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Five yawns, feeling their eyelids grow heavier the longer they tried to focus on reading the book in their hands. The words on the pages were all starting to mesh together and they found themselves having to re-read sentences in order to understand what anything says.
Their eyes drift to the clock on their wall, and they frown. Radical was at Teddy’s birthday party tonight, and while Five had been invited, they weren’t huge on party scenes so they stayed home. They wanted to stay awake and wait until Radical got home to make sure he actually gets back safely before they went to bed, but Radical said the party would end at midnight, and it was already almost one in the morning.
They glanced over at the door almost expectantly, like they were gonna see Radical come through at any moment. Unfortunately, the door stayed in place, and everything was quiet. It was unlike Radical to be this late, especially when they should have been back almost an hour ago. Five was beginning to become worried, uneasy at the thought of something going wrong.
They left the kitchen to begin preparing to head over to Teddy’s place to see if he was still there, when the sound of a door opening caught Five’s attention.
“Radi, is that you?” Five calls from the other room, quickly approaching to check when they didn’t hear a response. “Radi?” They called again but were frozen in place upon entering the room. Radical was standing – no, swaying – unstable in the doorway, head drooped and turned away from Five, obviously purposefully avoiding them. Five noticed he also had dirt stains and marks that appeared to be forming bruises across their body.
“What happened?” Five gasped, quickly closing the distance between them and using their hands to better stabilize them before they got a whiff of the strong stench of alcohol, “Were you drinking at Teddy’s party?”
Five can hear Radical angrily mutter something out, but it was too slurred and unintelligible to understand anything that he had said.
Five sighed tiredly, “Come on.”
Obediently, Radical allowed Five to guide him to the kitchen table where they placed him in a chair and left temporarily to fetch a towel, water, and the medkit from under the sink.
"How did this happen?" Five asked while dipping a face towel in a bucket of water and squeezing it out. Radical didn't respond, and Five was a little confused as to how to address the situation.
It was obvious something bad had happened, Radical wouldn't be behaving like this if he simply tripped or just fell asleep on the ground. Five noticed Radical always became more timid and uptight whenever he felt insecure.
They chewed their lip as they took Radical's arm and began working on washing the dirt stains from it. "Are you in any pain?"
They looked up, but Radical was hiding under his hat, seemingly either avoiding or ignoring them; Five didn't know which felt worse.
They grimaced, feeling a little helpless and irritated at the lack of response from their partner. Grabbing the other arm, they repeated the process of squeezing water from the water bucket and washing the dirt stains from the skin.
Five persisted, "Did you get into another fight?"
Radical only watched as they cleaned him up, removing the dirt from his hands and arms that clung to him so stubbornly. Radical had been doing so well, he hadn't gotten into any physical altercations with anyone in months, so of course Five was surprised and disappointed to see that the streak has ended.
"And-and alcohol, Radi?" Five scolded, unable to help their frustration, "you aren't even an adult yet! That's a punishable offense if you get caught. Did Teddy give it to you, or did you swipe it off the table when he wasn't looking? You keep pushing yourself into risky behavior-"
Hic, hic, hic
Five froze, pausing their speech at the sudden, new sound amongst the silence of the home. They looked up to face Radical once again, trying to look him in the face as best they could since Radical was doing a good job at hiding it from them. It didn’t take a rocket scientist to conclude that he was crying.
Radical never cries. He gets angry, he gets aggressive, he gets moody and he sulks – but he almost never cries.
“Hey, hey,” Five says in a softer voice, dropping the towel along with the firm tone in replacement for concern and warmth.
They keep a distance for Radical’s sake, despite wanting nothing more but to envelop him into a hug and hold him tightly. Five opted to hold him by his upper arms and use their thumbs to gently caress him and attempt to calm his shaking.
“I'M SORRY FIVE,” Radical choked, still maintaining his loudness but dropping any of his normal confidence with it.
Five shook their head, trying to guide Radical to look at them but he was avoiding their gaze.
“I- I TOOK IT AND I SHOULDN'T HAVE. BUT I WAS REALLY MAD AT TEDDY AND WANTED TO GET BACK AT HIM.”
Five was careful to listen and continue their slow thumb strokes to try to soothe him. They didn't know if it was working, but they hoped it would convey to Radical that they still loved him and hoped it would be enough for now.
“AND- PERI SHOWED UP. SHE WAS BEING REALLY MEAN AND-” Radical paused, and the frown in his mouth deepened, like he was dreading what he was going to say next. “and I hit her. She hit me back and it got really bad.”
Five paused, even their thumb strokes ceased as they processed the information their drunk, disoriented boyfriend was telling them. Rage instantly boiled their blood, overpowering any other emotion in a single moment. Peri has now repeatedly chosen to defy Five's warning to leave Radical alone. Of course she did this, of course she would purposefully provoke him to get back at Five and make Radical look bad in front of his brother at his party.
The shaking and quiet sobs of Radical brought Five back to the present moment, reminding them that they couldn't do this, not right now. Right now was about Radical, not about Peri. Though, they made a mental note to deal with her later.
Five opened their mouth to deliver something– reassurance, kindness, or something to make the boy in front of him feel better, but before they could speak, Radical barreled himself roughly into the arms of Five, burying his face into the crook of Five’s neck, almost sending Five to the floor with the sheer force he used to push himself as far as he could into their embrace.
Five made quick work of holding him tightly, even in their semi-awkward position – with Radical sitting in the chair and Five kneeling on the ground – they made it work.
It took a few minutes, but soon the shaking and crying subsided and Five’s comforting strokes slowed. Reluctantly, Radical peeled himself from Five’s embrace, then for the first time that night, Radical met Five’s eyes. They looked wet, exhausted and nervous; Five immediately softened their face more and offered a small grin, which helped Radical to appear a little more relaxed.
“I'm glad you're safe.” Five finally said, “I want to finish patching you up, okay?”
Without much complaint from Radical, Five resumed their work of cleaning up any remaining dirt and then moving onto disinfecting and bandaging any small cuts they could find on him. Five also noted that Radical was as still as a rock, when typically he was more jumpy and sensitive about wounds. Five blamed the alcohol in his blood for any pain numbing. They also knew that within a few days bruises will begin blooming across his skin due to taking more hits than he would usually be able to take, but that will be taken care of another day.
The table and floor were scattered in the remains of used medical supplies and spilled water that neither of them would clean up until tomorrow.
_ _ _
They were now huddled in their bed, legs tangled between them and sheets strewn throughout the bed. Radical wasn't often very touchy, so Five wondered if the alcohol influence was making him so clingy. Either way, they weren't complaining.
"Five?"
"Hm?"
"Are you... mad?"
"No," Five answered without hesitation, leaving out the part that they were mad, just not at him. "I only want to keep you safe, dearie. I love you."
Radical buried his face further into Five's chest, mumbling something that was hard to make out from being muffled, but sounded vaguely like, "I love you too."
They relaxed, nothing but the sounds of the winds outside and the rise and fall of each other's breathing disturbing the silence in the dark of the night. Five caressed Radical's back until they felt his breathing slow and even out from finally being succumbed to sleep after this long night. Despite being exhausted, Five found they could not sleep as easily; opting to instead stare at the wall and listen to Radical's breathing as their brain churned with thoughts.
Tomorrow, they would clean their mess. Five would talk with Radical about what Teddy did to upset him to the point of swiping alcohol, Five would look for Peri to deal with her themself, and they would figure it all out tomorrow.
However, for tonight they could rest in the laziness of the night, indulging in slumber and decompression from the night's events. Maybe then, tomorrow won't come so fast.