Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

*Skeppy POV*

I decided just to put down some random number I saw on a bathroom stall for my emergency contact.

I get it.

I am stupid.

Get over it.

I consider myself a decently lucky person.

At the time, I thought to myself, “When would I get hurt so bad that I need a person to care for me.”

“I have been doing just fine and dandy on my own, and I won’t need any help in the future.”

I was so wrong.

Here I am, 21, waking up in a hospital next to some random dude sleeping next to my hospital bed.

I should’ve just written down my dad’s number or something, even though I would have to deal with his bs.

Mom’s out of the question.

How did I even get into this mess again?

…

Well anyways-

“Ah! You’re awake!” A startled voice interrupts me from my internal monologue.

“How are you feeling?” The now wide awake stranger asks fast with a worried yet comforting tone.

He noticed the stranger’s messy brown hair is sticking out in all different directions, and his glasses are hanging for dear life on the edge of his nose.

“Oh crap, didn’t mean to startle you, my bad,” I quickly reply, feeling kinda loopy.

The man gave himself a second to calm down

“No, no, it’s okay; I didn’t mean to fall asleep in the first place.” He speaks in a raspy voice from just waking up a few seconds ago.

I noticed that his hospital tag has the words “Emergency Contact Pass” in this vibrant, eye abusing red color in bold, pretty hard to miss.

There was a few seconds of some good ol’ awkward silence before the other broke the tension.

“So um… sorry, I know you just woke up and all, but why was I your emergency contact?”

Takes me a moment to put together the puzzle pieces together, but once I do-

Shit

“So yeah, funny story…” I trail off as I let out a nervous laugh.

“I kind of just sent in a random number.”

Cue even more uncomfortable silence while Bad stares into his soul, seemingly questioning, “Why, why would he ever think to do that.”

Bad hesitates a second before saying, “Well, in that case, you probably don’t know my name.”

“You can call me Bad.” He says with a warm smile.

Bad holds out his hand to give me a handshake.

I stop for a moment and feel my face heat up.

I go to move my arm only to look down to realize that 1. it’s in a cast and 2. I can’t feel a thing in my arm.

That’s not a good sign.

I try to move my left hand, which is closer to him anyways, only to realize it’s in too awkward of a position, and there are too many tube thingys attached for me to move it upwards and much less shake a hand.

“Skeppy,” I say with a nod with my head and an awkward smile.

Bad also seems to realize the state of my arms and quickly takes back his hand.

He must be embarrassed because his face flushes bright red.

God must’ve felt sorry for how awkward this first encounter has been going because soon after, they heard a knock at the door.

I quickly turn towards the door, only to be hit with a horrible, sharp pain in my head and a wave of nausea.

A voice speaks from the other side of the door, “It’s Dr. Lisha. May I come in?”

Bad gives me a quick look of worry, then replies to the voice.

“Yes, you may.”

When she walks through the door, her attention immediately turns towards me.

“Oh, I see that you have finally woken up!” She says with a smile on her face.

“Wake up? What do you mean? I don’t remember going to sleep…”

It all just hit me that I’m in a hospital bed with a broken arm hooked up to multiple tubes talking to a stranger who, from my impulsive actions, is now legally bound to me, becoming essentially my caretaker.

And I have zero regulation of how I got here.

What happened?

Just how long have I been out?

I start to question myself, becoming increasingly more panicked by the second.

The room starts spinning, and I feel like I am about to blackout.

Suddenly I feel a warm hand take hold of mine.

I look up to see Bad’s worried face telling me that’s it’s ok and that it’s going to be okay.

It gives me a warm fuzzy inside and pulls me out of my spiraling thoughts.

He started to rub the back of my hand with his thumb as the doctor continued.

I have barely known Bad for an hour, and he is already comforting me more than my parents ever have-

“Don’t worry, it’s only been about a day and a half,” the doctor reassured.

“A day?!” I exclaim with worry as I tighten my grip on Bad’s hand, too dazed to care that I am holding a stranger's hand.

What could have possibly happened that got me knocked out for an entire day?!

“You got into a bad car crash two nights ago; you most likely swerved due to a wild animal.”

This doctor really isn’t making this sound any better.

Dr. Lisha continued, “You were thankfully found by a family passing by on a road trip.”

Now that I think about it, I have some faint memories of driving, but it was still bright out.

“So, how long will I be here for?”

“It’s about 5:30 am; we just need to run a few more tests, then we can release you at 3:00 pm at the latest noon being the earliest.”

Ugh, I wouldn't say I like hospitals.

“Also, once you are released, you’ll have to stay under the care of your emergency contact till that arm heals up.”

