After the War

Ben awoke in his new room in the early hours.
He was never really a morning person, but the sun filtering through the curtains had woken him up. He made a mental note to ask for thicker curtains.
He seemed to remember that today was his first encounter with his new therapist.

Ben got up, took a shower, and jumped in his clothes, ready to come down at the cafeteria.
Almost immediately he was welcomed by the sounds of verbal fighting. Fraser, the guy from the day before, was standing in front of one of the women's table in the almost empty cafetaria, arguing with one of them.

"Are you gonna fucking stop thinking I want to attack you at every occasion I get?!"

A dark haired girl stood up.

"You're a man and they shouldn't let you here with us! Do you even realise how hard it is?!"

"It's stupid! If it was true that seeing men traumatise you just because of what happened, then I'd be traumatised everytime I look at myself because I'm a man!"

"And that's the point! You men can't control your pulsions and if I went here it was to feel safe!"

Fraser was fuming.

"I'm not an animal! Just because whatever guy couldn't control themselves around you doesn't mean I can't! Besides, I'm not attracted to women!"

"So what are you doing here you fucking pervert? Why else would you be here?"

"I don't know, maybe I've been RAPED?!" Fraser screamed.

"You're a guy, get your balls and get over it, I already told you! You don't understand how it really feels!" The brunette raged.

Fraser was boiling in anger, red in the face.

"Next time you get gang raped come back to me and tell me I don't know how it really fucking feels!" Fraser shrieked.

At that moment, two nurses entered the room, along with Lee. There was one male and one female nurse ; or maybe the male was a doctor.

The man was tall, with angular cheekbones, wide ice blue eyes, plump pink lips, and chocolate hair.
Ben's stomach looped in his belly. The man was attractive.
Not sexy - no, Ben didn't manage to have sexual desire for anyone since... What happened, but the nurse was just, platonically attractive. Pretty. Yes, pretty.

The female nurse took Fraser aside, trying to calm him down, while the man approached Ben.

"Benjamin?" He asked.

"Yes?" Ben answered, neutrally, staring into those grey eyes.

"I'm nurse Gustav, have you eaten yet?"

"No?"

"I need you to come see your new therapist as soon as you've eaten. I'll come back in half an hour, okay?"

Ben assented, going to sit with his food, watching Gustav go. Fraser's anger had been toned down but the young man was now shaking, his cheeks and nose red, breathing in gasps as he cried, the female nurse talking to him softly.

Lee sat face to Ben, looking tired, making himself a toast.

"Did you sleep well?" he asked Ben.

"Yes, relatively well. Thank you. You?"

Lee rubbed his eyes with his palms.

"Couldn't sleep because of my recurring nightmares."

"Apparently loads of people get them but I don't. Not anymore" Ben said softly.

Lee looked at him a little while, hands still in suspention.

"How long has it been since you can sleep again?"

"Two weeks."

"Yeah. I don't wanna worry you but either you're lucky or they'll come back." Lee shrugged.

Ben gulped, and swirled his spoon in his cereal.

"What were you doing before...?"

"I was... I was in prison" Lee said quietly, and Ben's head shot up.

"You? You don't look like -"

"A criminal? I wasn't. I shoplifted. Thing is, they made me serve the last months of my one year sentence for offence in the criminal quarters because of overpopulation."

Ben felt his stomach tighten.

"What happened?"

Lee put down his toast.

"Let's say... Let's say I picked up the soap."

This time Ben's blood froze at Lee's confession.

"I mean, it didn't go like that... I was just weak." He spat at himself. "And nobody saw anything. It's a chance I only got LGV and not AIDS, and getting it saved me."

"Why?" Ben asked quietly.

"When the medical visit finds out you're bleeding mucus from your ass, they prefer getting you tested" Lee grimaced.

"Oh."

Lee, if quiet, seemed quite witty, so Ben was almost waiting for him to ask the next question.

"And you, what were you doing before?"

Ben breathed out.

"I worked for my father's shop. He's a taylor."

He tried to tell the rest but stopped. Lee didn't insist and Ben finished his breakfast, as Fraser went to sit with them, silently eating as Mike arrived. Ben was curious as to what had happened to Mike, but the boy - because he was a boy, he looked barely 17 - seemed so shy and marked he preferred not asking. Ben knew he was being undelicate, making his new... Friends tell the story they hated again, but he was just too curious.