song of the day- first day of my life, bright eyes

Ch 4: Treatment

Nico wasn't really quite sure what was going on, but his head hurt like hell. It was almost like back in the "good old days" when his life would only alternate in between drug-induced insane highs and crushing lows.

But, he was pretty sure he would've remembered if he had decided to go off the deep-end last night. The headache wasn't the same as the pure shitty feeling drugs had left him with, and the pain only seemed to come from his head, ribs, and skin.

So, it must've been a street fight.

However, it didn't feel like the cement from the boxing alley underneath his body. Rather, it felt... Plush. Like a luxury bed.

What the hell?

Nico figured it was time to try to open his eyes.

Slowly, Nico's eyes opened to take in his mysterious surroundings. It was a nice room; very clean and organized. It seemed like an apartment, and the only weird thing was a strange teddy bear in the corner. Nico wiggled his fingers, testing his reaction time.

Not the worst. It wasn't the best feeling ever, but he had certainly been in tougher situations.

Nico swung his feet up, trying to maneuver himself to stand up.

Only to promptly fall when he tried to shift his weight onto his feet

"Figlio di puttana" Nico softly cursed.

Will ran into the room after hearing the loud crash, and his eyes widened at the sight of Nico crumpled on the floor.

"Figs of what now? And why exactly are you on the floor instead of my nicely made impromptu medical bed?"

"Wait, Will?" Nico questioned, confused. "Why are you here?"

Will walked over, nodding. "You remember my name, that's a good sign for concussion or head injury indication." He stopped his medical mumbling, "This is my home, silly."

"Che cosa? Say that one more time?"

"Yup." Will chuckled. "This is my house, death boy. I'm studying to be a doctor, you're in pretty good hands." Will kneeled down to start checking Nico's bandages.

Nico paused to consider the irony. One boy in the room was known as the king of ghosts, and the other worked to revive them.

After a few minutes, Nico spoke again. "But... Why help me?"

Will snorted. "What, was I supposed to leave you bloody in the ring?" He grew somber after noticing how Nico wasn't making eye contact. "Hey, I just figured you probably weren't the type to check yourself into a hospital for this sort of thing. And I know how to patch people up, and I don't want any money or anything. If anything, I should be thanking you for being my test patient here."

Nico shook his head. "No, no, no. That's not what I meant at all." He paused to reassemble his words. " I guess... I guess I was just surprised at your act of kindness. Thanks for doing this for me."

Will beamed. It was so bright that it almost hurt to look at, but Nico stayed looking at him. It was so unique, and he made a promise in his head to get used to it.

"Come over anytime, Nico." Will replied.

For the first time in a while, Nico smiled back

"With your injuries, I'm going to duck out so that you can sleep for a bit longer. Your body seems like it's been running in low sleep for a while now. But, if you need anything, feel welcome to call out and I'll get here as soon as possible."

Will leaned down and picked Nico up from the floor to deposit him on the bed. The boy seemed as light as a box of feathers, which was a little troubling. He would have to go try to make some food to shove down the scrawny boy's throat.

Nico played with the covers, watching Will's back as he left the room.

Being cared for. Now, that was a weird feeling.

Will nervously tapped his pencil on the kitchen table, thinking of Nico.

It really had been an awesome sight to see Nico standing, bloody and triumphant, over his opponent. The moment seemed surreal, with the fierce gleam of victory shining in the boy's eyes and the noise of the crowd going absolutely batshit crazy. They all loved that sort of shit.

And then, the fuzzy feeling in his head had gone cold as Nico fell to the floor.

Thankfully, he didn't seem to have any head injuries from hitting the ground, but he was going to have a nasty headache for quite a while. Will's examinations had seemed to show that many of the cuts had simply broken the tip of the dermis on his arms and legs, and weren't too severe. His external obliques had suffered some damage from where Nico was trying to divert the damage from his stomach, as well. His lungs were in the worst condition. Will had been afraid that Nico had broken one of his ribs, but luckily he had just suffered from a bruised rib on his false ribs on the left side. It created a huge, blossoming red and purple bruise on Nico's side. Not that Will thought it looked kinda cool or anything…

So, he would just have to tell Nico a few things. And definitely not that he thought Nico looked cool. More like how he might feel the urge to only take shallow breaths, but taking normal breaths was crucial. And how the pain in his ribs should go away in three to four weeks, but if it didn't, to come back here at once. Purely for medical reasons. And he had already stitched up the deepest knife wounds, they were both very lucky that the crazy man with a knife hadn't been smart enough to aim for an artery. Now all that was left was to take a few weeks to heal, and watch for any sneakier damage.

It was definitely a breach on his patient, but Will thought Nico looked damned cool with all of his bruises and stitches. His body was a work of color now, tatto ink spiraling with dried blood under the skin and thread. Not that he had an injury fetish or anything…

Will furiously blushed. Notgoodnotgoodnotgood. Those thoughts were trouble. He tried listing of the muscles in the body

Flexor retinaculum, pronator teres longus, supinator, brachialis, brachioradialis, biceps brachii…

Will groaned, thinking of how defined Nico's biceps brachii looked when he swung a blow at the opponent's sternum.

Yup, he was royally screwed.

a/n: sorry for all the HAP stuff ;) i guess school has me in it's vices. Thank you for every reviewer, follower, and favoriter that believed in me; I hope everybody is having a great year.