You might be surprised – might – to find this update this soon already. Yet, due to personal circumstances, plus the fact that plenty of Deviants have taken the time to read and comment the first chapter, I find it necessary to update now already. Tomorrow I'll be travelling back to Belgium, which will cause weird time-differences to make me skip a day. Complicated. But ah well, let's face it; life is complicated.
I hope you enjoy this chapter :) It's not as decent as further chapters, and a little short compared to the others, yet at least I like it better than the first.
Chapter 2
Message one.
Damn that woman's voice. Always making him wait to hear the messages. If only she knew how annoying she could be to so many people worldwide. Zuko had a quick look at the clock next to him. Nine in the morning. He hadn't slept at all.
Hey, why the hell did you do that? Please answer your phone, Zuko, I want to know what's going on!
Message two.
Hey there, it's me again. You're crying and I want to know why. Come on, baby, just pick up the fucking phone already!
Message three.
I have to know what's going on. Please, please Zuko, I want to help you! What room are you sleeping in? Pick up the phone!
It went on like that for a while. Actually, it went on like that for another twenty messages. Until it all stopped at message twenty-four.
Zuko chuckled to himself as he locked his arms around his knees, which he had pulled up the bright white bedding, staring down at the screen of his cell phone as he stared at some of the pictures Jet had sent him, regarding message fifteen.
Message fifteen.
Alright then, don't pick up the fucking phone. I'm afraid I'll just have to cheer you up myself then. Make sure you check the next few pictures I'll send ya, I'm gonna punish you for hanging up on me. Love ya. Kiss.
Three pictures, to be exact. One of them was showing mainly Jet's nose, pressed to the eye of his cell phone's camera, only one extra large eye visible, making a face. Staring straight back to him. Frown deepened, and to make it complete; an angry-faced smiley drawn the fingertip he showed off. So, practically just making a funny face to cheer Zuko up. Unfortunately he was not in the mood for silly things such as these. It got a chuckle out of the boy's throat, nothing more.
The second picture a perfect shot of his behind, bringing a blush over the pale teen's face. He remembered how Jet's ass could feel in his hands, how Jet's lips could kiss his throat, how Jet's gaze of lust could make him whimper. This picture was just added for fun, Zuko thought at first. Until he noticed what text had been stitched in the cloth of his new pair of jeans.
© Zuko
He cried out in laughter and tapped another button to see the next and thereby last picture. Jet. Just looking… extraordinarily beautiful. His usually pointy brown eyes now rather wide, looking up in the camera hopefully, cute. Tip of nose a soft pink due to the cold of the outside air at night, and lips lightly parted to show him a line of straight, white teeth. Tanned skin and gorgeous locks of brown hair covering part of his face, poking his forehead as usual.
Zuko pressed a kiss to his screen, and quickly chose this shot as his wallpaper. So he'd be able to look at it as often as he wanted without having to search for it through his other pictures.
A slight frown consumed his face, as he thought of what he had done to his love last night. He had just hung up on him without a decent explanation. Making it seem like he actually didn't care about him, about them.
'I do care, Jet…' he whispered to himself, fingers caressing Jet's tanned cheek on the photo. 'I care for you so much…'
He cursed himself as he felt his eyes sting once more. Fuck, he was crying again. Just thinking about everything got him over the edge and caused him to shed more tears again. Cancer… who would have ever thought that? Why was it so that such things only happened at times you least expect them to happen, least want them to happen?
Maybe the doctor had seen it wrong. After all, he had just taken some blood for research. They had seen some cancer cells in the blood they had taken, he claimed, but perhaps it were no cancer cells. Perhaps it was just some kind of reaction to lack of sugar, or lack of iron, seeing Zuko had not been eating too properly the past few months. Thinking about it this way gave him hope, and hope gave him a reason to stop his crying again.
The door opened, and screeched a bit as if to get Zuko's attention. He gasped and quickly wiped his tears away, cheeks still feeling warm and eyes swollen as he cursed himself for that. He wanted to keep his grief hidden, though anyone could notice now. He didn't want them to find him weak.
'Excuse me?' a kind voice came from the door, as a nurse peeked through the half opened entrance. 'My apologies to disturb you, sir, but you have a visitor.'
A smile covered Zuko's lips as he stared at the one entering the room, just after the nurse had left. Tall, handsome, tanned. Jet.
'Jet!' Zuko cheered out loud, just a bit too loud to a hospital's norms, as he got up from his miserable position on the bed. Jet spread his arms wide to catch the boy in an embrace as he slammed into him, hugging, burying his pale nose within the softness of Jet's shirt. The warmth and comfort of this body forced the smile on Zuko's face to widen, a blush added, eyes closing as he inhaled the lovely scent of his lover. He had missed this so much.
'I'm so happy to see you…' he whispered, muffling his face to the collar of Jet's vest, pressing a kiss to the cloth covering part of his neck. A large hand stroke his back and pressed their bodies closer to each other, most likely Jet's, as the paler man felt warm lips kiss him on the edge of his ear, tongue poking out to give him just the slightest bit of a shiver, just to tease him.
Jet chuckled and bit his lover along the ear a little. 'I can't believe this. I'm out of town for three simple days, and you end up in the hospital. I can't leave you alone ever again, now can I?'
Zuko chuckled as well. Even though he knew that there was nothing to laugh about.
'I missed you, you know that?' the tanned rebel said quietly, as neither of them had the guts to let go of each other. They felt good this way. 'Damn you for not answering my calls, though.'
