Chapter Text
The first time Nursey gets critically injured, he's relatively conscious. There isn't any blood, and the pain is overwhelming but not unbearable. He's sitting in the on-campus medical center, a stack of papers next to him, as he halfheartedly attempts to curl his fingers around a pen. The fingers of his left hand look more like a gnarled tree than anything human and Nursey lets out a groan, quickly looking away before he gets too nauseous.
"Hey, hon? We can't let you in until you fill out the paperwork." There's a woman sitting at the front desk, her hair a delicate arrangement of pin curls that looks more frazzled than nice. Derek blinks. "We need you to fill out the paperwork," she says again, firmer, and his eyes flash to the clock. The medical center closes at nine, technically, and it's 8:52. Nursey knows, logically, that the lady at the front desk probably just wants to go home, but the room starts spinning and he forgets what she was telling him.
"I...I don't know if I can write?" He says, and it comes out like a question. She squints at him.
"I can help you fill out your paperwork if you want, or you can call someone to help you?"
Nursey thinks about it, slowly, and nods. He starts fishing his phone out of his pocket, careful to avoid jostling his injured hand.
"I'm gonna call my friend," he says, more to himself than anything, and the woman flicks her eyes to him before going back to her work. He starts looking for Bitty's contact, the letters on his phone screen swirling a bit. The phone rings three times before Bitty answers.
"Nursey? What's up?"
"Hey, um. Hey, so I'm at the medical center and I, uh, I kind of broke my hand? So, I was wondering if you could come by and help me because, like, I can't write and uh-" He tries so hard to sound chill, but he knows is all comes out in harsh starts and stops.
"Oh, goodness, yeah, don't worry, Derek, I'll be there in a few minutes!" Bitty sounds mildly panicked and Nursey gives himself a moment to allow the overwhelming sense of gratefulness he has for his friends to overtake him. "Bye!" he hears, and the line goes dead.
It takes Bitty about five minutes to get there and when he does, he's out of breath. Nursey looks to the front desk and the woman is looking at him with a leveled expression. Bitty sits down next to Nursey, letting out a small gasp when he sees the other boy's hand.
"God, god, what did you do?" Bitty asks, eyes wide as he inspected his hand carefully.
"Okay so, I saw this cat," Nursey began. "And, like, dude, this cat was huge, so I maybe tried to follow it up the tree next to the Haus and then, um, fell out of the tree." He said, and Bitty's eyes narrowed.
"What."
"I fell out of a tree."
"Because of a cat," and Nursey nodded. Bitty let out a long suffering sigh before grabbing the stack of paperwork that was sitting in Nursey's lap. "Fine, okay. Date of birth?" He asked, and they filled out the paperwork. When Bitty got to the emergency card, he looked at Nursey, rolling his eyes, before writing in his own name and personal information. Again, Nursey felt that gratefulness wash over him.
_/\_
It happens again, a few days later, except he's not necessarily injured so much as he's in excruciating pain . He's kind of terrified, honestly, lying on his back in the LAX bros' front yard. He doesn't think he hurt anything, but he knows the wind was knocked out of him and he doesn't know if he could run if a LAX bro caught him lounging on their lawn. He's staring up at the canopy of trees and he calls Bitty.
"Hey, Bits?"
"Hi," and Nursey can feel the suspicion from across the street.
"I'm in the LAX bros' front yard," he says and Bitty sighs. "And I fell out of that really big oak tree, yanno the one with the leaves that always blow into our yard, and I can't stand on my own." The line is silent. "Hello?"
Nursey flinches when he hears the front door of the Haus slam open. Nursey can see flour falling out of his hair as he marches towards the LAX bros' house. A moment later, Bitty is looking over him, hands on his hips, scowl on his lips, and jam on his cheek.
"Why were you in the LAX house's tree?" Bitty says, waving a hand in front of Nursey's face. He takes it, and Bitty unceremoniously jerks him to his feet. Nursey is shocked for a moment at how easy it is for the smaller boy, before recalling that he literally watched Bitty bench press his weight only a few hours ago.
"Okay, ow!" Nursey exclaims, rubbing his shoulder and scowling at the blond. "I could have a fractured rib or something!"
Bitty sniffs, turns back towards the Haus, hand still closed around Nursey's wrist.
"You're fine." He says, and drags Nursey back to the Haus, only looking back to make sure the LAX bros hadn't spotted them. When they're in the kitchen, Bitty shuts the curtains with a force so dramatic, he would have chirped him if it weren't for the deadpan look on his
"Now, what were you plotting?" Bitty asks, exasperated, and Nursey laughs.
