Sunset on the Fifth Floor (Roderich and Ivan)

It was getting close to the end of the day, and Roderich, heading down the hallway with a stack of forms in hand, had mentally checked out about an hour ago.

Between the immunocompromised TB patient, the trio of acute flu cases, the man with malaria that for some reason no one had been able to properly diagnose (all it took was a blood test! A simple examination of the cells! Why was it that he had to do everything around here...) and the old woman with necrotizing fasciitis (he must've washed his hands for a good five minutes after examining that one), he was more than ready to be home. He only had to file a few more things, clean up his desk, and then a short drive would take him to his apartment and his piano, where he could relax.

He hummed unconsciously to himself as he walked, thinking of the beautiful sonata he was currently learning, glancing into the rooms as he passed them, if only to make sure that no nurse was going to come running out, asking for his advice or aid (sometimes he thought he ought to start wearing a sign around his neck reading: 'I am a specialist, do not ask me stupid questions.') Caught up in his thoughts, he surely didn't make a note of looking to see if he was being followed...

Ivan leaned around the corner of a corridor, peeking down it. Oh, there was a man over there. Ivan smiled, he wanted to follow the man! He watched as the brunette trotted slowly down the hallway and tiptoed after him, being as quiet as possible and hiding at every opportunity. He slowly got closer and closer, but held a fine distance. The man didn't seem to notice him, and looked more like he was deep in thought, stopping to consult something in his mind.

Ivan snuck a little closer. He shuffled up and edged really close... Then the man started to move again. Ivan cursed inwardly, and continued following him. There was something in the man's pocket, which Ivan reached out and slid away, carefully. He'd stollen things before like money to buy food and pay rent. He looked at the little bottle in his hand. Some sort of disinfectant? Ivan uncapped it quietly and poured a little onto the floor, to see what it looked like. It was gelatinous, and very bizzare.

Obviously, this man was very interesting... He inspected the back of the man more, to see if he could spot another interesting bottle or something. While he was looking, he didn't notice that he'd stepped in the disinfectant and slipped, crying out, and hitting the man he was stalking, sending them both tumbling to the ground.

Roderich gave an embarrassingly yelpy scream as someone ploughed into him, likely waking up every unfortunate patient in that hallway that happened to have their door open. He scrambled out from beneath his stalker, staggering to his feet and dusting himself off quite viciously. Who knew what kind of germs had been tracked upon that floor...

"Watch where you're going!" he snapped. His expression subsequently softened as he realized that the man was a patient and quite disoriented-looking. One of the Alzheimer's cases that had gotten out of their room? If that were the case, he probably shouldn't have yelled at them...

"Sorry," he muttered. "Were you looking for help? Here, I'll find a nurse..."

He took Ivan by the arm and started heading determinedly down the hall, scrounging in his pocket with his other hand for his hand sanitizer. Damn it all, he must have misplaced it. Oh well, so long as he headed to the bathroom right after this...

Ivan smiled. This man was nice! He should hang around him more often. The man even helped Ivan up, with his broken leg and all... Speaking of which, it really hurt right now. And his chest. Perhaps he should take something for the pain...

"Uhm... I'm Ivan!" He smiled, not sure what else to say. "See this bandage?" He pointed to his head. "My doctor told me that I have a concussion..." He said. "It was cos I was in a carcrash." That was a cool thing, right? Maybe saying that will get this man to like him. "Oh yeah!" Ivan held out the weird hand stuff to the man, because he wanted the man to have it back. Now for his damn crutch, which was still on the floor... Ivan looked at it, mournfully.

"A concussion?" he echoed as Ivan explained. Ah, that made sense, and rendered it extra-important that he tell someone that Ivan had fallen. Gah, the last thing he needed was to inadvertently be the cause of someone's trauma complications...

It took a moment for him to realize that Ivan was stumbling as he was dragging him down the hall, and he turned to see first the hand sanitizer, then the fallen crutch. With a frown, he snatched the small bottle from Ivan's hand, and then he headed back and bent to retrieve the crutch.

"Here," he said, giving it to him. "Follow me, now." Since dragging was apparently not doing to work.

Ivan was happy to get his crutch back, following the man as instructed. "Where are we going?" He asked, looking around as though the walls had the answer. He smiled at the man innocently, but occasionally the smile would turn into a wince when his forehead throbbed.

The man seemed kind of forceful, now that Ivan thought about it. Perhaps it was time to test his limits with the man... His hand crept into the back pocket and carefully pulled out another mystery bottle. Who knew what this one was for? Didn't matter. Ivan was just going to dump it anyway. When they passed one, Ivan lobbed the bottle out of the window.

