Chapter Text
medkit was at his computer, tapping keys mindlessly. he could feel his eyelid drooping; it was far too late into the night to be working. ugh. he still had to finish the research paper he'd been putting off.
minutes stretched into hours, and with each minute his head grew heavier, until he finally dozed off completely, head landing directly onto his keyboard with a rattling melody of clicks and clacks. if his monitor had been any closer, his horns would have likely knocked it over. he could feel his body letting go, the comfort of sleep releasing the tension in his shoulders and back-- and along with it, a long string of jumbled letters and symbols that came with him using a keyboard as a pillow.
he had no idea how long he'd been asleep when he suddenly heard three perfect knocks at his office door; metallic, ringing uncomfortably in his ears. without a doubt, a biograft. but which one?
none of that mattered to him, they all posed the same threat anyway. the idea of a biograft at his door vexed him, ignoring the fact it could very much be coming to kill him, it had also interrupted his fleeting moment of sleep.
he muttered a few curses under his breath. it was 3 am, why now? shoving the thought away, he rummaged through his pockets, procuring a gun; his weapon of choice decorated to his liking. he crept toward the door, peering through the peephole; it was too dark to see anything. he decided he would risk opening the door, gun poised to kill-- yet when the door shrilly squeaked open, a wave of confusion washed over him.
the biograft that stood before him whirred quietly, staring forth with an air of apathy toward him. it held no weapons, and seemed not to pose a threat, but the glare it gave him told him under different circumstances, he would be very dead right now.
go figure, the killing bot wanted to kill him.
that wasn't his biggest concern, though. what it was holding in place of a weapon was subspace's limp, half-conscious body. god, he was in terrible condition; the rot had gotten far worse than when he last saw him, and the smell almost knocked him off his feet.
where he should've felt anger, he felt...pity? shockingly, he felt bad for the scientist. he certainly looked pitiful, but that didn't mean he had to feel pity for him.
seeing medkit hadn't spoken yet, the biograft straightened up to speak. "CREATOR IS INJURED. VINE STAFF IS MIA. HOSPITAL IS OVERBOOKED. YOU ARE THE LAST RESORT."
medkit scoffed. "wow, i'm the last resort? nice to know he's still thinking of me." the biograft narrowed its artificial optics. "DO NOT THINK OF THIS AS A PEACE TREATY. ONE STILL SEES YOU AS A THREAT TO ELIMINATE. A TRAITOR."
medkit rolled his eyes and crossed his arms. "behave, or i wont help your creator. you're lucky i still have a semblance of concern for him." he glanced back at his office. the small room with a hospital bed and some equipment's door was ajar; it was clean, ready for a patient he hadn't expected to come. "bring him in, but you're staying out. uh...you can guard the door or whatever." He pointed at the obviously satirical "NO BIOGRAFTS ALLOWED" sign scythe had made, scribbled onto a scrap of wood with a half-dried out sharpie. she had insisted he put it up in his office, and he did so with much reluctance; he didn't find it very humorful. he didn't exactly expect it to come in handy.
the biograft, recognizing an order, marched mechanically into the room. "AFFIRMATIVE."
—
subspace awoke groggily; his whole body felt terribly stiff. what time was it? where was he? he didn't know, which instantly put his senses on high alert. he blinked his working eye open; the room, which he didn't recognize, but he could tell was a hospital room, was quite dim. it didn't look like blackrock's hospital rooms-which he hated to admit, he had been frequenting recently-and also definitely wasn't vine staff's living room.
he could faintly hear the sound of a biograft somewhere outside. sitting up, with much pain, he scanned the room. before he could process what he saw, a stinging pain struck through the left side of his body, and he doubled over. a whimper unwillingly escaped his lips; alerting medkit, who had already begun dozing off again. the sound of the wheels of an office chair rolling over tile told him someone was coming to see what happened.
medkit peered into the room. "ah, you're awake. i expected you'd sleep longer than that, considering your condition, but i can't really expect anything with you." he stood from his chair, walking swiftly to a cabinet and rummaging through it. he turned to subspace, holding two bottles; one was more squat than the other, presumably a container of topical cream; the other produced a rattling sound, likely pills.
subspace scooted backward in his bed, as far away from medkit as he could get without falling off the edge. "hell if im taking whatever you give me!! do i look insane to you??"
"do you really want me to answer that?" he deadpanned, striding to the door to lock it shut. subspace looked like he would jump out of his skin at any moment. "care to explain why you're locking the door??"
medkit shrugged "i'd rather not get beheaded by your robo-dog the moment it spots me trying to wrangle you into taking these pills-which you will be taking, because they're going to help-but that might just be me." subspace let out a squawk of suprise, pointing a bandaged finger at him.
"you won't!!"
"i will, actually. if you don't come here, i'll get you myself, and im sure neither of us want that considering your current state."
