Chapter Text
Louis paced up and down the hospital hallway, his eyes flashing to the door every few seconds. Someone was supposed to come out eventually and tell him how Vincent was doing, since he needed fucking surgery to fix his damn leg after that skiing fiasco. The idiot just had to rush down a double black diamond trail with pretty much no experience.
He was going to kill Teddy.
In his eyes, there was no way that Teddy wasn’t to blame for this. He’d supposedly been Vincent’s best friend for years, but had let him get into a situation like this, with Vincent risking his life just because of Teddy’s stupid decisions. Some best friend he was. Selfish, that’s what Teddy was. He knew how protective Vincent had always been around him and yet he went ahead and flung himself right into danger without even a thought as to how Vincent would react, and more importantly, what he would do.
And he still didn’t understand why Vincent was in love with this kid. Vincent Fawkes, quarterback, musician and all around stud could have any guy he wanted, but instead he was wasting his time hung up over a stupid crush on a tiny little straight boy who he didn’t have a chance with. He really didn’t understand the appeal of Teddy. Sure he was smart, but it’s not like that meant anything out in the real world. And he was rich, but so was Louis. He didn’t have the slim but still muscled figure that Louis worked so hard to keep, or the sexual prowess (the kid was a virgin for God’s sake!), the only thing that he had going for him was the fact that he’d been close to Vincent for so long, and even now since Vincent and Louis had started hooking up, the dream team had started drifting apart. So much for “best friends forever”. It was just his honest opinion that Teddy wouldn’t be as good as a boyfriend as him. And besides, Louis already knew plenty of ways to keep Vincent happy.
The rest of the gang eventually showed up, having taken a cab straight from the ski slope to the hospital. Louis filled them all in on the situation. Well, not all of them. He quickly realized that there were two people missing. John, which he had expected. The guy had not taken the news that his stepbrother was sleeping with his quarterback very well. But he was very surprised to see that Teddy of all people was missing too. He would have expected him to at least have the decency to show his face. What kind of friend didn’t show up to the hospital after pretty much causing someone a severe injury?
“So he’s not here?” Louis asked, his voice cold and sharp as an icicle. “I would have thought he’d at least come.”
“Give him a break, Louis.” André replied tiredly.
“No.” Louis was pissed. “Why should I?” Because of Teddy, Vincent was badly injured. He going have to explain this shit to his Mom and just pray that it didn’t ruin Vincent’s sports scholarship for next year. He was tired from the long ambulance ride and the stress of the whole situation, but he knew that he wasn’t going to be able to get any rest until he knew that Vincent would be okay. He needed a coffee. He needed some sleep. He needed a cigarette. He needed to vent about Teddy before he exploded.
“In his defense, he did just find out about Vincent today.” André said.
“What?” Louis’s eyes widened.
“Yeah, he found out that you two were fucking.” Kamri cut to the chase. “I can’t believe he didn’t figure it out on his own.”
“Well he is pretty oblivious.” Charli added. Louis simply nodded in agreement, his mind racing. So now that Teddy knew what was going on, he didn’t want to come and visit Vincent. He doubted it was because of homophobia in any way, the kid didn’t seem like he had the capacity to hate. No, Louis had another idea. Teddy had to be jealous. Teddy was jealous that there was someone else who could run around after Vincent and look after him, and do the job properly. He didn’t know why, but the concept was oddly pleasing to him. Well, he did always like a little competition.
“I’m gonna go have a smoke.” Louis said. “If the doctors have any more news, text me.” He headed out, and when the cold mountain air filled his lungs, he smiled.
~ ~ ~
The doctors had told them that Vincent had a compound fracture, which meant that both bones in his left shin had broken cleanly into two. They’d had to put a rod into his leg so that the bone healed properly. The doctor had told them that they couldn’t visit him for another hour or two, as the anesthetic still had to wear off. Louis’s friends took this as an opportunity to get him to eat something.
They sat in the dull hospital cafeteria. Louis picked at his dismal-looking salad, pulling apart the soggy leaves of lettuce and prodding the little cherry tomatoes.
“I texted John, by the way.” Kamri said. “To give him an update.”
“Mmhmm.” Louis continued playing with his salad.
“He said that there’s a chance Vincent can lose his scholarship, he won’t be able to play in the next season with an injury like that so there’s a chance the school can take back their offer.”
“Seriously?” Louis’s grip on his fork tightened. He was most definitely going to kill Teddy when he next saw him.
“Yeah, poor guy.” André commented. “And he really needed that money too.” He did. A scholarship through football was the only way that Vincent had any hope of being able to pay for college, and now because of one big stupid decision, he could lose all that. The fucking idiot.
“And Teddy called Vincent’s Mom for us and she’s really pissed.” Kamri added. “We told her that we’d cover all his hospital bills and then she calmed down a little.” Louis nodded, looking down at his watch. It had been an hour and a half since they had last spoken to the doctor. Maybe Vincent had woken up.
