Kevin/Mike: The One At the Hospital
Title: The One At the Hospital
Info: PG, 1801 words.
Notes: Complete schmoop, guys. Also my first attempt at writing them and I only know them from fic, so, yeah. It's pre-slash, probably. Pre-slash with intent, I don't know. Kind of pseudo-fic. Unbeta'ed. Also, I did like two seconds of research on appendectomies, so, uh. Crap, are you even gonna read after all that? I love concrit; don't feel like you'll hurt my feelings by pointing out any failings here, okay? :D? These guys are just, ugh. I couldn't help but write this. I blame skoosiepants one hundred percent.
Summary: Mike is in the hospital recovering from an appendectomy. Kevin's volunteering there!
Kevin loves volunteering at the hospital. He doesn't get to do much of the clerical work because the filing system is confusing (seriously, he's far from stupid but it's alphabetized in Klingon maybe, Kevin really has no idea, it's just intimidating, okay?), so he spends a lot of time doing little things like visiting patients who don't get a lot of visitors and delivering flowers. He's maybe more of a social volunteer than a helpful one, but the nurses seem to like him and he feels like he's making a difference when he can cheer people up, so he's totally okay with that.
Kevin's given a massive, hideous flower arrangement to deliver, and already he's a bit apprehensive about meeting the guy he's to give them to since only the really, really sick people or the kids get huge bouquets of flowers like that and though he loves the kids the really sick people kinda get him down. But then he gets to the room (which is a sort of hilarious trip; the flowers are so huge he can't really see past them, so he has to pass each door before he can turn his head enough to see the number) and sets the flowers on the little bedside table (maybe sort of almost tripping over a visitor chair in the process, and okay, it's totally not his fault; who just left it out in the middle of nowhere like that anyway?) and then he can see there's a guy in the bed with his hair in his face and an expression like he can't decide whether to be amused at Kevin's expense or horrified at the flowers. Personally, Kevin would go with the flower option. They're pretty awful and embarrassing in a way that has nothing to do with him. Kevin mumbles a "hi" with a little wave and stands there for a minute and sort of stares at the guy, because, okay, he's pretty hot in a disgruntled sort of way, but it's a hospital and disgruntled is pretty much the norm, and Kevin can't help but wonder if it's normal for this guy, too.
Mike stares back for a long minute, before huffing out a tiny amused sound and rolling his eyes. This kid's weird. He shifts a little on the bed - it's difficult to find a comfortable position when he's abdomen's been cut into, which isn't something he really wants to think about (surgery sort of freaks him out) so he aims a nod at the hideous flowers. They're almost certainly from Bill, Mike knows this, but he also knows he's bored and sick of having nothing to distract him from the nagging discomfort in his gut. "The fuck, kid?"
Kevin jumps a little - it's entirely possible that he zoned out there, distracted by this Mike guy's disgruntled hotness - and firmly focuses himself back in the present. He's not quite sure what Mike's asking - would it be difficult to use maybe a few more (less vulgar) words? - and he's equally not sure what to think about being called a kid, since he'd guess Mike's somewhere around his own age, so he looks at the flowers, then back at Mike. That intense staring's getting a little unnerving, but Kevin sort of likes the feeling that he's the focus of that attention. It's sort of weird, though, and doesn't help his own cognitive functions, and he still has no idea what Mike meant.
"Um. They're flowers?" Kevin offers, his traitorous mouth making the intended statement into a question, which obviously amuses Mike. His mouth quirks into something like a grin, and he nods slowly as if agreeing to something a lot more important than an existential statement about flowers. He waits for several seconds, and Kevin feels his cheeks heat with a blush because, yeah, that totally wasn't smooth at all and though Mike hasn't actually laughed out loud, Kevin can tell that inside? Mike's totally laughing at him. It doesn't feel malicious or anything, but still. Embarrassing.
