” he asked in slight disbelief as Beauty nodded.
“Yes I have. I’m still a little angry but I also understand why you and Cher lied to me. My parents lying to me hurt more, honestly. My mom knew about the entire situation for a while and never said a thing. She was even secretly already considering divorce but never thought to inform me about that,” Beauty explained and Foei put a hand onto her shoulder, squeezing lightly.
“I know it hurts. I hope everything will work out somehow,” Foei said and Beauty gave him a small smile.
“It will be okay somehow. At least now everyone is openly talking about it all. Honestly I’m more worried about our great hero waking up," she said, going for a joking tone but the worry and guilt in her voice was clear.
"Hey, hey, he will be okay. He has a thick skull with how stubborn he is, he will be fine," Foei said, getting a startled laugh out of Beauty as he had hoped he would.
"Maybe you should be a little nicer to the guy you like," she said and poked him in the arm and Foei could practically feel himself turn a little red.
"How did you know?" he asked, aware that at best Beauty could know about Captain's feelings for him because he had accidentally spilled about that. Beauty rolled her eyes.
"You're clearly unaware of the way you look at him when he isn't looking, I see. You also sometimes ramble about him but you always trail off into stuff like 'and then of course he thought his handsome face and acting cute would get him out of that but it didn't'", she said, giving Foei a look.
"I'm that obvious?" Foei asked, drawing his hand back so he could wrap his arms around himself instead, slightly mortified.
"To me at least you are but that's also thanks to me spending a good amount of time with both you and Captain. I don't think other people would notice as easily. If they don't catch one of your fond smiles at him that is," she said with a smirk and Foei reached out to gently poke her in the arm like she had done to him, making Beauty giggle.
"Alright you little demon. Wanna go say properly hello to Captain now?" he asked and there was a bit of worry in Beauty's face but she still gave a determined nod.
Beauty entered the room first and Foei saw her shoulders go tense but she still kept on walking, eventually sitting down in the chair Foei had occupied until he had gone to get some fresh air.
"Hey you," she said to Captain's unconscious form, wringing her hands.
Phat and Cher as well as Captain's dad seemed to take that as their cue to leave. Captain's and Beauty's mom were still by the door, talking, but everyone seemed to give Beauty some space, which Foei appreciated.
"Do you want to be alone for a moment?" he asked just in case and Beauty glared at him.
"Don't you dare leave right now," she said and Foei patted her shoulder.
"Don't worry, I'm not going anywhere," he said and Beauty turned back to Captain, taking a deep breath.
"Uhm first of all, thank you, for pushing me out of the way of that car, you saved my life," she said and then stopped for a moment, clearly trying not to cry.
"Secondly, you better hurry up and wake up okay? We all miss having you around and I think you have a good chance with Foei now so you better wake up and get better quick so you can take him out on a date, okay? I'm a little tired of seeing you two dance around each other. So if you wanna do something else for me, wake up, okay?" she asked, sniffling a little when Captain still didn't move.
"Uhm I don't know what else to…just…thank you, Captain," she said, carefully reaching out and patting his shoulder and Foei noticed that there were now tears sliding down her face.
Foei grabbed a tissue from the bedside table and handed it to her before crouching down a bit so he could hug her.
"Hey, he will be okay, he's got to be, mh? Ever saw something not work out for him?" Foei said, trying to sound more hopeful than he felt. At least it seemed to somewhat calm Beauty.
"That's true," she said with a sniffle as she moved to dab her tears away with the tissue, Foei drawing back to give her the space to do that.
"Thank you, Foei," she said, rubbing at her eye and Foei patted her shoulder again, his heart hurting.
"It's no problem and you better stop feeling guilty. He will be fine and he wouldn't want to see you sad," Foei said and Beauty gave a nod.
"Yeah that's true," she whispered and Foei noticed movement to the side of him so he stepped away when Beauty's mom walked past him to crouch down and talk to her daughter.
Foei decided to give them a moment and walked to the doorway, throwing a look back at Beauty and her mom as well as Captain, who was still just as unmoving as he had been since yesterday.
He sighed and ran a hand through his hair, almost startling when he looked away from Captain and realized that Captain's mom was still standing by the doorway as well.
