Characters: IC!Isis [clairv0yance], OOC!Seto [blueeyesleather]

Setting: Skip-bo General hospital, waaaay over on the other side of Domino. ^^

Rating: PG for a few words. :O

Summary: After seeing Isis' post about Malik's accident, Seto goes up to the hospital to ah... comfort her. *shifty eyes* Isis then proceeds to have a mental breakdown, and then... *gasp* fluff ensues! :o



As soon as he had gotten a reply, Seto was out the door (after having quickly ordered Isono to keep a very drunk Mokuba as locked up as possible). This just wasn't his past few days.

God damn party, he thought, hopping into the car and revving it up. God damn Malik getting god damn meds for Ryou, god damn it. And speeding (quite literally) off into the night. God damn motorcycles, god damn hospital, god damn pole. He was damning everything he could think of until he reached the other side of the city.

All hospitals looked the same to him by now. He fumbled with his keys climbing/leaping/half-falling out of the vehicle, nervousness taking over. He sprinted through the hospital doors and skidded to a stop in the waiting room. "...Isis?"

Isis looked up from her seat, and almost immediately stood up and walked over to him, wiping something from her face. She looked horrible, to say the least: her hair was messed up, her eyes were red and puffy - it wasn't hard to tell that she'd been crying - and it looked like she hadn't slept in weeks. To put it quite bluntly, she looked like a nervous wreck.

"...I'm sorry for having you come out here this late," she muttered, sniffling a bit. "But... I know it's going to be a very long night, and I didn't want to be here by myself..." She looked down at her hands, which were holding a knotted-up tissue.

"Hey, I'm the one who offered in the first place; don't go apologizing, all right?" Though he had to admit...it was quite unnerving seeing Isis losing her cool. That and the fact that he had little to no social skills made it even more so. "Has there been any more news on either of them?"

"Well... they said Ryou's not too bad... he's just having gallstones from losing so much weight, so they'll have to remove his gallbladder..." Isis reached up with the wadded-up tissues, wiping what were likely tears from her face. "They haven't told me anything else about Malik yet, as he's still in surgery... they're having to remove a--" her throat constricted at the mere thought of it, and she had to force the words out, "--a metal pole from his right leg..."

Seto bit his lip and idly glanced around at the various docs and nurses striding through the halls before looking back to her. "I see." He then reached over and brushed a strand of hair aside that was very out of place for her normally tidy hair. "You look like a mess. C'mere." He pulled her a little closer. "What you need to do is calm down a bit, okay? Malik's tough. He'll be pretty pissed that his ride got wrecked and his leg's not up to snuff, but you know he'll make it through and bounce back."

"..." Isis slowly nodded, wiping her eyes again. "I know, he is strong... but with everything that's happened in the last couple of days, I..." She hesitated for a moment before leaning forward slightly, resting her forehead against his chest. "It's like how I told you earlier, about letting things build up... well... I let things build up."

He flinched ever so slightly, but that was all the more uncomfortable he got. "I'm sorry, I know it must be partially my fault, me and Atemu dumping all that crap on you for no good reason." Seto pressed her closer, wrapping one arm around her shoulders, the other content on stroking her messy hair. "And I'm afraid I'm no good at the pep-talk thing. You just let everything that's built up out right now; there's no harm in that, obviously."

She'd honestly been trying to hold her tears back - almost like she was trying to keep her defenses up, despite the situation. However, as soon as she felt his hand in her hair, she could feel everything wanting to flow out. And it certainly did that; she cried silently, except for a sniffle here and there. The real way to tell that she'd completely lost it was by the way her whole body was shaking.

He held her tightly; he felt she might fall all to pieces if he didn't. But he certainly didn't mind it so much. After all, this is what he came for, more or less, because sometimes one just needed a shoulder to cry on, Isis included. Having to deal with Malik and Ryou all the time, he was almost surprised that she'd lasted this long. Seto said nothing, just threading his fingers through her hair and letting her do whatever she needed to do; words weren't necessary.

It must have been several minutes before Isis finally pulled away, wiping her eyes with the tissue again. Her head was beginning to hurt as a result of the stress and her breakdown, but she said nothing about it; she just continued to stare into Seto's shirt. "Sorry... I... got your shirt wet," she muttered weakly, closing her eyes - the brightness of the room was starting to hurt.

