Chapter Text
"Fuck!"
Ava rubs her eyes, her vision gets blurry, her eyes feel heavy, she checks the time on the lower right corner of her PC, it's 23:55.
She can't stop now, she wants to finish the site for "Soltura", her language school, it needs an online presence and Ava has taken it upon herself to make a website from scratch, manage its social media pages and advertise it through various channels.
Whereas her co-worker and good friend Hans will take care of paperwork, bureaucracy and finances.
It's the perfect solution for them, they are the perfect couple. Business couple.
Hans is great and all, but ew, he is like a brother to Ava.
"Tomorrow, I just have to push it until tomorrow".
Ava's eyes have been pestering her for a few months now, the ailment hasn't faded over time like she hoped, and her brother Diego has been nagging her to go, so she decided to schedule an eye doctor appointment.
The first slot the hospital had available was two months from then.
The fatidic day of the visit is tomorrow, which is good news because she isn't getting any better.
The beta version of Soltura's site is mere inches away from being completed, but her eyes have been working against her lately, she has to stop.
"I'll take a break, that will help" she thinks.
Ava spins a few times in her swivel chair, then gets up and heads towards the kitchenette, she finds a bag of chips in the pantry.
There is nothing inside, besides a few crumbs.
Ava groans and curses the asshole who didn't throw away the empty bag and since she lives alone, she is the asshole.
She throws her head back and lets the crumbs fall directly on her tongue.
Too salty.
Too stale.
Too few.
Too unsatisfying.
Ava keeps scavenging for food like a raider and the only thing she sees are apples.
An apple a day...
"Ugh. Too healthy!"
A frustrated Ava flees the scene before her body can demand actual nourishment and gets back to her work in progress.
It's 3:27 am when she closes her PC, she can't take it anymore, her eyes are stinging too much, good thing she didn't eat that apple, she really needs to see that doctor.
She walks to the bedroom, sinks into bed and gets some shut eye.
"Great! Fucking great!"
The next day begins with the alarm not going off. It's already past 9 when Ava checks the time.
Her appointment is at 9:30 and it takes fifteen to twenty minutes to get to the hospital by bike.
Welp, she'll have to put the pedal to the metal.
Barely awake and already cussing.
A usual morning.
Not the best start, sure, but it is what it is, she will make do with what little time she has.
Ava gets dressed in record time with mismatched socks, because every single pair she owns seems to be suddenly divorced, she grabs the first random granola bar she can find in the cupboard, only to read on the wrapper once she is about 3/4 of the snack in, that it expired two weeks prior.
Ava doesn't pay too much attention to it, that date is merely a suggestion, everyone knows food is good up until a month after the "best before" date.
Possibly. Hopefully.
She decides to finish her granola bar anyway, she grabs her canary yellow helmet, gets on the bike while still chewing the last morsel and pedals like her life depends on it.
Ava parks in the only spot left on the bike rack, padlocks her bike and then, she enters the hospital.
The strong, distinctive hospital stench immediately stings her nose, a mixture of chemical and artificial, the disinfectants and cleaning products, and the all-too-human odors of sweat and sickness.
Ava gets turned around, almost bumps into a nurse, then into one of those carts used to bring food to the patients, luckily she manages to dodge them all and finally, after three wrong turns, she makes it to the ophtalmology ward.
She did it!
With two minutes to spare!
Ava starts walking to one of the chairs in the waiting room, she has been running all morning and catching her breath seems like a good fucking idea.
She sets down her things and the second she does sit, somebody calls her name.
«Silva»
"Ugh!"
«That's me!» she raises her hand like a diligent little schoolgirl during attendance, she gathers her things, ready to follow the doctor who just called her.
"Holy fuck!"
If Ava needed a moment to catch her breath, whatever little she had left was taken away by the doctor, an absolutely stunning woman.
"She was born for this job..." Ava is mesmerized. "Talk about a sight for sore eyes!"
The doctor is gorgeous, she has big brown eyes and a gaze that instills serenity and savoir-faire, Ava immediately trusts her.
And those adorable freckles.
Moreover, the doctor is dashing: she has an oxford periwinkle blue shirt, buttoned all the way to the top, tucked in her ecru twill dress pants, a brown belt, with a normie buckle, which pales in comparison to Nathan Drake's, the treasure hunter of Uncharted, one of Ava's favourite game series.
Over that, an immaculate white coat, with three of those fancy fountain pens in her pocket, Ava would argue that floaty pens are the fancy ones, her favourite is a souvenir she got from Venice, with the gondola moving on the canal.
