Chapter Text
Beeep…
Beeep…
Beeep…
The rustle of a mattress broke the silence. Someone shifted in their bed while, in the background, the alarm kept blaring its shrill call. Then…
"Aiden! Wake up, you're going to be late again!" someone yelled from downstairs.
"I'm up, Mom!" the young man sighed, his voice still thick with sleep.
He hauled himself up, rubbed his heavy eyes, then shuffled toward the bathroom like a zombie. Passing the half-open bathroom door, a deeper voice called out to him:
"Finally up? I thought I'd have to drag you out of bed myself!"
Aiden pinched his nose and immediately shut the door, grimacing.
"Dad, seriously… every morning? You spend hours in there…"
A muffled laugh echoed behind the wooden panel, followed by: "Hurry up anyway!"
---
POV Aiden
I came down the stairs, nose buried in my computer science study notes. It was the big day: a crucial exam where I had to have concepts like IP addresses, MAC addresses, and how software like Wireshark worked down cold.
As I sat down at the table, my mom set down a plate of buttered toast. Seeing that I kept studying instead of eating, she gently pulled the papers out of my hands.
"Mom…" I protested.
She shook her head with a warm smile.
"Honey, you need to eat. Studying's important, but you need your strength. Eat."
I let out a resigned sigh and took a bite just as my dad walked into the kitchen. He affectionately ruffled my hair which had taken me ten minutes to style before asking:
"Lily still not up?"
My mom sighed in turn and raised her voice toward the hallway:
"Lily! If you're not down here in two minutes, I'm coming up to drag you out myself!"
"I'm up!" my sister's voice shouted from upstairs. "But where did you put my sweater?!"
My mom went up the stairs, rolling her eyes. My dad and I exchanged a knowing look before going back to our plates, tuning out the usual chaos.
"So, ready?" he asked between bites.
"A little stressed, I'll admit."
He gave me a small smile.
"That's normal. Just remember you can't do worse than we did. Your mom and I both went through it we know exactly how heavy that kind of pressure gets."
A faint smile tugged at my lips. I was studying computer science, but my dad had a degree in architecture and my mom in psychology. Their years of studying hadn't exactly been a walk in the park either.
My mom came back down at that moment and slipped in softly behind him.
"Your dad's right. Just remember he was sweating buckets and stammering like crazy just to hand me a sad little bouquet of flowers on our second date. It was adorable."
"Are you seriously going to bring that up for the rest of my life?" my dad sighed, feigning despair.
She laughed, kissing his cheek before sitting down.
"That's why I married you, isn't it?"
I made a face, watching them lost in their own little bubble, but our moment was interrupted by my little sister's arrival.
"Ugh, seriously, it's like watching some cheesy old romance movie…" she said, plopping down next to me. Without a hint of shame, she swiped the toast I'd just finished buttering, sticking her tongue out at me.
Even if everyday life was chaotic, I loved these moments deeply. That was the warmth of family, wasn't it?
As I finished packing my bag, my dad caught my shoulder and looked at me seriously.
"Aiden. Even if you fail, no one here will hold it against you. Don't go in there like it's the end of the world. An exam can be retaken. What matters is what's in your head. You're not stupid today, you're a champion."
Then he tapped my forehead twice with two fingers, smiling.
I touched the spot, puzzled.
"Seriously, Dad?"
He shrugged, a little amused.
"I watched Naruto with your mom last night. I loved that thing Itachi does, wanted to try it." His face softened, and he added sincerely, "Whatever happens, know that we'll always be proud of you."
Those words… I'll remember them forever.
A few dozen minutes later, I was pacing outside the exam room next to my best friend, Leo.
"I'm exhausted…" Leo grumbled. "My dad slammed my bedroom door shut last night, can you believe it? Me, the great Leo, treated like that…"
"The great Leo who spends all his time daydreaming?" I teased him. "Or the one who stares at girls more than his notes?"
He shrugged with unsettling confidence.
"Not my fault. You know my philosophy: if we're allowed to admire works of art in a museum…"
"…then why not admire beautiful women, who are works of art themselves?" I finished for him with a sigh. "You say that to every girl who talks to you, no wonder they run off."
"They don't run off!" he corrected, feigning offense. "They just have a hard time handling my intense, admiring gaze."
I couldn't help but laugh. Leo was the kind of loyal friend who'd help you hide a body without asking questions, but when it came to girls, he was a natural disaster.
Suddenly, he nudged me with his elbow and nodded toward a group of students a little further off.
"Look… Emma won't stop staring at you."
"Zero subtlety, Leo…" I whispered, gently pushing him away.
I glanced at Emma. She was tucking a strand of hair behind her ear, a shy smile on her face. As we moved toward the door that had just opened, she walked right past me and murmured in my ear:
"Wait for me outside… I know a great café nearby."
She walked off at once, smiling with her friends.
"A real ladies' man, my guy!" Leo said, thrilled, slapping my shoulder.
The hours of the exam dragged by in heavy silence. As soon as we saw the questions, it was clear things were rough: lines of Proxmox configuration, Python scripts, C++ bugs to fix, SQL injection vulnerabilities… Leo was sweating buckets a few tables over from mine.
When I finally got up to turn in my paper, Leo looked at me like an abandoned puppy.
The proctor collected my papers.
"Sign next to your name, please."
I picked up the pen. But just as I touched the tip to the paper, a wave of dizziness hit me with startling force. Sounds grew muffled. The proctor's voice became a distant echo. I felt something warm and wet trickle under my nose.
