Work Text:
"hey Hobie what's that?" Miles asked pointing to a flier taped to a lamp post. They were in Hobie's dimension and for once Hobie had agreed that the two of them should go somewhere other than Hobies boat.
"Nothing you need to worry about love" Hobie replied tersely. The flier in question was black and white, it read "gays die first" Miles rolled his eyes of all the things he'd heard people say to try and stop gay people from, well, existing this was certainly one of the more, dramatic ones.
"Gays die first huh that's not an argument I've heard before" Miles mused.
"Miles I don't want to talk about it" Hobie said sharply.
"Course yeah sorry" Miles cursed himself he forgot how bad things were for Hobie sometimes.
"Don't worry about it love, want to go somewhere fun?" Hobie quickly changed the subject, he felt bad for snapping it wasn't Miles' fault he didn't know.
"Sure" agreed Miles hesitantly, Hobie had always had a unique idea of what constitutes fun.
Half an hour later Miles and Hobie were in a crowded bar Miles was surprised he'd managed to get in but Hobie flashed the doorman a look and marched him straight in. It wasn't Miles' scene at all. Too loud, too much and it smelled of sweat but Hobie seemed happy so Miles didn't say anything. He watched Hobie intently talking to his band mates his voice getting louder and his face more animated. Miles wished he had his sketchbook and then the atmosphere of the bar changed. Everything that happened next went by so quickly he didn't have a chance to react one minute everything was fine and the next a man was convulsing on the floor. Rio, being a medical woman, had taught Miles what to do when someone was having a seizure Miles started to move towards the man but he felt large hands pulling him back "don't touch him" Hobie's voice sounded in his ear"
"Hobie he's having a seizure I can help" Miles shrugged the punks hands off of him and attempted to push through the circle of onlookers who were all keeping their distance.
"Miles you can't touch him" Hobies voice was shrill, he was terrified.
"Why not?" Miles asked confused.
"It's AIDS" Hobie said. Miles had heard AID'S mentioned before in his science class he learned it was an autoimmune disease causes by HIV. He'd heard it called the gay disease once or twice and he knew it killed people in less developed countries but other than that he couldn't think of a single fact about it but by he looks of it Miles figured it was probably contagious.
"Come on" Hobie tugged on Miles' arm leading the two of them away from the scene at the sound of ambulance sirens wailing nearby. Back at the boat Hobie paced up and down nervously "he didn't get help" Hobie murmured half to himself "they have this law now and if you have AIDS your a public health threat, they lock you up! And the things people say about you!" Hobie continued "he just didn't want anyone to think he was... Well anyway he made me promise not to tell anyone anything but now... I don't want to think about it, he's going to get locked up and he's going to end up dying all alone. They always do!" Hobie's voice cracked he sort of stumbled onto the floor Miles lurched forward to catch him, he was freaking out he's had no idea what was going on Hobies universe he helped Hobie onto his old leathery sofa murmuring every supportive thing he could think of but what help could he be against everything going on here, he didn't think even if he had every spider person in spider HQ with him they could do something about this.
Miles held Hobie tightly all night letting him cry, letting him talk and letting him just sit in silence at some point they must of fell asleep because Miles woke up to light filtering in through the small windows on the dingey cannal boat he disengaged himself from Miles and crossed the boat to his kitchen of sorts pulling out some of the cereal he'd snuck into the kitchen on his last visit. Hobie couldn't always manage to get food because of the state of the world but he was to proud to accept Miles' help so Miles had started sneaking food into his kitchen to make sure he always had something to eat he poured them both bowls and then he kissed Hobie awake.
"Morning love" Hobie said groggily but today their was no sweet note in his voice he accepted the bowl of cereal gratefully.
"I've gotta get back to my dimension" Miles told Hobie, "will you be okay?"
"I think I'll manage" Hobie replied.
"Okay if you need anything come to me okay" Miles told him then with a quick kiss he was off back to his dimension. Thankfully his parents were none the wiser as to where he'd been all night. The first thing Miles did was reach for his computer which was lying at the top of a pile of his haphazardly positioned pile, opening it up he searched "what is AIDS"
"AIDS or acquired immune deficiency syndrome is the name used to describe a number of potentially life threatening infections and illnesses that happens when your immune system has been severely damaged by the HIV virus" he read.
"HIV" he tapped into the search bar. He read that HIV was a virus that affected your bodies immune system, there was no cure for HIV but ver effective drug treatments that enable *most* people with the virus to live a long and healthy life. HIV was transmitted through bodily fluid but outside the body it did not last long and can be killed with soap. HIV couldn't be transmitted through sweat urine or saliva it was most commonly transmitted through unprotected sex, sharing needles and from mother to child during breastfeeding. He read that there is emergency anti-HIV medication called PEP which may stop you becoming infected within the first 72 hours of possible exposure. Both positive and negative HIV tests need to be repeated 1 to 3 months after potential exposure. Anti retroviral medicines are used to treat HIV. HIV is able to develop resistance to a single antiretrovirul medication but much less likely to develop a resistance to a combination of medicines, the goal of HIV treatment is to have an undetectable viral load this means the amount of HIV in your body is low enough not to be detected by a test. For people with HIV if their viral load has been undetectable for 6 months it is untransmissable. This is called undetectable=untransmissable or u=u. People can also take medication called PrEP before they are likely to come into contact with HIV.
Then it hit him, he couldn't give Hobie's universe anti hiv medications, he couldn't access them and even if he could what if it disrupted Hobies universe so much it fell apart like Miguel. Miles realised the only thing he could do was warn Hobie about how it was transmitted and what it was but even then Hobies universe wasn't like Miles' it was corrupt and everyone was afraid. He felt like he could scream the answers were all there and there was nothing he could do about it.