Aosh 8:30 am
[Please don't forget to swing by the hospital today! I already told Tiza you would be stopping by! :') Thanks again!]
"Who's texting you this early in the morning?" Hunter says as he peeks over Daniella's shoulder from where she is sitting at the kitchen table.
"Who let you into our house this early in the morning?" she jabs back.
"I've got a key." he retorts, barely dodging the elbow she throws his way.
"Remind me to change the locks." Shawnee says, coming to Daniella's other side and laying a kiss on her cheek, before setting down the plates in her hands.
Daniella guides Shawnee back to her and gives her a proper kiss, humming into the Beta's lips, content.
Hunter sticks out his tongue in faux disgust and snatches a strip of bacon from one of the plates before he takes a seat at the table, "You guys are disgusting."
"Then go home," the women said in unison.
"The food here is free though."
Rolling her eyes, Shawnee sits down to start eating as well, "So are you really going to go visit that guy? You're just doing it because your best friend asked you to, right? Regardless of if he's in the hospital or not, he's been a real dick to you."
"I mean, I don't hold that against him, we come from the same world so I can see where he was coming from. Plus Aosh is on his rut, if it were me I would want someone to visit me. Hospitals are depressing as it is," she says, texting Aosh a thumbs up emoji, "Plus I have some books to bring him."
"Is that what these are?" Hunter picks up one of the books that lay in a stack on the table. He turns it over in his hand taking note of the rather grotesque cover art.
"Yes, that's a book." Daniella laughs, standing up to slide all of the books into a tote bag, "Aosh has slowly been hoarding these old horror books for Tiza and he wants me to drop them off for him."
"Who knew murder could be romantic." Shawnee sighs into her orange juice, "I wish someone would hoard my favorite things like a gremlin and give them to me."
"If I did that we would be running a kennel instead of being dog groomers," the Omega comes behind Shawnee and gives her a hug before saying goodbye.
"Wait you're leaving? You didn't even eat breakfast!"
"Look at my plate and tell me if there's anything left."
The two look at Hunter who is scraping the last bit of Shawnee's famous homemade crepes into his mouth.
"I'll get something on my way there."
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'Knock', 'Knock', 'Knock'
"Hello~!"
Daniella stops short as she enters the hospital room. A Beta male stands over Tiza, who lays on the bed. He holds Tiza by the legs and is bending them back and forth, bringing Tiza's knee towards his chest.
"Ah! I'm sorry! Am I interrupting something?" her eyes darted to the floor, embarrassed at seeing the other in such a...compromising position.
The man smiles but the way Tiza is wincing as he is moving his leg back and forth cancels it out.
"We're just finishing up!" He cheerfully put Tiza's leg back down, "Okay! Let's try using the walker again!"
A look of horror flashes across Tiza's face and he shoots up from where he is laying as fast as his healing body will let him.
"Actually Lori, Daniella was going to help me on my walk today!" Tiza begs Daniella to go along with it, his eyes pleading.
"Er, yeah! I was!" she affirms, her curls bouncing as her head nods.
"Oh. We'll make sure you do one lap around this floor ok?"
"Promise." Tiza says through gritted teeth.
As soon as the Beta leaves, Tiza heaves a sigh of relief. He never thought he would be happy to see Daniella. She comes deeper into the room and sets her bag in the chair that Aosh usually sleeps in.
"Is your physical therapy going well?"
"They keep saying that I'm healing at a normal rate considering how weak my bones are, but…," Tiza slowly swings his legs over the edge of the bed, wincing, "I feel fucking useless."
"You can walk at least, right?"
Tiza laughs, "If you can call me hobbling down the hallway walking," he eyes where the walker is right beside the bed with disgust.
Changing the subject in hopes to ease up his tense mood, Daniella pulls out the stack of books.
"Well, I hope this will make you feel a little better! Aosh feels really bad that he can't be here while he's on his rut, but he thought you'd like to do some reading in the meantime."
