Otabek had never been to a hospital before. He hadn't meant to end up where he did, but the corridors all looked the same and he hadn't been concentrating on the signs, his mind too clouded by worry over his grandmother, who had just undergone hip replacement surgery. Somehow, he'd ended up in the wrong wing and a nurse had taken him for a visitor and sent him to a waiting room. He had been too surprised to explain what was happening, and besides- it was slightly humiliating to admit that he was lost when, at the age of nineteen, he should have been able to navigate the place perfectly well. He was waiting for the nurse to leave so he could make his escape, but for the past five minutes she had been talking to a confused looking elderly woman with several catheters and what-have-you protruding from underneath her hospital regulation garbs.
He had ended up sat across from a blond boy with a dour scowl and a bitter look on his face. Said boy was currently having an argument with the tired-looking woman sat next to him, who Otabek assumed was his mother.
'I'm fine!' He was insisting, swinging his legs erratically. Otabek duly noted that they were short enough that they barely brushed against the floor, although they made an invasive squeaking noise when they did. He couldn't have been older than sixteen, but he was so petit that he had the appearance of somebody much younger. He would have, anyway, had it not been for the attitude exuding from his every pore.
'Well, the doctor says you're not,' His mother sighed, digging through her handbag for something or other. The dark mulberry leather was worn away and the straps had more loose threads than secure ones. She rifled through it a little longer before pulling out what looked to be a cereal bar or some similar nutriment. She attempted to hand it to the boy, but he snubbed it and inched away from her. Otabek watched on with curiosity as she continued to persuade him into taking it, but he was stubborn and point blank refused to do such a thing. Suddenly, the boy looked up and met his observatory eyes.
'The hell are you looking at?' His voice was clear and cutting, harsh as the edge of a knife. Even sharper was his gaze; it was serrating and Otabek felt pinned by them, like he was a laboratory specimen. He couldn't summon any words forth, instead just gawping uselessly like a fish.
'Yuri!' The woman scolded him, and he rolled his eyes. He looked like he was about to speak further when the nurse that had caused Otabek all this grief called out a name, and the boy promptly stood up and followed her with a brisk pace. Otabek sighed with relief, at last able to return to his family.
His grandmother seemed well and rested, so after sitting with her for half an hour and listening to her prattle on about this and that and what it was like in her day he grew tired and told his parents he was getting a coffee.
'Oh, be a dear and get me one love, will you?' His mother asked, but it wasn't really a question. He nodded drearily and shuffled down to the cafe, purchasing some particularly miserable coffees and setting them down to put some milk in his own. He had this theory that hospital coffee was legally required to be tragic or it wouldn't fit the atmosphere of the place. After all, who wanted to stand around and remark, 'Damn, that's some good coffee!' when their child is dying of a terminal illness? He knew he wouldn't... He set the lid back on his coffee and began to walk back to his grandmother, hoping he would find his way correctly this time round. As he walked, he noticed a sign talking about an outbreak of Zika virus somewhere, and he was so distracted by it that seconds later his body was halted in its tracks by something solid. At first, he was shocked and didn't register what it was. Then he felt the boiling hot coffee spilling down his chest and all over whoever he had walked headlong into and he snapped out of it.
'Crap!' He gasped, slamming the cups down on a table and grabbing some napkins to mop himself up. Then he turned his attentions to the person he had accidentally scalded. At least they were in a hospital, right? He was startled to see that it was the blond boy from earlier, and he certainly looked less than impressed. He was tugging at the front of his shirt, muttering acrimonious things and cursing blindly. He too had been carrying a hot drink, which had also been spilt down his front.
'God, I am so sorry,' Otabek gabbled, pressing some napkins into his hands and dabbing at his shirt helplessly. 'I'll buy you another drink, sorry, God... I'm so-'
'It's fine,' The boy muttered. 'It was only tea.'
'Please, I insist. Oh, you're soaking wet too!' Otabek felt awful, never having encountered this kind of straight-out-of-romance-movies situation before. 'Tea, did you say?'
He ordered a tea, and all the while the boy stood next to him in a stony silence.
'Milk's just round the corner,' The barista informed Otabek, as if he hadn't ordered two coffees less than thirty seconds ago. He supposed a lot of people came and went and she wouldn't bother herself with recalling faces.
'Here,' He gave the boy the piping hot styrofoam cup. 'It's Yuri, isn't it?' He was surprised he remembered since he'd only heard it in passing conversation, but it was an interesting name and therefore it had lodged itself into his mind obstinately.

'Yeah,' Yuri mumbled, his hands wrapping round the cup. Otabek noticed how strained the skin was over his knuckles, how harshly protrudent the tendons were. 'You didn't have to buy me this.'
'It's okay. Are you here visiting someone?' Otabek wasn't especially eager to get back to the stifling room where his grandmother and parents were making awkward conversation, so he decided to interest himself with talking to Yuri.
'I'm a patient,' Yuri said this quietly, his voice lower than what you'd expect for somebody of his age and size.
'Oh. Sorry.'
'Why?'
'Sorry?'
'Why are you sorry?'
'I- I don't know,' Otabek frowned. This kid sure was an odd one... 'If it's not rude to ask, what for?'
'Huh. You tell me,' Yuri scoffed. 'My mum's just convinced I'm sick, so hell if I know.'
'But you're not?'
'No. At least, I don't think so. I feel fine.'
'Then what's the deal?'
'Nothing.'
Otabek thought about the conversation he'd heard and how adamant his mother had been that he was disease-ridden, that he was going to die soon. He thought that it seemed a very precarious relationship and felt sorry for Yuri for having to go through that. He looked up and realised he didn't recognise the corridor they were on. In fact, it didn't even look like the same ward.
