Damien, for once, was at the hospital for himself. Just beside his eye had be sliced using a silver knife, reducing his healing to that of a normal human. Bruises littered parts of his body and his eye socket had been fractured. Being told that he wouldn't need any medical treatment, Damien was free to go home and do what he liked and that's exactly what he planed to do as he strolled down the corridor. Until he heard someone screaming.
A nearby nurse backed out of a room, turning around just in time to avoid bumping into Damien.
"Ah, Damien, please try to see if you can calm that young lad. He's too panicked to let anyone clean him up and we'd rather not sedate him further." Smiling, like she knew he would help. All the nurses knew that Damien volunteered to help and keep patients company so asking him to help calm someone was nothing he would refuse.
There was the small sad smile that stretched across his face as she explained that the kid had been burned in a fire and was panicking because he couldn't see. Damien shivered at the mention of fire and being burned, the words,
"Of course I'll try help." tumbling out before the nurse could finish speaking. Smiling goodbye, he heads into the room; pausing to hear the nurse tell Damien the kids name. Jay.
His footsteps were silent as he entered the room, only making sound as he stared shoving the other nurses out the room. Jay was still screaming while frantically pushing anyone who got too close away. Especially anyone who had anything damp to clean him up. Once everyone had left it was just Jay and Damien. With people out of his face, Jay managed to stop panicking a little bit, though it wasn't a lot.
Damien quietly hums as he moves to be on the side Jay could see, humming louder and approaching slowly as to not startle him. Jay was still panicking and shuffled away from him. Damien wasn't discouraged and sat next to Jay on the hospital bed, slowly and carefully pulling Jay closer to hug him despite the flailing arms repeatedly smacking Damien in the face. He made no complaint. His humming turned into soft singing, random tunes pulled from thin air. Jay calmed down a little but tensed up as Damien's hand snaked around the back of Jay's head, abruptly covering his damaged eye, giving him a more manageable reason as to why he couldn't see out of it.
Damien never stopped humming and singing no matter how much Jay flailed about. One of Damien's braids was knocked loose and Jay pauses momentarily. It held personal meaning. Somehow Jay ended up with his good ear pressed against Damien's chest, the thumping of Damien's heart echoing in his ear. It was comforting. Neither of them knew how long they sat like that.
"Your eye was damaged in the fire. You're blind in that eye." It was the first time Jay heard Damien's voice, he jumped as he spoke then remained silent. From what Jay had seen of Damien, he expected a deeper and gruffer voice, not the softness that it truly was although it could have been put on, Jay rationalised when he thought about it later. Damien took his hand slowly off Jay's blind eye. He was surprised that Jay just stared at the wall while fiddling with the hem of his shirt. Processing.
For a long time it was quiet. Rattling of carts, muffled talking and the obnoxious beep of a machine neither of them cared to try figure out the function of.
"You're covered in ash and dirt." As if to make a point Damien brushed his fingers over Jay's hair and showed him the accumulated grime. As the brunette leaned out of the bed to grab something any couldn't see he talked, explaining what he was going to do. The moment Jay spotted the petite plastic tub with water sloshing about his breathing quickened, every breath sounding forced and clunky.
"You can squeeze my hand if that would help." His voice sounded distant but the hand presented in front of Jay caught his attention. It could have been the arm warmer that stretched over Damien's middle finger that was so absurd but Jay took his hand anyway and squeezed in little pulses in time to his breathing. There was no comment about if he was squeezing too hard, just Damien calmly counting and not giving Jay more attention that would make him more panic stricken.
Jay quivered as he felt water dripple down his face but in steady of screaming he squeezed Damien's hand harder, his nails digging in but Damien just kept talking. "Its okay, its safe I promise. I'm here." Damien repeated often or just talked nonsense or what he was doing so each time the water touched Jay, it was less startling. It was relatively smooth sailing until Damien tried to wash around the blonde's nose and mouth and his long fringe. As the damp cloth neared his nose, Jay began to flail more smacking the tub of water accidentally sending it all down Damien. The brunette stopped talking mid sentence then chuckled to himself about having needed a bath anyway. It was a strange reaction and distracted Jay for the few seconds Damien needed to quickly wipe the dirty off Jay's nose and around his mouth. Jay screamed. He shoved Damien and scrambled away from him, tumbling off the bed and glaring at him as dirtily as possible.
There was an absurd clicking noise and what sounded like German mushed together, spewing from Damien. His emerald eyes blazing as if they had a life of their own, staring right at Jay. "Are you going to come back here? I still need to wash the front of your hair." It was polite and clam, much like most of his demeanour so far with a hint of amusement as if there was a little joke Jay wasn't aware of but not mocking or demeaning. Moments of silence besides Jay's laboured breathing and Damien never pushed for an answer. It was bizarre in Jay's mind once it stopped reeling from the water assault, Damien was sat patiently waiting as if the situation was something simple and relaxing as opposed to being assaulted several times and sat in dripping wet clothes.
Eventually Jay made his way back to the bland hospital bed after having curled up in a ball to calm himself somewhat. Damien had left to get some more water and had been back half an hour before Jay nudged him. His previously closed eyes flicked open and a small smile appeared, "Feel calmer now?" as he sat up from slouching against the bed. It was a sincere question but Jay just shrugged and sat back next to Damien, taking his hand and playing with the edge of his glove as a distraction. Damien hummed while he washed the last dirty part of Jay's hair, managing like a pro to wet his hair and run apple scented shampoo into the golden strands. The real challenge was washing the shampoo out and not using too much water that Jay felt threatened. Somehow they managed without causing Jay to have another panic attack. The towel left to dry Jay's hair was extra fluffy and surprisingly the feeling of having his haired dried made Jay feel relaxed. Apparently so did Damien's presence.
When Damien got up to leave Jay watched his movements, never moving from the bed. It occurred to him that he didn't even know his name yet he had taken care of him. Jay concluded that he wasn't any of the nursing staff or a doctor since he didn't wear the typical medical scrubs. It was as Damien go tot the door to leave that Jay stared to speak.
"Will you come back?" His voice was quiet and for a second he worried he'd been too quiet but Damien stopped and turned to look at him.
"Yeah, I'll be back so chin up and no scratching at the bandages, kay?" A mischievous grin played on Damien's face since he was expecting some kind of explosive reaction after acting parentally. Jay stared back not unamused but in no state to laugh or even force a chuckle. He stiffly nods, remaining quiet until Damien had a foot out the door.
"Wait!" he sounded half panicked so Damien spun on his heels in worry, humming as if to tell Jay to continue. "What...What's your name?"
A smile lit up his face at the question. Most people never asked and it didn't really bother him. With a closed eye smile, he told him and disappeared out the door.
"Damien."
And he returned almost every other day until Jay was released from hospital.