Tiza grabs the stack from her outstretched hands. Going through them he recognizes some, has read others, and is intrigued by the ones he is unfamiliar with. All in all it does make him feel a little better. He could go for some poorly written drivel right now. Daniella can see the hint of a smile on Tiza's face, probably the first she's ever seen, and continues.
"Yeah, It's about time he's given them to you. He's been collecting them for I don't know how long now. You don't know how many vintage and second hand bookstores he's dragged me to to find those. And then he would get all these weird looks in the check out line-"
Her words falter as she sees the other Omega looking at her with an odd expression, she would call it astonishment if she had ever seen it on his face before. Maybe she shouldn't have said that much.
"Um, anyway, you have to go on a walk right?"
That look falls from Tiza's face to be replaced with one of annoyance.
"Yeah. We better get going or he is going to come back."
Setting the books on the table, next to the cactus, Tiza scoots the walker in front of him and with wobbly arms hoists himself to stand. A heavy sigh leaves him as Daniella and himself leave the room.
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The floor Tiza's room is on isn't the most lively in the hospital, which he is grateful for, but there are still plenty of nurses that roam the halls. Nurses that eye him carefully as he makes his way around the floor. His hobble has turned into more of a limp at this point, one that the doctor says might stay with him, much to his annoyance. They said that he would probably have to use a walker or a cane much after he left the hospital.
"God I hate this thing," he let's slip out.
"The walker?" Daniella asks from where she is slowly keeping pace by Tiza's side. Her knowledge about walkers were rudimentary but even so she could tell he was having a hard time with it.
"It's a pain in the ass. And it just makes me look helpless."
"I mean I don't think so."
Tiza side eyes her.
"Why did you come see me anyway? I know Aosh probably asked you to, but you didn't have to." It's not that Tiza didn't appreciate the company, but he just didn't get the vibe that Daniella and himself were on the greatest of terms, even if that was mostly his doing.
"I'll be completely honest with you, I probably would've come even if he didn't ask me to."
She sees Tiza's eyebrows quirk and she chooses to elaborate as they round a corner.
"You probably already know this, but my fated mate put me in the hospital for a month. I was in a lot of pain, but one thing that hurt the most was that outside of him I had nobody. Nobody visited me after I was beaten half to death and raped," as a sharp laugh comes from her she pushed a stray lock of hair behind her ear, "Not even Klark visited me."
Her expression goes from somber to bright in a second.
"I'm happy that you didn't have that. You're so lucky to have someone like Aosh. Someone so stubborn that even when his best friend tells him to go home instead of staying in the hospital worrying himself to pieces, he stays by your side. Hell we both know he would be here right now if he physically couldn't. I'll be big enough to say I'm a little jealous. But we're both Omegas. Nobody knows what we have to go through but us. So that's why I came. Us Omegas have to stick together and support each other."
Chewing his lip, Tiza guides them down another hallway that would lead them back the way they came.
"Does sorry even cut it for how mean I've been to you?" he asks.
"Maybe not for everybody, but I'll take it."
They walk in silence for a bit until Tiza finds his words again.
"I heard you moved out of Aosh's place and live with a Beta know."
"Yeah," Daniella says, dreamily. Living with Shawnee has been a dream. Being with Shawnee has been a dream. Just all of it has been too wonderful for words.
"I'm happy for you."
After all Daniella had been through she had managed to find her own happiness. There was a lot that Tiza could learn from her. His happiness...he thinks he's beginning to realize where he can find it.
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Even with Daniella visiting him Tiza was still on edge, wanting Aosh to hurry up with his rut and come back. The nurse had cleared him to leave in the next day or so and he didn't know what to do as far as going back home. The fact of the matter was, he was terrified of Sean. As much as he was glad he hadn't come around since he was admitted into the hospital, he didn't know if he could be around him on this long road to recovery he had.