He chortled, feeling sufficiently evil.

"To find a nurse that knows where you belong," Roderich said. And that would spare him the effort of checking him over after that fall, he silently added. He didn't want to deal with Ivan any more than he had to--not for any personal reasons, of course, but it was just that he really wanted to get home...

Roderich didn't see Ivan toss the second bottle out of the window, but he did feel Ivan's hand brush against his pocket. He stopped, spinning around, and felt inside of that pocket suspiciously. Great--his soap was gone. (The generic hospital soap dried out his hands so easily--thus, he liked to bring his own. It kind of became an important point after the fifteenth handwashing or so.)

"Did you just take something from me?" he demanded.

Ivan watched with amusement as the man seemed to flail about, looking for this bottle. "Nyet, what are you talking about? I didn't take a thing from you!" He chuckled, happily. Sure, he was lying, but if this man ever found out, he'd just scare him or something. Ivan had a bad habit of scaring people he wanted to be friends with. But, overall, Ivan was in a damn good mood.

He trotted forward a little, watching the man carefully. A wave of dizziness him him in a rush, just then, and he stumbled, clutching at his head. "Nnng!" He whined. This wasn't fun, it was the, what? Seventh time this had happened or something? He squeezed his eyes shut and whined some more, hating the black blobs that dotted his vision whenever this happened. Ivan clung to the man's sleeve, breathing harshly.

"Don't lie to me," Roderich snapped, quickly growing pissed off. "I had a bottle in my pocket that couldn't have just fallen out. Give it back, or I'll--"

He cut off as Ivan grew dizzy, brow furrowing in concern, being careful to support him as he clung to him. "Come on," he said more gently, supporting him as they walked the remaining distance to a nurse coming down the hall.

"Excuse me, but could you take this man back to his room? He says his name is Ivan, and he's suffering from head trauma..."

The nurse proceeded to point out where Ivan was currently supposed to be, but refused to take him, as she was on her way to help a patient whose heart monitor had started going off, signaling abnormalities. Roderich sighed and relented, figuring it'd be best just to get Ivan quickly back himself, now that he knew for sure where the patient's room was.

"All right," he said, draping one of Ivan's arms around his shoulders, just in case he got dizzy and looked like he was going to fall again. "Let's go."

Ivan was being pulled all around by the man, and that was definitely not helping his dizziness. He was dragged all over the place, making his headache pound and the world spin. He was yanked to a nurse who quickly left, and then down the hall. He attempted to communicate with the man, mumbling out "Head... Ng, arm... Ow... Leg..." But when he got near the end, his head gave out on him and he fainted, slumping, almost hitting the floor if it wasn't for the man's grip on him.

...

Ivan's head was inches from the ground when he opened his eyes, and jerked upwards, scrambling for his crutch or something to steady himself, swaying slightly. "Wh... Where am I? I uh..." He rubbed his head. "Hospital... Yes, hospital, that's right..." He turned and spotted a man standing very close to him. "Ah. Hello, my name is Ivan..." He introduced. Damn, his head hurt so much right now!

Roderich just managed to stop himself from being yanked to the ground as Ivan fell, gritting his teeth as he attempted to lower Ivan the rest of the way to the ground, turning him onto his side and placing a hand behind his head to keep it from smacking against the tile.

When Ivan woke up a second later, scrambling for his crutch and managing to get an arm around Roderich (almost dragging him down again, much to Roderich's shock and dismay), he forcibly pulled him back to his feet and resumed heading to Ivan's room--more of shuffling and stumbling his way this time.

"I know," he muttered in response to the introduction. "You told me."

And as they finally reached the room, he let Ivan down on the bed, breathing hard from the effort. Ivan was so much bigger than him, after all, and Roderich wasn't exactly strong. He stood there at the bedside, smoothing his coat wearily for a moment.

"Can you tell me who your doctor is?" he asked. Since he had little doubt the fainting had to do with Ivan's head injury, and if it hadn't happened before, it would be important to let said doctor know.

"You know?" Ivan asked, genuinly surprised. He didn't have a nametag on or something, did he? Ivan checked his chest. Nope, no nametag... Ivan let himself be lead along, confused. What clued the man in? He didn't know the man's name, that was unfair. Ivan continued to let the man take him wherever he was taking him.

He found himself in a room, on a very familiar looking bed. How bizzare was that? "How do you know?" He asked, curiously, ignoring the doctor's question. How was he to know? He barely even knew what hospital he was in! "I'm pretty sure I have never told you my name, or even met you, before..." Or was there something he was missing out? Was there some secret no one had let him in on? Ivan pouted, annoyed. People shouldn't keep things from him, dammit!

