Note: I had amazing reviews lately, it's just crazy that what was supposed to be a short crack-fic became that huge thing. I'm living surrounded by plot bunnies, and they're gnawing at my feet constantly, thus the daily updates...
special message: Fingers crossed for ryuzaki-will-live-on's bf.

Matt
They were at the bedroom's door, and even if Mr Keehl didn't look completely hostile, simply concerned by his son lying in the bed, the look Mrs Keehl sent me... I didn't oppose when my mother pulled me out of the room to leave Mihael's parents alone with the doctor who was accompanying them.
I sat on a chair outside, barely hearing murmurs through the closed door. It seemed to last for ages, and I just wanted to be with Mihael.
I jumped on my feet when they finally exited. Mrs Keehl wasn't even crying, not a sob, no red eyes, just an impassible face, and it almost surprised me, because I would have thought that even a heartless-looking person like her was like any other mother. I had almost categorised her as inhuman, with the few I had seen of her in Berlin, which hadn't been under the best light, and I was kind of comforted in that thought right now...
I tried to convince myself that she was just in shock and trying to keep a composure...

I peered inside, eager to come back beside Mihael, but the words she spat at my face...
"Don't you come near him you little sh..." she stopped just in time, glanced at my parents that had stood up behind me and swallowed back the nasty word she was about to say, "Don't you dare entering this room again, you're no family, you're nothing and I want you to leave him alone or I'll call the cops on you!"
"Mrs Keehl, please..." my father began. I was speechless, unable to utter a word, staring at her mouth hanging open.
"I don't want to hear what you have to say, we are the parents thus the only ones able to take decisions for him, and I don't want him around, never!" she pointed at me with her chin disgustingly.
My father had just time to grab my mother's arm, his eyes silently begging her not to aggravate things.
Mr Keehl pushed his wife forward, and turned to my father, handing out a professional card to him. "Please call me on my mobile phone tonight, so we can talk." he whispered out of ear of his wife.
My father took the card and nodded.

My parents all but forced me to the car to go back home, once the Keehls were gone. Now that they had been here physically and stated face to face with the doctor that they didn't want me around, the doctor was inflexible.
It was going against the law as long as Mihael wasn't awake and able to say he wanted to see me and the doctor insisted that he had already allowed too much before they arrived. I was sure that Mrs Keehl wouldn't hesitate to call the cops on me, just as she had said. Bitch.

My mother sent me to the shower while she prepared lunch, and then she forced me to eat. Then she sent me to bed even if it was only noon.
I was awfully tired, but unable to sleep. Each time I dozed off I had awful nightmares of Mihael dying.
I cried hours long, and finally dragged my feet into the living room, letting myself fall on a chair, my head resting on the table.
My father had stayed home although he had work to do, that said a lot about the situation. My mother sat beside me and took me in her arms, and I started crying again.
It felt like life had stopped, like the whole world had come to a stop, waiting for something, anything, to make things better so the pain could go away a bit, just so we could resume living.

It had been hours that my father had been sitting face to my mother and me, turning and returning Mr Keehl's card between his fingers, and glancing at the clock.
When it ticked 7pm, he grabbed the phone and called.
He put the speaker on so we could all hear.
First thing was that Mihael's father didn't agree with his wife and apologised for her. They would stay until the moment they were supposed to be gone initially, not changing the reservation Mihael had made for them on tuesday. Mr Keehl had an important seminar to attend to and couldn't miss it since he was one of the main organisers, and had persuaded his wife not to stay here alone.
He said he would make sure I was allowed to see Mihael after their departure but that it was better if I didn't show up at the hospital until wednesday.
He would call if there was any change to Mihael's state until then.
And that was all. I would be unable to see Mihael until wednesday... that's all that was looping in my head. Unable to see him for days.

So I ran. Upstairs to grab my car keys, realised it was still parked in the parking of Mihael's apartment lot, downstairs, outside, my father running after me but he gave up when I disappeared at the corner of the street. He knew it was useless.
I ran until I couldn't breathe, my lungs burning, walked, took a bus without paying, and finally got to my Camaro.
I drove straight to the hospital. They kindly asked me to leave the first time I tried to get in, they yelled the second time I forced my way, called the security the third time and threw me harshly on the pavement the fourth one.
I got back to my car, I wasn't myself anymore. I was furious, desperate, losing my mind even.

I drove to the hotel where the Keehls were staying, Mihael had told me where he had booked for them so even if they had arrived a day early, I assumed they were at the same. And I was right, and lucky, because the way I looked, the guy at the counter would have never called them for me, I looked sweaty, dishevelled, insane in the middle of the luxurious lobby, so when I spotted them exiting the hotel's restaurant through the glass bay, I ran to them before anyone could stop me. With the security guy on my tracks, I laid into them violently.
"Why can't you just accept things as they are? I probably love him more than you will ever do, and using your authority to forbid me access won't stop him from being gay! I love him, can't you understand that? I love him!"
I couldn't go on, I was crying too hard, and all the people around with their shocked expressions, I wanted to hit them.

"Let's go somewhere private." Mr Keehl grabbed my arm and pulled me along as he walked past the security guy, nodding to him to tell it was fine. Mrs Keehl was about to say something but he cut her straight in german. I didn't understand but she didn't say a word after that and followed. He obtained a private booth in the hotel's bar and almost pushed me in the red sofa, sitting face to me, motioning to his wife to do the same with a cold glare.
I could see she was infuriated but was shutting her big mouth only to preserve her image in that fancy hotel.