"I was…” He paused to catch his breath and rubs his eye. “I was gonna put...so much glitter in their beds. So much." Bitty's face flickers between what Nursey thinks is pride and what Nursey knows is annoyance. He settles on this pompous quirk of his lips that Nursey is kind of scared of.
"They should know better than leaving their windows open," Bitty says wistfully, before snapping his eyes back to Nursey, who has taken to snooping around the kitchen in search of pie. "Derek, hand over the glitter."
Nursey pats his jacket pocket.
"Oh fuck."
"Did you lose the glitter?" Nursey looks up, bites his lip. "Did you...did you climb all the way up the tree and not check if you had the glitter with you?" Nursey smiles weakly.
"Chill, I was just, you know, scoping. Trying to figure out the best way to do it." Bitty sighs again before pulling a pie out of the oven and placing it in front of Nursey.
"It's blackberry," Bitty says, handing him a serving knife and rolling his eyes.
Just as he's about to cut a slice, the front door crashes open and Holster barrels into the kitchen, Ransom and Dex in tow.
"What the fuck is wrong with the LAX bros?" Holster asks, hands thrown in the air dramatically. "They're all out on the lawn, fuckin' yelling at us." Bitty zeroes in on Nursey, whose hand is frozen mid air. Bitty raises his eyebrows and Nursey gestures helplessly.
"Derek here decided to try and prank them. Glitter bomb their rooms. He fell out of the oak tree and landed on their lawn." Holster eyes shine. Bitty rolls his eyes before commandeering the serving knife.
Before Holster could open his mouth, Dex snorts from behind Ransom.
"While I admire your guts, that's some shit execution, Nurse. Hire an accomplice next time." Nursey flushes. Chill, chill, chill, he repeats in his head.
"An accomplice...who did you have in mind?" Nursey was playing with him, honestly, just trying to rile him up at this point. Nursey watches in awe as heat floods the other boy's face and, in a blink, returns to its normal colour. Dex leans back against the counter, propping himself on his elbows, and shrugs.
"What's your price?" Now it's Nursey's turn to blush. Dex's voice was...it was too lilting to be a chirp.
"A kiss on the cheek?" He ventures, trying to sound as joking as possible. Dex groans and breathes out a laugh, before shoving his shoulder and picking up a slice of the pie Bitty had cut. Nursey couldn't help but stare at his his hands
"Jeez," Ransom whistles. Nursey looks up and Holster was side eyeing them. "You guys are worse than me and Holster in our junior year." Holster let out a strangled laugh before hiding it as a cough into his hand; Nursey glares at him. Holster pats his shoulder.
"Don't think too hard about it, buddy."
"Or do," Ransom says with a wink. Dex burns red.
_/\_
A few weeks later, Nursey is drunk.
"Are you gonna be okay to walk back, man?" Nursey grins, slowly, languidly, and slings his arm around the guy. He thinks his name is Matthew, but he's not totally sure. They're standing outside the apartment of one of the girls in their poetry club and Nursey can't remember actually leaving the living room. He remembers making out with some girl with buzzed hair and drinking, like, four shots of really, really good bourbon.
"Yeah, man, it's only a ten minute walk!" He lets go of probably-Matthew and straightens up before stumbling a little and letting out a slow giggle. Matthew, who had one shot less than him and is nicely buzzed to Nursey's flat out sloshed, laughs at him.
"You sound like, like. A tea kettle, or something." Matthew says, and his eyes crinkle. Nursey thinks back to how Dex's eyes crinkle when he laughs at him, and then he starts thinking about the tiny freckles next to his eyes, and then--
Nursey falls.
"Fuck, Derek," Matthew says, and bends down to help Nursey up. They're both still laughing by the time Nursey is standing again.
"I'm just a little wobbly," he says, and Nursey's grin is all teeth. "Ten minute walk," he reminds, and Matthew is just buzzed enough to let him walk off on his own.
Ten minutes later, Nursey is definitely not back at his dorm. He's standing on the sidewalk of a park that, in his drunken stupor, he remembers being a fifteen minute drive from Samwell. He shrugs to himself, giggles, and then starts to climb the jungle gym.
He kind of wishes that Matthew stayed with him, just so he could have someone with him on his park adventure. He kind of wishes that someone was Dex, but that's neither here nor there, so he lays back onto a slide and squints up at the stars, trying not to think about how the pinpricks of light look a bit like freckles.
