Chapter Text
The restroom was dark, lit up by only a pair of fluorescent lightbulbs that was probably ever changed once in a year. Water from tap can be heard dripping into the ceramic sink. Though there was another sound in one of the stalls, sounds of someone shuffling inside.
Kyle sat uncomfortably on the white, dull plastic toilet seat, while Dans' jacket is tied around his waist - too tired to give a single shit about the world right now. He pinched his temples to quell the train of thoughts forming inside his brain.
Why the fuck did you leave the ward? He sighs, close to breaking down. You're making Dan feel much worse than he is now, you know? His thoughts spoke bitterly inside his mind, now making him sob completely.
All the emotions he bottled up inside himself started spilling out. After all this while, It was finally time to let them go - the painful but happy memories of Him and Dan, young and bold. All flushed down inside the empty void in his own heart.
He then hears someone entering the restroom, slowly getting closer to his stall. A knock came up on his door the following second after the footsteps stop, making him jump and instantly snorting his nose after crying, wiping his tears away too.
Kyle swore this is the third time someone knocked on his stall, as if there was no other ones to be used. Just because his one was close to the exit doesn't mean it was empty, as it usually does in London.
The person didn't spoke, only its' foot were seen shuffling around, inching away slowly from the stall as it knew it was occupied. Kyle dared himself to peek under the plastic walls - trying to get a closer look to see who it was wearing flip flops - he slowly lowers his head down, and was suddenly greeted by a stubbled mans' face.
"Ahh!!" They both screamed in terror. Kyle stumbled, falling out of his seats but instantly stood up, unlocking his stall and hustled out as he knew the person he saw must've fallen to the ground from shock too.
He crouched next to the man on the floor and immediately carried him, helping him to stand as his body trembled from the fall.
"Oh God! Im so sorry, Mister! I didn't see you the--" though Kyles' words were immediately stopped when he realized who the 'Mister' was.
"Jesus, Kyle! Get a hold of yourself!" The man exclaimed, smiling at Kyle's childlike hilarity who was brushing off dirty scrubs from the mans' hospital gown. "It's me, Dan!"
Kyle immediately pulled back his hands, wiping them on his jeans as he realized that the man was his own boyfriend. "Dan..? Wha- what are you doing here? Aren't you suppose to be resting?"
Dan huffed his hair away that was blocking his eyes as he tried to focus on Kyle. "I- What am I doing here? What are you doing here? I saw you ran out of the ward and everyone went looking for you!
Dan bawled out, making few nurses walking by to look at them two inside the toilet, also waking Kyle completely from his thoughts that was fogging his mind. How long have I been here?
"I- I don't know... why I did that actually, I had some business to do by myself, which is best if you don't know" Jesus Kyle, stop being such a pessimist. "And you?"
Kyle then turns down to look at his watch and almost felt like slapping himself for being such an obvious loner. 2 Hours, You've spent 2 fucking hours in the toilet. Dan didn't answer Kyles' question, instead he was the one asking more than answering.
"Doing your business? For 2 straight hours?? What on heavens did you do? Gave birth to a child, eh?" Dan cackled, looking at Kyle's dumbfounded face who was almost blushing too.
Dan conversed as if he was high on drugs, and the thing that made Kyle even more confused is that, how did Dan speak as if he remembered everything? And who on Earth would let a sick man take drugs anyways? Illegal ones, to be specific.
Guess the effects of the dose hadn't fade yet, Kyle thought.
"Dan... yo- you're high" Kyle replied, still not answering Dans' million dollar questions.
"I'm High?" Dan chuckled upon hearing Kyle's response.
"Kyle, we're in public, a hospital. A private hospital. What makes you think I'm high?" Dan snapped at the tall man who tried to push him out. Out of the toilet and to the people in charge of allowing him to wander around the hospital, especially to a bathroom.
"Hey, hey! Are you even listening? Where are you taking me?"
"To your family"
"But you are my family" Dan bleated, smiling coyly at Kyle's face who only scoffed at his boyfriends' cliché reply. The two of them ended up holding hands, trailing along the empty hallway to wherever they were going. "I'm... just gonna pretend you didn't say that" Kyle added.
