{Content Warning: Trauma response???? Not sure what to call this but read with caution 💀}
Although Skyler had said it didn't matter, that obviously wasn't true. He wanted Tristan to like him. Hell, he wanted Tristan to *love* him but he wasn't going to keep his hopes up for that ever happening....
So, that was why, after following the bloody idiot to the emergency room, he didn't even try to argue or fight back when the staff told him only family was allowed in the ward. It was because he didn't have the guts to face Tristan when he woke up. What he would do in response to someone he trusted knocking him out and taking him to a place that scared him....Skyler was scared to see that response. The man let himself be led to a waiting room in order to fill out paperwork. Both his expression and body language giving off the impression that he was a dog abandoned by it's owner.
Sky had already resigned himself to his fate.
He didn't know exactly what about the hospital had scared Tristan so badly but he wasn't expecting to be forgiven easily when he wasn't even being trusted enough to know the answer as to why Tristan had reacted like that. He looked so miserable that the hospital staff woman escorting him took pity on him and did her best to comfort him.
"Hey....your friend will probably be alright....as soon as he wakes up we'll let him know you're here and he'll be able to let you stay with him! Don't worry! Okay?"
She gave him a smile and a thumbs up in an attempt to be encouraging. Yet she unknowingly poked directly at Skyler's fear that Tristan wouldn't want him to stay there with him! The innocent girl who had just graduated from a med course and gotten this job watched the disheveled man wilt in real time, his expression becoming even more miserable than before...
"....Here's a clipboard."
"...thank you..."
The atmosphere became stiff. With no way to recover from this, the staff lady simply shut up, turned on a customer service smile, walked the rest of the way to her desk, gave the man the papers he needed, gestured to the empty seats and put her head down on the counter for a minute, quietly wondering if she would be able to continue in this field of work.....
Skyler, normally an observant and charismatic young man, had no mind to concern himself with her. He filled out the paperwork absent mindedly while praying to gods he didn't believe in that Tristan would be okay and maybe, just maybe, wouldn't think of this as a betrayal....
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Nova woke up in a hospital room.
His injured leg was wrapped up and elevated and there were two needles attaching tubes to his left arm, one an IV and the other leading to a bag of blood. It seemed to be a normal ward but Nova felt anxious. It was like Tristan was bracing himself, tensing up in wait for something horrible that was going to happen soon.
Nova was alert. Far too alert for such a weakened body. It felt like life or death.
He was watching the heart monitor steadily and silently continue to rise while realizing what was wrong.
Tristan was supposed to be on suicide watch.
Anyone who made an attempt on their own life and ended up in the hospital would NEVER be allowed to be alone in a hospital room. Nova had seen this countless of times in those melodrama type worlds where his host spent most of their time in a hospital. They would even have to shower with the bathroom door open. For your own safety, you absolutely were not allowed privacy if you entered the hospital under these circumstances-
and Nova was 100% convinced that Sky would tell the truth about the situation so that they could treat his injuries as best as possible.
The room was also too large. It had far too much space. Unless Sky had chosen to the richest hospital in the area it didn't make sense for him to have a room of this size, with access to seemingly unlocked drawers of medical supplies, and even a flat screen TV that was on in front of the bed, playing some random tabloid gossip channel. Nova could see from the open window that he was very high up, to the point that this might've been considered great real estate if it wasn't in a hospital. He had a clear view of the fact that this building seemed to be in the middle of an expensive looking city.
The reason why Nova assumed that this wasn't Sky's choice was simply because his nerves would only allow him to assume the worst. Something was wrong, the answer couldn't be as simple as his friend having money.
A manual clock on the wall slowly ticked out seconds.
Nova was trying to to maintain a calm state as he felt the panic building up. He has to remind himself to not stop breathing as his eyes darted around the room desperately trying to find the call button that should've been hanging on the hospital bed so he could get assistance if needed. He had to find it before it was too late!
.....Too late?
Too late for what? Nova wondered. But his question was soon answered as he heard a noise mix in with the sounds of a hospital. Somehow overpowering the ticking of the clock and the soft whirring hums of the medical equipment and the low volume of the television.
....It was the click clack of heavy heels.
The sound told him to run. To run and never come back. And in this moment Nova knew that this is what Tristan was afraid of. Not the hospital itself but the fact that if he came here whoever was wearing those heels would find him.
Even if he wanted to listen to the original soul's instinct to run or hide, this body was far too physically exhausted to do so. He had attempted to lift himself out of the bed only to almost fall to the floor. Which was arguably a much worse position to be in when you were trying to get away from someone.
So Nova decided to pretend to sleep.
