Lover boy[s] // Will Byers

-chapter twenty one-

BEEP... BEEP... BEEP... BEEP... BEEP

Sev wasn't cold anymore.

The chill of the laboratory hallways and rooms was gone, the ice cold of the white tiles, but he could smell disinfectant in the cool air still. And he was in pain. It was a different kind of pain to before, when whatever it was that happened had happened.

This pain was more physical, it was tearing him apart and seeping through his veins, making him curl his toes and bury his face in the soft material. Fast beeping disturbed the peace of the safety, and people yelling pierced the air like gunshots. Sev's eyes were glued shut, but judging from the red glow of his eyelids, it was better that way.

He only registered the fact someone was hugging him tightly when the pressure was taken away and he was dipped back into the cold feeling that left his skin prickling. He could still feel contact, and could put faces to it with ease, which untensed his shoulders instantly and let his body sink back into the hospital bed.

Footfalls echoed against tile, and Sev gulped, trying to stay focused on the hands holding his, and not the memory's washing over him in crashing waves. Doctors, not scientists. Nurses, not abusers. 011, not 001.

"Sevvy, you- you awake?"

Sev blinked his eyes open, but the faces in front of him swam and blurred as his vision doubled. Something tugged on him, trying to bring him back down to sleep, to the peaceful painful darkness. He forced his eyes opened and with a burst of effort that instantly drained him, pushed himself up on the mound of pillows behind him and into a sitting position. Firm hands pressed him back, and he felt something tighten around his shin.

"Wha-..." Sev tried to rub his eyes, but his arms wouldn't even lift, so he just scanned the room. It was the hospital ward he had woke up in, but Papa wasn't here, and neither was One. It was white, not grey, and her knew the double doors wouldn't open up to hallway's full of dead children's laboratory bedrooms.

He was safe. And then someone tugged his hand and, "Will?"

"Yeah, I'm here, we all are, Sev what was...are you okay?" Will asked, and Sev could see the dried tears on his face and the crease in his eyebrows. He was sitting on the edge of the bed. Sev tried to nod. It hurt too much, so instead he squeezed Will's hand as hard as he could, trying to tell him that he was still here. He wasn't leaving. 

He had promised.

"It was One, wasn't it? ...He tried to get you."

Jane's face was deathly serious, her eyes rimmed with red and her sweaty hand clutching Sev's. He managed to nod this time but his mouth was dry and scratchy, and a lump in his throat stopped him from asking how she knew.

His focus turned to Johnathon, who was a meter away trying to yell at a nurse without getting kicked out apparently. He must have felt the eyes on his back, because he turned around and his face dropped in relief. "Sev, your awake, do you know what happened? The Doctor thinks your brain activity or something went for longer after your heart stopped or something-"

"You were full on floating my dude, it was like that time Jesus came back." Argyle grinned at him, sitting cross legged on the end of the bed. Sev blinked at him for a moment, and didn't bother questioning it.

"How did i-"

"Come back to life? We have no freaking idea dude!" Johnathon yelled, now pacing around the ward with his hands tugging on his hair. Sev tried to pay attention to the bustle around him through the pain, but it was overpowering him easily, and the soft darkness tried to pull him back into safety. But then...