"Right," Mike says, pauses, and is so glad that Bill's completely ridiculous and sent him the world's ugliest flower arrangement, because this is fun. "But who're they from?"
Right. Kevin's hopefully attractive blush turns into the red face of epic embarrassment, because, yeah, of course that's what he meant. "Um. Not from me," Kevin says, waving his hands a little, and turns quickly toward the flowers to try to find a card or something and totally not to hide his red face. "I mean, well, duh, they're not from me, but, uh, technically I did bring them so maybe they kind of are in a way?" He hears an amused sound from Mike's direction and he really needs to just find the card and get out of here, he's acting like he's never talked to a really hot guy before - even though that's kinda actually true, there's no reason for him to act like it is, right?
He can hear Mike shifting on his bed again, and it's taking entirely too long to find the card. It's got to be buried in like a literal ton of the ugliest flowers ever, and even though they are the ugliest flowers ever Kevin can't bring himself to hurt them. They're still get-well flowers, ugliness aside, and you just don't mess with someone's get-well flowers. That's a rule or something, somewhere. So he gently pushes flowers and stems aside, and maybe jumps a little when Mike clears his throat.
"Hey, s'okay if you can't find a card," he says, "I probably know who sent them anyway." It's sort of a peace offering; Mike's really enjoyed flustering the guy but teasing's different than just embarrassing and he doesn't want to chase him away because he's cute, in an awkward, puppy sort of way. And anyway, if it was Bill, Mike wouldn't put it past him to have requested no card, just to be annoying.
Kevin half-turns from the flowers and offers Mike a sheepish grin. "It's, uh, probably in here somewhere, and, I mean, I don't mind looking." He shifts another flower and catches sight of something colored obnoxiously pink; if he threads his fingers through the tangle of stems he can just reach it, and a second later Kevin pulls a fluorescent pink card from the depths of flower hell. He beams and makes a triumphant noise, turning back to Mike, who totally doesn't find it cute at all, except for how he totally does.
Kevin hands over the card, says "here you go!" and Mike takes it, grins at Kevin and at the card, says "thanks, kid", and Kevin says "it's Kevin, actually" with his best I'm-a-grown-up-really face on.
Mike nods and says "I'm Mike" and "thanks, Kevin," and Kevin totally melts, his smile so big. He finds himself watching as Mike opens the card, obviously homemade because it's really just a piece of colored paper folded a few times, with writing scrawled unevenly across just about every inch by several different hands and in what looks like crayon. He almost can't look away from the tiny smile that comes across Mike's face, but a drawing on the back catches his eye.
"Um. Is that - is that a pickle jar?" Kevin asks, hoping he sounds more curious than incredulous, because if the hot guy and his friends have a joke about a pickle jar, well, okay, that's kind of weird, but insulting a hot guy's friends is not the best way to go about talking to him. Apparently Mike's fine with however he sounds; he raises an eyebrow and flips the card over, and laughs. Now he's the one who sounds incredulous.
"It's, uh, an appendix, maybe. In a jar." Mike tilts the paper to different angles and shakes his head a bit, like he really can't believe what he's looking at though it doesn't change no matter how much he kind of wishes it would. His friends are crazy. "They probably expect me to bring mine home. They'd name it or some shit." Kevin laughs. Wow, and he thought his family was strange. But then again, a pickle jar appendectomy drawing is probably better than the surgical pictures his brothers would print to gross him out (labeled things like "Look what they stole, Kevin!" and "This was inside your body!"), so, yeah.
Mike thinks that Kevin's got a nice laugh and he sort of feels vicariously happy just hearing it, when he really just mostly feels tired. It takes most of the rest of his energy to prop the card up on his table, and his hand bumps against Kevin's when he reaches out to stop the card from tumbling to the floor.
"Hey, hey, you look really tired, so I should probably - " Kevin starts, gesturing over his shoulder toward the door with his thumb, but he cuts himself off with wide eyes when Mike grabs his hand for a second before letting go.
