"I won't tell anyone..." Alex says, somewhere in the darkness. It's all hazy, but Eric feels a warm cloth being dabbed down his biceps. Every pump of his heart caused the wounds to throb. Even only warm, the water stung and burned. "I know what it's like. If you can't get a fix, you find something else to take the edge off..."
"It's not that..." His own voice surprises them both and Eric can see the shape of Alex looking up at him. ".. I don't know. Maybe it is. It just..." he pauses, squinting and struggling to see the mess he'd made of his upper arms. "makes me feel normal again. It's the only way i know how to cope with anything any more."
Alex didn't say anything, he just finished cleaning the cuts as best he could before reaching for the disinfectant spray off of the tiny bathroom's floor. "This is going to hurt," he warned, and without giving Eric any time to psych himself out, sprayed it quickly over the cuts. Eric winced, but didn't fight against him. This was the first time in weeks that he'd even had a conversation with Alex and here he was, saving his ass.
His phone buzzed on the tiles beside him, casting a tiny glow where Eric could see exactly the magnitude of his breakdown. He busied himself with checking the message instead of looking over the cuts, and what he read caused his heart to pound. "T-tyler's coming back. He can't know, Alex, you can't..."
"I won't say a word," Was the other man's soft, reassuring response. "I'm almost done. I'm going to put on bandages and I'll grab you a long sleeved shirt or something to put on." Soft gauze pads were applied with meticulous, mother-like care to each of the cuts, held in place with strips of medical tape. Alex brought him a big hoodie, with sleeves wide enough not to disturb the bandages when he put it on or removed it. When the process was finished, Alex helped him to his bunk and made sure he was comfortable. Eric didn't say much after that, but when Alex turned to leave, he reached out and grabbed at the hem of his shirt.
"Thank you. You didn't have to do all that." Eric's voice was soft, nearly a whisper. He didn't want anyone else to hear him. If Alex hadn't found him in the middle of it, he probably would have tried not to tell anyone about it.
Alex's response was a small smile. "It's okay. You've taken care of me plenty of times when I didn't deserve it." He kept his voice down as well, for Eric's sake. "I just hope we can both get better soon."
