Chapter Text
The first thing Aaron thought when he hit the ground is that Andrew and Kevin could not have picked a worse possible time to fight.
Right after practice started, it became clear something had happened between them. Kevin was picking at Andrew like a vulture on a pile of roadkill and Andrew was being even more distant than usual to piss Kevin off. When Andrew purposefully sidestepped a shot he could’ve blocked perfectly, Kevin lost what little cool he had. He tore his helmet off and chucked it in Andrew’s direction, screaming about immaturity and Andrew’s pettiness affecting the game. Halfway through his rant, Andrew got fed up and started walking the other direction. Kevin, in his anger, forgot who he was dealing with and grabbed Andrew’s wrist. In response, Andrew had done quite possibly the most Andrew-like thing he could’ve done and shoved a knife in Kevin’s arm.
Well, not in in his arm. He’d simply buried his blade in Kevin’s padding and continued walking away. Aaron was ready to strangle his darling brother. There weren’t many people Aaron would protect from Andrew, but the one person he was not allowed to put a single scratch on was his Kevin. However, after the intial shock wore off, Kevin furiously ripped the knife out of his gear and threw it at the door Andrew had just left through, before storming off in the opposite direction towards the locker room. The rest of the Foxes noted the distinct lack of blood on the knife and on Kevin’s arm and were immediately relieved to know that Andrew hadn’t just shanked Kevin in the arm.
The court had been silent for a few moments before Dan asked Coach what they should do now. He sighed and rubbed the worry line between his eyebrows.
“Just-...just keep going for now. I know at least Kevin will be back soon enough, so just…yeah. Just keep practicing as best you can.” he sighed again and left the court to them. Awkwardly, Dan and Neil got the team moving again and the rest of practice went almost completely smoothly!
Almost.
There was a reason Aaron hated having extra balls on the court when it wasn’t necessary. It was a hazard, and he’s a pre-med student. Hazards of any kind are his worst enemy. They should’ve picked them up as soon as they had finished doubles drills, but Dan reasoned that they weren’t doing much else, and they would be out of the way if she pushed them off to the edges until cleanup. Of course everyone but Aaron was perfectly fine with that, so they continued practicing without removing the balls. Aaron had his eyes on them at all times, making sure they all stayed where they were supposed to be and no stray ball would end up making him take care of a rolled ankle or dislocated knee.
But the world hates him, and Matt and Neil had started fucking around with the balls as soon as Aaron turned his back for two seconds during a break. He rolled his eyes at their idiocy and resolved to simply pick up the balls himself before they started practicing again. He gathered all of the extra balls up and crossed to the supply closet to put them away, unknowingly missing one little stray ball that fell out of his arms as he was walking across the court. Which he, of course, didn’t notice until he was bolting cross-court and the damn thing wound up under his foot and suddenly the whole world was sideways.
His foot twisted in a way that definitely didn’t feel normal and apparently forgot to inform the rest of him that he was going that way. What must’ve been two seconds felt like two years. Aaron felt his body try to curl in on itself as he fell. It got far enough that his hip hit the floor before anything else, but not quite far enough to prevent the resulting impact from snapping up his spine to his skull. His head hit the ground with enough force that his teeth rattled in his skull and there were ten horrifying seconds where he couldn’t suck in a breath all the way. Vaguely, he heard everyone else stop, and then heard rapid footsteps in his direction. He closed his eyes against the suddenly too-bright fluorescents as the Foxes crowded around him. They stayed closed while gloved hands turned him onto his back and fought to get his helmet off, gently laying his head back on the court floor. Aaron kept them closed all the way up to when someone tapped the side of his face.
“Look at me, dipshit.” Aaron scowled, but he opened his eyes to look up at the painfully blue ones hovering over his face. Aaron thought Neil frowned as soon as he saw Aaron’s eyes, but the fuzzy haze over his vision was making it hard to distinguish anything.
“Ugh, that’s not good…can you see me at all?” he asked. Aaron squinted.
“Barely.” He felt like he was trying to speak through a pool of honey, thick and sticky “Just…your eyes. Stupid fuckin’ hair, too.” he muttered. Neil’s frowned only deepened.
