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Singed passed the small vial of green liquid he'd just finished mixing up to his apprentice who kept a hold of it for him while he worked on the other half of the experiment.
"Now, if you add twenty millilitres of solution B—" He pointed to the second test tube sitting on the stand, "—It should turn a yellowish colour. That's how we want it."
Viktor nodded and measured out the twenty millilitres before carefully pouring it into the green solution. After a few gentle swirls, it clouded into a darker yellow colour. "Like this?" Viktor asked.
"Perfect. Now, if you set that back down in the rack, you can start mixing up the other solution. Do you remember how to do it?" Singed instructed.
Viktor hummed, pulling out a slightly worn piece of paper from his pocket and flattening it out on the desk to read the instructions off of. Singed trusted him to get it right and turned his focus to his own part of the experiment.
Days like these were nice in the lab; quiet days where they could sit, content with their project and simply work, finding joy in each other's company.
"Ah, Viktor," Singed spoke after a few minutes of silence, "Would you like to watch this part? I think you'll find it interesting."
He readied the two mixtures and waited for his apprentice's response but strangely enough, all that followed was silence.
Singed frowned and turned to his side to see Viktor staring blankly at the test tube in his hands, a small frown forming on his face as if he were deep in thought.
"Viktor?" The Doctor prompted with a small nudge to the boy's shoulder. Viktor finally reacted, blinkly slowly and turned to him with a questioning hum. "Ah, there we go. I asked if you would like to watch this part, I think you'll find it interesting." Singed clarified, nodding his head towards the vials in his hands.
Viktor's face lit up with recognition and he nodded quickly. "Okay. Sorry— yes."
"It's alright," Singed replied. He poured the contents of the vial in his left hand into the vial in his right hand and chuckled softly at the look of fascination on Viktor's face as the liquid swirled together, shifting between various vibrant colours before settling into a light pink goo-like substance. "We all get a little lost in our thoughts sometimes."
Viktor hummed vaguely. "I've been feeling strange all day... It's probably nothing, though. It just happens sometimes."
"Feeling strange?" Singed repeated, placing the test tubes down on the rack. "How so?"
"I've just been feeling a bit... far away, I suppose." Viktor shrugged, "Tired, dizzy... just weird. I keep forgetting what I'm doing."
"Strange," Singed muttered, running through possibilities in his mind of what it could possibly be. He placed the back of his hand against the boy's forehead but he didn't appear to have a fever. "Hm. We'll keep an eye on it then. If you feel any worse then let me know."
Viktor nodded and went back to working on the experiment so Singed did the same, picking up the next set of vials. They continued on in this manner with their usual comfortable silence for quite some time until Singed felt a small nudge in his side.
He spared a quick glance to his side to check on Viktor, ready to answer any questions to boy had, but instead, he felt a shock of panic go through him.
Viktor was holding a vial in each hand but his left hand seemed to be very slowly tilting right, the contents of the vial slipping out lazily and spilling all over his hands.
Singed quickly set down everything in his hands along with the test tubes which he snatched from Viktor's hands before grabbing his water bottle from the side of his desk and pouring the clean water over the boy's hands. Thankfully, and very thankfully, the solution wasn't toxic, only lightly corrosive so as long as he washed it off fast enough, the most damage it could do was a bit of itching.
"Are you alright?" He finally thought to ask, wiping down the boy's hands with a clean cloth and hoping it was enough to get any remaining chemicals off.
Strangely, Viktor once again remained silent, giving no inclination that he'd even heard the question. Singed's worry only grew as he examined the boy and found him staring off into space with a blank expression. Experimentally, he waved a hand in front of his face a good few times and when that still failed to garner a reaction, he poked at his shoulder.
It was as if his apprentice were in another world entirely. No matter how many times Singed nudged him or called out his name, he had absolutely no reaction, and even when itchy, red splotches began to show up on the backs of his hands, he didn't so much as twitch at the itch they were undoubtedly causing him. Not even Rio crawling over and licking gently at his leg — having noticed something off with the boy and wanting to help in whatever way she could — was enough to snap him out of it.
