Until Tomorrow

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Warnings: angst, slash, (malexmale pairings) mild language,

Chapter 2

“Danya!” Kai called sharply as Danya fled from the room. The others were silent, staring at him. “I’ll be right back.” He turned around and rushed from the room. He didn’t have any trouble following Danya; he prided himself as being a fast runner, and let the redheaded boy lead him through the hospital hallways. They finally stopped at a bathroom and Danya went in. Kai waited outside and when Danya didn’t come out after twenty minutes, he went in. Danya was sitting against the far wall on the floor, his knees tucked up to his chest and his arms wrapped around them. His face was buried in his knees and he let out muffled sobs.

“Danya?” Kai asked softly. Danya looked up, tears streaking down his face. “Do you want to talk about it?”

“I guess,” Danya answered. Kai sat down next to him. “Where’s Bryan?”

“He’s still in Nick’s room,” Kai answered.

“You left Bryan in there with them?!” Danya demanded, his face paling. He leaned his head back against the wall. “Oh my god.”

“Don’t worry. He didn’t seem like he was in a deadly mood.”
“But he can turn from a good mood to a lethal mood in an instant. One little thing can set him off. I’ve seen it.” Danya involuntarily shuddered.

“I said don’t worry. Nick can handle himself. He has a gift with people, even with Bryan.” More tears slid down Danya’s face at the mention of Nick’s name. “So why did you run out of the room like that?”

“I…I don’t know. I…I just can’t believe that it’s him. Are you sure it’s him?”

“Yes Danya, I’m sure.”
“He looks so different.”
“He’s been through a lot.”
“So what is going on? How did all this happen?”

“It’s the second month since Nick was diagnosed with leukemia,” Ka said softly. He added at the blank stare on Danya’s face, “Leukemia is a cancer of the bone marrow. Do you know what cancer and bone marrow are?” Danya silently nodded; he had heard those terms used in one of the classes he had taken. “He was diagnosed in December with a type of leukemia, ALL, and has been in and out of the hospital ever since then. I didn’t find out until January; the school was on break when he started treatment and we weren’t notified until after school resumed. Nick is a student at the school my family built. He’s been undergoing a treatment called chemotherapy, where they inject drugs into his body to kill the cancer cells. One of the side effects, as you could plainly see, is hair loss.”
“And why did you drag me into all this?” Danya asked.

Kai sighed softly. “Nick is going through an incredibly difficult time in his life, and he has to do it almost entirely on his own. His family can be there by his side, but he has to fight the cancer on his own. It’s incredibly draining and he’s losing hope. I can see it in his eyes. I would have called you earlier, but I wasn’t sure if Nick would be okay with it, as well as you. But then…” he sighed softly again and Danya could swear that he could see tears in his violet eyes. “Nick’s breathing has been getting worse and worse and the doctor, Dr. Anderson, is her name…well she found a tumor in his lungs. They’ve done some scans to see the extent of the tumor and if it needs to be removed immediately. If so, he’ll have to go through an incredibly risky surgery.” Danya forced his own tears back. “I brought you here so that you could spend some time with him in case he…you know…”

“I was the one who broke his heart in the first place. I don’t know if it’s a good idea for me to spend time with him.”
“He needs someone to talk to, a familiar face, someone he trusts.”

“Do you really think he’ll really trust me after what I did to him?”
“Are you feeling some remorse for leaving him to stay with Bryan?”

“No! I just…I don’t regret leaving him for Bryan. It was a mutual decision by the two of us to end the relationship we were only starting to have. I just feel bad for hurting him. He’s going through even more pain now.”

“It’s not your fault. Put what you did in the past. It doesn’t matter now. Go to him. Or else you’ll regret it forever.”

“How do you know that?”

“Just trust me.”

Danya sighed softly. “I’m not saying that it’s a good idea, but I’ll go.”

“All right.”
“Can I ask you something?” Danya murmured after a moment of silence.

“Sure.”

“Who was that boy who was in the room when we arrived?”