Oh, I almost forgot about that regulation- wait.

“Until it fully heals?! That’s ridiculous! That’s like a whole two weeks, right?”

From what he can remember, that’s about as long as it took for him to heal when he broke his arm as a kid.

“Actually,” Dr. Lisha retorts, “That’s just the required time for a fracture; your right arm absorbed most of the blow, so it’s pretty badly injured; it’s gonna take about 6 to 8 weeks to heal fully.”

“Speaking of which, The rest of the blow was dealt to your head and giving you a concussion, so if you’re feeling out of touch with reality, that’s most likely the leading cause.”

You have got to be kidding me.

“Well, I have to go now, but you can use that red button to buzz me if you have any questions or concerns; in the meantime, you should probably discuss future living arrangements with Badboyhalo.”

Dr. Lisha hastily takes her leave, leaving just Skeppy and Bad alone.

They look down to realize that they are still holding each other’s hands.

They quickly let go and look away in embarrassment.

His name is Badboyhalo, huh.

“So,” I say with a snicker, not even trying to hide my smirk, “Your full name is Badboyhalo?”

Bad seems surprised by the out-of-the-blue remark, “Hey, it’s not like Skeppy is any better; it sounds an awful lot like the peanut butter brand.”

Fine if he wants to play it that way.

“Whatever you say, Bad Boy,” I tease.

Bad’s face turns red as he stutters out an angry “Language” I am not going to lie.

It’s pretty adorable.

Bad closes his eyes holding back a smile, “I am so done with this.”

It feels like all the previous tension has lifted; it feels like playfully bickering with a close friend.

Maybe this won’t be so bad after all.

Chapter Text

*Badboyhalo POV*

“This is torture; why on earth would the professor assign a 1,000-word essay and give us only three days?” I say out loud, exasperated for no one else to hear.

Usually, that wouldn’t be a problem, but with Midterms taking place in two weeks and all of my other teachers cramming in tests and lessons before the break, it’s just insane.

I just want to break before break, if you know what I mean.

At least this is the final assignment I have had to do this weekend.

“And now that’s it’s over, I am freeeee!” I say to myself in a sing-song voice, elongating on the E’ in free.

I look out the window to the left of my work desk.

The sun is long gone by now; I wonder when that happened.

I pull out my phone to check the time.

“Ugh, It’s already 3:00 in the morning,” I mumble to myself unintelligibly.

“Time really does fly by when you work for 4 hours with no breaks.”

“I think I deserve some sleep now; at least it’s the weekend, now I can sleep in all I want,” I happily think to myself with a tired smile forming on my face.

I get up from my chair and walk over to my bed, and face plop down into my pillow.

The warmth and softness of the bed fills my body with bliss.

Rat jumps up onto the bed with me and curls up into a ball against my leg.

Everything is perfect.

For about 5 seconds

My eyes shoot open as my phone starts screaming at me.

Ugh, can’t I just sleep for 10 seconds?

I’ll just call back whoever’s trying to contact me at this ungodly hour tomorrow.

I pick up my phone, now placed on my nightstand, and squint as the light blinds my eyes.

Just as I am about to hang up the earsplitting ring tone, I look to see who had called me.

“The hospital?” I question myself, confused

You could practically see the anime-style question marks appearing over my head.

“Did something bad happen to my parents or something?!” I wonder, slightly panicked.

I pick up the phone and hear a man answer on the other line.

“Hello, this is Nurse Jonathan. Is this Skeppy’s Emergency Contact?”

Emergency Contact, since when was I anyone’s Emergency Contact?

I don’t even know who Skeppy is- oh wait; I think I recognize his name back from High School.

The energetic guy who was always was interrupting class and all that.

“I’m sorry, but I think you have the wrong number,” I replied.

“Is this not 666-696-1414?”

“Yes, that’s me,” I confirm cautiously.

“I’m sorry, but then you have to come in, or the officials will have to get involved.”

Muffins, this will end badly.

I just wanted some sleep now this is happening?!

“Ok, I’m sorry, I’ll head down right away,” I say compliantly.

“Skeppy’s room number is 559.”

“Can I get your name so I can put it in the records?”

“Yes, it’s Badboyhalo.”

“Ok, thank you for your cooperation!” The nurse says with delight in his voice and then hangs up the phone

“I feel like I just sold my soul to the devil,” I say as I feel a shiver go down my spine

So ambiguous, for what?

I really hope nothing awful happened.

I hesitantly pull off the covers wrapping around me and stumble out of bed.

I grab my car keys, phone, and charger and shuffle out the door.

I hop into my car, play some music 80s rock music and pull out of the parking lot, leaving my dorm room in the dust.