"come get me yourself, then." subspace hissed through sharp, gritted teeth. medkit raised an eyebrow before setting down both containers to roll up his sleeves.
subspace froze for a second. he hated to admit it, but that was kind of attractive. wait, what? medkit? attractive? there's actually no way i'd EVER think that, what am i on about--
medkit took advantage of subspace, who was deep in denial of his pining for medkit, to shove him down into the jumble of covers and attempt to force a small handful of pills into his mouth. subspace almost choked on his own spit in surprise before quickly clamping his jaws, which held very sharp teeth, onto medkit's arm.
medkit let out a stream of curses not even subspace would repeat, whacking the latter multiple times on the head with a clenched fist. "good lord, let go of me you phucking piranha!" subspace released his clamp, proud of the damage he'd done, until he realized medkit had now backed away to a further corner of the room, brandishing a very familiar gun.
subspace spit out a mouthful of medkit's blood and backed up to the wall, raising his arms out in front of him in surrender. "okay, okay, jeez, i'll take the pills!! you dont have to phucking shoot-"
the sound of a muffled gunshot interrupted him. subspace froze, he didn't actually expect him to go through with it; but instead of feeling dead, he felt...tired. very tired.
did medkit just phucking sedate me? what. what the phuck.
medkit left the room for a few minutes, allowing the medication to serve its purpose; subspace could hear an irritated medkit reluctantly conversing with a biograft outside, probably about the bite he'd scored on him. ha ha ha. it would've been funny if he wasn't falling asleep right now.
he felt his eyelid start drooping, and a serene calm wash over him; medkit came forth again with a newly bandaged arm, sitting on the edge of the bed. subspace slumped back against the headboard of the hospital bed. medkit opened the bottle of pills again, having discarded his previous handful due to it having been scattered all over the floor when subspace tried to take a chunk of his arm off. "so wasteful," he muttered. "old habits die hard." he gently leaned subspace to rest on his chest, which caused subspace's face to instantly shift to a violent shade of red. "c'mon, just take the pills, they'll make you feel better."
reluctantly, subspace obeyed, letting medkit coax him into taking the pills with a mouthful of water; which cooled his throat, he hadn't noticed it was dry. he had a habit of not noticing such things, forgetting to take care of himself and whatnot.
huh, he thought. i miss having someone to take care of me like this.
as much as i hate med, i kinda wish we could stay like this.
the emotional pain and yearning distracted him from what medkit was doing. he gently pulled subspace closer, resting him in his lap, and scooted backward, leaning over to grasp the container of ointment. methodically, he unwrapped the bandages on his face, which had stuck painfully to the fresh, raw rot that had brought him here in the first place. subspace's face twisted in agony, and he bit his tongue to avoid whimpering; medkit sensed this. "don't hold your tongue, tell me if it hurts. i won't judge you, not now or here."
he gently applied the ointment, a cool green color glittering with traces of crystal dust, to subspace's wounds. it stung nonetheless; subspace hissed quietly, squeezing medkit's free hand weakly. medkit didn't protest, but continued to apply the cream with even more gentleness.
it felt like ages before medkit was done; when he looked up, it was somehow still night. he knew, though, soon the warm morning light would begin to seep through the blinds that were slightly ajar. subspace had long fallen asleep in his lap; his face more peaceful than he had ever seen it.
it hit medkit that he'd never seen subspace asleep. he wondered if he still took care of sub, would he have gotten this bad? another pang of guilt and hurt hit him, he only ever looked content while asleep. he'd even admit he looked kinda...cute? (oh my phucking gods just get married atp)
before he even had the time to think about what he was doing, he gently moved subspace to one side of the bed, removing his weirdly-shaped jacket and hanging it on the headboard. he gently covered subspace with the crumpled covers in the bed, causing subspace to shift in his place and curl up into a ball. medkit snorted, he really did act like a cat. med took off his own jacket and hung it next to subspaces, joining the hunched figure in the bed.
realizing it was quite chilly, he pulled the covers over himself too, and wrapped his arms securely around subspace. he had no idea why he would do this; the inphernal wanted him dead, for phucks sake, but he did it anyway, gently petting his unkempt white hair.
subspace let out a content sigh, sleepily leaning further into medkit. med could swear he could almost hear him purring. he pulled off his eyepatch, tossing it onto the counter behind him-a sign of vulnerability, he hadn't even shown scythe his missing eye- and shut his good eye, dozing off in the warmth of their shared bed.
his heart wanted to say something to subspace, the figure that seemed to occupy his thoughts with no relent. his lips cracked open, a whisper almost as quiet as a shaky breath;
"i still love you, subspace."
and even though the smaller inphernal didn't reply, he swore he could just barely hear his response,
"i love you too, meddy."