This comment made him smile for once. "Well, that's what tears are gonna do, hm? C'mon, let's get you seated before you pass out or something." He slowly led her back over to the chairs and lowered her into one. "It's gonna be a pretty long night. You should rest a little, if you can," he suggested.

Isis nodded a little as she sat back down, keeping her eyes fixed on her hands. "I... already know I'm not going to be able to sleep at all," she said quietly, wrapping her arms around herself. "I'm just so worried about them both, that... it's all I can think about." She looked up at Seto, squinting a little to block some of the light out. "I'll... try to rest, though. At least a little..."

"Of course you can't think of anything else with both of them in trouble like they are." He sat down beside her, not quite sure what to do now. "Is...there anything I can get for you? Or should I just stay here?"

"...I'd like for you to stay, at least for a while," she replied, twisting the tissue in her hands a bit. It had become so saturated with her tears that it ripped right in half, but she paid no mind to it. "I... don't want to trouble you any more than I already have, though..."

He nodded. "All right, I'll stay. It's no trouble. I think I've already troubled you enough anyway." It seemed to be a relatively quiet night here beyond the two in the ER. What a shame the night had to be ruined. "I didn't really want to be home with a drunk Mokuba, so it's not like I mind terribly staying here longer."

A drunk Mokuba. That couldn't be good. That thought aside, Isis wasn't sure whether to feel guilty for having him stay, or thankful that he was staying. Eventually, she chose the latter - it didn't put as much stress on her mind. "...thank you," she muttered, shifting in her chair a bit; she was going to be here for a while, so she might as well get as comfortable as she could.

"You're quite welcome." He leaned back and stared at the ceiling for a while. "Guess all we can do now is wait, huh." Was there any coffee in this place? "I'm sorry for all this, y'know. I didn't mean to get you all stressed out over me, and then this, and I just feel like this is kinda my fault, which is stupid, but still..."

"It's not your fault," Isis said, "not really. It's just... things have been building up over the last few months. Everything with the Tauk, and Shadow, and... all of that's been just stacking on top of each other, and I feel like a complete hypocrite because I told you not to let things build up, and that's exactly what I've been doing, and..." She paused, cutting off her run-on to cough a little; she was getting choked up on her own words. "Just... don't feel like this is your fault, because it's not at all, okay?"

"...All right." He glanced over at her before sitting up a bit straighter, reaching over and slipping an arm around her again. "What'd I say about calming down? That's exactly what you're not doing right now."

She was silent for a few moments before letting out an exhausted sigh. "You're right..." she mumbled, wiping at her eyes with the shredded remains of her tissue. "I'm just... tired of everything. I mean... really, is it too much to ask to have a relatively normal life? For more than two weeks?" She glanced over at Seto, looking every bit as tired as she said she was - in more ways than one.

"I think it is," he replied with his own sigh, a small, lopsided smirk appearing on his face. "Around here, anyway, with some crazy thing happening every other day. Don't let your brother overhear you saying that kinda stuff, though, else I'm sure he'd want to smack you upside the head. It's not so bad after a while, is it? Look at it this way: you've got a good job in a good city around some decent people. You've got a full house of family and friends alike who are more or less like an extended family. When you come home at the end of the day to see these people who care about you and vice versa, doesn't it make it worth it? A couple near-death experiences and crazy-ass things going on don't seem nearly so bad, do they?"

Isis had to think about that for a few minutes before slowly shaking her head. "...no, it doesn't... as long as I can come home and see my brother being happy, then..." She stifled a short yawn with the back of her hand, then leaned over a little, lightly resting her head on his shoulder. Her mind was too active for her to try and sleep at all, but she could at least rest a little - she was as tired physically as she was emotionally. "...then I guess it is worth it."

"There you go, that's my point. You have every right to feel tired of all this shit, but there's something good to look forward to. And he's going to be so happy to see you once he's out of the ER, too." He didn't fail to notice the yawn. "Should I just shut up now so you can at least rest a bit without me babbling in your ear?"

Isis just barely nodded as she let out another sigh, her body relaxing. She did feel a little bit better after listening to him, but it didn't change the fact that she was still worried, and she likely wouldn't stop worrying until she saw that both Malik and Ryou were okay. It was going to be a long night, so she might as well try to get some rest. "...thank you for staying with me, Seto," she repeated, closing her eyes.