Rafael

Bed Ridden

After laying in bed for countless hours, your eyelids close with eyelashes fluttering against your cheek.

  Your bed dips slightly and you force your eyes to open. Val is at the end of the mattress with one leg perched and the other on the floor. He smiles sheepishly.

  "I'm sorry to have woken you up. It's just that you had been sleeping for a while."

  You smile a bit and push your hair out from your face. "I'm okay. I was just tired, I think."

  "How's your pain?"

  "Intense, honestly."

  His face falls a little. You knew he was blaming this on himself but you couldn't figure out how to make him stop.

  "It'll be fine." You say simply. "I've had worse."

  "Physically?"

  "Kind of. But none of this is your fault."

  V nods finally before speaking once more. "Are you hungry? I could cook somethin' or just order in."

  "Not hungry. But don't hesitate to get yourself anything."

  "I'll probably take you up on that later. Do you need anything right now?"

  You think for a moment. "No, I'm good. Thank you."

  "Of course." He stands and walks over to kiss the top of your head before exiting the room.

                                   ••••

Valentin had fallen asleep on the couch in the living room when you realized you had to get up to pee. Without knowing this, you figured you'd be able to walk to the bathroom from your bed so you started to sit up. No pain yet, that's good. You moved your legs out from underneath the blanket and sucked in a sharp breath. Pain. Shit.

"It'll be fine." You whisper to yourself as you begin to get out of bed. The second your feet touch the carpet rug, you wince. "C'mon. You got it." You begin repeating this as you take step after small step towards the bathroom.

The pain you feel begins to blur your vision but you try to fight it off. "Almost there." You whisper when within a few feet of the doorframe. Blinking rapidly, you try to will away the black spots clouding your vision.

While hunched over with the doorframe in your grasp, you realize that Rafael doesn't even know about this. For some reason, this fills you with an overwhelming guilt and you begin to gag. However, this part very well could've been the pain but the timing seemed impeccable.

You feel acid rising up in your throat before you begin to cough. It runs down your chin and goes onto the tile of the bathroom. Coughing turns to dry heaving.

His hand can be felt on your lower back before you even hear him. "Let's get you into the bathr-"

"I'm sorry." You manage a whisper before the dry heaving returns with a vengeance.

Val guides you the rest of the way and follows when you begin to lower to your knees. He's holding your hair while his other hand rubs your back slowly. "I gotcha, kid. It's okay, it's okay."

He grabs some tissue and waits for the heaving to give way. After a few minutes, it stops but you stay facing the lid of the toilet. You're ashamed and embarrassed as he gently turns your face to his. His hands work as he cleans around your mouth with the tissue and throws it away.

"Time to get up?" He prompts, hands outstretched to you.

A nod is all he needs before he helps to pull you off the ground. Val steps out while you use the bathroom and wash your hands. He comes back in once you call and you walk with him slowly back to the bed.