They had continued to wander down the corridors without aim, meaning Otabek was lost in a hospital for the second time that day, and all in the space of no more than an hour. He wasn't sure whether he ought to say something, because maybe Yuri was going somewhere and he'd just ended up tagging along- perhaps Yuri hadn't intended for him to join him on this escapade, and he was imposing.
'Do you actually have any idea where we are?' Yuri turned to him, and he tried not to sigh visibly in his relief.
'Uhh, no,' He looked about himself for a moment to decipher any available signs, but there were none.
'Where are you meant to be?'
'Magnolia wing, I think.'
Yuri made a soft humming noise in his throat, tipping his head back and looking up at the colourless fluorescent lights as if they could give him directions. A nurse bustled past and he jumped to cover his face, which confused Otabek. This was succeeded by several other incidents like it until Otabek could stand the bemusing nature of it no longer. He inquired as to what was going on, but before he could get an answer, a doctor came striding down the corridor talking to several nurses whose name labels revealed that they were from the psych unit. Yuri grabbed Otabek by the sleeve and tugged him into a room somewhere behind them, slamming the door behind them and breathing hard. It was only once they'd passed did Otabek dare to breathe, second hand panic forbidding him from it before.
'Sorry, do I know you?' A middle aged man was sat behind them getting his leg rebandaged by a doctor.
'Oh, sorry,' Yuri apologised and they darted back out into the corridor.
'What was that?' Otabek addressed him firmly, not ready to be an accomplice in whatever was occurring with this strange boy.
'I might be deviating from my mother,' He shrugged nonchalantly. 'She pissed me off and I didn't want to hang around, so... She always tell the doctors I'm high risk and makes them chase me down.'
'And you've gotten me involved in this mess?'
'You spilt coffee on me, you got yourself involved.'
Otabek saw how distressed he looked and he felt his heart constrict. Since an early age, he'd always been determined to make everybody happy and please them. This instance was no different.
'We're partners in crime on the run, huh?' He smiled widely and his eyes flickered from side to side. Yuri grinned back and him and nodded, his long hair falling in his eyes. He puffed it out his face with a sharp blow of air, and it was surprisingly cute compared to the sardonic countenance he'd been displaying up until that point.
'So we'll go back to where you need to go. Why are you here?' Yuri showed no hesitance with his question.
'My grandmother had a hip replacement,' He replied, and Yuri nodded slowly.
'Okay, I think I know where to go,' He bravely led the way, winding through numerous identical hallways and occasionally having to duck his head or hide behind whatever he could to ensure he wasn't spotted. Otabek could hardly blame him for wanting to get away from his family- after all, he was kind of doing the same thing, albeit for a very different reason. His own absconding had been initiated by the promise of coffee, not rambling about on an escapade with a boy he didn't even know the age of. He followed him nevertheless, and surprisingly the corridors began to look more familiar until he could point out the correct room. He didn't really think much about walking in with an additional person, and his parents were used to him spontaneously making friends. He made a habit of it, always popping up with somebody new, and by now they'd learnt to just let it happen.
'Hi, әже,' He bent down and kissed his grandmother's cheek.
'Is this your girlfriend?' She mumbled, half asleep and without her glasses. Yuri went red and Otabek chuckled softly, squeezing the elderly woman's frail arm. He could kind of see it, actually. The long, blond hair, the height, the petit figure (although he could hardly see a thing beneath those baggy clothes), not to mention the cherubic features, he probably did look like a girl to his visually challenged grandmother.
'No,' He told her, straightening up and crossing his arms. 'This is Yuri. He's currently a fugitive.'
'Oh,' She nodded as if she understood, but he didn't think the word fugitive was in her vocabulary. 'Your boyfriend?'
Otabek laughed again and shook his head in disbelief.
'No!' He giggled and would've explained had it not been for the worried looking woman all but barging the door down. Otabek recognised her as Yuri's mother.
'Yuri, will you stop this?' She grabbed her son by the ear and towed him out, much to his aggravation. 'You need to grow up and stop running away!'
'Sorry, it was my fault,' Otabek followed them out into the hallway, feeling more than a little guilty. 'It appears I led him astray. In fact, he was just getting something from the cafe.'
'He was?' She looked astonished, and he didn't really understand what was going on. 'Yuri, were you really?'
'Yeah,' He grumbled, scuffing his feet.
'Then I spilt my coffee on him and bought him- where did you put your tea?'
'I don't know, I guess I left it-' Yuri stopped speaking when he remembered that he'd left it in the hospital room they'd darted into when hiding from the doctors. 'At the cafe.'
Otabek winked at him, which made him grin in return, and it was a euphoric feeling to see a smile on his face.
'And who is this?' His mother took in Otabek, her eyes drifting lazily up and down his frame. Yuri floundered, clearly unsure where they stood and not confident enough to proclaim a specific statement.
'A friend,' Otabek said firmly, and seeing the so innocently cheerful look lighting up on Yuri's face encouraged him further. 'Look, I have to get back to my grandmother, but why don't you give me your number and I'll text you?'
He didn't think if he gave Yuri his number he'd be brave enough to text. Also, this gave him the autonomy to never reply. Yuri listed off his number and Otabek saved it into his phone before bidding his newfound friend goodbye and returning to his impatient parents, who were already coated up and ready to leave. He kissed his grandmother's cheek once more as a parting gift, then left her to rest.
When they walked through the parking lot, he pulled out his phone and composed a quick text to Yuri. Just a brief 'hi, it's me' kind of thing. Nothing too formal, but not so overly familiar that it scared him. He was intrigued by this oddball he'd managed to pick up in a hospital, and no doubt he'd end up thinking about him nonstop for the next few days.