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It was rough, unintentionally. Beat cared about him too much for his own good.
He'd wake up in the middle of the night numerous times, quickly checking up on Yoyo. His heart would race suddenly and it was like he had to check his pulse everytime he awoke, as if something would be different, as if something would go wrong.
Yoyo moved quite a bit in his sleep, but since he was healing from the incident, he stayed more still. Beat still checked to make sure he hadn't kicked the blanket off anyways. Yoyo had become colder because he wasn't getting the food intake he needed to keep him warm, but he was unconscious so a heater and a blanket would have to do.
Beat hated it. He hated sleeping without a fan and a cold room, but he'd endure it all if it meant Yoyo would wake up.
He wanted to hold Yoyo, but he feared hurting him. Instead, Beat resorted to putting his arm over him from behind, feeling his chest move up and down shallowly as he breathed.
It wasn't like Beat to feel bad or extremely empathetic. It wasn't like him to get flustered, or speechless, but Yoyo completely broke him. He'd never felt the need, the instinct, to protect someone so closely.
Beat also had a brotherly urge to protect his gang through whatever happened, but it was different with Yoyo. He couldn't put a finger on it, but checking on him and making sure he was okay came naturally to him.
"What's with you?" Gum had asked before.
It wasn't rudely, but it was prying. She took note of the dark spots around his eyes. Beat hadn't moved, instead he stared. "I don't know," he shrugged genuinely.
"You care about him an awful lot, don't you?"
"He's my friend. That's what friends do, right? They care for each other."
She didn't ask anymore questions.
A couple more nights went by. Yoyo was still breathing, but still unconscious. He was skinnier and paler than usual, but his body was healing. Everytime Beat would leave the room for long periods of time he'd always come running up the garage stairs to make sure his friend was alright.
One late night, Beat put his arm around Yoyo again. He was cold to the touch, despite the blanket and heater having been on him for days. The ginger sighed and leaned into him. Yoyo made a strange noise, and then another until it became a fit of hyperventilation.
Beat sat up immediately and his heart began to race. With both of his hands placed on his friend's arm, he kept whispering his name.
"Yoyo? Yoyo?"
Yoyo's eyes fluttered open and shut, unable to process anything. His head was spinning and his fingers were numb but he was unable to say so. He continued to hyperventilate, barely able to focus on the voice trying to calm him down.
Beat didn't want to switch on the lamp. He had thought about it, his hand resting on the base, but he feared it would send Yoyo into a shock. A sudden bright light after being in the darkness for so long...
He had to rely on using his voice and his hands to let Yoyo know he was here and he was real. He'd ask if he could hear him, and rub up and down his arm to stimulate an answer.
"It's me, Yoyo. It's Beat, your friend. I don't know if you can hear me," He said hurriedly, "You aren't there anymore, you're at the garage. You're in the room we share." He ended up repeating the same things over and over again, hoping it would help Yoyo process it all.
Eventually, Yoyo began to stop breathing so quickly. Instead, it had became uneven breathes and Beat continued to try and get through to him. "Yoyo, it's me. You're in your room," he repeated.
Yoyo slowly reached forward out of nowhere, and felt the carpet near their mattress on the ground. He couldn't see anything but he had to know where he was. Beat tapped his shoulder and he slowly turned, reaching out again but wincing because his arm was sore.
That was another thing. Beat liked it being pitch-black at night so when he laid down next to Yoyo, he didn't have to see his battered and bruised face and stay awake the entire night thinking, feeling angry. He'd get so mad he'd start crying sometimes.
Something bad happened while Yoyo was there. The noise tanks were trying to torture information out of him, Beat thought. He'd made theories and try to logically piece everything together but it wouldn't fix anything. It wouldn't undo what happened to his friend.
He'd feel anger looking at his body as he carried it from the fortress to Tab's car. Yoyo lied limply in his arms, his nose stained with blood and his eyes clenched shut.
"Floor it!" Beat yelled. He didn't mean to yell at him but he couldn't control anything about himself in that moment. Gum was in the passenger's, completely turned around and examining Yoyo hurriedly as Beat held him.
They had gotten there just in time. Yoyo wouldn't have made it if he stayed a day longer in the facility, being beaten for answers and locked up in a dark room when deemed useless. His wrists were swollen from being tied and hair and clothes were tattered.
They hadn't even thought about driving to the hospital, which seems cruel without reasoning. To put it simply, they'd be tracked down. The government had always been after them, and even though they only ever used code names, they didn't want to risk being caught for acts of vandalism and facing jail-time.
This means they always worked from their garage. When the members were injured, even shot, they'd at deal with it at their place. The gang was tough.
Yoyo needed a shower and food badly, but fell unconscious almost as soon as they arrived and he wouldn't wake up until now. His capturers must not have fed him or gave him water, so the GGs were lucky they got to him in time.
Beat grabbed Yoyo's hand for him and pressed it to his face. Yoyo's hand was cold, and Beat's face was warm.
"Can you hear me?"
A small nod, in which Beat couldn't see. Yoyo realized and spoke softly, "...Yeah..."
"Can I switch on the light?"
Yoyo almost nodded again, but instead replied with another, quieter, "...Yeah..."
Beat reached over and flipped on the lamp, the corner with their mattress on the floor lighting up. Yoyo rubbed his eyes and blinked a lot, but was soon able to focus on the boy in front of him.
His red hair, his green eyes, the freckles dotted all over his face, the scar he had on his nose, Yoyo looked it all over as if seeing him for the first time. It had been too long.
Beat opened his mouth to speak but stopped when he noticed the tears welling up in his friend's eyes. Yoyo shakily sat up and covered his eyes. He clearly didn't have the strength to cry, so he was almost dead-silent as tears came out of his eyes.
The ginger wanted to ask what was wrong but it was a stupid question in retrospect. Instead, he placed his arms around Yoyo, carefully hugging him.
Beat stopped hugging him eventually, even though Yoyo wasn't done crying. He grabbed his flip-phone to check the time plastered on the front: 5:34 A.M. He sighed and whispered to Yoyo, "Would you like me to go get you some food?"
Yoyo rubbed his eyes and nodded eagerly. He was starving, and now that he was awake he could seriously feel it.
While Beat was in the downstairs area of the garage (the living space, as well as where some of the members slept), Yoyo glared around their room. He took a deep breath in and a deep breath out as he processed all of the clutter and clothing. It was theirs, it was home.
Beat came upstairs with a plate of four microwave burritos and a bottle of water. He also had a can of soda, but he wouldn't let Yoyo have it till he had some water.
For a moment, Yoyo couldn't eat because of how tired and nauseous he still felt, but eventually he got tge appetite. Beat sat there on the mattress, his back against the wall with a tired look in his eyes.
After Yoyo finished the burritos and all of the water bottle, he turned to his friend. Although no longer hungry, he still spoke tiredly and quietly, "...How long have I been out?"
"About six days."
"...You've been looking over me that whole time?"
"That's what friends are for, right?"
Beat smiled warmly and Yoyo smiled back, weakly.