“Well, shit, that’s definitely not good.” He said.
“W…What’s wrong…?” Aaron asked. Neil tilted his head to get a better look.
“Well, your pupils are overdilated, and you’re stuttering. So…probably not a good sign.” he explained. He turned to say something to someone above him.
“Stay wi-...him. Text me if… gets h-... before we…” he said. Aaron frowned, knowing that his hearing going in and out was also not a good thing. Neil stood up and ran to the door Andrew had gone through earlier. Nicky settled in beside Aaron, and he could slightly hear Dan calling someone, probably Abby, somewhere to his right. Aaron tried to sit up, but he choked on the unimaginable pain in his hip and fell back to the floor. Nicky made a strangled noise and gripped Aaron’s shoulders.
“No!!! Don’t move, for the love of everything!!! Stay still, you just died!!!” he shrieked. Aaron rolled his eyes as Nicky fussed over him. He looked around the area, seeing the rest of the Foxes crowded around him. It made him nervous for some reason, and he turned to ask Kevin if-
Kevin.
His eyes shot to the locker room door. If Neil was getting Andrew, and Aaron could see everyone else standing around him, then…who was telling Kevin? Who was gonna go find him and make sure he didn’t go worst case scenario and catastrophize the whole thing? Who was gonna be with him so he wasn’t alone when Neil made some careless text, completely disregarding how Kevin would feel? Who was going to keep him from spiraling when he started thinking about the havoc that a concussion could wreak on Aaron’s brain?
He needed someone to go tell him, to be with him, but the words couldn’t get from his head to his mouth. They kept getting caught on his tongue on their way out. With every failed word, the thought built up in his head until it consumed his mind.
“N…” Nicky. “Nic…” Nicky! Aaron didn’t understand. It was Nicky’s name, goddammit, just say it!
“Hey…my…” Nope. Why was he saying the wrong words?!
Help me! The words wouldn’t form. His tongue felt obnoxiously heavy.
Finally Nicky noticed his pathetic attempts at speaking and bent down to hear him better.
“Ni…” he still couldn’t say it “some…some”one tell Kevin“...tell him that ’m okay, ‘m fine…” Aaron slurred. Nicky’s brow furrowed.
“Huh? Tell who?”
Kevin, you idiot! Tell Kevin I’m okay! Tell him so he doesn’t “worry…he’s goin’ t’ worry…” Aaron hated how his tongue felt too heavy to bring to the roof of his mouth, cutting the g’s off his ‘ing’s. Nicky nodded.
“Yeah, I know, bud.” But even in the haze, Aaron could tell from the look on Nicky’s face that he didn’t.
No…no, Kevin!! Aaron shook his head and tried to speak again.
“You…”have to tell Kevin, go“tell him…” the weight on his tongue was getting worse.
“Shh, I know. Neil’s getting Andrew, they’re on their way, it’s okay…”
A frustrated snarl left Aaron’s lips as Nicky misunderstood again. Nicky jumped and looked at Aaron with what sort of looked like concern. Before he could say anything, Aaron forced the words out of his stupid fucking mouth.
“No, not him, K’vin…go tell Kevin…y’have to tell Kevin…” his mouth slurred the words together like it was a smoothie blender, but he saw in Nicky’s face that he got the idea. He still frowned, though.
“Wha- Kevin?? What does it matter if Kevin knows, he’ll only worry about your Exy performance, he can stand to find out later.” If it was anyone else, Aaron would’ve agreed. Kevin would have been concerned about nothing but their performance on the court, and would’ve been fine to get details later. But it was Aaron. He knew he was one of the most important people in Kevin’s life. Kevin loved him. Kevin…
“Fuck..Fuckin’ tell Kevin!!!” he gasped. Everyone stared at him in shock. He ignored the pain in his neck and lifted his head. He scanned the group of hazy outlines for someone he could trust, someone who would understand, someone-
Someone with rainbow hair who handled his bat shit brother on a daily basis.
Aaron couldn’t really see her face, but he locked eyes with where Renee’s eyes would be based on her hair and waited until he was sure she was paying attention before he spoke.
