Chapter Text
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He woke up with a start, his palms sweating and his throat feeling so dry. He rolled his eyes, before tilting his head to the side and seeing his sister Lottie blinked at him, before smiling. He slowly rose up, and Lottie gave him a bottle of water with a straw. He quickly attached the straw on his lips and felt the cold water wash his throat. He coughed, before turning to her again. “How long was I asleep?”
Lottie smiled again, relief washing her features. “A month.”
Louis smiled back, feeling his insides unclench. “That’s a new record.”
Lottie grinned, before taking the bottle and settling it on the mahogany desk beside Louis’ bed. “Yes. Dr. Corden told us that you are improving. The last time you fell asleep it took you two months to wake up and by that time you look like a proper monk.”
“I'm not.” He retorted, rolling his eyes again before lying again on his back. “That wasn’t as worse when I slept for three months. And besides, I told you you can shave my facial hair even when I’m asleep.”
“That isn’t possible.”
They laughed at each other, the warmth in Louis’ stomach making his eyes flutter. He looked around the hospital room, calculating what has changed while he was asleep. Not much at all, it’s the same blue walls and the same painting of Ludwig Van Beethoven near the room’s window. Except maybe for a few flowers in his bedside’s desk and the lights in a much warmer glow.
“Mum and the twins would be coming after dinner. I’m going out to buy you snacks, would that be a bother?” She said as she stood up, slinging her bag and paying a swift look outside the window.
“Lots, I’m 20. Of course not,” he said, smirking as she gazed back at him with a glint on her eyes.
“I know what you’re thinking.” She rolled her eyes fondly, but Louis is already ushering her out of the door, and when he was told one thing, he would do otherwise.
At the sound of the nearby elevator’s ding, he rose up to his feet, feeling a little sway as he has been practically taped to his bed for a whole month. He wore the hospital slippers given to him by Dr. Corden, before rushing out of his bedroom’s door and moving his gaze at the slightly empty hallway.
The thing is; Louis isn’t sick SICK. He has strong bones especially on his legs, which made him qualified to enter the football team of his school.
He was a twelve-year-old, when it happened. He was practicing around the fields with his friends Stan and Niall. Stan accidentally hit him in the head, and he collapsed at the same time, but as they rushed him to the hospital they learned that it wasn’t Stan’s fault. In fact, the the ball hitting his head is a low-blow and has contributed nothing to why he collapsed. Stan continues blaming himself but Louis told him his whole situation.
He was diagnosed with Klein-Levin syndrome, or as many like to refer as the Sleeping Beauty syndrome. It’s a rare situation where it causes excessive sleepiness to the diagnosed person. Episodes can last days, weeks, or worse, years. The first time he had an episode it took him two weeks. He had to drop out, but he insisted that he’s still normal and can still keep up with classes. When he turned 16, things got worse and he was forced to stay at the hospital most of the time. He would collapse while in the middle of answering a question, in the grocery, or just anywhere where bad luck strikes. He supposes the universe must hate him, but he accepted his fate.
His friends, mostly Niall, visit him often and play footie with him at the park at the back of the hospital. The worst episode he probably has experienced was when he was 18, after throwing a little party at the 12th floor of the building, he fell asleep and when he woke up, it’s his mum’s birthday already. It looks like time-traveling, actually. he mentioned this to his family and earned him a pillow flying to his head.
This floor of the building isn’t much occupied, as this is dubbed the silent floor. Louis hates it; he hates the silence and hates sleep and hates being alone, feeling like the world shut itself up. This floor is for people like him; rare disorders and syndromes. Most patients on the floor is either much older or much younger, that’s why he spends most of the time on his own room watching TV or playing piano at the first floor of the building.
But today, today there’s a new kind of buzz on the floor as he stares at the room next to him, feeling his insides jump in excitement. He wishes this could be someone he could talk to or spend time with. He inches closer, seeing more nurses and people crowd on the room. As he peeks his head inside, he can’t see anything except the backs of nurses.
“...from Cheshire...”
“Yes, I’ll call Mr. Corden.”
Mr. Corden? Would he share personal doctors with this new patient?
He likes to call Corden his personal doctor. He’s grown very fond of him and even so the same doctor’s favorite is him.
“We’ll leave you now. Don’t try to provoke any strong emotions from the patient.”
“Mum, I’m not staying here.”
A deep voice silenced the noise, and Louis hears a sigh before the nurses started shuffling out of the room.
They paid him a bewildered look, and he recognized Nurse Ali. The nurse gasped as he saw him, and leaned for a hug. Louis gladly returned the hug, tapping her back. “You’re awake!”
Louis grinned, shyly sweeping his fringe to the side. “I just woke up minutes ago. Went here to see what the fuss is.”
“Oh. New patient on the block! Make friends with him, he’ll definitely like you.”
So it’s a ‘him’?
“I’ll see you around, Louis!” She leaned again to give him a peck at the cheek, Louis feeling his cheeks burn. The nurse trotted away, and he peeked inside the room again.
The room is not different than his; only its walls were furnished and soaked with warm white paint, and there are curtains.
There lies at the middle of the room in the bed, is a guy, probably around the same age as his. His cheeks rosy pink and his floppy hair messed up.
And then he was staring back at him.
Louis has to gulp and felt the immediate push of his body to go back to his room, as the burning green eyes met his sparkling blue ones. They stared for what felt like a whole minute, before the guy turned his head away, his cheeks much rosier than a while ago and his jaw clenching like he hated seeing Louis. Louis has to gulp once more, but has to return to his room now, hearing the elevator ding and no doubt knowing its Lottie.
As he tiptoed his way back to his room, he thinks he can actually make friends with this new patient. Only that he doesn’t know how, especially that he can’t read this boy’s aura and can’t understand why the new patient seems to hate him already.
At 7 P.M., the twins are beside him at his bed telling him stories about the ‘outside world’. Year 2022 has been calm so far, no major disasters and whatnot. He thinks this would be the best year of his life, seeing new chances of leaving the hospital sooner and continuing his life.
A cold breeze entered the room and Louis sighed with a smile, trying not to let his mind drift to the patient next door. He tries and fails, and eventually welcomed the questions seep into his mind. What is the boy’s reason on why he ended up in the floor of silence? What’s his name? Is he also mad that he’s in here probably the next person of the world to be taped in a hospital bed for a long time?
Why does he seem like he hates Louis, despite meeting him for the first time?
He’s curious, he’s really curious and he wants to know more about him. He’s been pleading the gods to let him have at least one friend to talk to when his family is not in the hospital. Yet this boy seems untouchable, seems like those green orbs of his hides a million secrets.
He pulled the silky duvet up his chin as one more breeze swayed his feathery hair. He can’t feel his constellation-freckled cheeks because of the cold, but he likes it nonetheless. As the night buzzed with excited stories from the twins and warm smiles from his mother and Lottie, he laughed with them, the moonlight brushing his golden skin and the memory of green eyes lingering on his fuzzy mind.
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