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Copia hates crowded places and for a good reason too, the closeness of other people, the brushing of sweaty hands and the absolute overstimulation he gets from it. He just had a ritual and was trying to find his way to a toilet through the busy hallways of the concert hall, he just should’ve waited for the bus. “Oh my satan, where is that stupid bathroom”, Copia mumbled, narrowly dodging a stranger in his path. “Where are those ghouls when you need them”, Copia got desperate, he needs to go now. He stumbles over his feet and tries to find his footing again, his spacial awareness completely gone, he doesn't know where up or down is and which side left or right. He walks through hallways, corridor after corridor and he still hasn’t found a single toilet in this satan forsaken building. Close to tears he presses his hands against his ears and shakes his head, he leans against a closet for balance, he didn’t hear the shouting of people screaming at him to watch out, he also didn’t see the boxes on top of that closet plummeting down.
Noise, lots and lots of noise. Head hurts, please stop. Copia groans, it feels like there is a ball bouncing around inside his head. The warbling noises around him are not helping a bit to ease the pain. Slowly Copia tries to open his eyes, he shouldn’t have done that, the pain now unbearable. Tears well in his eyes, trying to mumble out some words, “hursss”.
No one hears him, making him want to cry even more. His hand felt heavy as he tries to move it to the closest blurry figure he could make out through his squinted eye, softly he tugs on the piece of clothing he grabs. “Pleasse, hurss, wanngo home”. The words slurred together. The ghoul looks down worriedly and puts his clawed hand on Copia’s blood streaked hair. “I know sweetheart, but you had a pretty big accident and we need to check you out, can you try to stay awake for us?” The ghoul sounds relieved, that was a good thing, thinks Copia. He gives up on trying to figure out who the ghoul was, with everything being too blurred to figure out more than just gray shapes. The thumping in his brain gets louder and louder, with sharp pains shooting from his eyes to the back of his head, Copia just wants to sleep.
“HEY, Copia, stay awake!” Swiss shouts, making the rest of the ghouls whip their head to the stressed ghoul. “What’s wrong Swiss?” Sodo asked, his tail swishing harshly, his cold blue eyes fixed on the pale man laying on the ground. Sodo hadn’t moved from his spot next to Mountain for a good ten minutes, the giant being his safe space. The earth ghoul placed a hand over Sodo’s fidgeting fingers. “He fainted i think”, Swiss frantically mutters while trying to wake Copia up. Finally Copia opens his eyes again, “whas wong?” All the ghouls sighed in relief, hearing the slurred words. “Copia, you need to stay awake till the ambulance arrives, we need to make sure you’re alright before we go back home,” Rain utters softly, while stroking Copia’s thigh, the movement easing the papa down.
“lighs to brighs” Copia mumbles weakly, trying to block it with his hands. Phantom sprints to the lightswitch and flips it off, making Copia sigh in relief and finally relax a bit more. The sounds of sirens make Swiss jump up, “fucking finally, the took fucking long enough” the multi ghoul growls, his ears flattening against the side of his head. Rain stands up and walks over to Swiss’ side, purring softly to ease the ghouls nerves, “let’s calm down big guy, this doesn’t help Copia” he whispers against Swiss’ neck, making him shiver. Sodo scrambled away from Mountain to take Rain's old spot next to Copia, the small ghoul not wanting him to be alone.
A group of ambulance workers came flying through the door, making some of the ghouls hiss or snarl by the sudden intrusion. Rain takes action, quickly he brabbles something in Swiss’ ear, making him look at the water ghoul with big sad eyes before trudging away. Swiss mutters something in Mountains ear, making the giant smile softly and nod. Urgently the two insist the other ghouls to go outside, so the workers can calmly do their job. It took Sodo a bit of convincing, but eventually he also stumbled out the hallway, trying to keep his tears in, after all he didn't like showing emotions other than anger.
With all the ghouls except for Rain gone, one of the workers starts questioning him about what had happened, while the others are starting to take Copia’s vitals. “I don’t exactly know what happened actually, we weren’t all here when it happened” he looks down worriedly at the man laying on the floor, who was grimacing in pain when one person tried to move his head. “I do know that Copia went to search for a toilet, we shouldn’t have let him go alone, he doesn’t do well in crowded spaces, but we were all busy.” he continues, the worker nodding along while writing things down. “Suddenly someone bursts into our changing room and tells us that something bad happened to our singer and when we arrived here, he was lying on the floor with a big gash in his head unconscious”. Rain explains, tears welling in his eyes. “Did he wake up in the time between then and now?” “uhm, yes i believe so, he did also faint again and his speech has been slurring’’. The worker nodded, “well i think he has a slight concussion, but we do need to take him to a hospital to make sure there isn't any internal bleeding,” he explains. Rain nods, hot tears now spilling over as he starts sobbing, ‘they should've gone with him Satan fucking dammit’ he thinks. Rain wipes his eyes and sniffles, trying to compose himself again, “s- so, so we should go with him, are we able to go with him?” rain asks desperately between soft sobs. “One of you guys is able to go with him in the ambulance, the others are able to follow it to the hospital, unfortunately we can’t fit everyone inside”
Rain nods in understanding and finally looks at Copia again, the man seemingly having fainted again. He is completely buckled up on the brandcar and the workers are making ready to put him in the ambulance. While they are busy trying to find the main entrance to exit, Rain runs to the ghouls' shared changing room to inform the others. They decided quickly that Rain would go with the ambulance, while the others followed with the touringcar. “Did you guys inform the clergy already?” Rain asks Cumulus, “yes we have, they are making a room ready for Copia to recover in and they are postponing the rest of the tour till he’s fully healed” Cumulus answered calmly. Rain thanks her and gives her a big smooch on her cheek, “you're a saint sweetie” he mutters, making the ghoulette giggle.
