Until Tomorrow

Until Tomorrow

Warnings: angst, abuse, violence, a bit of gore, and some bad language.

Chapter 4

The next several weeks passed by in quick succession. Against Bryan’s wishes, Danya remained in America and even more against his wishes, Danya stayed by Nick’s side. Bryan and Danya stayed in Kai’s house and when Danya wasn’t at the hospital, the two of them were fighting, both physically and verbally.

“Why the hell are you spending so much time with him?” Bryan thundered. “You are always at the hospital. You’re never here anymore.”

“I’ve told you a thousand times, Bryan, I’m there because I need to be,” Danya answered patiently.

“Why? Did he ask you to be there?”

“No! I’m there because I want to be. I choose to be.”
“And what about me?”
“What about you?”
“Have you ever considered me? How I feel about this?”

“I know you seem upset…”
“Seem upset? I am upset!” Bryan yelled, striking Danya across the face.

“Calm down Bryan. You need to consider other people besides yourself.”
“Are you calling me selfish?”

Danya took a deep breath. He knew he was treading across thin ice here. “I’m just saying that you think that you’re the center of the universe and you never consider the feelings of other people. I know that you want me here and you want me all to yourself but that’s not going to happen. Nick needs me more than you do at the moment.”
“You bastard! You love Nick more than me!”

“No I don’t!”

“Yes you do! Admit it!”
“I love you Bryan and no one else!” Bryan backhanded him and he stumbled backwards. He was bleeding slightly, but he really didn’t care at the moment. His eyes were fixed on Bryan, who was breathing heavily with anger.
“Tell me you love me!” he shouted.
“I love you,” Danya said, mustering all the strength he could.

“Say it louder!” Bryan grabbed his wrist and twisted it around painfully. Danya gasped loudly. He felt his wrist bone snapping. “Say it!”

“I…love you!” Danya gasped.

“Louder!”
“I LOVE YOU!” Bryan let go of him. Danya backed away, holding his broken wrist. Bryan didn’t say anything more. He went down to the lobby, probably to the bar. Danya went to his bed and sat down on his side. He let go of his broken wrist, trying to ignore the pain. He picked up his cell phone with his good hand dialed Kai’s number. He tried to fight back tears as the phone rang.

“Hello?” Kai finally asked, confusion laced in his voice.

“Kai, it’s Danya,” Danya sniffed.

“Danya? What’s wrong?”
“Bryan and I had a fight.”
“Are you okay? Did he hurt you?”

“Yeah.”
“What did he do to you?”

Danya hesitated. “He broke my wrist.” There was a long pause. “Kai?”

“Stay where you are. I’m coming to get you and then I’m going to take you to the hospital.”
“That’s not necessary. I’ll be okay.”
“No, I’m coming to get you. You can stay at my house tonight.”

“Okay.” Danya didn’t have the strength to argue.

“Are you at the hotel room?”

“Yeah.”

“Is Bryan there?”
“No, he left. I think he went down to the bar to get a drink.”
“All the more reason to leave.”
“Yeah, you’re right.”
“I’ll be there in ten minutes.”
“Okay.” They said goodbye and hung up. Danya put the cell phone back on the table and went into the bathroom. When he glanced at himself in the mirror, he saw that his face was incredibly pale, making his flaming red hair stand out vibrantly against his skin and his eyes were glittering in the light. He went back into his and Bryan’s bedroom and waited on the bed. Ten minutes later, he heard a knock at the door and went to answer it. Kai was staring there with several of his bodyguards, looking concerned.

“Are you okay?” Kai asked.

“Yeah,” Danya nodded.

“Are you ready?”
“Yeah.”

“Are you going to bring anything?”

“Should I?”

“I don’t know. Do you need anything?”

“I don’t know.” Kai looked at his bodyguards with a piercing look and, without being told verbally, went into the bedroom.

“Come on,” Kai murmured. He put his arm around Danya comfortingly and led him to the elevator with one of the other bodyguards. They went down to the lobby and passed the lobby. They looked in, but they couldn’t see Bryan. Somewhat relieved, Danya let Kai lead him out to the limo and both of them were silent as they made their way to the hospital.

“Fell down the stairs, huh?” Nick asked the next day. He had been taken off the ventilator and his condition was slowly improving.

“Yep,” Danya nodded, looking at Kai. “I was visiting Kai last night and I was going downstairs and I slipped and fell and broke my arm and got a bit bruised.” He was thankful that he had been able to come up with such an excuse in a short period of time.