The two mens continued their way to the ward with the older one blurting words out, making people look at them like maniacs. Well, lover maniacs. Kyle never actually liked the term 'lovers' to be used on them, but almost everyone in his life used it on against him and Dan that he got so used to it.
They finally reached Dan's ward when Dolores was the first to beam upon Kyle's face. Despite that she and almost everyone else had been searching for him for almost hours.
Her smile instantly turned into a frown when Kyle accidentally pushed Dan harshly, making him fall to the ground once again. "Ooowwff!"
"Dan!" She got up from her chair and ran towards him, immediately pulling him up while Kyle looked with worry in his face. Worried that he must had hurt him worser than before this time.
"Kyle, what did you do that for?"
"Christ, Im sorry!" Dan looked up to his boyfriend with his brows furrowed, implying that Kyle had made Him fall twice and trying to make him feel even worse with his lovers' puppy eyes glaring through his guilty soul.
"Jeez, Again, I mean"
"Again? Wait, Dan? Did Kyle made you fall just now too?"
"Yes! I mean... sort of"
"Sort... of? What the hell is going on?"
"We peeked on each other in the bathroom is what was going on!"
"What the hell?!" Dolores gasped, looking at her own cousin and Kyle with disgust, almost shouting once again at them.
"Can you three shut your mouths up?! People are trying to rest here!" Bawled a nurse after poking her head out from a ward, looking at the three adults with stern eyes.
"We're sorry!" Dolores replied quickly, then looking back to the lovers with Dan now standing up properly, still with slight disgust on her face.
"God, what mess have we even done" She sighs, putting her hand up to her head. Completely agonized with the same, Dan and Kyle shit since the first time she saw the two of them dating, reminding her of all the memories the three of them had gone through since 5 Years ago. If only Dan remembers though, well, maybe he does partly since he's still high right now.
"We need to talk" she spoke, after thinking for a while before breaking the silence between the three of them. "Alright" Dan and Kyle replied in unison, making them chuckle at each other.
This is probably going to be one of her family talks she would normally give when someone was causing much trouble, but in this case, she was one of those troubles.
Dolores picked her Gucci handbag up from the chair she sat before and signaled the two maniacs over with a gesture towards the elevator down the corridor. The same hand gesture Mr. Smith had used against Kyle's mother earlier. Like child, like father.
"Where are we going?" Kyle questioned, entering the elevator with Dan limping around to the back of him, while Dolores pressed the 'G' button with her phone on her other hand, indicating that they're going to the ground floor of the hospital.
Dolores then shot a glare at Kyle. "Ya' think?" She answered sarcastically, furrowing her brows while continuing to scroll something on her phone that Kyle couldn't see. The same, old Dolores Kyle knew he met since the first time after being together with Dan.
It was obviously not other than the cafeteria they were heading for, a fine place to have a talk in the now-warm afternoon atmosphere. Of course.
They once again straggled along beside each other on the corridor of the hospital, with Dan's priceless face looking at everything like a newborn child. He'd mumble words like "wow" or "amazing" under his breath as much as he could, not to rudely say that he's been behaving like a completely mental person.
When they finally reached the cafeteria, the three of them sat around on a small, square table right on the corner of the walls - Dan infront of Kyle and Dolores on the side. There weren't much people around the cafeteria, but it was just enough to kill the silence that would form quickly if lesser were here.
A huge glass pane was built on the side of the room, making the afternoon sunlight blare through the whole cafeteria, resulting Dan and some other people's eyes to squint.
"Oh, forgot about these" Dolores dug into her bag and took out a turtleshell Sunglasses. "The doctors said you need to wear these and avoid the Sunlight as much as possible, judging that you just woke up from a coma without opening those precious goddamn eyes, so here"
She then handed over the glasses to Dan, who instantly wore it and made Kyle feel butterflies and flowers growing in his stomach. Oh my God, he's so adorable wearing those.