Zuko bit his lip, and sought more comfort through the embrace he shared with his partner. 'I'm sorry, Jet…' Path of feather light kisses followed the curve of the tanned man's neck, putting a hold to the journey once he made it to the soft spot just underneath his jawbone. He had to lean on the very tip of his toes to reach there, meaning that Jet was indeed a lot taller than him. 'Can you ever forgive me?'
'Mhmm… Not sure if I can, darling…' Jet nuzzled the tip of his nose along the skin of Zuko's jaw. 'You'll have kiss me for that first…'
Zuko chuckled again, feeling the ground underneath both of his feet vanish as his lover pulled him up just a bit, so their faces would be close enough to each other for their lips to lock. The sudden warmth and softness of feeling Jet's lips pressed against his own caused Zuko to blush even more, although it was definitely not part of his habit to blush a lot, and his hands clawed up in between all the brown hairs covering Jet's head, pulling him closer so they'd be able to deepen their kiss. Tongues poked at each other just once, as to send a simple spark down their bodies, before they commenced the intriguing tangoing of their lips. Wrapping of tongues, rocking of lips, tasting of mouths. The kiss lasted for a full ten seconds, and would have continued another ten more if the doctor had not entered the room.
His eyes widened and he nearly dropped his freshly-made cup of coffee as he stared upon the two young males, clearing his throat as to get their attention. He did his very best not to let either of them notice his surprise nor disgust. 'Pardon me?'
Zuko and Jet stopped their kiss almost immediately as they heard his voice, both blushing furiously upon being caught. Blushing in a good way. Somehow embarrassed, otherwise proud. Huang fought the urge to frown in disrespect.
'We're settled for the pet scan, Zuko. Follow me.' He wasn't even asking.
Jet couldn't understand what was going on now. He gazed at the doctor, a bit unsure, eyes flashing from the one person to the other in the room. 'Pet scan?' His voice sounded surprised, rather trembling. To him, a pet scan meant something serious was wrong. Something life endangering was torturing Zuko. 'Why a pet scan? Isn't that… only for serious cases?' He felt fear somewhat consume part of his heart as well as the thought of something serious being wrong with his love, Zuko.
Huang smiled bitterly at the gay couple and shoved his hands down the depth of his pockets. 'If that's what you are bound to believe, then who am I to disagree?'
Jet felt his stomach curl to that. There really was something serious going on with Zuko. He knew he would not survive seeing him in pain, and the thought of having to lose him…
He quickly grasped on for his boyfriend again and held him tight, hiding his face down his neck. Zuko bit his lip once more and let his lover do as he pleased.
Doctor Huang folded his hands to fists down his pockets, as he felt himself tremble all over. He had been reading this patient's file all night through, but not once had he discovered anything to tell him this twenty-one year old boy was… gay. Or perhaps even bi. Well, not that it actually mattered, to him they were all exactly the same; sick. Stricken by one of the world's most dangerous diseases. Stricken by a disease even worse than cancer.
He felt like he had to say something. Just to break the awkward silence in between them. Yet, Jet was the one to speak first.
'Zuko, why a pet scan?' he asked, never once giving the boy some space to take a breath. 'Did you break any bones? Do you have some kind of tumour anywhere?' Zuko did not reply. Though Jet had felt his muscles tense at the tumour part. His heart scattered right as he stood there and the grip on the boy's shoulders tightened, feeling almost painful as he bored his nails through his upper skin. The word his mind was now faintly bringing up towards the surface of his thoughts couldn't be true. Shouldn't be true. 'Don't…' A thick swallow had to travel for the depths of Jet stomach before he managed to continue. 'Don't tell me you have…'
'Don't say it!' Zuko exclaimed, just a bit too loud, fingers fumbling at his lover's shirt as he hid his face to this broad chest. He trembled nervously, his hands wanted to hold on to Jet's back yet his arms would not cooperate. He was frightened by the truth and afraid of what might happen next. If Jet would have spoken the word he feared most of all on this planet right now he would have screamed.
Zuko tried not to sob. Again. God, he felt weak crying just about that. It was just cancer, damn it, anyone could get that!
Yet, no matter how stern the voice in his mind telling him that felt, it did not bring the courage he was searching for to him.
'Let's get moving, shall we?' Huang spoke, taking a hold on Zuko's collar to pull him away from Jet, yet quickly releasing his grip on the cloth. Pulling his hand back as if he had just touched some kind of flame. Filthy faggot. 'The sooner we'll scan you the better.' For only one mere second, if not less, the tiniest bit of a devilish idea shot through Huang's mind; what if something happened in that scanner? What if, just in case, the machine would unexplainably lose it, and perhaps even explode? Explode and take that son of a bitch straight down to –
The doctor hit himself in the face, hard. Neither Zuko nor Jet noticed, luckily, and he forced himself to ban those thoughts out of his head. Ban them in name of the oath he had taken as a doctor. He had to help this boy, gay or straight. Plus, the chance of explosion with their high tech devices were extremely low. He hoped.
Yet still… Gay?
He closed his eyes as he guided the gay boy through the hallways. Closed his eyes so he'd be unable to see, closed his eyes so he'd be safe. Unfortunately, he knew very well that closing
his eyes couldn't possibly be enough to lock the monster inside of him away for good.
I hope you managed to enjoy this chapter, somehow.
Obviously, the only OC you must know is the doctor; Huang. The nurse's name is barely even named. I'm not too fond of creating OCs for a story, yet found it of great importance in this case.
The more you review, the sooner you'll have the next update. :)