"She seems like a nice girl. I'm glad nothing worse happened to her thanks to my son," Captain's mom said, her eyes on Beauty.
"She is. Captain and me don't really have…that many friends. She's one of the only ones that somehow manages to put up with us," Foei said with a small smile.
Captain's mom nodded in understanding.
"I'm glad then. Sometimes it's not so much about having many friends anyway but about having the right ones. She's one of them then," she said and Foei gave a hum of agreement.
"By the way, do you want to stay here during the night again?" she asked and sudden anxiety settled in Foei's gut at the prospect of not being able to. Yesterday Phat had worked something out but he wasn't sure if the same would be possible today.
"Yes, I…I want to be there when he wakes up and if that's during the middle of the night and I'm not here…," Foei started and Captain's mom was already waving him off.
"I understand, I understand. I will make it possible," she said and then swiftly turned around and started walking in the direction that Foei was pretty sure the reception area was in. Foei could only blink after her, not a doubt in his mind that she would actually make it possible.
-
As it turned out, Captain's mom actually made it possible for Foei to stay overnight again but it came with the condition of Phat carrying in something that looked like a field bed and two very intimidating women staring Foei down as they told him to at least try to sleep.
"Okay, okay, I will try," he said sitting down on his makeshift bed, earning him a satisfied nod from both Cher and Captain's mom.
"We will be back tomorrow when visiting times start. You will be okay?" Cher asked and Foei gave a nod as his eyes drifted to Captain's mom who was silently saying something to her son's unconscious form, sudden guilt settling in his stomach that he was the one staying with Captain.
"It's okay," Cher said, following his gaze and seemingly guessing Foei's thoughts like usual.
"I asked her and she said she has a very important business meeting after this and some other things to sort out. She's glad you're staying with him," Cher reassured him and Foei gave a nod.
"Alright, thanks sis," he said and Cher gave him a smile.
After that everyone slowly started to trickle out of the room until Foei was alone with Captain again.
Exhaustion slowly setting in, Foei got up and went to the small bathroom attached to the hospital room to change and brush his teeth, thankful that Cher had had the foresight to bring him some of his stuff.
When he exited the bathroom again he could feel his hopes once again being crushed when he still didn't find Captain awake. Alas, the doctor that had come by not that long ago had said to give Captain's body some more time to work through everything, there was no cause for worry quite yet.
Foei stepped up to the side of Captain's bed and just looked at him for a moment.
The cuts on his face made him wince and he still looked greyer than usual. The bandages on his hand had been changed and the rest of his arm was still covered in bandaids as well.
Foei lifted his hand to his mouth and pressed a kiss to his fingertips before carefully pressing them to Captain's cheek.
"You better wake up soon, okay? Then you get an actual cheek kiss," he said, ignoring how his own face turned warm and swiftly turning and walking over to his makeshift bed.
He settled in as good as possible, kind of convinced he wouldn't be able to fall asleep anytime soon but exhaustion hitting him harder than expected once he was actually laying down.
He had experienced more fear then he had thought possible in the last 24ish hours and had spent most of the day with people today. Foei was an introvert and first now he noticed the drain on his social batteries.
Closing his eyes, Foei drew his blanket a bit higher up his body and let the beeping of the machine Captain was still connected to, reassuring him that his heart was still beating, lull him to sleep.
-
Foei shot upright in bed, desperately trying to suck in a breath.
Images were still flashing through his mind. Blood, a lifeless form on the concrete, glass everywhere. Checking for a pulse and finding none. Crying, screaming, cursing and it not changing a thing.
Before he even fully knew what he was doing he was already up and out of his bed, stumbling over to Captain’s bed in the dark and collapsing onto the chair that was still next to it.
First when he put his hand onto Captain’s chest, the rise and fall of it as well as the heartbeat he could feel under his fingertips reassuring him that he was indeed still alive, did Foei calm down enough to become aware of the tears on his own face.
With a sniffle he lifted his free hand and wiped his tears away as best as he could.
“Okay uhm, I’m just gonna stay here,” he said to the silent room, kind of horrified when he realized that he was already not expecting to get a response anymore.
“You really got to wake up soon okay? I know I keep repeating myself but it’s important,” Foei said to Captain, taking a deep breath when he felt more tears threatening to fall from his eyes.