Quickly Rain runs outside and climbs in the ambulance, noticing Copia woke up again, his eyes shifting around confused and scared. “Hey, hey little bird, calm down, you're okay.” Rain purrs, trying to soothe the shivering man. “Wheream i” Copia slurred, his lips quivering. “Oh nono, don’t cry little bird, you’re going to the hospital” Rain carefully stroked Copia’s cheek and took a hold of his cold hand. “Oh poor thing you’re freezing up,” he looked over to the worker sitting next to him, “do you have something to warm him up, he must’ve cooled off from the floor he was lying on”, the worker shook his head. Rain just snarled and ignored him the rest of the ride, making sure Copia was comfortable.
“It can take a while until it’s Copia’s turn for a check up, since his injuries aren’t fatal,” the worker informs him while others take Copia away in a separate waiting room. “The fuck do you mean?” Rain snarls, finding it unbelievable. “I can’t do anything about it, you just have to wait in another waiting room until the check up is fully done, then you can be with him for as long as you want” the man spurts out putting his hands next to his head in a surrendering pose. Rain just grumbles and searches for a stool, slumping down. Quietly Mountain sits down next to him, signing him, asking him if he’s okay, Rain shakes his head, mumbling something incoherently. Mountain opens his arms in a silent invitation, Rain crawls in his lap and curls up, a warm feeling overtaking him. He peeks open an eye after feeling a soft poke to his cheek, meeting Sodo’s and Swiss’ teary eyes, further away he sees Phantom and the ghoulettes awkwardly lingering around, not knowing what to do.
He sits up and beckons Phantom and the ghoullettes over, immediately they run over. Sodo takes place next to Mountain, Swiss on the other side. Aurora softly asks Swiss something, after a nod from Swiss she sits down on his lap, giving him a kiss on his nose. After the last three found their seats on the ground before them, Rain spoke up. “We have to wait”, the ghouls look up at him expecting more. “Wait, that's it?” Sodo almost screams, Cumulus being quickly to calm him down with his breathing exercises. “That’s it, we have to wait.” almost in sync the ghouls shoulders slump. With their charm up they can’t feel the others' bond and aren’t able to comfort each other, so they just sit in silence. Hours tick by and by, time moves slowly and blurs together, Sodo already fell asleep half an hour ago, with phantom following quickly, the two curled around each other. The only thing Rain could focus on was the clock on the wall, the seconds and minutes going by agonizingly slow.
“Family of Cardinal Copia?” a nurse shouted, Rain immediately shot up, faster than a spear he was before the nurse, making her scream in fear. “Tell me, is he okay?” Rain shakes the poor nurse's shoulders, making Mountain quickly rush over and pull him away, with Swiss apologizing to the nurse. The nurse just waves it off and leads them to Copia’s room. Rain bursts in and rushes to the side of Copia’s bed. The man looks up, “i still need to pee”, it falls quiet, then Sodo and Swiss start giggling, making Mountain and Phantom join too, eventually everyone was laughing except for Copia. “Im serious guys, i still haven’t gone to the toilet and im busting” he whines, “jeez how much medication did they give you,” rain snickers, but pushes the call button. Before the nurse came, everyone inspected Copia, looking at every single inch of his head like a bunch of animals. Copia snickered softly and petted Rain's head, who was looking at the bandage at the side of Copia’s head. The blood was fully cleaned up and Copia looked a lot better, still a little pale, but at least he was smiling and talking normally again.
A nurse and a doctor walked in, making all the ghouls simultaneously move their heads to the door where they were standing, eight pairs of eyes staring at them, making Copia laugh and clutch his crotch. Quickly the nurse helped him out of bed and to the nearest bedroom, Swiss following with the stand with Copia’s IV fluid. The doctor turned to Mountain and started explaining, “Sir Copia has a mild concussion, it can take a few days to a few weeks to heal, we suggest he rests and doesn’t do anything that requires screen time. To make sure there isn’t any later internal bleeding, you should wake him up around one or 2 am this night to check if he still responds, if not you should come to the hospital again.” Mountain took time to process all the information and started signing. The doctor looked confused to Sodo who sighed and started translating, “thank you for the information, is there anything else like medication he has to take or he shouldn't take?” Mountain nods along, “no, a concussion doesn’t require medication and if he’s in a lot of pain he can always take some ibuprofen,” the doctor smiles and nods, then walks out the door.
Slowly Copia waddles inside, leaning heavily on Swiss and crawls in the hospital bed. “You should be released today, if i'm right, i shall check quickly to make sure,” and with that the nurse is gone and the ghouls swarm Copia’s bed again. All demanding kisses and cuddles, with Copia happily doing so. “Don’t scare us like that again, stupid,” Sodo scolds Copia, getting a soft tap on his head from Swiss, muttering something about language. “I won’t firefly, i’ll be more careful.” he smiles softly and gives Sodo a soft kiss.
When Copia got dismissed, they were all extremely relieved and hurried home instantly. Once home they installed Copia carefully in a big cuddle pile, everyone wanting to hold a part of the singer. Slowly they dozed off, soft purrs filling the room with sound, they were all warm and cozy, snuggled up together.