“I’m glad you weren’t hurt anymore than you were,” Nick murmured.

“So am I,” Danya agreed. There was a knock on the door and Dr. Anderson came in.

“Good morning you guys,” she stopped and stared at Danya’s wrist. “Whatever did you do to yourself?”

“Fell down the stairs,” Danya muttered.

“”And broke your wrist,” Kai added scathingly.

“Yeah. That too.”
“What can I do for you, Dr. Anderson?” Nick asked, biting back a laugh.

“I think you’ve finally recovered enough so that you can start another round of chemotherapy. Your breathing has improved incredibly, but there’s still some cancer left, so we’re going to have to give you some more drugs to kill the rest of them off,” Dr. Anderson said.

Nick groaned softly. “Oh joy.”
“I know. You’re so excited,” Dr. Anderson smiled.

“When do I start?”
“The sooner the better.”
“So you’re saying this morning?”

“Yes. Is that all right with you?”
“Yeah. That’s fine.”
“I’ll let Ivy know. “ Dr. Anderson left.
“Do you want me to go and call Jake for you and tell him what’s going on?” Kai asked.

“Yes, please. That would be wonderful.” Kai silently left. Danya realized that Kai had done that so he and Nick could be alone. The redheaded boy went and sat next to his friend’s side. “Now you’ll get to see the true ferocity of cancer and what chemo does to you…well me. I just want to warn you know; it’s going to be pretty gruesome at times.”
Danya shrugged. “I’ve seen worse.”
“You mean like your boyfriend breaking your wrist?” Danya stared at him in shock. “Come on, I know that you couldn’t have fallen down the stairs and gotten hurt like that. Bryan did that to you, didn’t he?” Danya hesitated. “Come on, you can tell me. I promise I won’t tell anyone.”

Danya sighed softly. “You are right. He did this to me.”
“Why didn’t you try and stop him?”
“I did try.” Nick glared at him. “I really did try! I wasn’t expecting him to grab onto my wrist. He’s strong, you know. A lot stronger than you’d first think.”

“Are you afraid of him?” Nick’s piercing gaze never faltered.

Danya lowered his eyes. “A little,” he admitted.

“What scares you the most about him?”

Danya hesitated again. “The fact that he’s so…so…”

“Tell me in Russian.” Danya told him the word. “Domineering. The word is domineering in English.”
“Domineering,” Danya tested the word. “Yes, I guess that’s what I’m trying to say. He likes having control over me and he throws a fit when he doesn’t have control. He doesn’t care what lengths he goes to in order to get what he wants. He doesn’t care that he hurts me. And if I ever leave him…” Danya shuddered softly.

“I’m sorry you have to go through with this.”

“Not as sorry as I am,” Danya muttered. “I wish I never met him. Although…if he and I hadn’t fought last summer, I wouldn’t have agreed to join Kai at his summer home and then I wouldn’t have met you.”

“Do you ever regret that you met me?”
“Of course not!” Danya cried, shocked. “Do you?”

“Not for one instant,” Nick smiled crookedly. There was a knock on the door.

“I’m sorry to interrupt, but I have to give Nick his chemo meds,” Ivy said, stepping into the room with a tray.

“All right, all right,” Nick groaned. Ivy stepped over to the bed. Danya instantly vacated the seat so that the cheerful nurse could have access to his IV bag. “Danya, can you hold my hand?”

“Sure thing,” Danya responded. He moved to the other side of Nick’s bed and took his hand. It was surprisingly cool. The nurse put some drugs in his IV and left. “You feeling okay?”

“Yeah,” Nick nodded. They were silent for a long time. Nick’s face seemed to be getting paler and paler by the moment.

“Nick?” Danya asked.

“I’m going to be sick. Please…get me to the bathroom. Hurry!” Nick croaked. Danya nodded and let go of Nick’s hand. He went around to the other side of the bed, then hesitated, unsure of what to do. “Get the IV bag off.” Danya nodded. He was trembling as he unhooked the IV bag. “Hurry!” Danya leaned forward and put his arms around Nick’s skinny waist and Nick put his arms around Danya’s neck. Danya lifted him up with ease and rushed into the bathroom. He set Nick on the floor next to the toilet. Nick heaved himself up, gripping the sides of the toilet as a support and vomited in the toilet. Danya tried to do the best he could to comfort the blonde-haired boy.

“Is this okay?” He asked, gently rubbing his back.