“That was Kivan White. He is a friend of Nick’s from school.”
“Why does he look almost identical to Nick? I mean, the resemblance between them is so remarkable.”
“Yes, I know. It’s even more prominent now that Nick doesn’t have any hair. I don’t know why they look so much alike. Nick knows, but he hasn’t said why. He claims that he does not know, but I know that he knows. I have tried many times to talk to him about it, but he denies any knowledge of his resemblance to Kivan.”
“It was almost as if…”

“As if what?”
“Never mind. It’s impossible.”

“What’s impossible? Tell me!”

“It was almost as if…they were brothers.”

“Brothers?”

“It’s impossible, isn’t it?”

“Not really,” Kai shook his head. “I bet you didn’t know that Nick was adopted.”

“He…what?”

“He was adopted. I have access to all the students’ files and I read his out of curiosity. He was adopted at the age of twelve from Russia, but he’s originally from Serbia.”
“Well, that would explain why he doesn’t look like either of his fathers and why his accent was familiar to me. He doesn’t talk with much of an accent though.”

“No, he doesn’t. He picked up English really fast and got rid of most of his accent. His mother and sisters are confirmed to be dead, but no one knows about his father. He apparently walked out on the family while Nick’s mother was still pregnant. It’s completely possible for him to have a brother. Whether Kivan is his brother or not, is only something Nick can tell us.”

“Okay.”
“I suppose we should get back to Nick.”
“Yeah.” Both of them rose and Danya wiped the tears from his eyes. The two of them made their way back to Nick’s room. When they went in, Danya was shocked to see Bryan sitting next to the bed talking politely to Nick. Nick looked up and smiled when he saw them.

“Oh, hello?” He said rather calmly.

“Hi Nick,” Danya said.

“I was just talking to your boyfriend,” Nick said unflinchingly.

“Yeah. I see.” Danya threw Bryan a quizzical look, but his boyfriend just shrugged. Before Danya could think of what to say to Nick, there was a knock on the door, and a tall, blonde female doctor come in.

“Nick, we got the results back,” she said. The tone of her voice was serious.

“It’s bad?” Nick asked softly.

Dr. Anderson looked surprised. “Y…yes.” She cleared her throat and briefly glanced down at the clipboard she was carrying. “I’m afraid that the tumor is a lot worse than we thought. It has to come out, and soon. I know that the surgery is risky, but if we don’t remove the tumor and it grows any larger than it already is, then your air supply will be completely cut off and you’ll die.” Kalil let out a soft whimper. Jake gently patted his arm to try and comfort him.

“I say go for it. Take the damned thing out. I don’t care what the risks are. Honestly, I’m getting tired of not being able to get out of this bed and not being able to do the things I used to be able to do. It doesn’t seem like I have much of a choice anymore. No matter what, I’m going to die, so let’s just get it over with.”

Dr. Anderson nodded. “I will let Ivy know that you’re going to be going into surgery. You won’t be able to eat anything for a couple hours.”
“That’s okay,” Nick smiled. “I’m not really hungry anyways.” Dr. Anderson smiled and left. A while later, a nurse came in bearing a name tag that read “Ivy” on it. She chatted with Nick for a couple minutes and checked his IV bag and left. The afternoon dragged by very slowly. Bryan rose and forced Danya to sit by Nick’s side. There were long breaks of silence that made things awkward. Finally, at four in the afternoon, Dr. Anderson came in with another older man who had a tray. Danya rose from his chair and went over to stand between Bryan and Kai in the corner while the two doctors spoke to Nick in low voices.

“Who is he?” Danya asked Kai, motioning to the older male doctor.

“His name is Dr. Werner. He’s an anesthetist. He gives Nick drugs to make him fall asleep,” Kai answered.

“Oh, okay.” They watched as Dr. Werner put something into Nick’s IV bag. Dr. Anderson grabbed Kalil and Jake and took them out into the hall.

“Danya, is it all right if I talk to you alone?” Nick asked.

“Uh…sure.” Danya turned to Kai and Bryan. “Is it okay with you?” The two of them nodded and left the room. Danya went and sat next to Nick’s bed, unsure of what he was about to hear.

To be continued…

Note: Oh I’m so mean, huh? You’ll get to hear what Nick has to say in the next chapter. And it’s probably not what you’re expecting…