"What do you think you're doing, young man?" Mihael's father asked me, his face severe.
I stared at him for a few seconds. All of this and he didn't understand? Wasn't it his son laid in that hospital's bed? Oh wait, he was the type to go on with his work when his son was badly injured, what did I expect from such a person?
"If you don't understand why I'm doing all of this, then it's useless to explain, you don't have what it takes to understand." I was bitter, mean, but they deserved it. Those people were heartless bastards.
Mr Keehl was taken aback, but where I thought he or his wife would reply some nasty comment and send me back where I came from, he simply said: "Well, I guess we deserve this quite a bit...".
Mrs Keehl opened wide eyes but he sent her a glare, and she kept silent.
He sighed and laid against the back of the sofa. The waiter arrived to take orders and Mr Keehl asked for three coffees.
"Drink." he told me once we all had a steamy cup of the liquid in front of us, "You look like you need it."
The tone was less hard on me, and Mihael's mother was still silent, which surprised me, so he did all the talking.

"Don't think we don't love him... it's just... difficult." he murmured, pinching the bridge of his nose.
I don't know why I said that, but it seemed to me that if it had been possible for me, then there was hope for them too. "You know... I was a homophobe before I met Mihael. I didn't want to be near him, I was disgusted by people like him... see how he changed me. He's just the most beautiful person in the world. He kind of forced himself on me until I just couldn't be without him anymore, he's just that amazing... so why? Why can't you see that? I don't understand how his own parents can refuse to accept him as he is, and why he never managed to change your mind..."
Mrs Keehl opened her mouth but closed it. Whatever she wanted to say didn't pass her lips as her husband laid his palm flat on her arm.

Mr Keehl stayed silent for a while too, trying to find his words.
"From the few I've seen, you are very close to your parents so it probably looked strange to you, the way we interact with Mihael. I admit it wasn't under very nice circumstances, the first time we met, and we didn't treat you right, and I apologise for that. But every family is different..."
He sipped his coffee, and went on: "We are not the kind to show feelings, be touchy or other displays of affection, I've been raised like that by my parents, so does my wife, so we unconsciously reproduce the same pattern with Mihael. But this has nothing to do with the fact he prefers other boys. It's another story and..."
That's when Mrs Keehl decided to cut the silence she was walled in since the beginning.
"That's none of his business Karl!" she growled.

"I don't care what it is actually," I replied, glaring at her, "all I know is that the way you treat him is not right, you hurt him and then you try to protect him from me, nothing's logical in this. If you can't accept what he is, at least don't stop him from being happy. You never came here until now, he's spending all his time with me and this is serious, we're not fuck-buddies or whatever you seem to think about me, I love him, truly. So for his best interest I suggest we stop fighting over him. No matter what the problem is between you and him, he invited you here, he even bought you presents, he's trying hard, so maybe it's time you make a step toward him, don't you think so?"
"I have to admit that you're a smart boy, Mail. I misjudged you although I should have known that with the bright mind that is Mihael, his boyfriend would be all the same. I'm also forced to admit that you're being more reasonable than we are on the matter."
"Karl that's enough, we don't have any obligation toward that little brat, why are you even discussing terms with him, just cut if off already! We decided that it was best he didn't show up to the hospital anymore, and since we are going to bring Mihael back in Germany on tuesday and it's going to take months before he can ever think to come back to Los Angeles, he'll have forgotten his stupid little crush in the meanwhile."

I stared at Mr Keehl. So if I hadn't been here talking to them, I would have come back to the hospital on wednesday to find out that they had taken Mihael back in Germany? My heart sank to my feet.
I stood up, anger boiling in me so strongly that I was shaking. "So it was all lies! You lied to my father just so I wouldn't cause any trouble until you could runaway with him!"
Mr Keehl had been trying to buy me from the beginning, playing the nice guy that repents, I was just so sorry for Mihael, who deserves parents like that?
But most of all, even above the fact that they had been playing my whole family, I was alarmed by the fact that they would transport Mihael on such a long distance in the state he was in. I know they had money, connections and stuff but it was just totally insane, risking Mihael's health like that!
"Why didn't you just shut up!" Mr Keehl spat to his wife. The little plan was revealed, crap?

"So you want things to go that way. No problem, if we have to fight, I'll fight. But remember: you started with lies so don't expect me to play fair." And on that, I was gone.

While I was driving, everything was setting into place in my mind. The plan I was about to set in motion needed that I took care of Mihael's health being threatened before everything. I suspected they had greased the doctor's palm to get the authorisation to move Mihael because it was impossiblethat Mihael's state allowed such a long distance flight, be it in a special plane or whatever they did medically speaking.

I went home, told everything to my parents about what just happened, had to stop my father to call the Keehls to tell them what he thought about them since it would do no good, explained my plan, got some pretty good advice from my mum, and got hugged by my father who whispered in my ear that he was proud of me.

From that moment, I didn't feel like crying once. I had a rage in me, a will to protect Mihael that made me burn from the inside. Most things were against me: his family had all authority concerning him as long as he was unconscious, I had no say in the matter. Our relationship was labelled homosexual so it wasn't the best position to be taken seriously by most people. I didn't have the money they had and couldn't grease anyone's palm, so I would have to relay on honest and helping hands. And I didn't even trust justice enough to be on the good side.

I strangely slept well that night, no dreams, no nightmares, just a deep sleep.
I was up at 6am, found all the numbers I had to call on the internet, and got ready while I was waiting that it was at least 8 to start calling those numbers.