A misfortune with an unexpected turn

Rushed by pure fear, red blood cell AA2153 was running through the blood vessels as fast as his feet could carry him, barely looking at what was ahead and almost tripping or bumping into other cells on the way, ignoring their shouting and cussing. He had finished another oxygen delivery a while ago and, plagued by slight worry about his best friend AC1677, who was often working together with him and whom he hadn’t seen the entire day, decided to head to the latter’s apartment. It was stressful as always, though currently not too bad since the body was asleep, so the erythrocyte could spare a few minutes from work to look for his friend. Upon arriving, however, he had noticed that no one was home and left again, his worry increasing and trying to think of where to look next. He was perfectly aware that his friend was an adult cell and perfectly capable of looking out for himself, but considering the lifestyle of the organism they were living in… they had no other choice than to be constantly on edge. Walking like that, he had met one of neutrophil U-1196’s friends, U-1212, whose clothes were once again drenched with blood. She recognized him in the crowd and promptly delivered bad news to him: the blond red blood cell, who she knew was his best friend, had been injured during a bacterial attack and brought to the hospital in the red bone marrow. She wanted to give AA a few more details and also apologize to him for not having been able to protect his friend in time, but didn’t get the chance: the red blood cell had already dashed away, not even letting her finish her sentence. He was barely able to think straight from shock and fear that were reaching out for him with huge claw-like hands while he ran. “Please, please let him be alright,” were the only words repeating over and over in his head, trying to chase away the thought that it could be otherwise. Completely out of breath, he finally arrived at the hospital, and a macrophage was so kind as to lead him to the room his friend was lying in. Standing in front of the door, AA froze for a few moments, hesitating and feeling a thick lump form in his throat. He had no clue how severe AC’s injuries were and braced himself for what he would see inside. Finally, he swallowed heavily and opened the door, entering the hospital room. And almost fell to his knees as a wave of immense relief flooded his body. AC1677 was calmly sitting on the bed and looking at him with slight surprise that quickly turned into joy when he saw his best friend enter. His head, neck, and right arm were bandaged, but he seemed pretty fine. He opened his mouth to say something, but before he could even let out a sound, AA2153 ran up to him and hugged him close, muttering “I’m so glad…” over and over, sounding as if he was about to start crying. AC patted him on the back in order to calm him down. “Yeah, I was really lucky this time, wasn’t I? The neutrophils arrived just in time to kill that damn thing right before it could kill me!” He grinned. “And now…” AA let go of him. “Yes?” “Now I finally have an acceptable reason to slack off!” “...” The other red blood cell didn’t say anything, just looking at him, a bit baffled. Until they both burst out laughing. “Of course you do!” But after they had calmed down after some time, AC suddenly got quiet and turned his head to the side, looking unusually serious. AA stood there, looking a bit confused and starting to worry once more. Could it be that there was more behind his friend’s injuries, and they were more severe than they seemed, after all? There was silence again, as the atmosphere in the room suddenly became heavier. “What’s the matter? Are you alright?” AA finally decided to ask. AC smiled again, but AA, who had known him his entire life, noticed immediately that that smile was forced and placed his hand on AC’s shoulder. The other was still refusing to look him in the eye. “Yeah, I was really lucky, huh?” he finally said quietly, his fake smile vanishing again. “To think that I could’ve been killed today… just like that… we’re all at the risk of being killed every day in that damn body…” AA’s facial expression turned serious as well, and he directed his gaze to the ground. “Right. But that's nothing new to us, unfortunately…” The erythrocyte with the glasses looked up after a while and gulped suddenly, widening with surprise as he noticed that AC was staring at him having opened his eyes, which he almost never did. AA2153 felt these green eyes fixate him firmly and perceived a strange, yet not unpleasant tingling in his stomach, not really understanding what was going on and wondering what would happen next. “You know, while I was lying here and thinking about that, I realized something,” AC finally spoke again, still unusually serious and continuing to stare at his best friend. “W-What?” “That I’m not going to wait until something happens for real, Sho-chan!” AA’s jaw dropped, and his eyes widened even more. He hadn't heard that nickname for an eternity! And before he knew it, AC had grabbed him by both arms out of the blue and pulled him towards himself, not even giving him the time to let out a gasp. His glasses fell down due to the sudden movement, landed on the bed and finally on the floor, and AA found himself looking directly into AC’s eyes, as their lips were pressed together in a determined and passionate kiss that was yet marked by inexperience but conveyed a bunch of feelings without the need of a single word being spoken. As the seconds passed, AC’s extreme nervousness that he had been hiding well, disappeared into thin air when he noticed that the other had closed his eyes and gradually started to relax, leaning further into that kiss and kissing him back. That made AC so happy he almost wanted to cry from relief that his best friend since childhood, the man he had loved for nearly his entire life, didn't shove him away, but seemed to have accepted his true feelings he had been hiding for so long. Yes, it was true that in these terrible working conditions, they never even knew whether they would live to see the next day. But despite everything, there were moments now and then where they were allowed to truly be happy. And for AC1677 and AA2153, one of these moments was now.