“I miss you,” Foei whispered, another tear dropping from his eye despite his best efforts to not cry again.
For a while he just sat there like that, his hand on Captain’s chest, reassuring him that he was still alive and silently letting new tears fall.
Crying drained him faster then he had anticipated and after a while he settled down like he had yesterday, his head pillowed on his arms leaned on Captain’s bed, his fingertips gently pressed to Captain’s.
“Come back to me, will you?” he said silently.
“I want to keep fighting with you,” he added with a small sad smile before he drifted back to sleep.
-
As consciousness crept back in, Foei got slowly more and more aware of the hand carefully running through his hair. It was soothing and he kind of just wanted to let himself fully fall asleep again but something in the back of his mind was yelling at him to wake up.
“You’re really cute when you sleep,” a raspy voice said and Foei shot up in his seat, blinking at Captain, who was blinking back at him.
“Shit. Sorry, I didn’t mean to wake you,” Captain said and Foei blinked at him some more.
“Are you stupid?” Foei asked, the words just tumbling out. Captain cracked a smile at him.
“You’ve told me that I am a few times so yeah, maybe a little,” Captain said.
“No I-damn-Captain. I meant I don’t give a fuck that you woke me. You’re awake!” Foei said and Captain looked at him in confusion.
“Yes…I am…why is that such a big deal?” he asked and dread settled in Foei’s stomach. How much did Captain remember?
“You’ve been unconscious for almost two days,” he said and saw the realization dawn on Captain’s face.
“Oh…fuck, okay. What even happened? The last thing I remember is us trying to calm Beauty down and after that everything is just gone and now everything hurts,” he said with a wince when he tried to take a deep breath, probably aggravating his bruised ribs.
Foei scooted forward in his chair and very carefully took Captain’s hand into his own.
“Uhm, Beauty ran off while we were trying to talk to her and ran into the street. There was a car coming and she froze up. You pushed her out of the way of the car and got hit instead…” Foei said, his eyes starting to burn from the tears rapidly gathering in them.
“I uh I was scared you wouldn’t wake up anymore,” Foei got out, biting his lip as a tear ran down his face. Captain’s eyes went wide.
“Hey, hey, I’m awake now. I’m okay, or at least will be. You don’t have to worry anymore now, okay?” Captain said, trying to squeeze Foei’s hand with his injured hand and wincing before reaching over with his good hand and putting that on top of Foei’s instead.
“I’m awake now and I’m not going anywhere, okay?” he said and Foei gave a nod, trying to take a deep breath and get his tears under control even though that didn’t quite want to work out. At least it was mostly relieved tears this time.
“You better not go anywhere now, yes,” he got out with a sniffle and Captain smiled at him, reaching up with his good hand to wipe Foei’s tears away.
“Promise,” he said, holding out his pinky finger, getting a small wet laugh out of Foei before he linked his own pinky finger with Captain’s and squeezed it for a moment.
“Good,” he said and then drew his hand back.
“I need to get a doctor to check on you,” Foei said, using his sleeve to dry the last of his tears away as they slowly stopped.
Captain opened his mouth to potentially protest but Foei was already leaning forward and pressed a quick kiss to his cheek before getting up, set on getting Captain checked out properly to make sure he was actually okay.
First when he was by the door did he realize what he had just done but he forced himself to not freak out about it. Captain probably didn’t mind anyway.
Thankfully he found a nurse quite quickly, informing her that Captain had woken up. She got a doctor immediately and they followed Foei back to Captain’s room.
The nurse helped Captain sit up and then the doctor ran Captain through a bunch of tests while Foei anxiously waited by the door.
When he was done he indicated that Foei could come closer again and Foei gratefully did so, sitting back down in his chair by Captain's side.
"Everything is as alright with him as it can be. The memory loss is quite common and the memories should return within the next week. We will keep checking on him but for now he can rest again," the doctor said and Foei realized how exhausted Captain looked even after the few tests.
"I will bring you boys some food and call his parents and the other two visitors you usually have," the nurse said with a kind smile and then left the room with the doctor.
"You okay?" Foei asked and Captain gave a slow nod.
"Yeah, just…a lot to process and I'm still in pain but it should be better soon. Good thing I have a thick skull," he said with a smile and Foei couldn't help but laugh.
