My Feral

16

Author's Note: Haaaaah, motivation to finish this fanfic, and then Stranger Things, has come in the form of seeing Wonder Woman over the weekend and falling headfirst into the fandom. I have two fics already brewing, and want to write them because I am in denial about the sad parts of the ending. So, yeah. Enjoy this update, and look forward to the next one sometime this month! Thank you all for sticking with this work. It really means a lot.

Max wakes up the next morning, having slept through the night, and almost has an immediate anxiety attack because he has absolutely no idea where the hell he is. His brain, running less frantically on a full period of uninterrupted unconsciousness, though, moves through a list of the things causing his anxiety in the time it takes for his heart to stop trying to beat its way out of his chest.

Firstly, he's not in his house. This is quickly followed by the realization that he is not in his bed, either. But he is in somebody's bed, if the arms wrapped around him are any testament to that. Okay, he thinks to himself, focus on the arms. There are two, thin and sinewy, and the cast on one is pressing into the side of his face.

That's when Max's eyes snap open, and a startled sound leaves his mouth before he has time to stop it. The person holding him, who turns out to be Nux, looks down at him in concern. "Are you alright, my feral?" he asks, loosening his hold on the other man so he can sit up more.

Max can only nod in response to the question, because if he opens his mouth, he will tell Nux that this is the most alright he has felt since Jessie and his child died.

He stretches then, almost relishing in the cracks and pops that come from his joints. In the middle of this, arms above his head, shirt riding up to expose a strip of skin, Max notices that he is not wearing his leg brace.

"Ah....my brace. It's not on," Max says, turning to look at Nux. In turn, Nux looks down sheepishly, saying, "you fell asleep on me, so I took it off." Max nods again, and almost makes a noise that would've only been described as a whimper when Nux gets out of bed and limps around it to pick up the knee brace.

Max loses all words then, when Nux comes back around and slips the brace onto Max's bum knee with the utmost care. "Huh," he says eloquently, swinging both legs over the side of the bed and pulling on his shoes.

----

Things go like this between them for the next two days. Max spends more time at the hospital than he does at home, much to Capable's chagrin. But, he just looks so happy, and she can't find it in her heart to scold him on that. God knows that Max has enough sadness to last him a lifetime. Maybe two.

Then, on the third day, and the day before Nux is set to be discharged, he disappears.

After finishing up his shift, which put a bit more strain on his bum knee than usual, Max had gone to Nux's room to sit down and ice the offending appendage. But, when he reached the open door, the bed was empty, as well as the bathroom and any other place that a gangly 26 year old could have fit himself into.

Heart beating in his ears, stomach trying to work its way up his throat, Max moves as fast as the pain in his knee allows to the nurse's station two floors down. Then, all but crashing into the counter, and startling the poor nurse doing paperwork, he manages to get out, "there's a patient missing. Nux....the patient....he's not in his room."

The nurse sits up straight on her chair, and then disappears into the room tacked onto the station. She is back only moments later, with Capable in tow. Coming around the counter to put a hand on Max's shoulder, she says, "he'd said something about going to the roof earlier. And I told him not to even think about it because it's off limits to patients."

Everything stops then, before kicking into overdrive that almost sends Max to his knees in panic. He barely manages to keep it together, though, instructing Capable to take the elevator while he takes the stairs to the roof. He brushes off her protestations of letting her climb the five flights instead because they both know the strain will be hell on him.

Max makes it up three flights on adrenaline alone, before his knee buckles and he ends up sprawled five steps away from the fourth floor. Groaning at the dull throb in his hands, and bruise already screaming onto the skin of his leg, he pushes himself up and keeps going. The only thing not allowing him to stay there is the fear of what Nux might be doing on the roof.

That's why, when he bursts through the door onto the roof, and sees Nux standing way too close to the edge, the first thing to leave his mouth is a strangled cry of, "Nux!"

Capable comes up behind him then, pushing him gently forward from where his feet were trying to grow roots into the concrete.

He only makes it a few wobbling steps forward before the younger man is wrapping solid arms around him, holding him while he almost shakes to pieces.

"Max, what's wrong?" Nux asks, going to sit down on the concrete. But, Max's knee gives halfway through, and won't bend.

Chuckling weakly, Max replies, "well, that's certainly the bigger problem now."

Nodding in what is very obviously confused agreement, Nux leads his friend over to the elevators, stepping in next to Capable, who has managed to get a wheelchair in the minutes it took for the two men to almost fully embrace.

Capable helps Max sit down, positioning his knee on the footrest struck straight out from the chair to support it without causing any further damage. She gets out on the next floor down, promising to meet them back in Nux's room with ice and painkillers.

----

Later, when Max is asleep on Nux's hospital bed, knee propped up on a few pillows with a bag of ice secured to it, Capable leans over into Nux's space and fixes him with a glare.

When he looks over at her, hand still resting in Max's tousled hair, she says sternly, "he thought you were going to jump, you idiot."

Nux sucks in a startled breath, hand moving down to rest on Max's cheek. "I would never do that to Max," he says quietly. He looks up at Capable then, tears brimming in his lashes, "I'm in love with him," he finishes, fingers stroking the older man's face.

"Yeah, that's pretty obvious," Capable agrees. Her voice drops then, taking on a more menacing tone that she only saves for the most difficult patients, "and if you hurt him, I swear to the gods that I'll kill you."

At the threat that isn't veiled in the slightest, Nux chuckles, "I'd throw myself in front of your car's wheels myself if that ever happened."

Capable brightens, leaning over to give Nux a peck on the cheek before she shoves him at the bed and leaves the room, switching off the light as she goes.

Putting a hand to his face, Nux squeezes himself into the spot by Max, nestling into the hollow between the older man's neck and collarbone and closing his eyes.