“You…you hafta tell K’v…Kevin…” he struggled out. She nodded and turned towards the locker room Kevin had disappeared into earlier. Aaron watched her until her form disappeared behind the court door, when he sighed with slight relief and sagged back to the floor. Everything seemed to slow, like the world was leaving him behind. His eyes fluttered closed. The odd blur across his vision rendered them useless anyway. He knew he couldn’t fall asleep if he had a concussion. But his thoughts faded until the pain dulled and the light didn’t hurt quite so bad. He wasn’t going to sleep. He couldn’t sleep. He was hanging on to the cliff of awake with one hand, but he could not sleep. He could just stay like this until Abby got there, it’d be fine.
Well, until…
“What the fuck, Aaron?!”
He cracked one eye to see his own face stalking towards him with his redheaded menace hot on his heels.
“I left you alone for thirty fucking minutes, why are you fucking dying?” Andrew hissed, dropping to a crouch next to Aaron’s head.
“Extra ba-balls on the cour-...cor…what?” he stumbled. The last half of ‘court’ wouldn’t join the rest of it, and even with the fuzz in his ears, Aaron could hear the way his vowels dragged. Andrew obviously noticed and frowned sharply. He took Aaron’s chin and gently angled it up towards him.
“Your fucking eyes are blown…and you’re slurring…” he said.
“Abby’s already on her way.” Dan offered. Andrew shook his head.
“Abby can’t do shit, he needs to go to the fucking hospital!!” he yelled. Aaron winced at the loud noise. It sounded like Andrew was screaming right in his ear, yet somehow also sounded muffled? He gathered just enough strength to shift his hand to touch Andrew’s thigh. Sharp golden eyes darted back towards him.
“J’st let a..bby check me-e…w’ll g-go after…promi-ise…” he assured. Andrew settled slightly, but his face was still etched with anger at the increasing slur and stutter in Aaron’s voice. Just as his mouth opened to say something else, the locker room door slammed open and Kevin hit the ground running. Aaron batted weakly at Nicky’s leg.
“M-move…” he mumbled. Nicky raised an eyebrow.
“F-fuckin’ move, Nick’, he’s go-gonna hit…y-you…” he urged. It sounded a lot less threatening when the words kept snagging in Aaron’s mouth, but thankfully, Nicky didn’t push and moved to the side. Seconds later, Kevin dropped to his knees next to Aaron. Aaron winced, thinking about the friction burns Kevin was probably going to have on his calves. Large, warm hands cupped his face and turned his head to look at him.
“Oh god…what the fuck happened, Aaron?” he whispered. Aaron hesitated, realizing just how many people were standing around them. Kevin still wasn’t sure about his sexuality and they had decided to keep the whole thing under wraps until he had a little more steady ground under his feet, but Kevin tended to get clingy when he was worried, and there were a lot of people right there.
“K-kev…they’re all he-..here…” he reminded him. Kevin froze when he heard Aaron’s voice, broken and sluggish. ‘He’s slurring…why the fuck is he slurring so bad…’ Kevin thought. He realized what Aaron meant and shook his head.
“I don’t fucking care, what happened to you?!” he asked again. Aaron relaxed into Kevin’s hands, careful to avoid touching his hip at all.
“There were e-extra ba..alls…m-missed one when I…miss…missed one whe-en I pic-cked them u-up…ste-..epped on-n it…” he explained. Kevin’s face tightened with every strung-out word. The slurring and stuttering seemed to be worsening with every second and it was making him nervous. He glanced at the people standing around them, then muttered ‘fuck it’ and slipped his arms under Aaron’s shoulders and back. He started to gently prop Aaron up in a sitting position, but Aaron twitched violently as he bent at the waist. Kevin paused.
“What’s wrong?”
“Noth-..nothin’…unste’dy…” he mumbled. It was far from nothing. Every muscle in his left hip screamed in protest as he moved forward to a sitting position, bracing himself against Kevin’s chest. But he was already injured and clearly struggling cognitively, so he opted to keep that part to himself. He pushed his breath slowly through his teeth to keep from shouting as he settled.
“Abby?” Kevin asked
“Comin’…’drew w-wants me to go to…” his lips felt swollen and Kevin winced as Aaron lost his sentence in the middle. He furrowed his brow in frustration. He felt weak, and not just from the pain. He grit his teeth and tried again” ’drew wa-ants me t’ go to the hospit-tal…” Aaron told him.