Though he's practically asleep already, Mike thinks that he really wouldn't mind if Kevin came back to visit a lot. Looking up at Kevin with a tired approximation of his usual confident smirk, Mike re-settles himself in preparation for sleep. "Hey, kid. Come back tomorrow?"
Kevin nods, and thinks that maybe he's answering a little more than the obvious question when he answers, "Yeah, I. Definitely." He stays until Mike's asleep, then slips quietly out of the room.
When Mike wakes up later, there's a tiny gift shop vase on his table holding a single pretty flower, with a note that reads, "This one's from me. - Kevin"
Afterward: Of course Kevin comes back the next day, and the next. The nurses are pretty used to the way he does things, and he sometimes gets attached to certain patients and visits them a lot, though never before for the reason he's camping out in Mike's room. Probably the rest of TAI come to visit and there are introductions and hijinks and lots of Kevin teasing until Mike kicks them all out (seriously, his friends are awesome but they have to leave sometime or someone might die), but Kevin can stay. Mike's only in the hospital for a few days but Kevin's worried that maybe this thing they have might be over when he leaves. He goes with the group when Mike's discharged and the nurse lets him push the wheelchair and he fidgets, not sure if he needs to be saying goodbye or see you later. He hesitates, nervous and ready to be sad, standing in between Mike in the wheelchair and the car that will take him away, but then Mike calls him an idiot in this voice that's equal parts exasperated and affectionate, and yanks him down for a kiss. He steals a pen from Bill, who just smirks and takes this all in for ample teasing material later on, and when Kevin starts to panic because he doesn't have any paper on him! How will he get Mike's number? Mike just writes his name and number nice and big down the length of Kevin's forearm, like a claim (as well as making sure it doesn't just smear off, because Mike's a practical guy). Kevin programs the number into his phone as soon as he gets a chance (then calls himself from a pay phone to leave the number on his voicemail, just in case) and he calls Mike the next day.
That's sort of how I see it happening in this storyverse, anyway. :D
Info: PG, 1801 words.
Notes: Complete schmoop, guys. Also my first attempt at writing them and I only know them from fic, so, yeah. It's pre-slash, probably. Pre-slash with intent, I don't know. Kind of pseudo-fic. Unbeta'ed. Also, I did like two seconds of research on appendectomies, so, uh. Crap, are you even gonna read after all that? I love concrit; don't feel like you'll hurt my feelings by pointing out any failings here, okay? :D? These guys are just, ugh. I couldn't help but write this. I blame skoosiepants one hundred percent.
Summary: Mike is in the hospital recovering from an appendectomy. Kevin's volunteering there!
Kevin loves volunteering at the hospital. He doesn't get to do much of the clerical work because the filing system is confusing (seriously, he's far from stupid but it's alphabetized in Klingon maybe, Kevin really has no idea, it's just intimidating, okay?), so he spends a lot of time doing little things like visiting patients who don't get a lot of visitors and delivering flowers. He's maybe more of a social volunteer than a helpful one, but the nurses seem to like him and he feels like he's making a difference when he can cheer people up, so he's totally okay with that.
Kevin's given a massive, hideous flower arrangement to deliver, and already he's a bit apprehensive about meeting the guy he's to give them to since only the really, really sick people or the kids get huge bouquets of flowers like that and though he loves the kids the really sick people kinda get him down. But then he gets to the room (which is a sort of hilarious trip; the flowers are so huge he can't really see past them, so he has to pass each door before he can turn his head enough to see the number) and sets the flowers on the little bedside table (maybe sort of almost tripping over a visitor chair in the process, and okay, it's totally not his fault; who just left it out in the middle of nowhere like that anyway?) and then he can see there's a guy in the bed with his hair in his face and an expression like he can't decide whether to be amused at Kevin's expense or horrified at the flowers. Personally, Kevin would go with the flower option. They're pretty awful and embarrassing in a way that has nothing to do with him. Kevin mumbles a "hi" with a little wave and stands there for a minute and sort of stares at the guy, because, okay, he's pretty hot in a disgruntled sort of way, but it's a hospital and disgruntled is pretty much the norm, and Kevin can't help but wonder if it's normal for this guy, too.