«Good morning, Miss» the doctor says with a smile when Ava is closer. «If you could please follow me»
It's a good thing Ava is already in the hospital, that gentle and kind smile has made her knees weak and her heart race.
Seems like Ava will be going to the orthopedics and cardiology wards next.
«Uhhh...Good morning» Ava does her best to English something, her brain shortcircuited for a second, the doctor is quite the view!
Ava follows the doctor, making sure to step on all the mismatched tiles she sees on the floor.
The doctor opens the door and lets Ava go in first.
"And chivalrous too?" Ava thinks as she enters the room. "I just...she..umh...yeah..."
No other coherent thought crosses her mind for a minute.
The room is that of a medical practice: aseptic, with its grey linoleum flooring and ivory walls.
Towards the back of the room there are many eye-machineries.
On the right there is a desk with a computer and a couple of chairs opposite of it, the good-looking doctor sits there and offers Ava a seat.
Another doctor enters soon after, immaculate and perfectly ironed white coat, walking with a cane, its tapping catches everyone's attention.
"Grizzled, big mean scar, grand entrance..."
"Boss doctor is here!"
«Good morning» Ava greets the doctor who just came in.
«Good morning, I'm Doctor Superion» she gestures to the younger doctor. «This is Doctor Wu»
«Doctor...Who?» Ava asks, unsure whether or not she heard correctly. Maybe she needs to see an ENT too.
"Hold on, what's hot doctor's name now? I SWEAR SHE SAID WHO!"
«Doctor Wu» Doctor Wu, feeling called out, enunciates.
«Oh, like the TV show, Doctor Who!» Ava smiles. «Got it!»
«No, it's Wu» once again, the doctor tries to reiterate the pronounciation.
Doctor Superion sighs, there is at least one patient every single day that annoys the resident with the whole "Doctor Who" thing, apparently there's a song a few patients have mentioned, and, of course, the '60s group "The Who", but Doctor Superion can't be too mad about that, it's one of her favourite bands.
Usually Doctor Wu doesn't care about how her patients pronounce her last name, she never tries to correct them, she just politely smiles and nods, Doctor Superion registers her resident's behaviour towards the patient like an anomaly.
Doctor Wu could clearly see that the way Ava made the association with the famous TV show was not to pester her or be obnoxious nor joke around, she genuinely wanted to pronounce her last name correctly, a little gesture of sincere care.
She made an effort as well and didn't dismiss her patient's clumsy attempt at pronouncing her last name.
It takes a few tries, eventually the gears start turning in Ava's head.
"¡Vale! I think I finally got it!"
«Wu, it's like...» Ava draws the letters "W" and "U" in the air. «Doctor Wu»
Doctor Wu nods, Miss Silva is finally correct.
It is enough chitchat for Doctor Superion, who goes ahead and starts taking anamnesis with alacrity.
It's Miss Silva's first access to this hospital, hence a new electronic medical record is made.
The record is filled with basic information: name, last name, sex, date of birth, place of birth and history of the present illness.
Ava Silva was born on the twenty-first of March 2000 in a small town in Portugal.
When she had to type it down, Doctor Wu could not believe how befitting it was, it made her steal one more glance at Ava.
The first day of spring of the new millennia.
It made Doctor Wu think of Roman mythology, perhaps there is some truth to it.
It made her think of Proserpina: when she came to Earth, crops grew, flowers bloomed and trees were in leaf.
It made her think of Venus: spring began when she first smiled.
There must be some truth to mythology, because when Ava candidly smiled after answering one of Doctor Superion's questions, it was the only proof Doctor Wu needed, it is irrefutable and undeniable that a smile like hers could singlehandedly jump-start spring.
Ava's subtle accent did, in fact, give away a hint of a Romance language.
Spanish, the doctor thought at first, she was mistaken.
As the attending physician is taking anamnesis, in between answers and replies, Ava is stealing glances at Doctor Wu whenever the latter is looking at the screen of the computer, too busy typing to notice, and likewise, Doctor Wu's gaze lingers on the patient whenever she is too busy with Doctor Superion's questions, too focused on talking to the attending physician.
Doctor Superion notices the glances from her resident to her patient and she sees her patient doing the same.
The head of ophthalmology shakes her head ever so slightly: the girls may be oblivious, but Doctor Superion surely noticed them giving each other the eye.
Not that Doctor Superion condones this behaviour, it would be socially and ethically wrong to seduce a patient, not to mention unprofessional.
But the resident is beyond reproach and they are just innocently looking at each other, a glance never killed anybody.
