The Obligatory Egos Swap AU - Jacksepticeye Egos

Bad News Equals New Friend

Chase winced as the cold moulding goop went in his ear, but not past the barrier his hearing aid technician applied first.

The feeling chilled him nearly from the inside, but the technician couldn't see the discomfort in his eyes; the hearing damage was on the same side as the eye patch he was meant to wear to protect the empty socket until he could get a prosthetic eye (not too much longer a wait).

Considering how unfriendly most people were to him for however long he'd been here now, Chase felt lucky he could get at least this single hearing aid paid for by the province as a form of compensation for his troubles.

He really had the nurse to thank, though, the one that had approached him the first day he'd woken up after being... well, yeah. She, while making her crush on him very obvious while he was recovering, had decided she also just wanted to help him out of the goodness of her heart. She'd fought for him long and hard and was really happy to hear everything was working out.

She was sad to hear he planned to leave after it was all sorted.

While Canada had been nice to travel, it was honestly one of the worst experiences of his life, and he needed the break.

The technician took the moulding goop out once it set and got to work fixing the mould in another room, leaving Chase to his devices. He was pretty sure he'd been told he could leave but his mind had wandered back to the nurse, so he sat there a moment longer before confirming, and picking up his jacket to head out. He could pick up his hearing aid in a week if he was lucky.

There was still the matter of getting replacements every few years if his hearing declined for whatever reason, or he got the aid broken in any sort of fight (he was beginning to think he might just not wear it if he went out to do hero work) but that could wait.

Chase adjusted his eye patch, then took out his phone to text who he'd put in his phone as "Nurse Stacey".

"I think we need to talk. Any chance you're up for a coffee?"

The immediate response was a semicolon followed by closed parentheses—a winking smile.

Soon enough Chase was entering the coffee shop, finding Stacey sitting there, in the same corner they always took when they came here to talk. She had a brightly coloured floral dress on and makeup to match. Her auburn hair was half up, the rest straight and loose down her back.

Chase barely caught himself before he let the man thoughts slip. "Wow, uh, you look great. Wh- wha's the occasion?" He recognised his voice beginning to slip into a barely noticeable slur of letters recently and was trying to control it as best as he could, hoping Stacey wouldn't notice.

Stacey seemed to have noticed, and though she didn't look to want to mention it, her smile got just a little more strained.

"I'm heading to church with my family later. Saturday night service. Got dressed early because we have to pick up my brothers from a playdate and then go right there. It's a bit of a drive, so, you know."

Chase smiled at her, hanging onto her every word.

She'd talked about her brothers some before. Triplets, about nine years old, if he recalled. They sounded like a joy to be around if he was honest. And he didn't even like kids all that much.

"Why did only you have to get dressed so early? Aren't they going to be all sweaty and stuff from playing?" he asked, out of somewhat pure curiosity but mostly just an eagerness to hear her talk more.

"Well, you know boys. They can be ready like that." She snapped her fingers, showing off newly painted blue nails. Chase couldn't relate to what she was saying but nodded anyway. Stacey continued. "They're only kids, anyway. They don't have to do much to get ready. And, you know, they're smart. Probably won't get too messy or sweaty on purpose. They'll just change into their extra clothes before they leave their friend's house."