We're all mad here (Kuroko no Basket fanfic, Mental hospital AU)

Chapter 4

The next day arrived faster than expected. Taiga couldn't fall asleep last night before 2.30 AM, he just couldn't close his eyes and let strange dreams fill his mind, distract him from the reality. The only thing he could think about was everything he had experienced earlier that day. All the stories he had heard, all the scenarios he had made up of what there could be ahead for him.

When the sleepiness finally took over him, he lost his consciousness and laid in his bed like a dead body, motionless, breathing really silently, not thinking about anything anymore. He enjoyed the softness of his bed, the warmth of his blankets for a few hours before his alarm clock welcomed him to the new day with its sharp, loud voice that forced the red haired male to get up immediately. No one in the house could stand the sound that was loud enough to wake everyone up, no matter where they were sleeping.

With his eyelids glued together with sleep, he pulled on a white hoodie and his jeans he had left on a chair yesterday night, had left them there to wait for the next morning. He didn't have to walk to his closet, didn't have to waste any time choosing clothes in the morning. He could walk straight to the kitchen and enjoy a cup of coffee while glancing through the pages of yesterday's newspaper.

He had time for that, thanks for the preparations he had done yesterday.

As the clock kept on running, not willing to stop for even a while, he soon had to leave, had to cover his feet with his shoes, jump in the car and wait for his mother to give him a ride to the hospital.
It would have been so much easier if he could have gone with his father, but no, their shifts were so different. And his father had to spend way more time at the hospital than him. He had to wake up in the middle of the night, and sometimes he came back after being away over 15 hours.

It was pretty sad, Taiga thought as he followed with his eyes how the surroundings passed by when the middle-aged woman rushed towards the hospital with her car, with his son sitting next to her.
It was pretty sad that it had always been like that, since the redhead was just a little kid. His father had never any time for him. He rarely was able to have holidays even a few days long. They never did anything like normal families did. They didn't travel, they didn't spend their free time together, not by watching TV, not by eating their meals together, not by playing any kind of board games.

As the years passed, Taiga got used to spending all his time alone. He didn't anymore even know how he could have shared his time with anyone. He had grown up alone. But he still wished he had had parents that had played with him every night.

But now he had a job where he could interact with other people. With some good luck, he could probably get some friends, too. If he had a super good luck, he could maybe even find someone who could fill his life, who he could share his future with. Maybe he could ask Hyuga or his childhood friend Tatsuya for a coffee someday, ask them about their life and maybe ask them to introduce some
of their friends for him.

Maybe someday.

"Thank you for the ride," he thanked his mother as he stepped out of the car, slammed the door behind him. With now knowing where to go, he walked straight to the dressing room carrying his bag with him. He changed his outfit to his working clothes. It wasn't even 7:00 AM yet and he had already changed his clothes twice that day. It felt a bit frustrating.
He put his bag in the locker before heading straight to the block-C. With the keys that had been given to him, he opened the locked doors.

- - -

"Good morning," Taiga greeted the patient with dark green hair, sitting on his bed, just staring at the wall right in front of him, holding a brown stuffed bear close to his core. Its other ear was almost ripped off. Some of its insides were bursting out from the little hole.