[FIN] Music to My Ears

[TawnyAngel]

Zevran sighed and reached up to caress Abel's face, stopping just short of the dressing that covered his ear. "Goodnight... my love." Now that his head was a little clearer it felt strange to say such things in front of anyone else, even Taavi, but he supposed he would get used to it. There was time to get used to it. He had thought there wouldn't be... Why had he thought that? "And goodnight to you too Amigo, Taavi. I will see all of you tomorrow." He would. Nothing bad would happen over night. Everything was fine... And yet he was still afraid, and he did not like the feeling of fear.

Awww, why were they so cute?

"Yeah, 'night Zev, I hope you sleep okay," Taavi smiled. "Kind of a pain sleeping here with all the lights on hu? I'll bring you one of those face mask thingies tomorrow, it shouldn't get in the way of any of the tubes." With that and a wave he headed for the door.  

[BlackFireKitsune]

With an affectionate smile Abel lifted his head a little first to press a kiss to Zevran's forehead, then a second, quick one to the tip of his nose -- carefully of course. "See you tomorrow," he agreed as one hand slipped away to find Zev's, to curl around it and give his fingers a reassuring squeeze. "Night cariño."  

[TawnyAngel]

Zevran smiled weakly at the silly gesture of affection and squeezed back. "Goodnight; I shall get some rest while you are gone." The continued elevation of Zevran's heart-rate indicated that this might be easier said than done.

Taavi lingered in the doorway, holding the door open for Abel and Amigo; the Butterfree soon fluttered out and landed on his shoulders. Ugh, did they really have to leave him alone? Zev was smiling but Taavi didn't buy that he was actually relaxed about this.  

[BlackFireKitsune]

"Good, thank you," he said, still smiling softly even though he suspected Zevran wouldn't sleep well at all. "You need as much rest as you can get -- not beauty sleep though, you never need that." He didn't want to leave. Oh how he didn't want to leave, but he had no choice in the matter. With one final quiet sigh, another soft squeeze to his love's hand and one more fond smile, he let his hands slip away before hooking his thumbs in his pockets and stepping back towards the door. "I'll see you in the morning."  

[TawnyAngel]

"Well of course I don't," Zevran replied and his lips twitched with a more genuinely amused smile but a moment later his expression looked strained once more and he could feel that it was strained and that made him feel even worse. Could he not even pretend properly? That was what he was best at, one of the things. "Dream of me cariño, and I shall of you." Kind arms lax in sleep, deep breathing, a heartbeat under his ear. Perhaps he could imagine all of that for the nine hours he was to be here alone.  

[BlackFireKitsune]

s**t, did he have to leave? Did he really, truly, absolutely need to leave? ...he did, he knew he did but that didn't make it any better. "Always." A pause as he leaned on the doorframe, and then, once more, "Night Zev. I love you."  

[TawnyAngel]

Why did he have to leave? "You too Abel."

Taavi tugged gently at Abel's arm and gave him a weak smile. "C'mon, we should go get something to eat. After that, sleep, and you'll be back before you know it. Oh, and tomorrow we'll find out about visiting hours on other wards, or we could now? So you know what to expect right?"  

[BlackFireKitsune]

With one last small, parting smile Abel finally left and quietly closed the door behind him at Taavi's insistence. Once outside the blond took a couple steps away, lest his boyfriend hear them, and sighed wearily. "I'm more worried for him," he admitted, glancing his best friend's way. "You know he didn't want us to go -- or at least not me. Mmh, I hope he'll be okay..." But he would, he was safe here, he would be just fine by himself whether he believed he would be or not... but it was the believing it part Abel worried his love would struggle with. "Ah, we can ask about visiting hours tomorrow I think, we should go get something for dinner. And.. I think I'd like to stop by a store on the way back, I wanna see if I can find a CD player for him. He can't have the radio once he moved to a general ward, and he'll need something with headphones."  

