Thought I heard them talking in their sleep yesterday [OPEN]

[dead_black_eyes]

Who: L, Tony, Belle and OPEN to anyone who might want to come visit them.
Where: One of Locke City's bigger hospitals.
When: August 18- 19
What: Two idiots get in a fight. Belle is a good listener for Tony and talks L out of a rash decision. Also a catch-all for visitors on the 19th.
Warnings: Profanity, violence, feels, two guys displaying some
symptoms of PTSD.




Sometimes, people could afford to be selective about the hospital they were admitted to. Specialized clinics and treatment programs, top ratings, and individual needs were all carefully considered during the best of times. Specifically, when one had the luxury of time.

This was not such an occasion. With one patient bleeding out in critical condition and the other in a dissociative, violent state of psychological shock, the only things that really mattered about the hospital were that they could be speedily admitted and that the facility had enough departments to reasonably accommodate both physical trauma and fractured mental states. The honor had fallen to Locke City's largest and most complete hospital, where Tony Sparado and Lazarus Lawliet had been sedated, separated, and taken to different wards on different floors.

This was two days ago. Now, some things had improved; Tony's condition had stabilized and they were both keeping down food. Other things remained uncertain; L, grimly committed to not answering the Mafia's questions during their captivity, was still not talking.

Regardless of what the future held, both young men would remember Albero's hospitality for a long, long time.

Comments

[oncedevil]

Could anyone reasonably claim to be equipped for this? Tony sure wasn't, he was barely equipped for normal functioning life much less this hell he'd found himself in suddenly. Figuring out how to job and not live by scavenging was hard enough, and now he didn't know what way to turn. The thing about being tied to a chair under the mafia's oh so gentle care, things were utterly predictable. Horrible, but predictable, his life had fallen into such an extremely rigid and terrifying regimen that to deviate at all meant even more horrible things would happen.

Now that they were on the other side of that it was almost more frightening than the familiarity of that dirty warehouse. After something like that how did one just simply 'go back to living'?

It was all too much to comprehend, and Tony's ill-functioning brain could only grasp so much at one time. Water, water was what he wanted, but the pitcher posed a problem. His jaw and face didn't work right, but he vaguely remembered there were straws on his bedside table so he drug himself over to rifle around for one. Fumbling and clumsy he eventually managed to get one unwrapped (and the rest lost on the floor) so that he could sip out of the pitcher, cradling it on his lap.

Kind of pathetic, but it did make him feel better. "Talk to me?" He finally asked, watching L fuss about and struggle just as much as he was with coping. L's talking had been one of his few comforts, maybe he'd still find it there.

[dead_black_eyes]

When he again turned off the faucet, L could hear the wrapper and the sound of water being sipped through a straw. His strange peace offering had, it seemed, been accepted. As he was ready to turn and leave and surrender himself to orderlies who had probably been alerted that he was missing by now, though, Tony's soft voice sliced through his intentions sharp and clean, and he leaned against the sink and stared at the drain.

I don't know what to say. That's no way to talk.

The jig was up, though; now that L had demonstrated that he could speak, he had no excuse to close down again. The responsibility of being well, in that way at least, was a burden he wasn't ready for. But Tony's threadbare voice was weaker than his, so it was one that fell to him by default.

"Did you know... I was a chess prodigy," he said quietly, almost dreamily. "I'm not sure what it means to you but... I was a Grandmaster when I was 10. That's a big deal. Adults were nice to me because of it, but other children... I burned all my trophies a few years ago and got arrested and held overnight in jail. You can't burn things on public property without a permit, but... sometimes I miss them because it was like being able to count and quantify what my life was worth. Without them I couldn't do that anymore. Sometimes I wonder if any of it even happened, at all."

[oncedevil]

The peace offering was indeed sufficient, L's earlier wrathful outburst all but forgotten. He'd remember, later, and wonder at it when he had more faculties about him. For now he was content to sip his water and listen to a voice he had been pretty certain he'd not ever hear again.

After that outburst Tony wouldn't believe for a moment that L couldn't speak, who knew if he'd respond to an attempt at reverting with anger or despair. Right now his emotions were an unpredictable roller coaster, influenced largely by pain and the drugs designed to keep it at bay.

He didn't understand it, really, but the story was still interesting and Tony watched L in rapt attention while he spoke. Like it was story time and this was the best tale he'd ever heard. "I've never played chess," He admitted after a time. "Why'd you burn 'em?"