“That’s probably best, yeah. You wanna wait for Abby first?” Aaron nodded. Kevin was about to say something else when Nicky waved a hand in front of his face.
“Okay, so…what the actual hell is going on here?!” he gestured in the general direction of Aaron and Kevin, who glared at him and tightened his arms around his boyfriend’s waist. Aaron decided that the head injury was bad enough, and chose not to mention how badly his hip hurt when Kevin pressed on it. His teeth felt like they might break with how hard he was clenching them. His hip really fucking hurt but there was no good way to get Kevin to let go without mentioning the additional injury.
“Can we do this when he’s not at risk of a serious head injury?!” Kevin snapped. Aaron grimaced as Kevin’s voice took on the same cloudy amplification that Andrew’s had earlier. He closed his eyes for a second and bopped Kevin’s shoulder with his arm.
“Be ni-nice…” he warned. Kevin relaxed slightly and nodded. Aaron turned back to Nicky and the rest of the Foxes. It took him a minute to get his next words in a straight line.
“We’re datin’.” Right…but Aaron couldn’t think of how long. Two…no, “Three months. K-”
Kevin’s name stuck in the back of his mouth. The word was too thick.
“Uh…Kev’s n-not sure about his…his…what the fuck…” he whispered to himself. The word…what word? What was he saying? Why was he struggling so much?? He looked up at Kevin with a clear message in his eyes.
‘Help…’
Kevin nodded. He rubbed small circles into the back of Aaron’s shoulder as he talked.
“I’m…still figuring myself and my identity out. We’d like to keep our relationship quiet, until I…get a better grasp of it.” he said quietly. Nicky started to say something but Kevin and Aaron both shook their heads.
“But! Come on, we need to talk about this…” Nicky whined. Kevin muttered “Not really…” as Aaron fixed his cousin with a sharp golden glare, despite how unfocused and muddy his vision was.
“La-...later.” he forced out. The Foxes nodded and murmured their agreements just as Abby walked in the door with Wymack hot on her heels. Before Abby could say a word, he whirled on his team with an irked expression.
“So, was anyone planning on telling me my backliner decided to do a banana peel skit?” He huffed.
Aaron’s body suddenly felt too heavy for his bones and he leaned heavily into Kevin. He leaned on his right side to avoid any pressure on his hip, but the movement itself sent sharp pain from his waist to his foot and back again. The combined pain from his hip and his head rocked his whole being and he groaned involuntarily. Kevin’s eyes shot to Aaron’s face.
“What? Talk to me, Ari.” Aaron wanted to smile at his favorite nickname, but the pain in his hip and head seemed to have frozen his face in a permanent grimace. He looked up but the image in front of him felt…wrong. It felt like he was looking in a massive car mirror, one of the ones that said ‘things are closer than they appear’ at the bottom. He knew the rest of the Foxes were standing no more than five, six feet away, but they looked like they were standing thirty something feet further. The proportions of the room felt wrong, and the white lights of the court were smearing a pale haze over everything. His eyes seemed to shake, his ears felt horribly plugged and he turned to Kevin in a panic. Something was seriously wrong.
Kevin wasn’t looking down anymore. Aaron tried to speak. Tried so hard. But his mouth felt wrong, his throat felt wrong, everything felt wrong. “K…h…I…Ke-...my…no…” He felt the vibration of a strangled noise leave his throat out of frustration, but the feeling snapped from frustration to pure horror as he realized he could barely hear it. The lights were getting bigger and brighter and blanking out everything in the court. Aaron scrabbled at the front of Kevin’s jersey to get his attention and gasped desperately as something started to slip.
Kevin had been listening to Neil’s recount of what happened when he felt Aaron tugging on his shirt. He looked down and nearly stopped breathing. Aaron was white as a sheet and shaking slightly. His eyes were wide in panic and he was stuttering random noises in place of words. Kevin curled one hand around the back of Aaron’s head and the other cupped his face. He felt his eyes prick with tears.
