Teekay sat impatiently in the waiting room, twiddling his sharp, clawed thumbs. Every moment spent waiting here was time Teekay should have been spending with the Vice General. That was his job, to defend the second most powerful Rethan alive with, well, his own life. Yet here Teekay was, waiting impatiently in a hospital goodness knows where.
Okay, that was unfair. He was there to visit Itakay, who had been injured and was returning to work on Monday. Itakay was doing great and was very pleased with how quickly the medics had patched him up. Then some medic pulled him to one side and said that another patient wanted to speak to him.
Finally, the door opened up and a medic called Teekay inside.
The room was split in two via a glass panel, with a standard hospital bed and apparatus on one side and an area clearly set up for visitors on the other.
“Teekay?” a voice squeaked from the bed. Arkay tried to sit up, but restraints and blankets kept him down. “W-what are you doing here?”
“I was visiting Itakay and assessing when he would be able to come back to work,” Teekay replied bluntly. “I cannot say the same for you.”
“Itakay is here too? They didn’t tell me… Is he well? I hope he’s alright.”
“He is fine. He will be back at work on Monday. Did you wish to speak to me?” Teekay was not in the mood to speak to the wreck laying in front of him.
Arkay shook his head. “I didn’t know you were coming! I mean, I did want to speak to you. Things I wanted to say in front of you rather than via messages.”
Teekay rolled his eyes. “Let me stop you right there, Arkay. I know exactly what you are going to say.”
“You do?”
“Yes. You are going to tell me that you love me. You’ll start saying how dumb you were for fancying Geekay, which is honestly rather insulting to both him and yourself. Then you will move on to something along the lines of how you always loved me and how you fucked up and got into some stupid situation you couldn’t get out of. You’ll whine and cry a little and make me feel guilty…
“Well guess what. I’m not falling for it again. You have done this to me a few times and I’m done. I’m done with you. Yes, I have feelings for you, Arkay, but they used to be feelings of love. Now they’re feelings of pity and anger.
“I don’t want to be a part of your train wreck life. I don’t want to be infected by your constant insanity! I have my life all made up and sorted out. I don’t have a partner or anything yet but that will come eventually. What I don’t want is to spend half my life waiting for you to sort yourself out, then spending the other half looking after you because you can’t sort yourself out!”
Teekay paused, taking a deep breath. “You’re broken, brother. I can’t fix you, and I have no interest of joining you in your own personal hell. Maybe it’s fear or cowardice, I don’t know. But I can’t do it. I’m sorry.”
Arkay didn’t say anything at first. He didn’t seem too upset, but Teekay was sure he was on some sort of medication. After a moment of staring at the end of his bed, he finally spoke.
“I understand.”
“I should have admitted this a long time ago…” Teekay sighed.
“No…” Arkay replied, his voice lacking any sort of emotion. “I should have realised what I was doing sooner. But it’s fine. You should go live your life. I don’t want to corrupt your life with what’s left of mine. I just wanted to tell you that I have six months left to live. I was going to ask if you wanted to take some time off and perhaps spend that time with me, but I have changed my mind. I don’t want you here.”
“I didn’t realise… I was told… that you were getting better…”
“You were told wrong. Now leave me be.”
Silence filled the room. Arkay did his best to turn away and not face Teekay. Teekay though was too stunned to say anything. He stood there, once again feeling guilty. Part of him wanted to fall back into Arkay’s trap again, but he knew better. After some more silence, he decided it would be best for him to leave.
“I hope the rest of your life is peaceful, brother…” Teekay sighed as he gently closed the door behind him.