Nursey stands up and peers over the edge of the jungle gym. It's one of those really nice ones: it's three stories tall and has, like, four slides, and monkey bars, and a little climbing wall that juts down from an opening on the third floor. On the third floor, opposite one of the slides, was a climbing net. When he was a kid, his moms used to take him to a little park twenty minutes away from their apartment. It had a space net and a vendor that sold the best hot dogs he had ever had and it was always shrouded in willow trees. They stopped going when he was twelve; Nursey tried to find it last summer, but every time he tried, he just found trees and concrete and fast-walking people. He sat down on the edge where the climbing net started and carefully scooted until his feet were planted on the ropes. He stood up, then, turning around carefully so he could put his hands on the floor of the jungle gym and better secure his feet on the ropes. Nursey let out a victorious little yelp because ha, Bitty would never believe that he was climbing a jungle gym while drunk without killing himself.
It was on the third step down, his right hand grasping and his right foot planted firmly on the ropes, that he miscalculated his step and his left leg went plummeting through the hole. He shrieked, once, and Nursey felt his whole body twist in the ropes.
"What the fuck." He twisted a little, attempting to loosen the ropes. They tightened. "Fuck. What the fuck." He repeated and, in his drunken stupor, reached for his phone. His arm was pressed tight against his thigh making it easy to get his phone out of his pocket, but near impossible to get it to his ear. With a bit of wiggling he got the phone near his shoulder and called Bitty, the first name in his favourites--right above Dex and then his mothers.
"Nursey." Bitty sounded about as disappointed as Nursey felt.
"Um. Yes. I'm stuck."
"You're stuck,"
"There's, like, ropes and shit." Nursey isn't exactly sure what he's saying or how to explain his situation; he's still relatively drunk. There's wind whipping through the park, though, and he can feel himself sober up with every slap of the cold. Bitty is silent for what feels like an hour.
"It's 11:39 pm," Bitty enunciates and Nursey let's out a small affirmative noise. "I'm sending Dex." Bitty says resolutely. In his drunken state, Nursey recognizes the flood of warmth to his face as a blush.
"Oh. Okay." There's a shuffling noise on the other line and a few voices; he can hear the yells of garbled words and what sounded like game highlights.
"Where are you?"
"Um. Um." He looks around, ignoring the soft click of impatience Bitty gives him. "That park next to the coffee shop Jack and Lardo used to go to all the time last year. It, uh, has the pond with the ducks and the fountains and--"
"Alright, Dex!" Nursey vaguely registers that Bitty said something as he continues to ramble about the pond. "You're on Nursey Patrol." The line clicks off.
Nursey waits. He watches the stars flicker and burn, and he waits. He thinks about how distinctly unchill his situation is, and he waits. He traces his eyes along the silhouette of the trees, and he waits. His eyes linger on the yellow glow of a street light, and he waits. He sees a figure stomping through the golden spray, and he waits.
"Nursey?" The figure calls. Nursey is fully aware that it's Dex, he just doesn't really want it to be. He doesn't want Dex to come help him out and for Nursey to embarrass himself by waxing poetic about street lamps and his eyes and stars and his freckles.
"Hi," he mumbles, shifting in the ropes. Dex's figure comes closer before bursting into laughter.
"Oh my god, Nursey, what the fuck?" Dex is wheezing now, as if he hadn't seen Nursey in worse situations.
"In my defense I was and continue to be slightly inebriated." Nursey says, bristling.
"Derek." He can feel Dex's hand on his calf, inspecting where the ropes twist.
"Very inebriated." He says, and Dex laughs.
"We could cut this," Dex say, more to the ropes than Nursey.
"No," his words sound more whiny than anything. In the shadow, he thinks Dex raises an eyebrow.
"Alright." Dex slowly starts working his fingers around the knots and Nursey's body.
He tries not to shiver, and he waits. He feels the burn of Dex's fingertips, and he waits. He feels his legs come free, then his arms, and he waits. Dex steps back.
"I'm done," Dex says and Nursey can hear the quirk of his eyebrow in his voice.
"Hi done, I'm tired." Nursey giggles, letting his body fall back against the ropes. They dig into the skin of his back. Dex groans.
"Dude, this park is creepy. I saved you, let's go."
"This park is not creepy," Derek says indignantly, eyes falling closed. "This park has ducks."
"I--okay." Dex says. Nursey feels the ropes give a little and then Dex's thigh is pressed against his. "I don't wanna have to carry you home."
"I'm gonna carry you home," Nursey mumbles. They sit in silence for a while, Nursey watching freckles bounce behind his eyelids.