[TawnyAngel]

"I know." Taavi squeezed Abel's arm for a moment and then let him go. "I wish you could've stayed but... I guess they have rules for a reason?" Taavi frowned in a manner that hinted strongly towards him not thinking they were very good reasons. "But, yeah, there's that big 24 hour store right? They'll have electronics, and maybe an eyemask thing too like I promised. Uh... so do you want to eat first? Because I kind of want to eat first. I had an early lunch and that was, um, quite a while ago now. Feeling a bit shaky."  

[BlackFireKitsune]

"Yeah, I'm sure there's some reason for it," Abel agreed with a faint frown that didn't look entirely convinced that they were good reasons, not when he wanted to stay with his obviously anxious boyfriend. "Mmh, that's a good idea, we can go there... after we eat. Food first, definitely," he agreed with a nod - his stomach protested loudly that food wasn't happening immediately - then gave his friend a weary pat on the shoulder. "Lunch was a while ago, let's get something for dinner. What're you feeling?"  

[TawnyAngel]

"Yeah, must be," Taavi agreed reluctantly. Thinking about food was easier, his stomach was really keen on the idea. "Uh, something with fat and carbs. Maybe pizza? I could go for pizza, you?"  

[BlackFireKitsune]

"Pizza sounds perfect," he agreed readily, nodding as he spoke. A quick walk brought them to the ICU desk where he collected Isaac - and had a brief chat with the attending about making sure Zevran's CD was kept playing as often as possible, and his concerns about his boyfriend's anxiety at being left alone all night - before the small group headed back out into the cool night air.

Once outside it was a brief flight over to a pizza parlor that had later hours, and it didn't take very long to order and receive their drinks and an appetizer to munch on while they waited for their pizza to finish baking. Due to the late hour the place was fairly empty, leaving plenty of choices in places to sit; a booth in the corner sufficed, and Abel didn't hesitate to sink down into it with a sigh while Isaac hopped up beside him. Hopefully the pizza would be ready in short order, but at least they had delicious, cheesy breadsticks to tide them over for now. "It feels like ages since I've had pizza," Abel mused aloud as he studied the cheesy breadsticks for a few moments before picking one up and dipping it into the provided pizza sauce. "Or maybe just ages since I've enjoyed pizza. One of the two." It was difficult to enjoy anything when he worried about Zev though, that was for damn sure.  

[TawnyAngel]

"Don't think I've had pizza in a while either," Taavi agreed a bit vaguely as he picked up a breadstick and started to devour it.

It had been hard for him to walk out and leave Zev, it must have been a lot worse for Abel. He felt like he should be too worried to feel hungry, but he was starving and the breadstick was delicious. But he was worried. "Um... So it didn't seem like he really remembered what had happened? Do uh... Do you have any idea how he'll take it when he does?" And apart from that he was worried about other practical stuff, like insurance. Did Zev even have insurance? Somehow he doubted it. How much was a hospital stay like that going to cost out of pocket? He was willing to bet it was more than any of them could pay.  

[BlackFireKitsune]

"Yeah," Abel said halfheartedly before taking a bite of the breadstick. He'd been so excited this morning, and now he just.. felt terrible.

He frowned thoughtfully down at the table for a few moments before he shook his head. "I don't think he does remember, or at least he didn't ask about it... and no, I've no idea how he'll take it," he admitted, feeling anxiety slowly creeping up and sinking little claws into his heart the whole way. "Not well, I don't think." A few moments later he made an unhappy noise in the back of his throat as he rubbed his free hand over his face and mumbled, "I wish I could've stayed. I thought I'd feel better about leaving him once he was awake and aware of things, not worse."  

[TawnyAngel]

"Yeah, I know what you mean." Taavi sighed and rubbed his neck, still stiff from hunching over and now with the tension of worry too. "Now he's awake things are more, uh, more complicated I guess. I'm glad he is awake and getting better physically but..." He trailed off with a shrug and took another bite of his breadstick. "I guess there's more things to think about now? Which I guess is just saying it's more complicated again. I didn't think about leaving him by himself overnight at all until we had to go."