Archive of Our Own ^beta

As Bender grew older and older and let his boyfriend in more and more, Andrew would notice these little episodes Bender would have.

He would space out and then his personality would change, and he would talk differently, and then maybe a few hours later, he'd space out again before going back to normal, but he'd not have any recollection of what had happened while he was different.

After the first few times it happened, Andrew decided it would be best for him to see a doctor. His fear was that Bender was having some sort of early-onset dementia or something along those lines. After some fighting on the matter, Bender got freaked out enough to go to the doctor.

After a few doctor's visits, he got back a diagnosis for what was actually going on and it made him scared out of his mind. But, even beyond his fears about how it would impact his own life, he was absolutely terrified about telling Andrew. What if the blonde flipped his shit? What if he broke up with him? What if he went so far as to hurt him over it?

"Hey" he started, an uncharacteristic nervousness about him as he sat on the bed next to the athlete.

"Hey" Andrew replied with a small smile. "Did the doctor figure out what's wrong?"

"Yeah..." Bender said, swallowing heavily and Andrew could just tell something was off.

"Is it bad?"

"I don't think it's great"

"Whatever it is, I'm here, and we'll figure it out together, okay?" Andrew tried to reassure and Bender really wished he could believe him. But, he was too deep at this point to back out of the conversation. So, he steeled his nerves, and he broke the news.

"I have Multiple Personality Disorder" he said and Andrew went dead silent and Bender was scared out of his mind. "Please say something"

"I don't know what to say" Andrew admitted and Bender sighed. He knew it. This was it. They were over.

Bender got up to leave but a hand reached out and took his and he was terrified, but he turned back to look at his boyfriend. "What?"

"Don't leave"

"If you're gonna hit me or anything, at least let me get a headstart, asshole"

"Woah, hey" Andrew said, a bit taken aback but ultimately not too surprised at Bender's sudden defensiveness. "I'm not gonna hit you" he reassured. "Or break up with you or anything like that, you hear? I'm not gonna hurt you"

"But-"

"I'm not gonna pretend I'm not a little freaked out by the diagnosis" Andrew tells him. "But, I love you and, as I already said, we're gonna figure it out together, yeah? I'm not gonna run as soon as things get tough- That's pussy shit"

"Andrew..."

"I'm serious" the blonde insisted and he really did look more serious than he ever had before. "I love you, okay? I'm not leaving"

"I love you too"

"That's more like it"