As Cozy as it can Get [CLOSED]

I indeed scurried away from Matthew when he fell off of me but I couldn't make it to my feet. My head was still reeling slightly from the rush of oxygen entering my lungs again.

When a nurse finally rounded the corner my eyes lit up for a moment.

When I saw that it was Caroline the frown returned.

I hadn't wanted her to be the one that stumbled upon this wreckage, but I guess I didn't have a choice, did I? I finally wiped the blood off of my face as I looked down, shaking my head and pointing at Matthew.

"Ask him. Ask the guy that busted into my room and smashed my glass vase against my wall. Then refused to answer me when I tried to get him to tell me why. Then called me a chink which... doesn't make sense... Then he fucking choked me out." I coughed and looked at Caroline, finally pulling myself up to a wobbly standing position. I also stood with my hand touching Kyo's shoulder.

I just didn't want him to get thrown into the super strict care unit. Not now.

"Kyo was helping. I couldn't breathe," I added, looking at Caroline. "He was choking me out... He threatened to break my hands..."

Hell no, I don’t play fair. Life’s hardly fair as is and ain’t nothing fair about me taking on someone literally a foot taller than me and probably double my own weight. I’m not a fucking idiot.
Besides, I’m not entirely sure why I flipped out so much. I guess I’ve been well behaved myself for so long that it was just pent up aggression building up inside. Maybe I was seriously pissed that he was taking so much advantage of Jiho. Or maybe I just really didn’t like being talked to like I was pathetic and walking on eggshells all day long.

When my blows were successful and the much larger male finally topped backwards and off of Jiho I exhaled heavily, watching carefully with a narrowed expression. I made no move to attack again. I just wanted him off and stopping his threatening assault. I, unlike the others, can actually control myself.
I did feel a little bad when the man’s head hit the wall, but at least it stilled him. The way he rose his arms up for protecting really caused me to take a small step backwards. I didn’t want to destroy the guy or anything. But if I tried tugging desperately and begging Matthew to get off and stop? That wouldn’t have gotten me very far. It would have put me in a position where not only I could have been hurt myself, but also where Matthew would have assumed he held something above me for the rest of my days here.

Not okay.

I breathed slowly myself, ignoring the throbbing sensation that reeled in my knuckles, trying to get my own adrenaline down once more while dark eyes never pulled away from the man now practically cowering on the floor. He was unpredictable. I fact I didn’t even move my attention when Jiho finally stood, no. The only thing that seemed to reach my own ears right now as the sound of the authority coming up behind me. I pressed pierced tier together in a set, tight frown, working my jaw in irritancy. Great. I finally got some ‘rewards’ for my behavior and then she sees this?

My arms slowly lifted and I did as I was told, interlocking palms behind my skull. It wasn’t the first time I’ve taken up this position. And clearly Jiho didn’t feel the need to follow directions… at least he was talking.

Myself, I stayed silent, just glaring at the entire situation at hand. My teeth were clenched and I was trying to calm my nerves.
"... ... ..."

What a fucking tattletale. Standing unaided simply wasn't an option at the moment so he stayed crouched, curled against the wall for support. He did, however, comply and weaved his fingers together behind his head, exposing his jacked up face. He looked awful; an angry welt was forming at the side of his skull where the wall had cuffed him and his lip still bled freely. His left eye was practically swollen shut and shedding great saltwater tears to clean itself out. The wet tracks spilled over his lids and traced their way across the curve of his nose, dropping and mingling with the blood that spattered between his toes.

Despite being the instigator, he had indeed taken the most casualty. In a way this could be good. If he had to go down, Kyo and Jiho would likely go with him. To help ensure this outcome he didn't speak up even when Jiho whined and lied like a six year old. He had to admit that was difficult. It was hard to sit there and be accused of shit that simply wasn't right.

His tongue lapped across his lips as he turned his head to completely face the wall. There wasn't a single person in this hallway he wanted to see right now.

Die rushed along behind the nurse, someone he hadn't actually met at all before, a concerned look on his face. This really wasn't a good thing and he knew it. Turning them in was bad, but what could have resulted if he didn't would have likely been worse. And while Die was prone to self-harm, he wasn't at all okay with others getting into it like this.

He came to a stop a few doors down, his eyes flicking between the various people as they spouted off what they knew about what happened. He noted Kyo putting his hands behind his head like he was told and he realized that probably told something about him, the ease in which he did it... but still, Die didn't want to think he'd started it. But he hadn't been there and couldn't possibly know. Still, he wasn't stupid enough to wander off, realizing he was probably someone who needed to give some sort of statement... maybe. He wasn't sure how this worked in here, but still, here he was.

Caroline sighed. It wasn't her call to what their fate would be, but she couldn't imagine it was particularly good, Matthew especially. Jiho was shaken up – this much was obvious – so she didn't think much of his small disobedience. It didn't seem that he could even stand that well. It seemed that the state of things had already met its peak. Taking steps forward, Caroline put herself in between Jiho and Matthew.

"First thing's first, I suppose. You should all get cleaned up. Let's get you all to the nurses' station and we'll tend to some wounds." Caroline brushed her fingers through her hair, trying to figure out how to get everyone where she needed them. "Kyo, can you help Jiho walk? He seems a bit dizzy. Jeez, I'm going to be busy now because of all of you. I was looking forward to a break and everything. Oh well." Bending down, she reached her hand out to Matthew.