"You know you can just call me if you need help," Dex says hesitantly. Nursey opens his eyes and looks over; Dex is firmly staring at the sky but Nursey thinks his cheeks are tinged pink. Nursey thinks he looks like a galaxy. "Like, if there's an emergency. Or, or. Whatever the fuck this is," Dex laughs. "You can call me instead of Bitty."
They leave a little while after that. Nursey tells him about the party he went to and Dex chirps him about how lost he got. The park was, apparently, only a five minute walk from his dorm. When they make it to his dorm, Nursey lets out a sigh of relief.
"Uh," Dex says awkwardly, lingering in the doorway. Nursey walked in and stripped off his outer clothes then began rifling through his drawers. Nursey turned.
"You can stay here if you want." Nursey ventures, trying to keep his voice level.
"No, I'm, uh, I'm sober, I'm fine. I'm probably going to head back to the Haus, actually, I was helping Bitty." Nursey glances to the clock. The red numbers burned, 1:05.
"Okay," and Nursey turns back to the drawers. "Thank you...forㅡthanks for helping me get unstuck, Dex." He mumbles and Dex breathes a laugh.
"No problem, Derek," and the door clicked closed. Clutching a pair of sweatpants, Nursey feels his knees go loose; he slides to the floor.
"Okay."
_/\_
It's a Tuesday, and Nursey has a brilliant plan. He doesn't think it was as good as glitter bombing the LAX bros or getting a bunch of the guys on the water polo team to use lube as chapstick, but it's still pretty cool.
"Bro, I'm gonna have to leave soon, I got class in the morning." Lardo has her phone out, flashlight shining. It's almost eleven.
"Awww, Lards, come on!" They're standing on the rubbery soft floor of a jungle gym. It's not the same one he got stuck in over the weekend, but it's nice in that the floor isn't all sand or wood chips. They're both gripping razor scooters, and Lardo leans against the frame of the jungle gym.
"Sorry, man," she laughs, and then looks at him thoughtfully. "Text Dex." She says with a shrug and Nursey forces a breath out from between his teeth. Nursey fishes his phone out of his pocket, ignoring Lardo's grin.
'hey im at the park pls hurry' he types, then presses send. Lardo snickers again before climbing up the jungle gym; she bends down to grab the scooter and then rides it down the slide. She does a little spin at the end and Nursey grants her a golf clap.
'Which one??' Dex texts back.
'near the communications building' Derek types, and tacks on a kissy emoji for good measure.
A few minutes later, he hears the slap of shoes against pavement and Dex is rounding the playground to stand next to Lardo, who was now looking for her back under the jungle gym. Derek looks up from where he was editing a video of Lardo.
"Hey dude! Thanks for coming, can you film me while I ride this razor scooter down the twisty slide?" Dex's eyes flick to Lardo and then narrow.
"What the fuck, Nurse, I thought this was an emergency." Nursey puts a hand over his chest, faux shock.
"This is an emergency! Lardo's leaving, I need someone to watch over me and make sure I don't kill myself! It's precautionary, William." Lardo snickers.
"I'm leaving." Dex deadpans.
"Dex, come on." He whines. "You said I could text you in case of emergency!" Dex turns pink.
"Like, a real emergency. You could just. Not such dumb shit, Nursey."
"Impossible," Lardo breathes and punches Nursey in the shoulder. "Anyways, I'm leaving. And as your manager, Poindexter, it is in all of our best interests that you stay here and make sure your fellow d-man is in good enough condition to play on Friday!" Dex sighs, looks at Nursey.
"Fuck, alright. Alright." Lardo shoves her scooter at him before stretching up and patting his shoulder.
"Good man. Alright wish me luck, boys, I've got life drawing tomorrow." She shoulders her backpack and saunters off towards the direction of the Haus as both boys chirp a chorus of "good luck".
"So you gonna do this or what?" Dex says, gesturing to the slide.
"It's gonna be awesome," Nursey warns and hands his phone to Dex, the camera app open and flashlight on. Nursey starts climbing the rings of the ladder leading up to the second floor of the jungle gym and leans over to pluck the scooter off the floor next to Dex.
"If you don't break your arm." Dex says, and there it is again, voice too soft to be a chirp, but too joking to be taken serious. Nursey flashes him a smile.
"If I broke my arm, would you take care of me?"
"Sure, I'll feed you soup through a straw."
"No, no, you spoon feed me or nothing."
Dex looks at him, eyebrows raised.
