Old Fashioned

Chapter 3

The next time Alex awoke, it was to the sound of quiet groaning from behind as the couch shifted uneasily. He blinked rapidly as he slowly came to, rubbing the sleep from his eyes as he tried to piece together where he was. Then, the memory hit him like a truck, and he jerked upright, whirling around to check on Tai.

His eyes were fluttering as he tried to regain consciousness, a feverish haze to them, his gaze blearily drifting across the room.

Alex rolled over onto his knees, hovering above Tai, whilst fervently checking over him.

"Welcome back to the land of the living," he joked, trying to mask the concern in his voice.

Tai's brow furrowed, focusing in on Alex, then looked confused.

"You're still... here...?" he asked in a raspy voice.

"Uh...yeah," Alex stuttered, suddenly feeling like he was intruding. "I hope that's okay. Erin and I didn't want to leave you."

Tai blinked lethargically, still just seeming baffled.

"... Why?" he asked, squinting, as if searching for the ulterior motive. "I don't... have anything worth stealing..."

Alex looked around, nodding in agreement with this sentiment.

"No offense, but you'd probably be the last apartment I would ransack," he joked. "And plus, I would've done it while you were asleep."

His expression grew serious again, and he scooted back a few inches once he realized he was crowding Tai's space.

"Erin just didn't want to leave you alone in case you, uh...died or something, I guess," he said, trying to pin all the blame on his friend in case Tai was uncomfortable with all this. He would ask for forgiveness later.

Tai studied Alex for a moment, trying to determine whether or not he was lying.

"... You two are weird," he murmured, then turned his attention to his injury.

Grimacing as he pulled his shirt up, Tai inspected the bandaging, running his fingers along it.

"Not half bad," he commented with a shrug, then let his head thunk back on the couch arm, too tired to hold it up anymore. "Uh... I've got some cash I can give you for the trouble."

Against his better judgment, Alex laughed.

"You did not just offer to pay me for helping you with a STAB wound," he scoffed, hopeless to hide his amusement.

"I'm pretty sure I, in fact, just did," Tai replied stubbornly. "And I'm not taking no for an answer. It'd feel too weird."

"You do realize it's not weird to be a decent human being, right?" Alex asked with a raised eyebrow and a cocked grin. "I can, in fact, do something nice without trying to get in your pants."

"False," Tai replied without missing a beat. "Everyone wants something."

Before the conversation could progress any further, the front door handle slowly turned and swung open, immediately causing Tai's head to snap around. He went on high alert, trying to sit up, but that only caused him to wince and fall back onto the couch with a grunt of pain, clutching his side with grit teeth.

Alex lurched forward, putting his hand on Tai's shoulder to stop him from trying that again.

"Don't move too much, you'll only make it worse," he scolded, sounding more like a helicopter parent than a random stranger. "It's just Erin, she went to grab some stuff for you."

Tai didn't seem to believe him, at least not until Erin popped her head around the corner, looking apologetic.

"Sorry," she whispered sheepishly, stepping fully into view with a couple of bulging CVS bags. "I was trying to be quiet so I wouldn't wake you."