Work Text:
Aiden walked into his bathroom in the middle of the night, needing to pee, when he stumbled across a sight he never expected: Tyler leaning over the sink with a kitchen knife in hand and blood dripping from his arm.
"Tyler" Aiden said very cautiously. Tyler was staring at him with wide, scared eyes. "What happened?"
"What does it fucking look like?" Tyler bit back, embarrassed and angry. It was the middle of the night, so he hadn't thought anyone would see him. He'd been so anxious about the whole thing that he hadn't been focused on locking the door. And now he was just so mad at himself. "Get out!"
"This is my bathroom" Aiden reminded. Tyler glared at him. "Can I help you bandage it up at least?"
"Why would you want to do that?"
"Because I've dealt with this sort of thing before" Aiden admitted. Tyler's eyes widened. Aiden seemed so unbothered, he would've never guessed that Aiden would have experience with this stuff. "Can I help you?"
"...Okay"
"Please don't tell anyone" Tyler begged as Aiden cleaned up his wounds and wrapped his arm in gauze. "I don't want Taylor to worry or for anyone to think lesser of me" he continued. "It's bad enough that you know now"
"I won't tell" Aiden promised. "And I won't report you or anything. But, can you please explain to me why you did this?"
"Everything's just been a lot recently" Tyler sighed. "With the Phantoms, and..." he trailed off. Aiden didn't need to know about his home life. "Just, everything" he said. Aiden nodded patiently. "I thought, maybe if I distracted myself with physical pain, then..."
"...then the mental pain would hurt less" Aiden finished for him. Tyler nodded. Then, despite his best attempts at self-control, he began to cry. "Oh, hey" Aiden said gently, opening up his arms. Tyler launched himself forward and hugged the blonde. "I'm sorry it's been so bad"
"I just feel so weak" Tyler cried. Aiden nodded. His eyes caught a smudge on the mirror and he wondered about the origin of it, but he quickly shook the thought away before he got too distracted. His... Friend was struggling right now, and he needed to be there to support him.
"You're not weak, Tyler" Aiden told him. Tyler didn't say anything. "I'm proud of you for telling me. That sounds like you've been dealing with a lot"
"I guess"
"Hey, how about this?" Aiden spoke up, pulling out of the hug. "Do you have a favorite snack or meal?"
"Anything with a lot of protein in it"
"I think I have some freezer meals with meat in them that you can take a look at" Aiden offered. "You can pick one, I'll throw it in the microwave for you, and you can have that before you try and go back to bed" he went on. "Plus, the added time would be good to make sure you don't start bleeding through your bandages"
"...Yeah, okay"
"Okay" the blonde smiled, standing up from the edge of the tub where he'd been sitting and offering a hand to help Tyler up from the toilet lid. "Come on"
"Hey, Aiden"
"Yeah?"
"...Thank you" Tyler said meekly. Aiden just smiled.
"No need. Now, come on, standing still like this is actually killing me"