Status: I hope you enjoy this, I'm just posting it straight from my wattpad because idfk how this website works o k a y

Counting Down the Days for Christmas

7 - Importance

Once Kellin's seventh Christmas came, he was sat on his bed upstairs, colouring a picture. Kellin liked colouring, it was something that he did a lot in his spare time. He could colour inside the lines without the pen wobbling, which was better than most of his class at school who still couldn't do that.

Thankfully, Kellin's vocabulary had finally developed enough for him to be able to hold an every day conversation with someone. He was glad about that - he never liked having to have someone else answer things for him.

And if he could talk, then that meant he could also do one more thing. Sing. Kellin liked singing; music, art and English being his favourite subjects at school. His music teacher, Miss Jackson, always said that he was one of the best singers in her music class. His art teacher, Mr Simpson, often complimented his skill at drawing too.

As Kellin sat in his room doing his colouring, Mary was sat on the ledge of the sofa with her head in her hands. She had not forgotten about what had happened last Christmas. She knew that Kellin could be taken away from her in the blink of an eye.

She wiped away a few stray tears from her eyes, took a deep breath and stood up. Even if she couldn't be strong for herself, she knew she could be strong for Kellin. She had to be strong for Kellin.

**

Mary shot up out of her chair, making her way towards the doctor slowly. She wanted to know what had happened to her son, the sooner the better.

She followed the doctor into his office. He gestured for her to sit down on one of the orange plastic chairs, like the ones they had beside Kellin's bed.

He strolled over towards his desk and sat down on his own chair that looked far more comfy than the one Mary had. He shuffled through a couple of papers, before finding the right one and handing it to Mary.

"So Miss Quinn, can you just fill in the questions on this sheet regarding Kellin's health?" He asked her with that annoying fake smile still plastered across his face. He passed her a pen, gesturing towards the sheet that she was holding.

Mary filled out the questions, handing the sheet back to the doctor. They seemed like fairly easy questions really, things like 'has your child shown any signs of illness before?'

The doctor scanned through the sheet, a blank expression on his face. He put the sheet down slowly, before giving Mary a sympathetic smile.

"From all the information I've received so far, I have come to a conclusion that Kellin has a particularly rare type of brain disease. I've only seen this in around roughly twenty patients before and only seven of them made it past the age of ten. None of them have made it past fifteen yet. Your Kellin has, according to my calculations, 70% chance to make it to the age of ten. He stands a good chance, but you never know...." The doctor trailed off awkwardly, a pitiful look clear on his face.

Mary could feel tears welling up in her eyes. Kellin was such a sweet, caring child. Why did this have to happen to him?

"Is there anything you could do to increase his life chances? An operation? Medication? There has to be something!" Mary begged desperately. There had to be something they could do to help Kellin, there had to be!

"Yes and no. If he gets to ten, then shortly after that he'll have to have an operation. If he ever makes it past fifteen, which is highly unlikely, then I can't say what will happen, as I don't even know myself." The doctor says.

"O-Okay," Mary stuttered before leaving his room. Then she broke into tears. Why was this happening?

**

Mary sighed as she remembered that day. She didn't want any of this to happen to Kellin. He didn't deserve it.

Upstairs, Kellin had long since abandoned his drawing. He was too excited to be able to draw a picture. He just had to wait for Vic to get there, then they could open the presents. Why wouldn't he hurry up?

Vic himself sat on his bed at his aunt and uncle's house, as he had gone to stay with them for the weekend. He wanted to go home; he really hated staying here. His uncle hated him so much; Vic could tell by how often he would push him, or send him a harsh glare. His uncle called him a 'fag' behind his aunt's back. Vic didn't know what a fag was, but he could tell that it wasn't a nice thing.

His aunt wasn't so bad, sometimes she even gave Vic some of her homemade biscuits, which were the best tasting things in the world. It was just his uncle that he couldn't stand.

Speaking of the Devil, Vic's uncle burst into the room and grabbed the collar of Vic's shirt, dragging him out of the room. A red-faced Vic gasped for air; this crazy man was almost choking him.

His uncle let go of his collar, pinning him up against the wall, allowing Vic to regain his breath once more.

"Listen fag, your mum is coming to take you back home again in about a minute. I want you to tell her that you had an amazing time. I never called you names or pushed you around. We were very nice to you and you want to come back again. Got it?" His uncle demanded forcefully. Vic nodded his head quickly, not wanting to anger this man anymore than he already was.

"Good." He said, a menacing grin playing at his lips. He slapped Vic across the cheek harshly, before letting him go and walking away.

Vic ran into his room, shutting the door behind him. He grabbed the chair from the corner of the room and shoved it under the door handle so that his uncle wouldn't be able to get in again. He could feel a few tears running down his cheeks. Why did his uncle hate him so much? What had he done?

He wiped away his tears with his sleeve, not wanting anyone to know that he had been crying. He was just a fag, as his uncle called him. He was a pathetic fag for crying. He was nothing but a pathetic fag.

Vic sat there, staring at the wall for a while until he heard the doorbell ring. He ran out of his room at full-speed and opened the door, giving his mum a massive hug. He had missed her so much and he just wanted to go home.

Vivian hugged Vic back just as tightly. She had missed having him around to lighten up the mood.

