a little less dandy, a little more take this spike to my heart

viii

Everything is quiet around him, which is strange because Awsten can always hear the sizzling from the kitchen when Geoff makes breakfast. Maybe today, Geoff had to go to one of the pack meetings and Otto's the only other person in the apartment. Yeah, that sounds about right, except when Awsten remembers that Otto usually wakes up earlier than him and starts blaring his middle school playlist to wake him up. Something's off.

His sheets don't even feel the same. These feel like a giant piece of paper laying over him when he knows he bought that bigass fluffy blanket a week ago. Then it all just clicks.

Awsten opens his eyes to find himself in room completely doused in white and him on a matching bed with a heart monitor accelerating from the left side of his bed and an I.V. drip pricked into his arm. There's some other medical shit around the bed, but he doesn't know what they are and he doesn't care because he doesn't even know where or why the fuck he's here. Right now his only options are Clandestine and a hospital, but still.

A woman walks through the door in the corner of the room with a cart stocked with more medical shit he doesn't care about. She's just about to replace one of the bottles with a refill until she stops to see Awsten, eyes wide. What is it? Is he like, deformed now or something? She says something quietly to herself and scurries off.

A couple minutes later, Jawn bursts through the door and stares at him, jaw dropped and frozen into place. Huh, so he is in Clandestine.

"Oh fuck, you're actually awake." he breathes out after a bit of time. "I'll get them, don't worry, I'll just—"

"Don't leave me here, dickwad." Awsten pouts. "I don't even know what's going on right now."

"I'll explain later!" Jawn promises before running off. Great.

Later comes about five minutes after their brief conversation, and Jawn has Geoff, Otto, and Travis at his bedside.

Geoff gives him a giant squeeze so tight that Awsten feels like it's going to break his bones. He can also feel him wipe some tears into his shoulder. "We thought you died in there."

The hug makes Awsten recall some of what happened because ow, the wounds on his chest seem to remember a lot. Geoff releases his hold after that, still smearing tears off with his hand.

"Well lucky for you, I'm not, but anyways, what happened after I, y'know, got stabbed?"

"Um, we managed to get out the humans that didn't get turned," Otto says before frowning. "but some of them got turned into Dandies and they either got out like that or they died in the fire."

Awsten gulps and nods. He probably should've expected the casualties to happen, especially for something as spontaneous as that, and his stomach sinks as he thinks about it.

Travis seems to notice the little dark cloud looming over him and says something quickly. "The casualties would've happened either way. You lessened the risk of more happening."

"Okay." That's really all he can say about that. He's not really sure if that's true, but he's sure none of them want to know. "Okay, but what about the Dandies and William?"

"William got away." Jawn scowls as the words form. "The Dandies either died or escaped along with that Gabe guy, but at least you escaped. Apparently, Felony saved you from him because he was able to transform and he set up an illusion to distract him. Sixteen Candles gave us plenty of tech to help him be less chaotic so at least that's good."

"Yeah," Geoff absently pets his shoulder as he speaks, sniffling occasionally. "he carried you out on his back and brought you here before—" He gulps. "y'know."

"I...know." He really could've died out there. They all could've. "But hey, we're all here. I'm alive, y'all are alive, Pete 'n his gang are alive. That's...good, relatively, I guess, considering the circumstances."

They all silently stand around with no other word to lift up the heavy atmosphere so Awsten takes that upon himself to move on. "So do I have to take this I.V. out myself to leave or...?"

That lightens the mood a little; they all exchange their share of smiles and small laughs for the day and Awsten feel accomplished.

"You'll get that thing off you soon. We were gonna keep you here for a while because we thought you were gonna go into a coma, but we'll try to check you out of here, kay?" Jawn assures him. He nudges Travis and himself towards the door, but raises an eyebrow at Geoff, who responds with a muted "We'll stay here a little longer." and lets them go off to find the nurses.

"So," Otto starts, putting his face at the same level as his. "you're dumb."

Awsten snorts. "Maybe so."

"Really. It was a good idea on the spot. I mean, I guess it took out that brainwashing thing you were talkin' about and some Dandies. But where'd the fire idea come from anyways?"

"A dream." Awsten takes in a breath and decides if he wants to confess the rest to them. His lips move faster than his thoughts though. "You guys were in it. There was fire 'n shit, obviously and you guys transformed. Come to think of it, I was attacked in that one too."

There's this silence for a while and Geoff looks like he's about to say something, but it's gratefully disturbed by Jawn and Travis bringing in the nurses. Geoff and Otto leave glumly, hand-in-hand and Awsten's just left with nurses asking how he feels before performing their tests and giving him medication.

"Not that good." he answers.