Suddenly he remembered something he had promised himself that he would do once Captain woke up.
"Uhm, by the way, I don't know if this is a good time at all but…yes," Foei said and Captain looked at him in utter confusion.
"Yes?" he asked and Foei couldn't help but smile at him.
"Yes, I will go out with you. You asked me before, during the presentation and I didn’t get to answer. I wanted to say yes already then but then the thing with Beauty happened and yeah…” Foei said, warmth spreading through his chest when Captain smiled at him brightly.
“So you’re my boyfriend now?” Captain asked with a grin and Foei gave a nod, a small smile on his face.
"Does that mean I get to do boyfriend things with you now?" Captain added leaning forward in excitement.
Foei squinted at him. "Yes, depending on what you define that as."
"Well, I want to take you out on dates, hold your hands, cuddle you…kiss you," Captain said with a smirk, clearly glancing down at Foei's lips before hurriedly snapping his eyes back up at Foei's.
"Only if you're okay with that of course," Captain added. Huh, seemed like he had truly learned for real.
"I'm okay with that, all of it. Just uh don't kiss me in public without asking first," Foei said and Captain looked around the room.
"Does this count as in public?" he asked and Foei bit his lip, Captain's eyes automatically going back down to Foei's lips at the movement.
"Semi-public but uh…it's okay, if you want to kiss me right now that is, because it's just us…" Foei answered, already subconsciously leaning forward into Captain's direction some more.
Slowly, they both leaned forward the rest of the way, their lips connecting in the most gentle kiss they had had yet. It felt good to kiss this way, with no rush, no urgency, no thoughts of 'this is the one chance I get, make the most of it'.
Foei opened his mouth slightly while continuing to kiss Captain and Captain carefully tangled his good hand into Foei's hair, just cradling his head like that, no other motive behind the action then to hold him.
Foei himself carefully put his hand onto the side of Captain's neck, softly nudging his jaw with his thumb so he would tilt his head a bit more and they could kiss better, which earned him a smile from Captain that he pressed against Foei's lips.
When Foei was just starting to sink into the sensation of kissing Captain, the door to the room suddenly opened.
Foei startled and hastily pulled away, feeling himself turn red when he saw that both of Captain's parents as well as Cher and Phat were standing in the door.
Captain's father looked surprised, while Cher and Phat looked proud for some reason. The face of Captain's mom gave nothing away apart from her raising a singular eyebrow.
"Seems like my son needs five more minutes of rest before we all swarm him," she said and then started to shush everyone away from the room, throwing Captain and Foei a smile before she closed the door.
"Uhm…I'm sorry. I didn't mean to make your dad find out this way," Foei said with a wince and Captain laughed.
"It's okay. I don't really care about his opinion at the moment," he said and then leaned into Foei's space again.
"What I care about though is kissing you some more," Captain said with a smirk and Foei rolled his eyes but leaned in to kiss Captain again all the same.
As he kissed him, Foei thought about how Captain was most definitely his old self so he would be okay and how it seemed he had an equal parts annoying and endearing boyfriend now.
Overall, that certainly was the best possible outcome out of the horror of the past few days that Foei could have hoped for.
And as Captain pressed harder against his lips on the next kiss and put his hand back into his hair, this time slightly pulling at it, all thoughts vanished from Foei's brain entirely.
-
Some weeks later found Captain and Foei sitting in the cinema, an action movie playing on the big screen.
Foei's hand was tangled together with Captain's and occasionally he reached over with his free hand to grab some popcorn from the popcorn bag they shared.
A sudden explosion on the screen made Foei spook and Captain reassuringly squeezed his hand, making Foei smile.
As the movie ended and the lights turned back on, Foei turned to look at his boyfriend.
The wounds from the accident were healed by now, some light scars scattered across the side of Captain's face instead. Foei had taken up a habit of pressing kisses to them whenever they cuddled.
"Ready to go to the restaurant?" Captain asked with a smile and Foei gave him a nod, regretfully letting go of Captain's hand so they could gather their things.
Once they were exiting the cinema though Captain grabbed his hand again immediately and Foei happily linked his fingers with his.
And as they walked along the street, the sunset painting the sky pink and orange, Foei thought to himself that maybe sometimes things took a while but were definitely worth it.