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systemic lupus erythematosus was the official diagnosis.
ashton wasn't the one to tell him, his mom broke the news to him as soon as she figured out that younger boy had no idea what was going on.
he was prepared for the worse, but still, as the long term slipped through her mouth he felt the words entagling itself around the his ribs, encasing his heart and closing up his lungs, making it hard for him to breath.
that night, ashton was asleep and luke sat transfixed in the loveseat by the window for hours, under the moonlight as his hands danced over the keyboard of the screen of his phone.
as he prayed for any good answers.
his notes were piling up, as he came across more and more context and ideas of this intricate disease that was holding his boy hostage.
lupus was a type of autoimmune disease, where the body's immune system mistakenly attacks and kills the healthy cells of the body. from what luke figured out, ashton's symptoms were currently severe, from the headaches, hair loss, mouth ulcers and ultimately, the seizures.
most patients often go through flares, which ashton is currently going through right now after months of remission where there's little to no symptoms.
ashton was diagnosed with it three years ago, when he was fifteen years old. there was no known cause, and his hospital files at the end of the bed revealed that ashton had months of hospital visits before coming to the diagnosis.
on average, there was an 80% prognosis, but as ashton was one of the most unfortunate and suffered through seizures as one of his symptoms, his prognosis was at 55%.
the burning point for luke was just one sentence at the end.
seizures usually occoured by the time a patient was heavily detoriating.
luke looked over to his angel, his face serene in his sleep. there were no worry lines, no tears brimming his eyes and no look of pain covering his face and luke could just keep staring at him all night. he was at his most peace here, when his lips were agape and his eyelashes touching his cheekbones.
luke's hands went over the silver poles of the bed, carefully threading his fingers with the boy's bandaged hands. the whole room was so silent that luke could hear air rushing into his ears, but if he listened close enough he could still hear ashton's deep breathing and the steady drip of methotrexate flooding the boy's system each second, flushing out his pain and making the disease tolerable.
luke's thumb grazed over the small dip of ashton's palm, rubbing circles before leaning in and pressing an airy kiss to the worn out end of the bandage. he then pushed himself up onto his feet and did the same to the golden curls framing ashton's face, tied back with the dark bandana, and letting his face linger a bit longer on his cheekbones, cupping his face with his hands.
"i'm so sorry this is happening to you. i should have helped you. i can't believe i let you get this worse i'm so sorry."
luke's voice cut off by the sobs that spilled out of his mouth, burying his head into the pillow leaned on ashton's stomach.
but as he cried, a hand wrapped around his tall frame, pulling him onto the bed and snuggling into his warm figure.
ashton's voice cut the silence, and all at once luke felt himself relax at his words.
