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“C’mon, wake up, wake up!” Xisuma begged, tightly grasping Keralis’ hand in his own.
He didn’t know what had happened, he’d woken up to an emergency alert on his communicator that only said to get to the medical building that had been set up at the beginning of the season, and that Keralis was hurt really badly, and Xisuma had immediately teleported there from his bedroom.
“X. X, you need to move, please,” Stress said, and when he didn’t acknowledge what she said, she looked over to Impulse, who sighed and nodded before moving to stand next to him, pulling their hands apart with quiet apologies.
“Sorry, sorry, we gotta go X, we’re in the way, you need to let them help him.”
“Let me go!” he cried out, trying to plant his feet and stay where he was, next to Keralis, but Impulse was stronger, and pulled him away.
“I’m sorry, I’m sorry, we need to get out of the way,” he said as he managed to drag the both of them into the room across the hall.
Before he could go to kick the door shut, False slipped in and shut it, blocking X’s line of sight to the room where they had Keralis.
“Damnit let me go, Impulse!” he screamed, trying to shove the other off of him, but Impulse didn’t let go. He held tight, ignoring the bruises that the other man was definitely leaving on his arms. “Keralis!”
“X-” Impulse tried to say something but was cut off.
“Please, please he can’t die, he can’t die I need him, please-”
“I know, I know. Stress and Doc have him, they’re the best we have, they’re taking care of him,” False said softly, taking X’s hands in hers, gently rubbing circles with her thumbs on the top of his hands. “They have him, and we have you.”
They could hear the others shouting things at each other, presumably instructions muffled by the door, and then out of nowhere there was a loud, pained shriek and Xisuma ripped himself from Impulse’s grip and bolted for the door, but was caught.
False was close behind Impulse and immediately brought her hands up to cover X’s ears for the next few moments until the scream cut off, and False found herself thankful that they were somewhere that the admin had been able to be without his helmet and armor. False and Impulse were terrified too, but they had to be there for X. He was always there for everyone and if he needed someone to step up and be there for him, they would be there in a heartbeat.
Xisuma was sobbing when False slowly removed her hands from his ears. She pulled him into a tight hug, and Impulse relinquished his grip, trusting False’s judgment and knowing he probably would be able to get to X before X could get to the door.
False brought a hand up to the back of his head and held him tightly, before carefully moving to sit down on the ground. Impulse noticed, and helped her sit down without having to let go of X, who was crying into her shoulder.
She could feel his hands grabbing the back of her shirt so tightly she worried he might rip a hole in it, but she didn’t really care about that.
“Xisuma, Xisuma. We’ve got you, we’re right here,” she said softly into his ear. She wished she could say more to reassure him but as much as she hated to think it… could she really guarantee Keralis would be okay?
She gently rocked them back and forth, holding him tightly until the sobs slowly became just tears, which eventually stopped as well.
She didn’t know how long they sat there, but it felt like hours before there was a quiet knock at the door. Impulse opened it and standing just outside was Stress. Impulse stepped aside, holding the door open for her.
“He’s okay,” she said as she walked in, but X seemed to be stuck in his head, still very much freaked out.
False carefully pushed X away from her enough that Stress was able to get to him, and she crouched down and gently put her hands on his face, making him look up towards her.
“X, love, he’s okay. He’s alright and it’s okay,” she said softly.
It clearly took a moment to process, but then the tears that had finally stopped falling came back, except they were tears of relief.
“Can- can I-”
“C’mon, love,” she said, standing and reaching a hand down to help him up. “Let’s go.”
Stress didn’t let go of X’s hand after helping him up, instead lacing her fingers through his and leading him back to the room they had Keralis in, False and Impulse close behind.
Doc was sitting in a chair in the corner of the room, keeping an eye on Keralis, but when they entered he looked up and softened at the sight of Xisuma. The admin’s face was red and covered in tear tracks, and he looked awful.
The moment he saw Keralis, he was pulling his hand out of Stress’ and rushing over to his side once again. The man was asleep, but there were monitors hooked up to him and they all were beeping steadily, and X could see his chest rising and falling with each breath. He was okay.
A wave of relief crashed through him, and he stumbled back.
“Woah, hey, I’ve got you,” Impulse said, wrapping his arms around Xisuma much like he had before, except that now he wasn’t having to drag him out of a room.
X let him hold him up, leaning back against him and wrapping his arms around himself.
Impulse rested his chin on X’s head and stood there for a few minutes, before speaking.
“Hey X, you wanna sit down?” he asked gently. “There’s a sofa behind us, you don't have to leave.”
Xisuma nodded, allowing Impulse to guide him over to the couch and pull him down on top of him. He ended up sitting next to the other with both of Impulse’s arms wrapped around him and his head on Impulse’s chest with a clear line of sight to where Keralis was sleeping.
“Sorry,” he whispered, so quiet that Impulse barely heard him.
“Oh, X,” Impulse said with a sigh, shifting a hand to comb through his hair. “It’s okay. You don’t need to be sorry.”
“I should be better than this,” he muttered.
“Xisuma, you listen to me,” Impulse said, voice suddenly stern. “You do not need to be ‘better than this.’ Being scared for your friend is not a flaw, and you don’t need to apologize for panicking either.”
“But-”
“Okay, look. I know you think you have to be the one to keep it together all of the time for the rest of us, but you have feelings too. You have bad days and you get scared and that's okay.”
“It’s just hard,” Xisuma whispered, and Impulse understood, at least.
Everyone knew how X was. He didn’t like to break down in front of people, he felt like as their admin he was supposed to be strong and a rock for everyone else, and usually that wasn’t too much of an issue, because usually he had Keralis.
Keralis was pretty much the only one he would allow in, who he would vent to or ask for comfort. He was the main part of Xisuma’s support system and him being injured terrified him.
“I know. It’s gonna be alright, X. He’s going to be okay, and you’re going to be okay. Promise,” Impulse said, tightening his arm around him. “You’ll be okay.”
There was a long moment where neither of them said anything, and for a moment, Impulse thought that Xisuma had fallen asleep on him, but then he finally spoke.
“Thank you.”
“Always, X. We’ve got you, all of us do. Always.”