[dead_black_eyes]

L glanced in the mirror backing the sink, finding his own haggard, pale face unpleasant to look at and instead glancing at Tony's reflection in the background. He seemed attentive, present, and lucid, which... admittedly wasn't the state L wanted to share such sensitive details of his life with. He comforted himself with the likely possibility that Tony would forget all or most of it.

"I really hated myself. I spent three years in a mental hospital and came out to find almost all the money I made playing chess gone. My uncle spent it before he died so... all I had were those trophies. They were all I'd accomplished and they weren't actually good for anything. So I put them in a wagon, took them to a park, and lit a really big bonfire that I honestly didn't care if I ended up in, too. I got arrested before I could think too much about it."

[oncedevil]

Likely he would, his memories were fleeting at best right now, and though for the moment L had his attention this state was temporary at best. Especially once the orderlies caught up with him and found him there, they'd probably refresh Tony's sedatives so he could sleep.

Again he was silent for a time, either out of difficulty in understanding or thinking very hard about it it was hard to say. "Was it a good bonfire at least?" Tony please. Simple mind, right now, you'll have to forgive him, L. "When we're better will you teach me to play chess?"

[dead_black_eyes]

"It wasn't a bad one. Probably average, like my hands were then. But it was really hot, so... it did what bonfires are supposed to."

Consume. Decimate. Fit to take someone to hell.

His breath caught at the question. "I'd... be happy to, Tony, but..."

When I leave this hospital, I'm going to another one. And for either of us... "better"? Simple mind, indeed.

"...yes, of course. I'll teach you everything I know."

[oncedevil]

"Mm," Just a sound of agreement as if he understood what L was even talking about. He didn't, he didn't even really know what they were talking about honestly. Fires and trophies and chess, words that meant very little right now. He was getting tired, which was probably good, being awake so long probably wasn't helping matters any.

"Better" was a pipe dream, again something he'd know later on.

"Thank you," He paused, whatever thought he'd had abruptly interrupted by the sound of orderlies' feet down the hallway. "Someone's comin'." He mused, more to himself than to L.

[dead_black_eyes]

L's head jerked up as he listened. Someone was, in fact, coming, and his hands didn't look particularly clean with Tony on the floor and his IV ripped out, while L looked on wearing stolen scrubs. As the door opened, he stood by passively as a nurse and orderly rushed over to tend to Tony, while two large male nurses approached L cautiously, with a syringe containing a tranquilizer held in one of their outstretched hands.

L held out an arm to make it easier for them, deciding it would be better not to put up a struggle, but the second he even twitched they tackled him anyway, wrestling him to the floor and stabbing him in the leg with the needle, forcing the medication out in a way that was both startling and painful. Not that he had much time to reflect on it as the world swirled and melted into darkness.

[oncedevil]

Tony was compliant, happy for help back into bed being as he was woozy anyway. He didn't like the look of that needle, however, and froze upon seeing it. Ushering wasn't working, especially when they moved to tackle L.

Tony lunged, fruitlessly as he was caught with ease but seeing L tackled and a syringe shoved in him like that snapped him straight back into that dark hell. "No! Don't hurt him!" He snarled and snapped, even tried to bite one orderly before they managed to wrestle him back down.

Guess it's sedative time for Tony as well because he wasn't going to calm down until he was sure L was actually okay. Really, guys, you should know better than to treat patients fresh out of torture like this.

[dead_black_eyes]

"Shhh. It's OK," Tony's nurse said, shooting the two rough attendants a dirty look. "We're here to help you both... Anthony, calm down...!"

His outburst was to be completely expected given the ordeal they'd survived, but it would be tough to put his IV back in place with him flailing. "For Christ's sake, get him out of here," the nurse hissed in the direction of the others, uncapping her own syringe and sticking Tony in the shoulder with it.

"Anthony, you and your friend both need rest. It'll be all right," she insisted, pushing down on the plunger as L was quickly removed.

[oncedevil]

"Don't hurt him," He repeated again, this time the words were more a whimper than a shout as he reached in vain for the fallen and pinned L.

He couldn't really calm down, not when what he was watching was so contrary to what was being said. Logic wasn't part of an overworked and panicked mind, and the orderlies really should have known better than to react as strongly as they had. Brute force wasn't necessary in dealing with either one of them. L as brittle as a twig and Anthony not much better, after all.

The prick in his shoulder startled him from his attempts at reaching L, and first his eye shot to that, then over at the nurse as he wore an expression of utter betrayal. "But... I don't want to die." He sobbed quietly, only to fade into darkness as well.