𝑏𝑢𝑡 𝑖𝑡'𝑠 𝑎 𝑐𝑙𝑖𝑐ℎ𝑒 𝑓𝑎𝑛𝑓𝑖𝑐𝑡𝑖𝜊𝑛¹

morning but it isn't a good one

"WHAT THE HELL?"

An angry voice wakes me as I shoot up into a sitting position, causing a grunt to come from beneath me. Looking down I see a drowsy looking Kevin, squinting out across the room as his eyes try adjusting to the light.

My eyes follow his as I realise who's voice had woke me up. Craig was stood at the door, his hands balled up into fists and his jaw clenched.

"T-this erm, isn't what it looks like." I push myself up off of Kevin, allowing him to sit up, he stays silent. He's likely worried trying to defend himself would make things worse, it probably would.

"Oh right, you weren't on top of another man in our living room?"

I hear Kevin swallow hard beneath me.

"He's a friend Craig."

"Some friend," He scoffed, "I can't believe you."

"You can't believe me?" I snap, letting my anger take over and I can almost sense Kevin tense in his spot on the couch.

"And you, " Craig snaps, storming toward Kevin who quickly stands to defend himself, "who the fuck do you think you are."

I watch Kevin's jaw clench, "I'm (y/n)'s, friend." He spoke in the calmest tone he could muster, trying to defuse the situation.

Craig stepped dangerously close to Kevin so I pushed my arm between them, trying to get Craig to back off. Instead, he shoved me backwards, not hard but hard enough for me to step back a few paces.

"Jesus, " Kevin snapped, "what the feck is wrong with you?" he snapped as he glared down at my soon to be ex.

"Oh shut up I barely touched her, now get out, before I force you out."

"I think you're the one who needs to leave," Kevin growls, his tone the most serious I've ever heard it.

Craig snarled back, and without so much as a seconds warning, he pushed Kevin back, hard, his hand hitting his right shoulder as he falls back onto the couch.

"Kevin!" I gasp.

Kevin's eyes widen as he feels his shoulder crack, yelping in pain as he clutches it.

Craig takes a step closer, I run up to him, grabbing his fist as he lifts it to collide with Kevin's jaw.

"Get the fuck out.", I snap, pushing him back, though it doesn't do much. He looked pleased without himself though, as though he's achieved what he wanted.

He looks between the two of us before scoffing. "Fine. You're not worth it anyway."

As soon as he's out the apartment and the doors locked I turn to Kevin, rushing to his side.

"Fuck Kevin are you-"

"I'm fine, I'm fine." He stammered, though the expression of pain on his face didn't waver. 

"Let me look at it."

"It's fine really."

"Kevin." I shoot him a warning look and he sighs, moving his hand away from where it was clutching his shoulder and looking away. He flinched as I touched it.

"We should get you to the hospital." I take on a motherly tone.

His head snapped up, "no, " he stated clearly, "no hospital."

"But Kevin it-"

"I'm serious."

"Then let me call an ambulance, the paramedics can come to look at it, you don't have to go with them."

He let out a sharp exhale, knowing I wasn't giving up, "fine, " he huffed, his hand going back up to clutch his shoulder, though it retreated quickly in pain.

I make the call, before turning my attention to the wincing man hunched over on my couch.

"It's probably just set back your healing a bit, nothing to worry about, " I attempt to reassure him as I stood awkwardly in front of him.

He looks up at me with the best smile he could muster before tapping the couch beside him, "stop looking at me like I'm a neglected puppy and come sit down will ya?" He jokes weakly.

I smile softly, sitting beside him as he shifts slightly so he's facing me.

"Are you okay?" He asks, his eyes burning into mine with concern.

"You shouldn't be worrying about me right now." I brush it off.

"But I am." His gaze still following me as his tone turns serious again.

"I'm, I'm fine Kevin." I lie.

"You're not."

"Just...shut up, Kevin." I laugh sadly and he shoots me a meek smile.

I reach my hand up to squeeze his good shoulder but quickly retract it when it gains a sharp inhale from him.

"I'm sorry-"

"No, no don't be! It's just when my shoulders get bad I spend like 20 minutes stretching after a hot shower and well, I didn't really get the chance to do that this morning. You didn't hurt me, honestly, it felt kinda good." His voice fades off at the end but I hear him.

I take the hint and bring my hand back up to his shoulder, squeezing and rubbing softly as I gain a short grunt of approval from him, his eyes slipping shut as he rolls his neck slightly, giving me more to work with. Then his right arm lifted, rolling in time up against my touch and I smile softly as I watch the look of discomfort on his face slip away, he's obviously still in pain but it feels good to know I'm helping in some way. His shaky breathing began to even out sightly, though it hitched, his body jumping slightly as my fingers ran up the base of his neck.

I almost lose myself in watching the shifting expression on his face, surprised at how much emotion is shown despite his eyes being shut the entire time.

Then I hear the knock at the door and my hand retracts, his eyes shooting open as I let the paramedics in.

It takes about 10 minutes for them to conclude that he needs to go to the hospital and, at the very least get an X-ray.

"No feckin hospitals." He'd declared.

"Kevin please."

"Nope."

"I'll be with you the entire time." I bargained.

He sighed, "I just, I don't like hospitals, " he looked up at me, pleading with me to understand. I kind of did, he'd spent most his childhood in and out of hospitals and nothing ever really came of it, his pains always came back. He probably didn't see a point.

I move to sit beside him again, taking his hand from his lap and pulling it into mine, squeezing it softly, "please, just get checked out?"

The look he gives me is heartbreaking but he nods, "but, since I'm doing this to stop your whining, you owe me."

I smile, "deal."