“Yeah,” Nick nodded.

“Nick? Danya?” they heard Kai ask from outside.

“We’re in here!” Danya cried. Kai came into the bathroom. He saw Nick hanging weakly over the toilet and Danya next to him and seemed to understand in an instant. He left the room in a rush and came back with Ivy trailing behind him. She gasped softly.

“Nick! Are you all right?” she asked, rushing to kneel down on Nick’s other side.

“Yeah, I think so. It’s just been a long time since I’ve had to do this.”

“It’s been what, three weeks?”
“Four.”

“Are you thirsty?”

“Yeah, a little.”
“I’ll get you a glass of water.”
“Okay, thanks.”
“Do you think you’ll be able to manage getting him back in bed?”

“I think Danya and Kai can handle it.”

“All right. I’ll be right back.” Ivy left. Nick let go of the toilet seat and sank back, exhausted. He wiped the vomit from his mouth with the sleeve of his hospital gown. For the first time, Danya could see how thin he really was and it made him sick.

“Do you need me to help you?” Kai asked.

“Yeah,” Danya said, quickly shaking his head to make himself come to his senses. “Can you lift Nick’s IV bag for me and carry it when I pick Nick up?”

“Sure thing,” Kai answered. They coordinated their efforts so that Nick and his IV bag were lifted up at the same time. They went out into the hospital room and Danya gently set Nick in the bed while Kai put Nick’s IV bag back where it belonged. Ivy came back in and handed Nick a glass of water.

“Drink it slowly or else you won’t be able to keep it down,” she cautioned.

Nick smirked as he lifted the paper cup to his lips. “You don’t have to remind me of that.” He slowly drank until it was empty. He handed the cup back to Ivy.

“Better?” she questioned.

“Yeah. Thank you.”

“You’re welcome. I’ll make sure that Dr. Anderson knows what happened.”

Nick nodded. “Thank you.”

Nick’s treatment continued. He was constantly plagued by nausea and irritability, but Danya stayed by his side nevertheless. Bryan got more and more jealous as Danya started spending more and more time with Nick and less and less time with him. Their arguments got worse and worse and Bryan got more and more abusive. Because of this, Danya spent more and more time at the hospital and that started the circle all over again.

One day in March while he was visiting Nick in the hospital, they received an unexpected visitor.

“Danya,” a cold voice said, causing Danya and Nick to both look up. Neither of them were prepared for who they saw.
“Bryan?” Danya breathed.

“That’s right,” Bryan smiled cruelly.

“What do you want?” Danya asked in a strangled tone.

“I’m sick of you spending so much time with your pathetic little friend and no time with me,” Bryan answered. Danya scowled, but Bryan took no notice. “I’m giving you an ulitmatium. It’s quite simple; choose one of us.”

“What?”
“Choose either me or him. I am leaving this afternoon. Kai already knows this. You can either leave with me for Russia and never come back, or you can stay here with Nick and our relationship is over.”

“Bryan!”
“Choose! Choose quickly!”

Danya looked from him to Nick and back again. “You can’t…why are you making me choose?”
“Because it’s time to decide where your loyalties lie.”

“I can’t,” Danya breathed. “I can’t choose!”

“Choose!” Danya looked back to Nick.

“I won’t tell you what’s right and what’s wrong. You have to choose for yourself.” Tears slid down Danya’s face. He felt like his heart was being torn in two. He loved Bryan deeply, but he treasured his friendship with Nick even more. More tears slid down his face.

“I…I’m so sorry Bryan. I love you, but you’ve hurt me too many times to count, physically and emotionally. I’ve found something that I never expected to find in Nick; friendship, something you never would understand. I know we had a good relationship…I guess, but…I’m…I’m…staying here,” he said. Bryan looked angry and Danya thought that he was going to strike him, but he didn’t. His face colored.

“You will regret your decision. I will personally make sure of that. You will pay for your betrayal,” he said. His eyes rested on Nick briefly, hungrily taking in his pale frame. Then, he was gone. Danya shivered slightly, but was relieved. He was never going to see Bryan again. He would never be hurt again. He sighed softly. It felt so…liberating.

“You okay?” Nick asked quietly.

Danya nodded. “I’m glad he’s gone. I feel much better.” Nick smiled.

To be continued…

Note: I was going to let it run on a lot longer than this, but then I decided that this was long enough. It looks like there’s going to be one more chapter than I anticipated. Oh well. This story continues to surprise me.