He closed his eyes and leaned back and desperately tried to relax his tense muscles. As the heels stopped at his door and it was pushed open he realized something. There were no other noises coming from the hall....he might be alone with this person.
"click-click, click-clack."
"click-click, click-clack."
They walked around him. Nova held his breath for a split second before realizing his mistake. He could only hope she didn't notice-
"I know you're awake Tristan...." As she spoke her finger grazed his face, she was moving his hair out of the way.
She noticed. Shit.
Green eyes opened very suddenly. Unlike before with Sky, they subconsciously showed a clear sense of resistance.
The original soul was already too panicked to move.
Nova was trying to keep his body from becoming paralyzed with fear while his own sense of danger was triggered.
The woman didn't have an ID.
She wasn't a doctor or a nurse. In fact, she didn't seem to be part of the hospital staff at all. The lack of an ID card was one thing but her clothing made her even more suspicious. Nova noticed that she was dressed in the slutty "professional" style that had been popular among idols recently. An observation he had made from watching a bit of the pop culture drivel that was on the TV... A tight black pinstripe pencil skirt and frilly white blouse that were both far too revealing. The skirt so short it was in danger of revealing something that shouldn't be seen, in addition to showcasing part of a garter belt that had a chokehold on her mid thigh, with clips on it that held up some half-stockings. The blouse was clearly left unbuttoned on purpose, black pushup bra very much visible and almost pushing "the girls" to escape the confines of the silky fabric.
Nova didn't know what the hell she was doing here but based off off the way his heart was pounding and his nerves told him to fear this woman with every fiber of his being, this might actually be hell and the lady in front of him was the real live devil.
He tensed and tried to keep his expression a poker face.
"How have you been sweetheart? It's been awhile since we've seen each other! I was beginning to think that you've been avoiding me on purpose!"
The grown woman spoke in an overly familiar way and even pouted. The sense of dissonance in the clearly unnatural action made Nova immediately decide that this woman was a psycho. Just like how she hadn't responded to the fact that he had been pretending to sleep, he didn't respond to her.
It seemed she wasn't expecting a response anyway as she continued,
"What happened to us! You used to come to me so often! After all, you've always been....hmmm~ let's call it...accident prone~"
She laughed. Giggling while giving a pointed look towards the injured thigh and then the healed scars on his wrist.
Crazy. She had to be insane.
The woman knew about Tristan's self harm and had seemingly just implied that he should continue doing it. Just to see her more.
Nova thought she was going to continue speaking but instead she grabbed one of his wrists. Pointing to one of the more recent looking scars that was lighter in colour,
"Look at this! I don't remember this at all~!"
She was still pouting. The theatrical way she spoke to him made him want to vomit....or maybe that was just the feeling of nausea he had since the second he heard her heels. He wanted to pull his arm away from her but he was shaking too much to do it. Then she kissed his scars.
Plump red lips met his skin and Nova felt the urge to flay himself to get her touch off of him.
"...I like you so much but you didn't even tell me? I'm so sad~ We cou-"
"I don't like you!!" Nova yelled suddenly, a delayed reaction as he yanked his arm away from her and started violently scratching and rubbing at the skin there, wanting nothing more than to get her lipstick and the feeling of her lips off of him.
"....."
The woman went silent as Tristan panted with watery eyes, seemingly exerting all his energy to say four words to her. She looked down at him with cold blue eyes. The overdramatic "affection" vanishing for a second, leaving only a cold and frustrated expression.
....and then the coldness melted away as quickly as it had appeared, but somehow the new affection felt even colder....
"Ah, Tristan~" the woman purred, tracing his jaw with her finger. "You've never liked me, I know this. But you should understand by now that- "
"I." Her thumb pressed on his lower lip, pushing the upper as if demanding entry.
"Do." Her pointer finger curled under his jaw, keeping his face firmly in her grip.
"Not." She forced him to look up at her, the movement so quick it caused him pain.
"Care!" She said with laughter, kissing him against his will.
Nova pushed her shoulders. Tristan had a strong enough physique but one of his hands was currently attached to needles and tubes and difficult to move while the left over disgust and fear the man had felt towards this woman made him subconsciously want to run and hide rather than confront her or fight back.
Nova wanted to curse. This psychotic bitch!! It was difficult enough as is but what else has she done to Tristan to make him this reluctant to fight back?! How was he meant to overpower trauma this intense??
He desperately tried to rip her hand off of him but all he could think was 'Don't touch me. Don't touch me. Don't touch me. Don't touch me-' over and over again but he was so scared and choked up he could barely speak,
"...no....don't! ....please...." he managed to choke out at some point, his volume just barely above a whisper.