Chapter Text
It had happened out of the blue. No pain, just utter frustration with himself as muscles tensed and his voice strained, then the world became shuttered to him. Time passed, he had no idea how much, the sound of something beeping somewhere up and to his right filled his ears, annoying him, driving him out of whatever form of slumber he'd been in. The voice going to his left didn't help him in his struggle to stay asleep, either. Both sounds competed for his attention, though the voice eventually won out.
Finally the black haired, blue eyed, sprightly figure wormed his way out of his darkness and into the bright light of the waking world.
"You alright man? John? John." Hetero chromatic brown-and-blue eyes stared down at him as his own parted finally and he felt a drowsy smile part his face. The other person sported ear-lobe-length hair in a fifty-fifty black-blond dye job, flipped up around the back and sides, bangs cropped just above his brows, red and blue 3d glasses, one of John's favorite sights in the world, his best friend Sollux Captor, sat perched beside him in the dumbest sweater vest he'd ever seen, over a stupid short sleeved button down and clip on tie. The room surrounding them was one of those 'definitely a pediatric room' sorts, pastel walls and animal paintings, whinny the pooh on the curtains around the bed. There were three chairs in the room (no doubt one of them was intended for the other, empty bed.)
"Yeah. Yeah that just happens sometimes." 'That' had been him collapsing in the middle of the pep rally, though 'collapsing' was putting it lightly. John had managed to go years without having to tell anyone he had them. "Where am I?"
"Valley Medical." The other pronounced carefully, frowning at his friend. "'That just happens sometimes'? Egbert. No. Shit like that doesn't just happen. You really scared us."
John cringed, rubbing his face in frustration.
"I... Have seizures sometimes. It's not like it's a big deal."
"How long has this been going on?" He demanded, scowling at his oldest friend.
"Remember third grade? How I was absent from school for a week?"
"That long?"
"...Longer." He cringed again, watching his friend's face contort. "They just couldn't pin down a cause or anything and well..."
"Well what?"
"The docs said it was nothing, that I wasn't drinking enough water or I was throwing tantrums..."
"And your dad didn't say anything? I find that REALLY hard to believe."
"No he tried to talk to them but mom had just died and somehow that speaks to your credibility of your claim." He sighed. "It didn't happen again for years until today so it wasn't something we could fight you know?"
Long piano calloused fingers reached out to grab his friend's and John sighed, looking at the hacker's hand in frustration.
"I mean it's not like it's something that's going to kill me."
"They told your dad they're keeping you for observation. For a week. This was huge. Why didn't you tell me before it happened?"
"Well the first time it happened we were fighting because Aradia came over to my house for a lunch playdate instead of yours and I forgot to invite you... Then it just... didn't matter." He sighed, watching as his best friend interlaced their fingers.
Somewhere by the door a throat was cleared and they both looked over.
Standing there in black jeans and a turtle necked sweater with a tacky sticker 'Volunteer' badge slapped to the left side of his shirt was a pale individual with cinnamon-brown eyes and stark white hair that stood up at angles that it perhaps shouldn't have been able to, but for the fact that it looked like it was static-fuelled by the figures' personal field of rage. He looked to be somewhere in his twenties, and he pushed a cart into the room with a heavy limp, favouring his right leg as he leaned on the squeaky, rattling thing.
"If you two are done being disgustingly sappy boyfriendos I have a meal here for the idiot who got himself stuck in the bed that I'm supposed to get him to sign for, if his highness isn't too busy making goo-goo eyes at his lisping idiot significant other." He snapped, voice pitched sort of high and loud, ringing through the room in a way that made both previous occupants flinch.
"We're not..." John started as paper was shoved in his face.
"Just sign the paper fucknuts." he snarled, squinting at him as he plopped the tray on a rolling table provided by the room.
"We're not boyfriends! He's my best friend. Nothing but platonic affection going on in here." He grinned, large teeth prominent between pink lips. "One hundred percent no-homo."
"Maybe 85%, Egbert." The bi-chromatic person muttered, watching the volunteer hobble about, setting up pitchers of water, lining up a number of drinks. "You forget, we share drinks, meals, a bed sometimes, and the comfy chair at my place. That's pretty homo."
"Shut up captor." John snickered, rolling his eyes. "That totally doesn't count. We've been bros since we were our moms lamaz classes. Shut up. UM... Volunteer dude, you didn't even give me a pen!"
The last was directed at the volunteer who was exasperatedly opening the curtains to the room.
"You should have one. Didn't your dumbass friend bring you a school packet or something? Simple LOGIC would require them to have also brought you both a pen and a pencil if school is anything like it was when I was a kid."
"When was that, a billion years ago?" He snorted looking to his friend as the coder produced a blue pen, setting a red one to the side. Of course he'd bring his strange quirks into things.
"I'm TWENTY-FUCKING-FOUR you ignorant little brat! I'll have you know I was in the goddamned army. I was injured for your personal security. Show a little respect, snot factory." He snarled, limping to the bed with a look that would kill lesser men. It only succeeded in making the patient grin broadly.
"They let people with your kind of temperament past boot?" He wrote his name in a messy flourish and offered the paper to the adult, who snapped it up with gnashed teeth and grabbed his cart, storming out. "He'll be back."
So began John Egbert's stay in Valley Medical's Neurology department. Years from then they would all look back and smile at that day in varying states of amusement.