“Ab-ABBY!!” Kevin yelled. His eyes never left Aaron’s as Abby ran over to where they were curled on the ground. “What’s wrong with him?! Why the fuck does he look like that?! Abby, what- f-FUCK!!!”
Aaron saw Kevin’s lips move. He could barely see any details at all, but he saw the movement. He heard nothing. Felt nothing. Then he felt warm pressure on his cheek and in his hair. He clung to the tiny piece of sensation as long as could, but whatever had started slipping earlier fell completely off the edge. His whole mind went blank except for a single broken thought.
‘A fucking ball…mom would kill me…’
Kevin watched with growing panic as Aaron’s eyes twitched closed, right before his whole body went limp in Kevin’s arms.
Some strange horrified noise forced it’s way out of Kevin’s throat.
“Fuckfuckfuckfuckfuck, he- he passed out! Abby, help!!” his voice cracked as Abby turned Aaron’s face towards her. She lifted one of his eyelids and waved her phone flashlight in and out of his eye. Her face went stiff when she saw nothing in response.
“David. 911. Now.” she commanded. Wymack had his phone out before she had even finished speaking. Somewhere off to the side, Andrew chucked some piece of equipment or gear at the visitor’s goal. Kevin absently noted him pacing furiously.
Seconds were as long as years.
12…13…14…
Every second Aaron didn’t move sent Kevin three steps closer to hysteria.
20…21…22…
It didn’t really make sense. Kevin had seen things, injuries arguably worse than a concussion and a blackout, but for some reason everything felt 30 times worse now.
29…30…31…
Maybe it was because he hadn’t had to deal with such dramatically severe injuries since Neil returned from Baltimore.
37…38…39…
Or because he had spent time with a team who cared about him and cared for him and he knew how it felt to have someone protect you from injuries instead of inflict them on you.
44…45…46…
Or just because it was Aaron and Kevin would kill multiple people to keep him safe.
51…52…53…
Regardless, it became harder and harder for Kevin to stay relatively calm.
After 56 seconds, Aaron’s head turned to the side and Kevin nearly sobbed in relief. His eyes slowly opened and he surveyed the world around him as he came to. He turned around to look at Kevin, but he looked uneasy. He panted slightly and he kept licking his lips repeatedly. He almost looked as if he was drooling, but he jerked away from Kevin’s hand when he reached towards his face. However, right after the sharp movement, Aaron’s eyes screwed shut and he seemed to sway slightly. Before Kevin could utter a word, Aaron lurched to the side and shoved himself away from Kevin’s body. Kevin reached out but Aaron slapped his hand away. He tried to move further away, but his hand shot to his hip and he nearly toppled over with the effort. Somehow Andrew had recognized what was wrong with Aaron and dragged one of the trash cans in from outside the court. He hooked his arm around Aaron’s torso and hauled him to his feet. Pain wracked the left side of his lower body, but his cry of anguish was cut off by a choke and a surge of acid. Kevin had never been comfortable with vomit (Dr. B thought he might have mild emetaphobia, whatever that was), but he was on his feet and next to Aaron in seconds. He half expected Andrew to tell him to fuck off, but he was too busy running his fingers through the short hair at the base of his brother’s neck. His face looked completely plain, but his jaw was clenched slightly too hard to be normal.
“He hates it. He can handle someone else getting sick, but nothing scares him like vomiting does.” Andrew mumbled, never looking up at Kevin but feeling the unasked question in his stare. Finally Aaron’s stomach stopped rebelling and he sagged back against his brother and his boyfriend. He grabbed Kevin’s arm and Andrew's shoulder to keep his feet under him, and Kevin looked down to see tears pouring down Aaron’s face. It startled him, he’d never seen Aaron cry before.
Aaron hated how emotional he had gotten, but between the headache from all the sudden movement, the pain radiating from his hip, the sore ache settling under his ribs and the pure panic of vomiting, it was simply too much. He could hardly think, much less suppress his emotions.
Just then, the wail of an ambulance grew louder by the second until it got close enough to bother Aaron’s head, and then it was cut. Lights flashed through the window and Aaron turned away from them with a pained expression. A man and a woman in dark blue uniforms burst through the court doors and Aaron let his eyes shut again.
‘Perfect timing, huh…?’