"Can you stand? I'll help you get there. You look worst of all." She pointed to Die, whose name she still didn't know, motioning her head towards Matthew. "Help me out with this one, please? And I want no complaining from you, Matthew. Got it?"

I watched Caroline as she moved herself between Matthew and I, about to reach out to stop her before she was already out of my reach. I didn't want her to get hurt - I definitely didn't want Matthew to take any of this out on her, and with his seemingly huge amount of regret for his actions I could actually see it happening.

Instead I took my weight off of Kyo, brows furrowed as I attempted to stand by myself. I swayed a little but kept upright, shaking my head.

"I'll... I'll be fine," I mumbled, voice a bit hoarse. Looking away, I sighed softly and dropped my head.

This was a mess. I felt like an asshole. I hadn't wanted to get Kyo into this, and he didn't deserve it.

Fuck, this was awful.

Die watched the interaction of the variety of people in the hallway for a little while before he was summoned over to help get the man off the floor... the one Die actually was a bit wary of, given he didn't know him at all and from the sounds of it...- he shook it off and made his way to the nurse.

He glanced at her nametag and then knelt down to help, at least knowing how to lift and not fuck himself up too badly, though really he shouldn't have been lifting anything at all given his injuries from the work site. But he supposed you did as you were told in a mental institution and seeing as how he wasn't in there for that... how the hell should they know he wasn't supposed to? He slid one arm around the other's back, lifting the other man's arm to around his shoulders and then glanced at the nurse for the signal to start lifting.

I felt myself glaring daggers at nothing in particular even though my attention from anyone else seemed to be on Matthew, I was more or less looking through the man as he faced the wall, the two of us with our hands behind our heads like we were criminals caught in the act. My own back was to Die and Caroline, and I made no notion of caring to turn around just yet either. Soon the woman was putting herself between Matthew and us Asians anyway.
I still stood.

Wounds eh? I scoffed silently at the girl’s words, keeping my hands still interlocked behind my skull. If I had any sort of wounds in the first place it was probably a busted knuckle or two. I’d survive. When my name was picked out of the crowd though it seemed to pull me out of my absentminded trance, letting dark hues slide over to her as she dictated orders. She trusted me to leave without supervision? Ahah. She didn’t know me that well, so I could only assume maybe she knew Matthew better and figured out he was the instigator. Even though all signs pointed to me as the one on top of this. Matthew and Jiho were both covered in blood and had been on the floor, myself above them with their own warm scarlet splattered over my hands. Gross.

A single brow climbed upwards before I turned silently on a heel and walked away, as per the nurse’s orders. I didn’t even say anything to let her know that I acknowledged the suggestion. I did however pull my hands finally from behind my head (assuming that I was allowed to anyway) and reaching out tattooed digits snagged the cotton attire on Jiho’s body, dragging him along with me.

Yes ma’am.

Jiho insisted he was fine of course so I wasn’t really helping him down the hallway so much as leading him, wordlessly as I passed Die and left the trio to themselves.

My mother fucking apple.

Dark blue orbs disappeared as his eyes shut tightly. His face hurt like a son of a bitch. Paying particular attention to the airflow that rushed in and out of his nose, he attempted to calm himself the way previous doctors had instructed. The ringing in his ears faded away while he pictured a quiet, happier place outside the current building. A stark hallway dripped into a star-studded nighttime vision complete with a larger than life full moon. Matthew felt so small in comparison to the dark sky but he felt his mother's warmth close against his back as her arms encircled him. It was one of his most treasured memories.

Caroline's voice snapped him back to reality. Turning even further towards the wall he listened to Kyo and Jiho walking away unscathed and internally he thought his organs may liquify, explode and gush from his mouth and ears. What the fuck? There was nothing about this situation that suggested Matthew's instigation and yet here he was, pinned as the bad guy. He reminded himself to breathe again. He counted backwards from ten again. He willed his boiling blood to settle again.

What made matters worse was the red headed Asian at his side that was... trying to pick him up? It'd take a count down from a million to put up with that and so he used his elbow to push Dai away, doing his best to stand on his own despite the throbbing dizziness in his head. "I'm not a fucking invalid, asshole. Get off me," He spoke through gritted teeth.

Using the wall as his support, he casually tugged at the hem of his shirt to wipe off the places where Dai had touched his skin, taking great care to avoid Caroline's gaze. He didn't need to see the disappointment to know it was there. He wasn't willing to see that. He also wasn't willing to let go of the anger he felt towards her either; it was, after all, her fault any of this happened. So, he precariously continued to avoid her as if she wasn't there at all. When he felt steady, he'd walk to the nurses station without any assistance at all.

Well... it seemed that his help was not only unwanted but that he wasn't going to be able to manage that without some serious issues. When he was elbowed away and angrily talked to by the patient, Die backed up in one hell of a hurry. No way in hell he was getting into the middle of that. Nope. No fights for Die.

Once he was against the corner of the doorjamb he murmured out, "I apologize," toward the nurse, "but I don't believe he wants my help."

A moment later the man started wiping at his skin where Die had touched him and Die didn't miss it at all. Insult was instantly added to the fear that already gripped the redhead's heart and it was relatively sealed in his mind as to why Kyo had been kicking this man's ass. If he'd treated him or the other man in the hallway nearly the same then it only made sense.

Backing up a bit more, completely put off, Die offered one more statement very quietly to the nurse, "If it's all the same to you, I think I'll go to my room again." And stay there for a while. "If you need paperwork or something... I'll be happy to do it."