Roderich raised an eyebrow. Short-term memory loss, too? This head injury was a piece of work.

"Trust me, we've met." It occurred to him that he really hadn't introduced himself to Ivan and that Ivan probably had a right to know who he was. "I'm Dr. Edelstein. I'm an infectious disease specialist, and you happened to run into me in the hallway. Could you try to remember who your doctor is? Who's treating your injury?"

He gestured a bit as he spoke, watching Ivan, trying to elicit some kind of response, draw some kind of memory out of his mind. Well, if that failed, he could always go look Ivan up, but it would be less work for him if Ivan could remember now...

"We have? It's news to me..." Mumbled Ivan, still feeling rather bitter. He listened to the man, nodding in acknowledgement of his name, Dr. Edelstein. Ok, Ivan could handle that. Now, about his doctor... Ivan wasn't entirely sure. He tried to think back far enough to remember some sort of doctor. He wracked brains, to try and maybe jerk a memory where it'd been wedged in his mind or something... But nothing was coming to him. He looked at the man and shrugged.

"Don't know..." He mumbled. "BUT! But in the mean time... Is there anything interesting about you? A wart maybe? An extra toe? Something like that! Or like your hair." He rambled on, feeling stupider by the minute. Eventually he snapped his jaw shut to let the man just speak.

Alright, guess looking up Ivan was what he'd have to do. Roderich listened with his arms crossed to Ivan's attempt at small talk, then his hand instinctively rose to smooth his hair as Ivan brought it up. He had that one obnoxious strand that always stuck up, unless he gelled the heck out of it--and he wasn't too fond of hair gel, with the strong chemical scent it tended to have. He was around enough pungent chemicals through the course of the day to want to bother with smelling that every minute.

"There's nothing really interesting about it," he muttered, a tad embarrassed. "It just doesn't all lay flat. And no, I don't have any extra digits."

What was there abnormal about him? Well, the fact that he was farsighted wasn't all that common for someone his age...he was a bit on the shorter side for a man...and there was the matter of him being annoyingly skinny, of course. (He blamed the latter on a high metabolic rate and bad genes.) But really, all in all, he was lucky. He hadn't had too many medical problems personally, or been born with any outstanding abnormalities.

Well, that aside, he probably should quit with the awkward conversation and find Ivan's doctor. No need to actually start socializing with the patient, especially when he had some distressing mental problems.

Nodding, Ivan reached out a hand to touch the pretty hair. "It's shiny..." He couldn't really reach without standing up, flexing his fingers to try and get furthur. Ivan was easily distracted and didn't focus on anything else Dr Edelstein was saying, because it probably wasn't very important anyway...

When it became apparent to him that he won't be able to reach, he instead went for the glasses and snatched them up. "Oooh, I do love glasses!" He put them on and instantly his vision became blurred and his head started to pound. "Eeeaahh!" He moaned, scrunching his eyes up. "Ow, that's not good..." He wobbled, even though he was sitting down and rubbed his head.

Perhaps the man - Dr Edelstein! - Was annoyed at him for nicking his glasses? Perhaps he should give them back? Common sense was niggling at Ivan's mind, but he shoved it back. "I look... Smart, da?" He asked, grinning up at the blurry blob of the man.

Roderich looked at Ivan, the initial surprise of Ivan taking his glasses wearing into the mildest traces of amusement, mostly covered up by annoyance. He appeared quite idiotic and childish--though, then again, he couldn't see Ivan that well with the man as close by as he was.

"Not really," he replied dryly, holding out a hand. "Give those back. I need to be able to see."

Indeed, it would be impossible for him to make out anything on the computer screen if he wanted to find Ivan and his doctor on the database, so...

"No you don't!" Ivan pushed the hand away, giggling. He stood up, leaning against the wall and clearing his throat. "Ahem." And in a 'Regal' voice, hehe began, "My name is Dr Edelstein, I'm a doctor and use hand sanitisers for everything. Oooh, is that a slightly dirty speck of dust?" He polished none-existance with a non-existant cloth and smirked. "There, all clean! Spick-and-uh... Span! Yeah, that!" He laughed at his own humour before wincing and sitting down sharpish.

His ankle was twinging badly, and he moaned, clutching at the hard cast. Fun was over, it seemed, for now he was sad.