"Guess you're gonna have to starve." He turns back towards the slide. "Come on, Nurse, its fuckin' cold. Are you, uh, sober right now or should I be more concerned?" Nursey rolled his eyes, throwing one foot over the small metal scooter before hunching over and letting his hands fall into place over the foam.
“I'm chill,” Nursey says and Dex groans.
“Alright, it’s filming, let’s go.” So Nursey does. He pushes off, and the ground gives way to steep, stick plastic. The scooter is moving a lot faster than he expected and, on the second turn, rather than continuing along the path of the slide, Nursey tips over the shallow edge and goes flying face forward. He’s lying on the ground, rubber pressing against his shoulder.
“Take two?” Dex calls from the other side of the slide.
“Fuck you,” Nursey mumbles into the ground, and props himself up.
“Is that all you got?” Dex teases. It's lame, and Nursey ignored it.
“You still got Lardo’s scooter?” Nursey watches as Dex’s eyes widen dramatically.
“No, no way. I'm not gonna do something to potentially break my arm.” He crosses his arms and Nursey really hopes Dex didn't notice how he watches the way his biceps moves as he goes to stand beside Dex. He notices, with annoyance, that his scooter made it down the slide, unharmed.
“I think...you’re gonna do it.” Nursey says and Dex’s jaw tightens. Shoving Nursey’s phone at him, then, he grabs the scooter and starts climbing up to the top of the slide. Nursey watched as he resolutely looks over the edge and then pushes off.
Where Nursey had fallen, Dex turns his weight towards the inside of the slide. He completes the third turn and the slide ends; there's a moment, where the scooter tips forward off the edge of the slide, where Nursey thinks he's going to fall, but he just lands, one foot pressed firmly against the scooter and the other skidding against the rubber floor.
“Okay?” Dex says, urging Nursey to say something, and he realizes he didn't take a video.
“Alright,” Nursey says, and that's that. “Wanna go get some frozen yoghurt?”
Nursey gets six different flavours and every topping and Dex chirps him about how it's going to taste like shit; meanwhile, Dex spends ten minutes trying every flavour and combination before settling on coconut peach and chocolate caramel. Nursey watches, a little dumbstruck, at the way Dex pokes his tongue out to get the yoghurt out of the sample cup rather than slurping it out like a normal person. Nursey chirps him for that, weakly, and Dex just looks at him, eyebrow raised, and Nursey doesn't think he should feel this warm in a yoghurt shop. They pay.
“Thanks for texting me,” Dex mumbles as they're walking back to their dorms.
“I thought you only wanted me to text you if it's an emergency?” Nursey teases, and he almost stumbles, because that wasn't chirping. That...that was something heavier and Nursey doesn't want to think about that as he watches Dex take careful spoonfuls of his yoghurt, tongue pressed flat against the spoon, as moonlight and shitty fluorescent lamplight makes the edges of his form glow and his eyes burn amber. Nursey shakes his head, Dex shrugs.
“I had fun.” And that's that. They walk in silence, for the most part, eating their yoghurt and watching the shadows flicker across the sidewalk.
“Guess Nursey Patrol is gonna have to extend past kegsters.” Dex says, grinning, as they throw their trash away.
“And you just signed up for it, indefinitely.” He responds, fingers flexing at his side, and Dex flushes.
“Hey, if my defense partner gets hurt, my game is gonna be affected, too.” It's weak, they both know that, but Nursey nods anyways and breathes a laugh. Nursey is glad he and Dex live in the same housing because he doesn't really want the other boy to leave. Nursey notices, with a jolt, that they’re walking far closer to each other than usual. Chill, chill, chill, he repeats in his mind as he cautiously brushes his fingers against Dex’s. They're both facing forward, watching the space in front of them, and Nursey feels Dex freeze. A moment later, Dex’s fingers thread around Nursey’s and Nursey watches as the freckles on his ears disappear behind a deep blush. Nursey can’t help but bite his lip on a grin as he drops his head back and watches the stars.
Dex walks him to his dorm and, for a second, Nursey thinks he’s going to kiss him. He rolls the thought around in his head, and it's pleasant. Instead, Dex drops his hand. He’s looking at Nursey fondly and the blush is still present on his face; Nursey can feel it's warmth from where he’s plastered himself against his door.
“Night, Nursey.” Dex says softly, and runs a hand through his hair. Nursey wishes it was his hand.
“Night, Dex.” He responds as Dex signs down the stairs to his own dorm.
When Nursey gets inside, his cheeks are aching from how long he had been grinning. He flops down onto his mattress and pulls his phone out of his pocket. Absently, he opens up the phone app. In his favourites, right above Bitty, sits Dex’s name.