Reaching up, my fingers came away red. And without any warning, my legs gave out.
Total darkness.
Beeps. Steady. Cold.
Beep… Beep… Beep…
Sometimes, sobs pierced through the fog of my consciousness. I could make out my mom's blurry silhouette at my bedside, my sister asleep in a chair, and my dad, his face worn with exhaustion. I had no strength left at all. Even opening my mouth felt like an impossible mountain to climb.
---
POV Leo
My hands were still shaking, stained despite three washes at the hospital sink. Aiden was the only real friend I'd ever had. We'd known each other since middle school. Ironic, really: I was a die-hard gamer, and he couldn't care less about any of it. I'd tried everything to get him into my world, without success.
When he collapsed in that exam room, everything stopped.
All I could do was watch him convulse on the floor, drowning in his own blood. I dropped everything to rush to him, screaming at the others to call for help. I didn't care about the chaos around me, didn't care that my hands were covered in his blood. I didn't even realize I was crying my eyes out.
"Come on, Aiden… You're strong!" I stammered, gripping his hand. "Don't leave me alone, damn it…"
When the paramedics carried him away on a stretcher, I stood frozen on the front steps of the building. I stared at my trembling palms, stained with the blood of the person I considered my own brother.
A brother that… I might never see again.
---
POV General
In the hospital room, the heart monitor set the pace of the silence. Aiden's mother gently stroked her son's pale face as he lay in a coma. His father held their daughter tightly, holding back his own tears.
The door opened, and the doctor stepped in. The father straightened immediately, his voice breaking.
"Doctor… What's wrong with him? Tell me he's going to make it…"
The doctor lowered his eyes, hesitated, then said heavily:
"I'm so sorry… Aiden has acute leukemia. It's an aggressive blood cancer: his bone marrow is producing abnormal cells uncontrollably, crowding out healthy blood production. His immune system isn't responding anymore, and the risk of internal bleeding is serious… We're doing everything we can, but…"
A cry of pain tore through the room. The girl collapsed into her mother's arms, who broke down crying as well. Standing, the father closed his eyes, crushed by the news.
Only the mechanical rhythm of the machine and the grief of a shattered family remained.
---
POV Emma
"Did you go see him?"
Leo's text had been sitting on my screen for an hour, unanswered. My fingers couldn't bring themselves to type anything. And yet I was already there, standing at the window, watching that boy lying in his hospital bed, unable to see me. He probably didn't remember, but years ago, he was the one who'd stopped me from doing the unthinkable.
---
Flashback POV Emma
As a teenager, I'd had severe acne that covered my cheeks in red, painful patches, and I'd had to wear thick glasses after eye surgery. I still remember the nickname a girl in my class gave me the first week of eighth grade a nickname that spread through the whole school in a single day and followed me for two years.
Every recess became a nightmare. One day, someone took a photo of me from behind in the locker room, without my knowing, and passed it around with a cruel caption. I remember going home that night and spending an hour wringing my hair under scalding water, as if I could wash away something that wasn't even on my skin.
That particular night, it was pouring rain. I'd missed the last bus, and the same girls cornered me at the stop, in front of everyone. One of them grabbed me by the hair, another dumped my bag into a puddle, laughing. I didn't even try to pick up my things. I just walked, soaked, all the way to the bridge overlooking the river a few streets away.
I remember the sound of the water, dark and churning below, and the strange stillness inside me in that moment no more tears, no more anger, just an enormous emptiness. I just wanted it to stop. I put my hand on the cold, rain-soaked railing.
That's exactly when two arms grabbed me around the waist, almost violently, and pulled me back. I remember screaming, struggling, throwing elbows into empty air to get free.
It was Aiden.
He didn't let go right away. He held me against him, on the wet sidewalk, for what felt like an eternity, until my screams turned into sobs.
"Stop lying!" I'd finally screamed that night, trying to break free from his grip, tears burning my cheeks already soaked with rain. "Look at me! I'm ugly, Aiden! Everyone says it, everyone makes me live through it every single day! No one will ever want me!"
He kept holding my shoulders firmly, his eyes locked on mine, without a trace of disgust.
"If it's not just some pity lie…" I'd choked out through a desperate sob. "…prove it. Kiss me. You're not even capable of it…"
I was certain he'd pull back. That he'd look away, like everyone else. But without a second's hesitation, Aiden leaned in and pressed his lips to mine a clumsy kiss, rain-soaked, lasting only a few seconds, but long enough to make me forget, just for a moment, the cold railing and the black water below.
end of Flashback
---
POV Emma
The phone buzzed again in my hand. A second text from Leo: "Emma?"
Thinking back on that memory, I pressed a trembling hand to my lips, on the verge of tears.
"You saved me that day…" I whispered through the glass. "At the café, I wanted to tell you everything. To tell you how much I love you… And now you're going to leave me…"
Slipping quietly into the room while the staff kept the family away, I leaned over Aiden's face and pressed one last kiss to his motionless lips.
"You'll always be my one and only love… We'll see each other again, I'm sure of it."
I stayed bent over him a moment longer, breath shallow, before footsteps in the hallway forced me to pull away and slip out of the room without a sound.
---
POV Aiden
Somewhere, far, far beneath the surface, something had stirred. A fleeting warmth on my lips, barely there, a memory that wasn't quite my own. Then nothing.
Beep…
Beep…
Tears? Faces? Everything was nothing more than a distant, blurry haze.
I'm so tired… I just want to sleep.
Sleep…
Sle…