AN
HongKongxFrance suggested I do some of John's perspective as well, and after writing this chapter in Dave's POV I decided to write it in John's for SnGs (because being a doctor John's bound to have a more exciting morning than mist waiter man) and decided I liked it better.
So here we go, John's POV
We also get to meet Tavros in this chapter, because it's John's pov.
You wake early. You always do, you don't get much sleep in your profession, and adding that fact to the extra business you had to tend to during the night equals even less sleep. You were pretty sure it'd be a hard image to get out of your head, the typically cool-as-a-cucumber Dave screaming and bawling like a child throwing a tantrum. Although, there was something to it, and you're trying to sort it out as you turn off your alarm clock and rub the sleep out of your eyes.
Your hand prods aimlessly at the bedside table until your fingers brush over your glasses. As you put them on the world becomes clear (or as clear as it can get with sleep still clouding your vision), and you go about your morning ritual, which consists of making coffee and making yourself presentable for work. All the while you're thinking about your roommate, mostly just worried about what could possibly have caused that episode last night.
There was only a small handful of things, and at the top of the probability list was simple trauma. Trauma could cause just about anything, but it just didn't quite fit.
You're still immersed in this train of thought when you're standing in the kitchen, leaning on the counter and sipping coffee, and you hear a door close down the hall. You look up from your drink and see Dave, rubbing his eyes as he sort of stumbles around the corner and immediately goes to the coffee pot.
You can't help but watch him, kind of hoping he'll give you some sort of insight as to what happened last night. You've got a feeling, though, that he either doesn't remember it, or will pretend he doesn't. The fact that he'd refused to tell you what it was you'd be dealing with made you think it may end up being the latter.
You wait, giving him a chance to wake up a little more before asking any questions. Although, you're not entirely sure how to breach the subject. How does one go about asking about something like this?
'Hey, so I heard you screaming last night and so I just walked into your room and saw you flipping the fuck out, must have been a really bad dream to make a man cry that much.'
Yeah, that'd be perfect. You'd be moving back in with your dad before you knew it. You sigh to yourself, which he seems to catch and you look up to see him staring at you. Blue eyes connect with red for the briefest of moment before you force your attention back down to your mug.
"Do you remember last night?" You finally ask and you feel the mood of the room shift from the sort of comfortable silence to a much more tense atmosphere.
"I remember everything." You look up to him, and it finally clicks in your mind that he's not wearing anything but sweat pants. You don't know how you didn't notice he wasn't wearing those stupid aviators, especially with the brief eye contact.
"How much are you willing to tell me?" You finish up your drink, but can't bring yourself to put the cup aside. You were so used to having your hands occupied, with work and all, that when they were idle or empty it felt weird. "You don't have to tell me everything."
You look at him again and he's doing the same, fidgeting with the empty mug and he looks like he's thinking a lot about telling you anything. Every little bit of information helps you to help him, but if he was as embarrassed by this as he seemed then you probably wouldn't be able to get much out of him.
A bit of time passes in silence and as you check the clock you see that the two of you have been standing there for a grand twenty minutes in silence. You don't have work for another few hours, so you're in no hurry, but you don't know what his schedule is like, so you're not sure what to expect from this.
Dave mumbles something and your attention snaps to him. You kindly ask him to repeat, and speak up and he gives you the words clearly. "Night terrors." You quirk an eyebrow. Don't only children suffer from night terrors? You decide not to point it out, it's probably the reason he's so quiet about them. "They come and go, kind of. If I'm lucky I can go a week without having one."
All you can bring yourself to do is nod. You don't really know much about night terrors, other than that they're a bad dream's evil cousin. Much worse and, from what you'd seen in one movie and an episode of House, can make someone do some really stupid shit in their sleep. The worst Dave had done last night was scream and flail, but who knows what else he'd done. This was your first brush with them and if you had to guess he'd been having these much longer than the handful of weeks you knew each other.
He makes it clear he doesn't want to further dwell on it by putting his empty cup in the sink and skulking back to his room. You don't see him again for the rest of the morning and your still thinking about it when you get to work and are in your first, and favorite, patient's room. He's in the bed flipping through a book, which is good, and you'd be slightly less surprised that it was a Harry Potter book if not for the friend in the chair next to the bed.
"Morning Tavros," You greet with a smile and both of them start, staring at you like they hadn't known you were there. "Do you read anything else, Eridan?" You look to the one in the chair who responds by promptly mumbling what you can only assume are curses to himself.
Your attention moves back to Tavros who smiles and holds up his arms, letting the book lay open in his lap. "Look I can move my arms!" He says happily and you nod, before closing the door and walking to the end of the bed.
"But." Eridan prompts and you look at him and then back to Tavros who frowns a bit then. It's probably his legs, you think and all the teenager does is point to the offending appendages. So yes, it's exactly what you were afraid of. Unable to hold back a sigh you open your mouth to speak before it closes again.
Yeah, it wasn't as bad as it could have been, but it was still pretty bad. You sigh a little, and jump into doctor mode, going about all the questions and the little tests, poking his toes with a stick all that nonsense, and he could feel it, but he couldn't move them and that brought you down a few good mood notches. You give them a spiel of medical words and they both stare at you like you're an alien. [[Funny how that works /shot]]
"English please." Eridan says and despite the venom in his tone you can tell he's worried about Tevros. Being around the two in public it was hard to believe they were even friends, but it was those private moments like this that you could see how it worked.
"Basically, as far as I can tell as of this moment, he can't walk. Probably never will. There's a few things we could do that will make it easier to be independent, but we'll be lucky if we can get you into a pair of crutches within a year." It's quiet then, and Eridan seems to be thinking far too much for his own good. The two weren't children, they weren't naive but Eridan seemed to let his mind work too much. Tavros on the other hand just shrugged at the news smiling a little.
"Well we won't know if we don't try." His smile was forced, very forced, to the point that it hurt your face to see it. He looked at Eridan who still looked like he was thinking and with a small nudge the older teen came back to reality, nodding in agreement like he'd heard the whole conversation. You knew he hadn't and as soon as Tavros was looking at you again he fell back into his thoughts.
It was quiet over the three of you until you heard a soft knock on the door, Eridan's brother, Cronus, sticking his head in the room, "Time to leave your girlfriend." His voice came and Eridan showed immediate distaste for the comment but stood, bidding Tavros farewell, informing him to keep the book, and leaving with his sibling.
Tavros seemed sad to see him go and you looked at the book. "Is that brand new?" You ask, a knowing smile coming over his face as he nods, still staring at the door.
AN
So there we go, Eridan and Tavros (and even a little Cronus because I felt like it.)
No, I am not rubbing one of my ships in your face, not at all.
[There's not nearly enough Eridan lovin's around these parts, pft. And there's, like, five EriTav fanfics on here (I DON'T HAVE TO EXPLAIN MYSELF TO YOU)]
Oh, and clarifying! Yes, Tavros and Eridan are teenagers while most of the others are twenty-somethings. I think the only others that will be teenagers if they show up will be Nepeta and Equius. And maybe Feferi. If I decide I want her.
The next chapter will also be in John's POV, mostly because there'a thing I wanna do with Dave that will only work in John's POV (because I do shit like that)
So here's this chapter. I haven't yet decided how I'll fit any (if any) other characters in, yet. But I really like Equius so he may show up soon. Because favoritism whoo.
(What am I doing, no one reads these. But to those that do if you get an idea for one of dear, sweet Dave's nightmares feel free to tell me about it, I'd love to let you participate. And all his nightmares get a chapter of their own, so it'd be like a chapter completely dedicated to you!)