"You're blushing" Dan suddenly snapped Kyle from his thoughts.
"I am?"
"Yeah, anything interesting you'd like to share with me, Simmons?"
"No, no. Nothing" his blush unmistakably turned into a grin, making Dan look more suspicious at him. Dan can't afford knowing about this.
"That doesn't look like nothing... hold on, you like these glasses on me, do you? Admit it"
"What? No! Im... okay fine, yes" Kyle answered in defeat, making his chest breath slightly easier despite he had taken some dirty weight off it. Well, that didn't go according to plan.
"Ah, I knew it! Messy hairs and Turtleshell glasses, noted" Dan winked at Kyle, making him blush even further.
Dan somehow managed to remember most parts about Kyles' favorite things about him, but not about his past memories or anything related to his family - other than the love he has for Kyle and that's it.
Kyle, on the other hand, had always loved Dan wearing glasses - simply making him look dorky when reading a book. Or just when he's wearing scarfs during winter, making him look fluffy with his stubble scruffily brushing against them.
It just makes Kyle go crazy - wanting to claim those luscious lips, those blue eyes, the nice curve behind his back that he just wants to run his tongue over, and everything - calling Dan his, reliving the memories he'd missed after all these months.
Dolores puts her phone down after she'd seemed satisfied replying and opening notifications from whoever they were, but was greeted by a scene of blood drips on the table, making her stomach churn, completely spoiling her mood for lunch.
"Dan..?" Dolores questioned him, making his gaze turn away from Kyle. "Yo- your nose is bleeding"
"Oh God, not again" Kyle asserted, who got lost into Dan's glassy blue eyes that only now he realized that Dans' nose started bleeding too.
"Just go to the restroom, will you?" Dolores advised her cousin, causing him to take his glasses off and stand up from his chair, covering his nostrils with his hand to avoid more blood from dripping. "I'll go with you" Kyle sorted him, making him stop halfway from walking.
"No, it's fine, I'll be fine. Just wait here and I'll be back in a minute!" He said joyfully and a cheery mood in his voice. Kyle took Dans' glasses in his hands, holding them like Dan's whole life depended on it.
With that, Dan hustled out and turned into a corner, instantly going out of sight, making Kyle and Dolores sit in a rather comfortable silence.
Not in a weird, comfortable sort of way, but in a way how you'd feel simply when you're there with your family, especially times during Thanksgiving, or Christmas Eve, or Halloween if that's the type of thing they had time for.
Kyle thought, and thought. Thinking about his own family - what is his mother doing now? Is she worrying about him? Is she stressed out like how his Dad had been once? Family... Kyle was immediately reminded of the Smith's who were here hours earlier.
"Where are the rest? Janna? Your dad?"
"Oh, they all went home, Janna followed my dad. They told me to meet up later after I'm done settling with things here"
"Ah, I see. Was starting to wonder where all of them could've had went" Dolores looked at Kyle with her tongue sticking out, reminding and implying him that he was the one who spent hours in the toilet, wasting and using his time for the wrong things - wrong, if that's a term Kyle would like to use.
"So anyways... what is that thing you wanna talk about?"
"Oh right, forgot about that" she apologized for being forgetful again, taking out some tissues from her bag and gave it to Kyle for him to wipe his boyfriend's dirty mess.
"It's about Dan, actually" Great. More bad news then.
"Uhuh, go on" Kyle replied, looking down on the table making sure there wasn't any other stains left from the blood.
"The doctors said that he still needs time to recover from amnesia - I mean, I know we all can see he seems to be fine now but his brain still has some internal bleeding - from some reasons the Doctors couldn't clarify" she rambled about, while Kyle watched her mouth babbling nonsense that he thinks won't be useful for him.
"...which means he'll have to stay here for atleast another month" Kyle listened thoughtfully as he crumpled some used tissued from wiping, pushing them aside to the corner of the table.