Mike stares back for a long minute, before huffing out a tiny amused sound and rolling his eyes. This kid's weird. He shifts a little on the bed - it's difficult to find a comfortable position when he's abdomen's been cut into, which isn't something he really wants to think about (surgery sort of freaks him out) so he aims a nod at the hideous flowers. They're almost certainly from Bill, Mike knows this, but he also knows he's bored and sick of having nothing to distract him from the nagging discomfort in his gut. "The fuck, kid?"
Kevin jumps a little - it's entirely possible that he zoned out there, distracted by this Mike guy's disgruntled hotness - and firmly focuses himself back in the present. He's not quite sure what Mike's asking - would it be difficult to use maybe a few more (less vulgar) words? - and he's equally not sure what to think about being called a kid, since he'd guess Mike's somewhere around his own age, so he looks at the flowers, then back at Mike. That intense staring's getting a little unnerving, but Kevin sort of likes the feeling that he's the focus of that attention. It's sort of weird, though, and doesn't help his own cognitive functions, and he still has no idea what Mike meant.
"Um. They're flowers?" Kevin offers, his traitorous mouth making the intended statement into a question, which obviously amuses Mike. His mouth quirks into something like a grin, and he nods slowly as if agreeing to something a lot more important than an existential statement about flowers. He waits for several seconds, and Kevin feels his cheeks heat with a blush because, yeah, that totally wasn't smooth at all and though Mike hasn't actually laughed out loud, Kevin can tell that inside? Mike's totally laughing at him. It doesn't feel malicious or anything, but still. Embarrassing.
"Right," Mike says, pauses, and is so glad that Bill's completely ridiculous and sent him the world's ugliest flower arrangement, because this is fun. "But who're they from?"
Right. Kevin's hopefully attractive blush turns into the red face of epic embarrassment, because, yeah, of course that's what he meant. "Um. Not from me," Kevin says, waving his hands a little, and turns quickly toward the flowers to try to find a card or something and totally not to hide his red face. "I mean, well, duh, they're not from me, but, uh, technically I did bring them so maybe they kind of are in a way?" He hears an amused sound from Mike's direction and he really needs to just find the card and get out of here, he's acting like he's never talked to a really hot guy before - even though that's kinda actually true, there's no reason for him to act like it is, right?
He can hear Mike shifting on his bed again, and it's taking entirely too long to find the card. It's got to be buried in like a literal ton of the ugliest flowers ever, and even though they are the ugliest flowers ever Kevin can't bring himself to hurt them. They're still get-well flowers, ugliness aside, and you just don't mess with someone's get-well flowers. That's a rule or something, somewhere. So he gently pushes flowers and stems aside, and maybe jumps a little when Mike clears his throat.
"Hey, s'okay if you can't find a card," he says, "I probably know who sent them anyway." It's sort of a peace offering; Mike's really enjoyed flustering the guy but teasing's different than just embarrassing and he doesn't want to chase him away because he's cute, in an awkward, puppy sort of way. And anyway, if it was Bill, Mike wouldn't put it past him to have requested no card, just to be annoying.
Kevin half-turns from the flowers and offers Mike a sheepish grin. "It's, uh, probably in here somewhere, and, I mean, I don't mind looking." He shifts another flower and catches sight of something colored obnoxiously pink; if he threads his fingers through the tangle of stems he can just reach it, and a second later Kevin pulls a fluorescent pink card from the depths of flower hell. He beams and makes a triumphant noise, turning back to Mike, who totally doesn't find it cute at all, except for how he totally does.
