The next time Purple regains consciousness, he's nearly blinded.

Shit. Midnight killed him.

Just fucking great.

Once his eyes fully adjust, he damn near sobs from relief.

Oh.

He's not dead.

He's just going blind.

"Ack!"

"Green, chill!"

"Second, you scared the shit out of me!"

Wait.

What?

Green and Second were here?

But-

"Guys, he's waking up!" Blue's voice catches the two's attention, because their bickering immediately stops.

"What!"

"Hey! Purple! You in there, buddy?"

Purple tries swatting Green's hands away as best he can, since everything's still blobby as hell.

"Purple?"

"Sec, go get King."

Second runs out of the room as his vision clears.

King's here?!

Shit, where is he-

"Hey, chill. It's Green. King's outside, and Sec's going to get him. And god damn, he's gonna be relieved to know you're alive."

Blue and Yellow start asking random questions that he can almost barely answer. He's still really fucking confused.

"Is someone gonna give me a recap?"

"Cornflower got the four of you to the hospital, he called Green, we all stayed here probably past visiting hours waiting for information." Blue explained, sending glances at Green, who is downright refusing to let go of him.

"I might not know much about the subject of rape, but...I don't think Purple's comfortable with being touched right now."

Green doesn't let go hearing that. He lets go upon watching the front door.

Purple follows his gaze, and relief starts injecting itself into his body.

It's King.

Purple damn near breaks down sobbing.

King's here.

Your safe.

Second and the others go and check on Lilac and the others while King just stands there. Frozen.

Why isn't he doing anything?

Probably thinking about all the ways he's gonna murder-

King suddenly pulls him into a tight embrace.

"Your alive..."

Purple tries not to start sobbing right then and there, but he does hug him back.

God, he missed him.

He'd missed them all, but mainly King.

"Hey, kid. You okay?" King checks his face for injuries, despite probably being given the rundown when he got there.

"Do I look fine?"

How can King ask that question when he knows most of what happened?

"Right, sorry. I just-"

"I know."

King stares at him with a mix of regret and sympathy. "I'm sorry."

"King."

"No, I mean it. I'm sorry I couldn't protect you. We could've prevented...all of this if I had just stayed next to you-"

"King, you couldn't have know that was going to happen."

"But...I almost lost you."

"You didn't. Try focusing on the fact that you didn't lose someone you love, insteading of blaming yourself for things out of your control. None of us saw any of that coming. It's nor your fault any of this happened."

King holds him tighter. "I'm sorry..."

Purple hugs him back, and let's him apologize for what could be nothing.

And breaks down crying.

King stares at Cornflower inrediculously as he looks over Purple's injuries.

"This is all of it?"

"Yeah?" Cornflower glances over his shoulder. "Were you expecting more?"

"Eh-kind of!"

"Well, aside from the NUMEROUS rape tallies, a head injury, slits on his wrists, AND drugs forced into his system, you should be happy he's alive-"

"Hold up. Drugs?" King cuts him off. "Your telling me that my kid was drugged."

He looks understandably upset and horrified. Cornflower just sighs. "Yes. Your kid was drugged. A date rape drug, or roofie, to be exact," He explains. "The drug Zolpidem, if you want to get scientific. It's the most common out of any other drug used in rape situations, without counting alcohol, and not even Midnight, who was also underage, stooped to that level."

King's heart drops and shatters.

"Oh, God-"

"I wouldn't ask Purple anything, but you can if you want, and he wants to. Highly doubtful that he remembers much of that. It's drugs. But on another note, he should be out in a couple of days. A week or two, max."

King stares back at the hospital door as Cornflower disappears down the hall.

Outside the door goes eerily quiet.

It scares Purple. A lot.

The silence isn't cut, even as King re-enters the room. It was only supposed to be a simple analysis, and maybe a determination of when Purple was going to get out.

Hopefully it wasn't long. He'd rather be with Victim in Rocket Corp with a concussion after falling almost four hundred feet.

He resists the urge to itch at the bandages around his wrists and stares up at King. "So?"

"Week or two max, according to Cornflower," King says, although Purple senses there's something else on his mind. "With how much you went through, he's surprised your even alive."

Purple blinks, staring back down at the covers. "Would've surprised me too."

King gives him a sympathetic glance and sighs. "There was something that worried me, though."

"King, the entire list of injuries should have worried you-" Purple starts.

"It's the fact that he drugged you." King cuts him off.

Purple's heart sinks.

Of course that would make him freak out.

"King, I-"

"I know, he forced you. I know you well enough to know you wouldn't intentionally take drugs, especially when you're in a situation like the one you just got out of."

Purple doesn't look at him.

"Purple...you don't have to talk about if you don't want to. I completely understand, but I am here if you do want to talk about it."

Purple surprisingly lets King hold his hand. It surprises even himself. Every other attempt of affection from literally anyone, King included, had sent him into a panic.

Most of it at least.

Something stings in his arm.

A needle being jabbed, Purple's entire body going slack.

Collapsing to the floor-

"I...I felt dizzy..." King blinks, shooting his head up when Purple actually does start speaking. "H-He threw me onto the ground after he'd drugged me and-"

Being pinned to the ground. Purple's sure he's being tied up, but everything's so blurry and he's dizzy and-

King holds his hand tighter. Purple really wouldn't care if he'd tried giving him a hug.

God knew he needed it.

Something reaches inside, hot liquid streams down his cheeks.

"Where's your fight, sunshine?" Midnight whispers. "You always seem to fight against me."

Purple feels King get angrier inside. "Kid, I swear if he wasn't already almost dead, I'd-"

"I know. I know." Purple doesn't look at him, but he knows that King's slowly calming down.

As if this entire thing makes him feel any better.

"I couldn't feel anything...well, I could, but I couldn't," King gives him a questionable glance. Purple knows damn well that sentence didn't make any sense.

How the fuck was he supposed to describe that?!

"So...you felt what was going on, but you couldn't at the same time?" King tries helping him out.

"...Kind of? Like that, just...without the pain. If that makes any sense."

"Kind of. No idea if that would make sense under the influence of drugs from someone who does drugs for a living."

"It's...what I can describe it as."

King grips his hand tighter. "I'm sorry, kid."

Purple holds onto King's hand, ignoring the memories resurfacing up in his head.

"Aw, the poor sunshine."

"Come on, kid, put up at least a little bit of a fight."

"Come on, haven't you taken drugs before?"

please just stop-

King suddenly pulls him into a tight hug. Purple is barely able to subdue the flinch before hugging him back, suddenly aware of the tears falling down his cheeks.

"I'm here, kid, I promise. I've got you, it's gonna be okay..."

Purple doesn't say anything, choking on sobs.

King just holds him all the tighter.