——————————————————————

I arrive about half an hour later and step out of the car.

The cold air hit my bare skin; I forgot to bring my jacket.

It’s only like 73 Fahrenheit, but I’m a Floridian.

Give me a break.

Plus, the wind isn’t making it any better.

When I arrive at the front desk, there’s a lady there to greet me with a wave and smile.

“Hello, what brings you to visit today?” She says politely with a customer service smile on her face.

“Um, hi,” I say anxiously, “I’m here to visit Skeppy in room 559; I am his Emergency Contact.”

“Ok, I just need to see your ID and confirm you in our logs.”

Crap, do I have my wallet?

I don’t.

I really don’t wanna drive all the way back home.

Maybe I left it in here.

I take the phone case off of my phone, and there it is, innocently sitting there like it didn’t just give me a heart attack.

I take out my ID and accidentally drop some money also hanging out in my phone case.

I didn’t know I had $20.

I could’ve bought ingredients to cook real food instead of just getting instant ramen noodles from the dollar store for the past five weeks.

I hand the receptionist my ID and quickly grab the money and put it back.

She looks at it for a second, then hands it back to me with an amused smirk, probably from my clumsy antics.

“Just sign here, then I’ll give you an ID sticker to place on your shirt, and then you can be on your way,” she says as she pulls out a clipboard containing three pages of paperwork I have no time to read

Like an idiot, I just sign it then rush off to find his room

——————————————————————

When I walk through the door, there’s a woman sitting in a chair writing on a paper attached to a clipboard.

She continues to write as I awkwardly stand there

I make a slight cough noise to grab her attention

With a startled look, she moves her eyes towards me.

“Oh hello, you must be Skeppy’s emergency contact, correct?” She says knowingly, quickly getting over the surprise, “Nice to meet you. I’m Dr. Lisha.”

“It’s a pleasure,” I respond with a smile.

“Sorry I never got your name,

“My name is Badboyhalo, but you can just call me Bad,” I inform her, and we shake hands.

“Nice to meet you Bad, his husband I assume?”

“What?” O_o

“Oh I am sorry, did I get that wrong? I don’t spot a ring,” she looks away from my hand and back to me, “Then are too just dating?”

“Oh no, no no,” I stuffed out my words as I felt my face go red, “I honestly barely know him; I’m not even sure why I’m his contact in the first place.”

“Oh really? That’s strange,” she says, sounding genuinely confused.

“I wonder if our records are wrong, don’t worry, I’ll look into it.”

“But you will still have to keep your duties as an Emergency Contact.”

“That is if you don’t want the police knocking at your door.”

Why does everyone at this hospital keep threatening me?!

“Hm-hm,” I confirm quickly, with worry sitting in the back of my throat.

“Ok, great! Then we won’t have any problems here.” She says, completely changing her tone with a satisfied smile on her face.

I noticed that I still haven’t seen the person I drove half an hour at 3 am for.

“So, where’s Skeppy?” I ask

“Oh, he’s just resting behind the curtain right behind me.”

Oh, I feel like I should’ve noticed that sooner...

Dr. Lisha pushes back the curtain, revealing a very beat-up Skeppy.

I look at him and cringe at the number of needles attached to tubes that are stabbed into his skin and scarce, but still noticeable, stitches on his arms, legs, and even one across his cheek.

“How did this happen?” I say with a soft tone.

I looked back at him with his broken arm and bandages around his head yet sleeping peacefully as if cuddling in bed after a long day.

“Bad car crash; he reared off the road and crashed straight into a large oak tree,” the doctor replies.

“Oh my goodness!” I exclaim with a mix of surprise and worry

Don’t worry; he’s in stable condition now; he should wake up from his sleep in a day or two

“He’s in a coma!?” I exclaim a little louder than the last.

“No, it would only be considered a coma if he was going to be out for two weeks or longer.

I can’t just leave him like this, I think to myself, I have to help him recover.

“You might have to stay overnight at the hospital if he doesn’t wake up tomorrow.”

What?

“So I can’t leave until he is discharged?!” I ask with surprise.

“You did sign the 3-paged contract, didn’t you?” She asked innocently.

I should really start reading contracts from shady hospitals before I sign them.

Maybe this is more trouble than it’s worth-

“No!” I think to myself

Like I said before, he needs my help, and I will help him no matter what.

My heart starts beating a little fast as I think about how it’s me and no one else who will be there for him in his time of need.

“I’ll leave you two alone for now, and I’ll come by the check-up every once and again.”

I look up from the floor, broken from my daydreaming.

“Okay, thank you,” I quickly reply, taken off guard.

“No problem, come find us if there are any problems with you or, more importantly, Skeppy.”