"I missed you mum," She heard him mutter quietly. She was unsure if that was addressed to her or if he was talking to himself.

"I missed you too Vic." Vivian agreed with him quietly.

Kellin was sat at home on his bed, the anticipation growing with each second that passed. Where was Vic and why wasn't he here already?

About five minutes later, Kellin heard a loud knock on the door. His face lit up into a massive grin, before running downstairs and opening the door. When he saw Vic, his smile only got even brighter. His Vic was finally here and for that he was glad.

But when Kellin took a closer look at Vic, he noticed how he had puffy red eyes, as if he had been crying. He saw how Vic's smile didn't reach his eyes like it normally would.

Worry started building up inside Kellin. Was something wrong with his Vic? He didn't want his Vic to be sad.

Kellin grabbed onto Vic's arm lightly, about to escort him back up to Kellin's room, when Vic pulled away harshly. Kellin was confused. Why didn't Vic want him to touch his arm? Did Vic not like him anymore?

But when Kellin looked into Vic's chocolate brown eyes to try and see if he was possibly angry or in a bad mood, all he could see was fear. Vic's eyes were full of nothing but pure fear. Why was he scared?

"Please don't touch me Kellin," He whispered quietly, shooting Kellin a forced smile. Vic didn't want people touching him after the incident with his uncle, it unnerved him.

"Okay..." Kellin trailed off, slightly confused at Vic's newly discovered fear. Since when did Vic not like people touching him?

They walked upstairs to Kellin's room, with Kellin taking extra care not to touch Vic at all. He didn't want to upset his Vic again.

But instead of Kellin keeping his distance from Vic being a good thing, it had the opposite effect on Vic. Vic wanted nothing more than one of Kellin's hugs right now, but he knew there was no chance of that happening. He had probably scared Kellin off by acting the way he did when he had grabbed his arm.

Vic wanted to burst into tears right there and then. Why did his uncle's actions have so much affect on his behaviour? He had never felt the urge to want to die before, so why was he feeling like this now? He didn't like it.

When they got to Kellin's room, Kellin sat down on his bed, Vic sitting down beside him. Kellin looked straight at Vic, with his eyebrows raised slightly.

"What's wrong Vic?" He asked Vic slowly. He cared about his friend a lot, so naturally he wanted to know what the matter was.

And with that, Vic burst into tears. He threw himself into Kellin's arms, sobbing like there was no tomorrow. Kellin wrapped his arms around Vic, stroking his hair softly until he had calmed down.

Vic pulled out of Kellin's embrace with a small sniff, resting his head on Kellin's shoulder. Kellin found Vic's vulnerability adorable, the only thing ruining it was how sad Vic was. Kellin hated it when his friends were sad.

He kissed the top of Vic's head, brushing his long brown fringe out of his eyes gently. Vic whimpered at Kellin's touch, longing for more once it had left.

"Kellin?" Vic asked Kellin, sounding somewhat nervous.

"Yeah?" Kellin quizzed Vic, eager to hear what Vic had to tell him.

"Kellin, do you think I'm worthless? Do you think anyone would miss me if I died? Would anyone care for me if I was sick? Or if I was dying, would anyone come and visit me? Would there be anyone waiting by my side, willing for me to survive? Would anyone even go to my funeral if I died? Could anyone ever truly love me? Would anyone ever even want to love something like me? Would anyone ever... Kellin, please just put me out of my misery and admit it; no one likes me and no one ever will." Vic spoke, his voice getting angrier and louder with every word he said, the tears starting to slip down his cheeks.

"I love you Vic," Kellin confirmed to Vic. "I would care if you died. Hell, I would never be able to get over it if you died. If you were sick, I would be by your side, willing you to get better, making silent prayers to make sure you survived. If you ever died, I would be the first one to arrive to your funeral and the last one to leave. I would stay late to make sure that they had buried you properly. Before they buried you, I would make sure that all your favourite things were in your coffin, right by your side. I would make sure that they had put you in comfortably. I would be there for you Vic - and I always will. Don't you ever think, even for a second, that I won't care about you. I love you Vic and don't you ever forget that."

After Kellin had spoken, Vic remained speechless. He never thought that he'd meant that much to Kellin. Kellin's words had really hit home for him - that was what made him realise that if he did die, someone would miss him. Someone did actually like him; that someone being Kellin.

"I love you too Kellin, I really do. I'm not going to make a speech about you, as there are way too many things I would have to say. I just want you to know that I do love you so much; much more than I love anyone else." Vic stated sincerely. He didn't know how to express his feelings as well as Kellin had done, but he tried the best he could.

Kellin smiled at Vic fondly, lightly squeezing his hand. Vic's face broke into a large grin at Kellin's gesture, holding his hand back firmly. He may not want other people to touch him right now, but Kellin was an exception to the rule.

He leant into Kellin's side, wrapping his arms around the younger boy and engulfing him in yet another hug. Kellin laughed, hugging Vic back. Kellin knew that he had made his Vic happy again - the thought of that made Kellin smile. He wanted his Vic to always be happy, as he couldn't stand seeing him sad.

The boys lay like that together for a while until they eventually fell asleep, too caught up in each other to remember about opening the presents.
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#sorrynotsorry

Just gonna add, they're not saying that they're 'in love' with each other, ffs they're only like seven haha. Just in a friendly love kind of way. Yet ;)