Roderich couldn't help but smirk--probably because the impression wasn't far from the truth. "Yes, yes, I know I'm obsessive-compulsive when it comes to cleanliness. Now, my glasses--"

Seeing Ivan wince, he quickly retrieved his glasses and took a look at Ivan's leg, straightening it on the bed in case Ivan had twisted it. He wondered what sort of medication Ivan was on, and if it might be wearing off, and glanced down, looking for Ivan's chart. Picking it up from where it had been set on a side table, he glanced over the information, and--ah, good, there was a note from his doctor. Doctor Honda, it seemed. Poor Kiku...he had Roderich's sympathies for having to deal with this one.

"It looks like you're due for some more oxycodone," he said, mentally adding that it was a shame a strong sedative wasn't included on the chart as well. "How about I get you some? And then I really have to leave..."

"Oxy... What? What does that do?" Ivan'd never heard of that before. He betted he didn't even need it! Heck, he bet he could walk out of this hospital and be fi-- Oooh, his ankle! Ivan moaned quietly and propped it up on the bed. He hoped this doctor knew what areas he Ivan's medical problems specified him. Did that make sense? Ivan wasn't so sure... Which was odd because he was the one thinking them. Ok, Ivan, stop having strange thoughts now. He shook his head, trying to shake away the odd thoughts bouncing around his head.

Ivan looked at the doctor which he'd kind of grown kind of fond of in the last ten to fifteen minutes he'd known him... "You're leaving? Why? I could have used some company and you... just leave?" Ivan felt kind of... abandoned. It wasn't fair, he needed a friend in this place! He sort of had friends, maybe, possibly...ish. Ivan hung his head.

"It's a painkiller." He nodded towards Ivan's ankle. "To help with that."

He went around the room until he found the small pill bottle, eyed the label, then went into the bathroom (taking a moment to wash his hands, just because he had the opportunity) and filled up a glass of water for Ivan. He handed the glass and two pills to him, standing by to watch him take them.

Ivan's response to him leaving elicited some sympathy from him--he knew loneliness well himself, after all.

"I need to speak to your doctor, and then I have to go home and relax," he explained softly. "I had a long day today. If you'd like, I could--" He hesitated, knowing he might very well regret this, "--I could stop in here tomorrow to see how you're doing."

Ivan gratefully took the painkiller, glad to have relief from the ache in his ankle. Hopefully it would kick in soon. Ivan stretched and lay back on his pillow. It was nice being around this man and he hoped Dr Edelstein felt the same, so perhaps he'd give this next question his best shot...

"I'd love it if you came to visit me the next day... I'd love it if.... Well, could we... I don't know, be friends? Maybe?" He twiddled his fingers, staring at the end of his bed where he could see the top of the clipboard poking out. He wondered what exactly what was written there. It'd had him curious for the past few days, and Ivan was itching to read it, but whenever he got close, Dr Whatever-His-Name-Was or one of the nurses would slap his hand away, which irritated Ivan so bad!

Roderich mulled over how to reply to that tactfully for a moment.

"I don't think that would be possible," he said. "I'm very busy, and you will hopefully be out of this hospital soon..."

In reality, he knew from what he had read on the chart that Ivan would be here for a while, but getting close to a patient...that had lead him into misery a few times, especially when their condition would take a turn for the worse. With his own patients, he figured getting too personal with them hampered his ability to make the right decisions to cure them--mainly because the cures could involve pain and high risks. With Ivan, he didn't particularly like him in the first place (though he was mildly endearing) and figured that such an attachment would only be distracting. His work really had to come first in these sorts of situations.

"I don't think that would be possible"

Ivan felt like he'd been kicked in the stomach, and his eyes widened. "Wha...?" As Dr Edelstein went on to explain, Ivan felt his heart sink. That was his first and best chance at aquiring a friend. He curled up slightly, careful of his ribs. He'd never really had a friend before, he was rather new to everything... He sighed.

Perhaps it was best if he stopped trying. If he stopped attempting to gain a friend or two. It didn't seem to be working out well, so maybe it was a sign. Ivan turned away from the man.

"...Oh." Didn't deserve much more of an answer than that, really. "Perhaps, then, you should not visit tomorrow." And it was best not to get too attatched. If he got attatched, he'd... Well then, when he stopped visiting, Ivan care. Ivan didn't want to care, he wanted to be cared for! Properly! Not... Not like how This Doctor was treating him now.

Roderich watched Ivan's face fall, realizing how much he'd just hurt his feelings. Oh dear. Maybe he should have said yes, then figured out the rest as time went on. Apparently Ivan didn't understand that their relationship wasn't anything more than professional, that he'd helped him because that's what he was supposed to do, that he was really terrible at sustaining relationships outside of work, that...

"Well, I, um," he stammered. "If you want me to be your friend for the time being, I could try..?"