White Hospital, Black Hope (AU Narry Storan)

Niall can’t help but think that his life would be perfect if it weren’t for the disease.

Maybe if he hadn’t fallen sick, he wouldn’t have had to leave Ireland. Maybe his family wouldn’t have given up on him and stopped visiting. Maybe he would’ve had the chance to make new friends and continue his education past secondary school. Maybe he could have found himself a cute, sweet boy to call his. But now, there’s no way for him to know.

Because of the mysterious disease, Niall had been a full-time resident of the London main hospital for the last nearly two years of his life. Somehow, through all that time, he had continued to get sicker and sicker as the doctors were none the wiser over what his condition was and how to cure the boy. It was frustrating at first, but now he’d gotten used to it and his hopes no longer rose when he was told they might have figured out his issues. He had accepted the fate that seemed inevitable, just as he’d been forced to accept the fact that everyone had abandoned him in a hospital in a foreign country he knew and loved.

White was a color he had gotten used to. White was the color of the hospital. It was the exact shade of the walls of his room, his sheets, the machines, the doors, and even the washrooms. Everything there was white.

But in that world of white, Niall felt like a black pit. He had nothing left to wish for. He had lost the hope of living a normal life when he’d been diagnosed with the disease. His family and friends were gone, and the doctors never tried hard enough to fix him. His hope was a patch of black on the hospital’s endless white canvas, and he hated it.

On this particular day, Niall was doing better than usual. He could actually move around on his bed of white, and swing his legs, which were draped in white, loose clothing, over the edge of the bed until they hit the white-tiled floor. Niall desperately wanted to see outside for himself and breath the fresh air. Each time he had one of those days, where his systems acted up and he found himself unable to do more than heave and sob and upchuck whatever he’d eaten, the doctors suddenly showed concern and kept him in for weeks.

So as he got to his feet, the blond slowly wandered about his room. There was another bed on the other side of the room, but he was alone. The nurses told him he was lucky not to have to share with someone. Niall wished there was someone there, just so he had someone to talk to and make believe they cared about his fate, his future. It wouldn’t even matter whether they were dressed in white or not, so long as they were there, because the person wouldn’t be all white.

It was as Niall regained his focus that he strolled more purposefully, heading for the white door that was ever so slightly ajar. He pushed it open and groaned as an alarm went off. Was an alarm on the door positively necessary?

The doctors would come soon so he had to move quickly. Niall darted out the door, not pausing to see if the alarm grew louder as he skidded his way down the hall and to the elevators. To his luck, one of them stopped on his floor just as he reached the elevator bank, so he hopped in and pressed down sharply on the “L” button, for the lobby. Letting out a sigh of relief as the doors slid shut, he turned to examine the elevator.

So far, there wasn’t much to see. The walls were still white, but there was a small space of silver along them at about waist-level. He assumed it was a bar for balance.

It was only once the doors slid open once again and Niall made his way out front that he took a deep breath and smiled for the first time in what felt like ages.

The air was so refreshing to his lungs. Niall grinned as he felt the breeze glide over his skin the sun shining down on his small, pale body wrapped in the flowing white material. Come to think of it, he wasn’t sure they’d dressed him in a gown that covered his behind. A quick glance back confirmed that he was indeed showing his rear end off to the world, but he was too happy to care. It was nice to be outside after living alone in that white place for so long.