A small idea ran into Tiza's head while he whiled away his time in the hospital, but he didn't know if he should ask or not. Just when he started to have this internal conflict Tiza was met with another visitor. Imagine Tiza's surprise when Aosh's father, Ryuji Tsutsumi sauntered into his hospital room.
"Sir? Why are you here?" he says cautiously.
"I like to see where my money is going." Ryuji says, grinning.
That is enough for Tiza to shut his mouth. So that's how he was able to afford all this. Tiza's insurance was shit and he just knew there would be tons of out of pocket fees. Yet a bill never crossed his path. Now he knew who to thank for that. Ryuji comes bearing a gift, which he hands to Tiza; a coffee cup with Highland Brews logo stamped on the outside.
"Don't worry it's decaf." Ryuji winks, taking a seat next to him in Aosh's chair. It bothers Tiza only slightly how much alike father and son look sitting in it.
"Did Aosh tell you to come visit me?"
"Nope. He doesn't know I'm here. So let's keep it that way." Ryuji smirks and takes a sip of his own coffee.
Unease settles itself deeper into Tiza. Although he remembers what Daniellla had said days prior about how Omegas should be there for one another; he tries to keep that in mind as he eyes the rather...odd Omega beside him. Tiza fiddles with the sleeve of the coffee cup as he tries to find his words, there was something he was curious about.
"Why are you helping me? What do you get out of it?"
Ryuji raises his eyebrows and crosses one leg over the other.
"Do I have to have a reason?"
Tiza looks at him skeptically and Ryuji laughs.
"There's no getting past you, huh? We come from the same world, I wouldn't trust me either."
"So why help me?" Tiza pushes again.
Ryuji sets his cup down on the adjacent table giving Tiza a hard look. A look that, even though Tiza has never seen anything like it, somehow knows is parental at its core.
"For seventeen years, your name has been a constant in my home. When Aosh got his mate mark he was eccastic. He took good care of it, fought people over it. It was his whole world," Ryuji leaned back in the chair, crossing his arms, "You were his whole world. Still are. Ask any parent and they'll say their kid is a good kid. But Aosh was a good kid and is a good man. I hope you realize that."
Tiza nods his head, yes. The heavy aura in the air prevented him from doing anything else but agree. Ryuji continues.
"Then the answer to your question is simple. You ruined my son."
"What?" He ruined Aosh? How?
"Because of you, you took a small Alpha boy by the heart and led him down a path that society never intended him to go down. By society's standards he is ruined. You don't know how many times I've heard him crying about the words 'waste of an Alpha'. Yet even though people thought of him like that, he still chose the path that led to you. A path paved with kindness towards all kinds of people, because any of those people could be you. He walked a path that led to his heart being out in the open, not just on his sleeve, but on every part of him because he wanted to give it all to you. You ruined my son in the most beautiful way, you mean the world to my son, so I'll be damned if I don't give my son the world in return."
He...was the reason Aosh was... Aosh? Tiza couldn't wrap his head around it. How could he take the credit for something he didn't really do? Ryuji sighs dramatically and fans his face.
"Ah, sorry, I went all 'dad' on you. Really from one Omega to another I wanted to check up on you. It can be hard, being fought over like an object. Been there, done that, never going back."
Tiza quirked an eyebrow skeptically, "Really you've been treated like an object? Sorry to be frank but I find that hard to believe."
Ryuji was so outgoing and abrasive, who would've been able to treat him that way? Hell his Alpha husband was whipped as all get out. But this also led him to another question that's been burning in the back of his mind since he met Aosh's parents. And maybe with it he would get some clarity on the current predicament he was in.
"How did you meet your fated mate? You two seem happy enough. Your marriage doesn't seem like the product of, well, being treated like an object."
"Now that's a good question! On the contrary Kellan and I met because I was being treated like that. And we found our happiness along the way, it definitely didn't start out that way. You've got time right? I'll tell you all about it." Ryuji says with a toothy grin.