Kevin hands over the card, says "here you go!" and Mike takes it, grins at Kevin and at the card, says "thanks, kid", and Kevin says "it's Kevin, actually" with his best I'm-a-grown-up-really face on.
Mike nods and says "I'm Mike" and "thanks, Kevin," and Kevin totally melts, his smile so big. He finds himself watching as Mike opens the card, obviously homemade because it's really just a piece of colored paper folded a few times, with writing scrawled unevenly across just about every inch by several different hands and in what looks like crayon. He almost can't look away from the tiny smile that comes across Mike's face, but a drawing on the back catches his eye.
"Um. Is that - is that a pickle jar?" Kevin asks, hoping he sounds more curious than incredulous, because if the hot guy and his friends have a joke about a pickle jar, well, okay, that's kind of weird, but insulting a hot guy's friends is not the best way to go about talking to him. Apparently Mike's fine with however he sounds; he raises an eyebrow and flips the card over, and laughs. Now he's the one who sounds incredulous.
"It's, uh, an appendix, maybe. In a jar." Mike tilts the paper to different angles and shakes his head a bit, like he really can't believe what he's looking at though it doesn't change no matter how much he kind of wishes it would. His friends are crazy. "They probably expect me to bring mine home. They'd name it or some shit." Kevin laughs. Wow, and he thought his family was strange. But then again, a pickle jar appendectomy drawing is probably better than the surgical pictures his brothers would print to gross him out (labeled things like "Look what they stole, Kevin!" and "This was inside your body!"), so, yeah.
Mike thinks that Kevin's got a nice laugh and he sort of feels vicariously happy just hearing it, when he really just mostly feels tired. It takes most of the rest of his energy to prop the card up on his table, and his hand bumps against Kevin's when he reaches out to stop the card from tumbling to the floor.
"Hey, hey, you look really tired, so I should probably - " Kevin starts, gesturing over his shoulder toward the door with his thumb, but he cuts himself off with wide eyes when Mike grabs his hand for a second before letting go.
Though he's practically asleep already, Mike thinks that he really wouldn't mind if Kevin came back to visit a lot. Looking up at Kevin with a tired approximation of his usual confident smirk, Mike re-settles himself in preparation for sleep. "Hey, kid. Come back tomorrow?"
Kevin nods, and thinks that maybe he's answering a little more than the obvious question when he answers, "Yeah, I. Definitely." He stays until Mike's asleep, then slips quietly out of the room.
When Mike wakes up later, there's a tiny gift shop vase on his table holding a single pretty flower, with a note that reads, "This one's from me. - Kevin"
Afterward: Of course Kevin comes back the next day, and the next. The nurses are pretty used to the way he does things, and he sometimes gets attached to certain patients and visits them a lot, though never before for the reason he's camping out in Mike's room. Probably the rest of TAI come to visit and there are introductions and hijinks and lots of Kevin teasing until Mike kicks them all out (seriously, his friends are awesome but they have to leave sometime or someone might die), but Kevin can stay. Mike's only in the hospital for a few days but Kevin's worried that maybe this thing they have might be over when he leaves. He goes with the group when Mike's discharged and the nurse lets him push the wheelchair and he fidgets, not sure if he needs to be saying goodbye or see you later. He hesitates, nervous and ready to be sad, standing in between Mike in the wheelchair and the car that will take him away, but then Mike calls him an idiot in this voice that's equal parts exasperated and affectionate, and yanks him down for a kiss. He steals a pen from Bill, who just smirks and takes this all in for ample teasing material later on, and when Kevin starts to panic because he doesn't have any paper on him! How will he get Mike's number? Mike just writes his name and number nice and big down the length of Kevin's forearm, like a claim (as well as making sure it doesn't just smear off, because Mike's a practical guy). Kevin programs the number into his phone as soon as he gets a chance (then calls himself from a pay phone to leave the number on his voicemail, just in case) and he calls Mike the next day.
That's sort of how I see it happening in this storyverse, anyway. :D