It occurred to Singed, very suddenly, that his apprentice may be having a seizure.
And now that he was looking for them, the signs were all there; the 'strange feeling' he'd described leading up to it, the distant, empty look he couldn't be snapped out of, the way his hand had gone slack and spilled the vial of chemicals, the way he'd lacked a reaction to said chemicals irritating his skin, the way his eyes fluttered every now and again, they were all clear signs of a seizure.
He briefly wondered if Viktor had had any seizures before this and tried to recall any instances that could have been explained by this revelation. There were a few times he could think of that Viktor had zoned out to a strange extent but he'd always summed them up as the boy becoming lost in thought, simply too focused on his work or his many ideas to pay attention to anything else. But on closer reflection, maybe there'd been something more to it.
Singed promised himself to begin paying closer attention.
But for now, he sat and waited it out. There wasn't much point in timing it now since the seizure had started a little while ago and it was difficult to place when exactly it had started. So, in the meantime Singed kept a close eye on Viktor, paying attention to any changes.
It was less than a minute later when Viktor finally blinked the recognition back into his eyes and stole a quick glance around the room, gaze inevitably coming to settle on Singed who was staring at him. "Hm? Sorry?" Viktor said quickly, assuming he'd been spoken to and had missed the cue.
Singed placed a gentle hand on his back. "Are you feeling alright?"
Viktor took a little longer to answer than usual, only a little bit, but it was still something Singed noted. "I think I'm feeling a bit ill." He admitted, suddenly looking very tired as he sighed and slumped his shoulders.
Singed ran a hand through the boy's hair, the way he knew he liked, and Viktor leaned into the touch greedily. "Can I ask, Viktor? Have you ever had a seizure before?"
"Seizure...?" The boy mumbled, brows furrowing into a small frown. "What does that mean?"
"In short, it's a burst of uncontrolled electrical activity between the neurons in your brain, causing unusual movement or altered awareness. That's a simple definition but I'm sure I could find some more informative books on the subject if you were interested."
That was a silly question. Viktor was always interested in learning more about any subject he could get his hands on, especially something science-related he could puzzle over. "That sounds interesting but I can't say I've ever experienced anything like that."
"Well," Singed began with a slight grimace, "I believe you may have just experienced one just a moment ago."
"Really?" Viktor asked doubtingly, "I think I just zoned out. I did tell you I've been feeling strange today."
"You were unresponsive," Singed countered, "You spilt your experiment all over your hands and didn't react, nor did you acknowledge me when I called your name and tried to nudge you. I believe this 'strange feeling' you describe may have been a warning of sorts for the seizure itself."
"Oh..." He said distantly, finally seeming to notice what remained of the spilt chemicals on the desk. "Sorry..."
"Don't worry about the experiment. We can redo it. I was more concerned for you and making sure you didn't melt your hands off." Singed reassured him, throwing in a light joke to ease the tension.
Viktor smiled a little in appreciation of the joke and the Doctor took that as a success.
"Now that we know what's wrong, I'd like you to let me know if you ever get that strange feeling again so we can make sure we take precautions. I wouldn't want you endangering yourself." Singed explained.
Viktor nodded. "Okay, I'll try. And do you think I could have a look at those books you mentioned?"
"Of course." Singed grinned, as happy as always to feed his apprentice's ever-growing hunger for knowledge. "Would you like to rest while I go find them? You look rather tired."
Viktor considered for a moment before nodding and laying his head down on the desk. Singed had more so meant setting him up a comfy space on the couch but that worked too, he supposed.
So while Viktor rested and regained his energy, Singed went searching through his unbelievably enormous stock of books (seriously, he may as well take up a side job as a librarian). It took him an embarrassingly long time to find anything he was looking for and by the time he had, Viktor was fast asleep at the desk.
Singed smiled fondly. Every day it became more and more difficult to ignore his fatherly instincts when it came to the boy and every day, he found himself less and less inclined to do so.
Not wanting to disturb him, Singed left him with the books beside him on the desk and a soft blanket draped over his shoulders.
Maybe he'd let those fatherly instincts win out every once in a while.