~ ~ ~
Vincent had, in fact, woken up and when Louis entered his room, he sat up and smiled weakly. “Louis!”
“You’re a complete idiot, do you know that?” Louis said as he pulled up a chair. “This can seriously fuck up your scholarship for next year Fawkes, what the hell were you thinking?”
“Teddy – “ Vincent began but Louis cut him off.
“Teddy isn’t even here.” He said. “He’s back at the lodge, and he’s perfectly fine. He didn’t need you to rush after him like that, and now it’s his fault that all this happened.”
“It’s not Teddy’s fault.” Vincent protested. “It was my stupid idea to follow him.”
“Look, all I can see is that if he hadn’t gone down that hill, we wouldn’t be in this mess in the first place. You wouldn’t be injured or in danger of losing your scholarship or anything like that. If it wasn’t for Teddy then none of this would have happened. And I want to know why the fuck you’re so calm about this.”
“You don’t think that I don’t know that this shit can cost me my scholarship for next year? That because of this I might not actually go to school? But Louis, it’s not Teddy’s fault. To be fair he was totally capable of going down that hill and I was the one who was stupid enough to run after him.” Vincent sighed and ran a hand through his hair. “It’s all my fault okay?” Louis shook his head but his expression softened. There was no use arguing with him about this.
“So how are you holding up?” He asked, scooting closer.
“Okay, I guess. The painkillers are making me feel all weird and tired but it could be worse.” Vincent sat up, his hair fell in front of half of his face, but Louis could still see how pale and tired he looked. He frowned and leaned over to brush hair out of Vincent’s eyes.
“You should probably rest.” He said. “You look like shit.”
“Thanks.” Vincent replied. Louis bit his lip. Now didn’t really seem like a good time to tell Vincent that Teddy had found out about them, but there was no point hiding it. It would be obvious the second the two of them were in the same room together, that is, if Teddy ever let that happen. But on the other hand he really doubted unloading the news on him now would result in the best reaction. Contrary to popular belief, Louis didn’t like keeping secrets or hiding the truth. He much rather preferred to tell everyone directly what he thought and what was going on. But he had been keeping Vincent’s secrets for a while now, so maybe a hiding the truth for a little longer wouldn’t hurt too much.
“What’s wrong?” Vincent asked, noting Louis’s troubled expression.
“Oh it’s just that when we called your Mom to tell her what happened she sounded really pissed off.” Louis covered quickly.
“Shit!” Vincent smacked his forehead with the palm of his hand. “I forgot about Mom! She’s going to be so pissed at all the hospital bills and everything.”
“Don’t worry about it.” Louis replied. “We’ll cover it.”
“Louis that’s like thousands of dollars.” Vincent said sternly. “You shouldn’t have to pay all that. I’ll figure something out on my own instead.”
“Don’t be stupid Vinny.”
“It’ll be fine. My Mom’s work gives her some health insurance stuff, that’ll cover at least something, apart from that I guess I’ll just need to pick up an extra job or two.”
“If you pick up another job I’m pretty sure you’re gonna die of exhaustion Fawkes. And besides, this is Canada. You don’t pay the full cost for health stuff here anyways. It’s no big deal.” Louis ruffled Vincent’s hair. “You just need to focus on getting better.”
“She’s going to be so pissed when I get back though.” Vincent sighed, he was not looking forward to spending time with his mother who would be no doubt infuriated by the fact that she had to take time off of work to look after her son who also couldn’t work and was in danger of losing his scholarship.
“You can stay with me instead.” Louis said playfully, walking his fingers up Vincent’s firm and muscled chest. He smiled coyly. “Maybe I’ll take care of you instead.”
“Oh yeah?” Vincent smiled.
“I’ll make sure that you’re properly taken care of.”
“What, you’re gonna be my nurse or something?”
“Well, if that’s what you want Vincent,” Louis smirked again. “Why not? And if you’re lucky, maybe I’ll dress up.” Vincent laughed. Louis felt his chest shake under his fingers and watched as his eyes lit up like lanterns in the night. He didn’t know at what point it had happened, but this had become more that being just about than sex, more than the pleasure of knowing that he was banging the star quarterback. It had become something else and he wasn’t really sure what it was, but he had to admit that he wasn’t entirely opposed to the feeling he got when Vincent laughed like that.
“You know, I think you’d be able to pull that off.” Vincent said, yawning.
“You really should get some sleep.”
“Yeah, I know.” Vincent replied. Louis got up to leave him alone, but then had a thought. He leaned down and pressed a soft and gentle kiss to Vince’s lips.
“Get some good rest, okay?” He said after breaking the kiss, at which point he felt Vincent’s warm arms wrap around him and pull him into another deeper and slower kiss.
And pressed against the glass window of the hospital room door, unbeknown to either of them, was none other than Teddy, face almost touching the glass, his eyes wide open.