"Wow" Kyle exclaimed, suddenly reminded of the nights he spent together alone with Dan, the nights when they were entering their 3rd Year Together, still in the cold, wintery January where they spent at Kyle's house. "I mean, That's a long time for a person in that condition"
"Yeah, it is" she remarked. "That means he needs someone he's familiar with to stay with him for that period of time, but I guess I don't have to find anyone else since that 'someone' is right here speaking to me"
"Me? No- no. Im... I don't think he's familiar with me, yet. He may just be confused, probably high and... yeah"
"High? You're kidding, right?" She spoke in a tone that sounded exactly like Dans' earlier. "You're the only person who he seems to mostly recognize, why wouldn't you be his caretaker for a while? You're his boyfriend, you should know everything about him"
"What do you mean?"
"I mean that he still remembers" She explained carefully, while Kyle brushed his mustache using his fingers as he usually would if he's anxious or interested. Or both at the same time. "He remembers who you are" she continued while Kyle kept silent.
"Well, I myself, might actually consider him just now, being high. Explaining how he seems to be more less in pain in talking things out from his mind, but despite that, the dose had seemed to ran out already, making him hard to think - remembering his memories, resulting his nose to bleed from the blood pressure rising in himself" Kyle listened with his mouth hanging open, trying to process and understand the foreign words Dolores was conversing with him.
"Umm... english please?"
"Christ, Kyle... It simply means that Dan could only remember by only being high or drunk. Don't you get it?" She spoke in a low voice, making sure no one else hears her malevolent sentence.
"Well, yeah, yeah. Wait, what? So you're telling me he's like a weapon to remember stuff?"
"Yeah, I guess so... but basically Dan needs to drink - or take pills if necessary - to remember anything else"
"That doesn't make any fucking sense!"
"It does, you'll see. Wait till' he comes back soon"
Sure enough after quite some time, Dolores was right. Dan came back, led by another nurse who must've thought he got lost on the way back to the cafeteria. Dan was silent than usual, probably now sobering up from the dose, his eyes gazing around the still familiar faces floating through his beautiful, forgetful mind.
This is probably the sad reality Kyle has to face for the next One upcoming month. He doesn't remember, but he surely won't forgive you as well.
Kyle made sure Dan wasn't paying attention to him and Dolores before he asked her a question that made Kyle sure he hadn't been dreaming these past few minutes when they were talking.
"So are we just gonna pretend like nothing happened? Or use him like a weapon by making him drunk to remember stuff?"
"Well, it's the only way to make him remember, is it?"
Kyle nod with bits of anxiety, knowing that feeding his boyfriend pills and alcohols isn't what he planned on doing. He'd rather spent a month with a completely empty Dan. Atleast taking the first step safely, and slowly helping him to remember whatever memory he had lost due to the fight and coma he'd experience. Rather than letting him get high and drunk, risking his own life from overdose.
But on one hand, Dolores is right for most parts - Kyle couldn't live for another moment spending his time with a man who he spent for almost his life with, completely empty brained from the 5 Years they'd spent, just gone like that.
"No" a voice crept to their ears from the side, turning their heads to look at Dan with an exasperated face.
"No. I can do it, I'll try to remember as much as I could. Even if it takes my whole life, or nights full of sex - Im talking to you Kyle - then I'm gonna have to take the rough road"
"No, Dan. That's too risky! Im- I'm not affording to lose you again"
"You won't, I promise" Dan replied, his eyes now blinking slowly and groggily, telling Kyle that the effects are wearing off already.
"But... Dolores? What about that 1 month thing?"
"Yeah, Dan. The doctors won't release you until you're here for another month prior. But since your friend here decides that he would take the pledge to take care of you, then I suppose it'll be okay. But no leaving the hospital"
"I don't care, as long as Kyle is with me, then I'm good" Dan reassured her, simpering at Kyle as he was thinking of the nights they'll spend together. Not in a place like a hospital... but it'll work out, like it always would.
"Any other words? No?"
"Nope" Dolores answered him, fretting slightly.
"Good. Nights full of sex it is then"
Kyle isn't really sure what was going on, or knew what actually happened the whole time Dan was around. But he was really, really sure it's going to be one hell of a one month for the two of them.