“I’ll come to you straight away,” I confirm with a hint of determination in my voice.

She left without another word; silence followed the quiet thud of the door.

I look over to Skeppy and sigh.

Even though I mostly forgot about him due to all of the struggles of college and whatnot, I did always think he was kind of cute back in high school.

The way he would laugh obnoxiously whenever he made a joke, even if it was funny or not.

Or the funny faces he would make when concentrating on his work, especially in Geometry.

Or when-

I mean, wait-

Shut up, thoughts.

Go away. >:(

You aren’t needed nor wanted at the moment, shoo!

I move over to sit in the empty chair next to his bed.

I should probably message Antfrost to take care of Rat for me.

I might be here for a few days.

This whole Emergency Contact policy is really putting a dent in my schedule.

At least I got all my work done, except that was supposed to be finished early to give myself a well-deserved break and look at where I am.

I look over at Skeppy.

He looks so peaceful when he’s resting; it reminds me a bit of sleeping beauty.

I laugh a little to myself when I hear soft snoring.

I guess it’s not the worst thing in the world to be stuck here right now.

I may not have known Skeppy personally back in high school, but that doesn’t have to stop me from getting to know him now.

Ooo! Maybe I can get a new friend out of the experience! I think to myself excitedly with a small giggle.

*oof, friend-zoned already, smh*

I pull out my phone to text my college friend's group chat.

Most of us all went to the same high school, so maybe they know a thing or two about Skeppy.

=====================================

Bad:
Hey everyone! <3 :D

I’ve got a question, does anyone remember Skeppy back from high school??? O_o

=====================================

I put down my phone and waited for a response.

Skeppy shifts in his sleep as he mumbles out something unintelligible.

I wonder what he’s dreaming about?

Maybe he’s having an internal monologue right now.

Naw, that sounds stupid, I smile to myself.

Usually, I feel a lot more awkward around new people.

Maybe it’s just the fact that he’s unconscious, which would be kind of creepy in hindsight, or perhaps it’s he’s just unique in a way.

“Ugh, I sound like the female lead of a crappy 2000s romcom,” I cringe at myself.

As much as I love watching rom-com movies, I’d rather it not be my characterization.

A few moments pass as I continue to find ways to distract myself.

I decided to look through Skeppy’s medical report Dr. Lisha left behind.

Then I hear a small ding from my phone

=====================================

Dream:
Yeah, I remember him

Consider him a friend of a frienemy

George:
Do you mean Techno?

Velvet:
Look who came on as soon as Dream did ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)

Simp

George
Fuck off.

Bad:
LANGUAGE!!!

Sapnap
Mom, they’re flirting again

Make it stop

Dream
Ok back on topic

From what I remember, he was always pulling pranks on other people and interrupting class

At his rate, he would probably be expelled from all the shit he pulled if his parents weren’t so loaded

But from what I’ve heard, he seems like a genuinely nice guy

Ant
Is this related to you asking me to take care of Rat for a few days?

Velvet
I SMELL A HOMO EXPLANATION FOR THIS-

And I should know

It takes one to know one

Spill the tea Bad

You two hooking up??!!!??!

Are you going on a date, perhaps?

Hmmm???

I can’t believe you got with a rich dude

Who knew you we such a player

Ant:
We are so proud of you, son :,)

Bad:
>:0

First of all, language

Second of all, no

Third of all, even if I did like him, the amount of money he had wouldn’t change a thing.

Velvet:
Aww, you’re so boring

So boring

Can you believe that he turned out like this after we raised him?

Ant:
Don’t worry, honey

I’m sure he’ll grow into it

Just give him some time

Velvet:
Thank you honey for your constant support.

Bad:
Stop it you too, you’re not my parents

Velvet:
Then can you tell us what is going on with him?

Bad:
I plead the fifth

=====================================

I can’t just tell them that I am his emergency contact.

They won’t shut up about it if I do.

They will definitely 100% think something is going on that isn’t.

=====================================

Dream:
I would also like to know

Bad:
Not you too Dream T-T

Sapnap:
It is mighty sus though

George:
That meme is dead, and you know it, Sapnap.

Sapnap:
Shut up George, you just have no taste

=====================================

Sapnap and George continue to argue for the next 5 minutes before Bad turns off his phone with an amused laugh.

I’m just thankful that they’re arguing took the attention off of me

Muffins, it’s already 5:00 am

The adrenaline alone kept me up until now, but it’s wearing off.

Just a tiny nap wouldn’t hurt, would it?

——————————————————————

I wake up, and the next thing I know, Skeppy is wide awake staring at me.

And I feel my heart flutter.