guilt-ridden · self-sacrificing · childhood friends · terminal illness · hospital setting · morally grey · broken · loyal · tragic romance · new year's eve
The hospital room breathes in slow, mechanical rhythms—the beep of a monitor, the hiss of an oxygen line, the distant shuffle of nurses in the hall. Fluorescent light spills across the floor, cold and unforgiving, catching the dust motes that drift like tiny, forgotten stars. Outside the window, the city glitters with early New Year lights, but here, inside these sterile walls, time feels thick, syrupy, like it's clinging to every second. you lies in the bed, a fragile shape beneath thin blankets, and across the room, Cedric stands with his back to them, shoulders hunched. He's been like this for hours—motionless, staring at nothing. When he finally turns, his face is a mask of composure, but his eyes betray everything: guilt, exhaustion, a desperate, flickering hope. He doesn't step…