***Hello, everyone! This chapter is brought to you on my new laptop-and boy, does it feel good. I own none of the characters, so let's go!
Chapter Eight: The Things I Do For You
Two days before Light's treatment began, he was relocated to another room and changed into a typical hospital gown. It was fitting, seeing as he was moved to a section of the institution that seemed to function much more like a hospital.
L felt guilty for what he'd sentenced the young man to. In the two days prior to his treatment, Light had been poked and prodded by nurses enough to make any normal person irritable. On the actual day of, L found that he was uneasy. But years of having to keep a stoneface expression in even the most dire of situations came in handy when one of Light's nurses came bright and early in the morning to bring him for the first of several sessions.
Light, still a little drowsy, had looked to L. Although both the nurse and the psychiatrist were familiar, one had stuck him with multiple needles over the past few days and one had given him more freedom in his little room than he'd had in months.
"Go with her, Light. You'll be alright." It seemed more like L was trying to convince himself of that than his patient. He helped Light over the edge of the hospital bed and helped him to sit in the wheelchair the nurse had brought with her.
It was clear on his face that having to use a wheelchair made him feel like some sort of invalid. "You still can hardly walk on your own. We'll work on that once you're cured," L said. Light's mouth drew into a thin line, and the nurse took him from the room.
Once the door was closed, L crouched on the hospital bed, where Light would undoubtedly be confined to.
He'll receive treatment every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday for a month, the doctor had told him over the phone in a calm voice. Wrapping his arms around his drawn-in legs, L seemed to hear the words in a new way.
He'll feel like he's been hit by a bus just like you did every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday for a month.
He honestly wished that there had been another way.
XxX
Light slept a lot. With the intensity and frequency of his therapy, he slept more often than not. He woke mainly to eat the bland food the nurses provided, when nurses came to check in on him, or when he had to tend to personal needs.
Each time he was brought back from therapy, L had tried to be there. Sometimes, he was asleep in the wheelchair. Sometimes, he looked as zoned out as when he'd first come into the older man's life.
Sometimes-the worst of times-Light had a look that was all too familiar to L. The look of just wanting everything to be over. Even if he had no words to say it, the message came across just as loudly. He wanted the pain to stop.
L was only able to watch it for two weeks before he had to reach out to help. He couldn't watch another brilliant young man fall apart.
Not again.
XxX
Light's family had finally left for the evening. For someone who they couldn't get a word out of, they were certainly quite chatty up until they had to leave, due to the institution having rules about visiting hours.
L, who had been certain to stay out of the way of a family whose wishes he'd blatantly ignored, finally moved his chair next to Light's bedside. "...are you listening to me, Light?"
Then came the wait. The wait was always the hard part. At least before, Light would turn his head, or sign, or at the best, make a sound. But now, it took him a few seconds for dimmed, rust eyes to meet unusually-soft charcoal ones.
"I know what you're going through. I had to go through it myself, back when I was twenty, nearly twenty-one. So around your age," L said.
For the first time in two weeks, Light seemed to show interest in something. But the exhaustion was overpowering his interest easily.
"For every day you make it through, I'll tell you more about my own experience. Every night you pull through, I'll tell you more about myself, as I can see your interest. Is that a deal?" L asked. His hand had been absently resting on the bedside railing.
Light, however, used his thumb to trace out four letters on the back of his hand.
S T A Y
L gently put his hand over Light's. "I'll stay for as long as you need me to," he said. "Now, get some sleep."
XxX
It seemed to be Light's favorite part of the day as his treatment period of four weeks passed. He wasn't very responsive to much else in the hospital room where he had to rest and recover, but he seemed to cling to the tidbits of L's past life like a lifeline.
As uncomfortable as it was, sharing such deep things with another person… it worked. And if recounting his time in England as an orphan, if explaining how he'd felt back then to Light as if they'd switched roles, if putting his own hazy memories of the depression and treatment he'd gone through after his father figure and only family member Watari had died nearly a decade ago worked, he would do it.
L had let himself succumb to depths of depression, nearly ending his own life on multiple occasions, and the treatment had been far from anything he'd ever want to go through again. He wasn't about to let anyone else with a bright future ahead of them fall apart.
Even if it meant, for the first time in years, he felt like crying all over again.
XxX
Everything was hazy. Light was uncertain about everything. But he clung to L. L helped him. Distorting shadows, the constant ache in his head, the confusion, the memory blanks… those, he tried to ignore. All in favor of focusing on L's soft monotone, relaying his past in bits and pieces.
Light could tell that, even though L was normally deadpan in expression, this was upsetting him to talk about. One night, in the midst of talking, tears had begun to run down his face. L didn't seem to notice-rather, he just kept telling his story. But slowly, Light eased himself to sit up.
"Do you need the bathroom again?" L guessed. Before he could stand, he was embraced. He saw, when he pulled his face out of Light's shoulder, the tear stains on his shirt. L smiled sadly.
"Thank you, Light."
***I have two more chapters planned to post after this, then this story will be done. Be sure to leave a review on the way out, and I'll see you all in the next one! Bye!