Le Chat et Le Serpent

Chapter 43: Please Don't Leave Me

And at first it's okay, you know, not perfect, but okay, and you get used to it. Then it gets a little worse, and you get used to that, too. Then one day, you wake up and you don't have the first freakin' clue how it got that bad.

More Than This by Patrick Ness

Adrien's palms pressed against the table as he glared at Luka.

Luka tried to abate the rage by setting down a book of crosswords, sudoku, and the book More than This by Patrick Ness. Adrien's intensified leer indicated that it was not helping.

"Adrien, I'm trying my best." Luka pleaded.

"I shouldn't be here. I said don't call an ambulance. You do realise that I head a pretty significant company, right?" Adrien grit his teeth at the, once again, blue haired man.

"Adrien, you split your fucking head open. You go to the hospital when you split your head open." Luka barked back. It was the first time he had been able to see him in a week, why did it have to be a fight?

"You couldn't have just said that I slipped?" Adrien tilted his head as he scrunched half his face. "I can't even have my ring in here. This is hell."

Trying to avoid the pessimism that was oozing from Adrien, Luka worked to soften some of the issues. "Well... Nathalie has been doing a really good job in managing things while you're gone. Both Marinette and I have agreed that we are okay in not dealing with the fashion week contracts until later in the year. Things are still running smoothly. I'm taking care of your cat... There are a lot of expenses on your card for cheese."

"Yeah? So things have been great? How's my fantasy team doing?" Adrien leaned back in his chair.

"They're fine, they'll be fine until you get back, I promise." Luka knew that being away from the team immediately after healing was going to be hard on Adrien, but he wished he wouldn't threaten that discussion here.

"Yeah, I can't wait to hear the captain going off about how unreliable I am again." Adrien resisted his enraged urge to spit, especially once he noticed one of the nurses was watching him. They kept watching him. There were always eyes on him. There was nowhere to go. He couldn't even shit with the door locked.

"I fucking get it, Adrien. You do know that I've been in these places more than you, right? Do you remember that?" Luka was rapidly losing his patience.

Adrien clenched his jaw, irritated that Luka was using his own trauma as a reason to imprison him. "Yeah and this fucking self-help book took you out of it?" Adrien aggressively poked at the hardcover book on the table.

"It's not a self-help book. It's just a fictional tale. But you're right, for some reason, it did help me." Luka resisted the urge to pet the book. He had a strange relationship with this book. He knew he loved it and that he had read it cover to cover over and over the last time he was here, but he could rarely remember anything about it. He knew it brought him comfort and he hoped it would do the same to Adrien. But, when your mental health includes a great deal of dissociation and issues with memory, the things you struggle with while trapped within white walls can be fascinating.

"This entire thing has been so humiliating." Adrien shook his head, ignoring the dropping in Luka's tone.

"Enough. I called the ambulance because you split your head. They asked why, I said panic attacks. They thought that was odd." Luka feigned animated facial expressions as he spoke. "Do you know how many people get put on hold for panic attacks, Adrien? No one that I've ever met." His hands jetted to the sides as if he was saying 'I don't know'. "And then, I get to have a lovely coffee with Nathalie. And guess what she tells me? Can you guess?" Luka leaned in closer.