Take This To Heart || ImmortalFox

18. Happy Endings Are Stories That Haven't Ended Yet.

"Keep me dizzy, spinning circles around my head. Believe me that it's worth the rush, until we collide, with heavy hearts and open minds. I'm all by myself, don't leave me hanging, shaking like I've caught on fire.

We all get stuck in funny ways sometimes. You and every friend of mine. We'll find a way, to run away, tonight."

---

Aleks had been huddled over the seat of the toilet in his tiny bathroom placed at the far side of his room. The medicine that  his doctor's injected within his veins had begun to take a toll on his slim figure. He's lost ten pounds since last week and he doesn't have too much longer until his strength will give out on him completely.

He curls up with his arms wrapped around his knees, pulling them to his chin, trying to preserve the last of his warmth. He's cold and it's been so long since his last meal.

Regardless, his vomiting was ridding his body of that.

Eddie was perched behind him with his legs propped on either side of his Russian lover and a warm pair of arms pulling him close. Aleks was unable to move and tried to hold his head back so that it was resting against his collar and chest. He faintly heard the beating of his boyfriend's heart through thin fabric and a weary smile expressed itself across his lips.

Seeing him like this broke Eddie's heart. I rub the small of his back in small circles soothingly. He also began to whisper meaningless nothings, telling Aleks that it would be alright. Although he knew that his partner in crime, Aleksandr Marchant, was dying. Not completely done for, and the pair only hoped for his surgery to present the best of itself.

It was nearing, and tomorrow Aleks would hopefully make a full recovery.

"It's okay," Eddie whispers. "Should I find your nurse?" His voice was shaky through the tears. Aleks feebly shook his head in response, and wrapped his stiff fingers around his lover's to hold his hand against his heart.

"No, please, just stay." Their eyes eventually found each other's and it brought the older man into years. What he saw used to be bright eyes full of hope. Now they were replaced with glassy orbs pleading for something more. Bloodshot eyes with little life left in them, grasping for life. 

He saw Aleks' ghostly, pale expression and clammy hands.

He tried to keep himself from coughing his lungs out, and he brought a hand up to meet his lover's face, as if he was supporting a child, and caressed his cheek.

"It's okay, it's all going to be okay in the morning." Eddie was stuttering and the Russian man only smiled in response. A faint grin that was somewhat distant from the rest of his features.

"I'm here for you." He always said those words, through this whole time of knowing, learning, and loving Aleks. His hands were shaking as he held his love in one arm and reached for the emergency phone with the other. He proceeded to dial the number for the hospital staff.

"Look at me," he says whilst taking Aleks' face in both hands. "The doctors are going to be here in a few minutes. I'll be there the whole time, okay?" He was more reassuring himself than Aleks at this point. Eddie was genuinely terrified, shaking in his clothing, and this wasn't truly something he was used to. It also wasn't an emotion he welcomed or liked to register.

"Just relax," he continues, "let your body do what it needs to do. I'll be there in the morning to see you. I promise."

Aleks weakly nods and falls heavy against his boyfriend's supporting arms. "Thank you," he croaks out as the nurse allows herself into the bedroom and asks Eddie to move away from the other.