She decides to turn a blind eye this time.
Suddenly, a phone rings.
It's Doctor Superion's.
She reads the caller ID on the display, she sighs and reluctantly answers.
«Doctor Wu, I'm afraid I have to go, it's the head of neurology asking for a consultation» Doctor Superion announces as the call ends.
She then turns to Ava.
«I apologise for the inconvenience, Miss Silva, Doctor Wu will continue. Farewell»
«It's fine, no problem» Ava assures. «Goodbye»
"Hell yeah! All alone with the hot doctor!" she wiggles in her chair.
Doctor Wu carries on with the anamnesis, asking about the patient's symptoms.
Ava explained that, since they have the same job (which confused the doctor at first, but turned out to be a pun since they both "test pupils", Doctor Wu didn't laugh, Ava did), she has been working on a website for her language school and so she has had to use her PC a lot.
In fact, her eyes seem to burn after working on her laptop for hours on end.
The doctor is starting to get the overall picture and already hypothesises a diagnosis.
Ava lists other symptoms, most of which happen when she works on the website.
«It's weird, huh?» she says. «Programmers are supposed to have perfect vision»
The doctor is perplexed by the assertion.
«Because they can C++!»
Doctor Wu slightly chuckles, more at Ava's infectious laughter than the pun itself, and her friend, who is a computer geek, would probably appreciate this joke.
The doctor types away on the PC and then starts taking her patient's past medical history.
«Any other major illnesses or surgeries?»
«I had this...car accident» Ava has no choice but to relive her past. «I was bedridden for a while, then I had surgeries and physiotherapy...»
Ava pauses, she needs to take a moment, it is not an easy story to tell a stranger. Or a friend. Or anybody.
«I don't know if it helps with the eye thing»
«I am truly sorry about what occurred to you» Doctor Wu says placidly. «Every piece of information is important»
Doctor Wu pulls off one of her reassuring smiles and it does feel soothing to Ava.
«Miss Silva, I'd like to test your visual acuity now» the doctor shows Ava a chair, opposite of a blank wall. «Do you mind sitting in that chair?»
The doctor projects Snellen's chart. «Could you read the first row for me?»
"Anything for you, doc!" she wanted to say, but instead she went with: «Yeah, sure, it's a U»
The doctor points at a letter a couple of rows below.«What about this one?»
«...R»
Doctor Wu switches the chart, the letters are smaller here, she points at the third letter of the second row.
Ava is quite confident about this one, she correctly identifies an A.
The doctor points at a smaller letter, Ava once again reads correctly. «It's a Q»
«Last one»
The letter is quite small, but Ava manages to identify that it's a T.
"The fact that the letters literally spell "you are a cutie" can't be a coincidence...Right?"
"...RIGHT!"
«Awww, thanks doc, you too»
The doctor raises an eyebrow.«Excuse me?»
"ABORT! ABORT! SHE WASN'T FLIRTING!"
«Oh, nothing, nothing, I just...nevermind» Ava sheepishly looks away.
Doctor Wu looks puzzled, to say the least, but she has a job to do, hence she carries on as if nothing happened.
«We'll move on to testing near vision» Doctor Wu announces.
The ophthalmologist hands Ava a laminated sheet of paper that had been peeking out of the trunk with all the lenses, Ava had been super curious about it.
«Could you please read the first sentence out loud?»
«Sure» Ava straightens her posture and does as she's told. «A king had lost a precious ring. He looked all over for it, but nowhere was it to be found. He issued a proclamation stating that the astrologer who could tell him where it was would be rich for the rest of his life.»
Doctor Wu has Ava cover her right eye. «Could you please go on?»
«Now there was a peasant by the name of Gambara. He was penniless and could neither read nor write. "Would it be so hard to play the astrologer?" he wondered. "I think I'll try." So he went to the king.»
«Any discomfort?»
«None» Ava smiles. «Piece of cake»
Then the left eye gets tested and everything is in order, as Doctor Wu announces to her patient.
Afterwards, Doctor Wu has Ava sit opposite a weird-looking machine, even if, to Ava's eye, they are all weird-looking machines.
«We'll test intraocular pressure» the doctor announces. «You might feel a gush of air»
Ava almost falls off of her stool, the gush of air was unexpectedly painful.
"¡Carajo! It's like being fucking shot!"
Ava manages to sit back upright, before saying the understatement of the century.
«I'm sorry, it was nothing, I was just...caught off guard»
Again, nothing of clinical significance.
The doctor has her patient sit behind the slit lamp and sit upright so that her forehead is steadied against the forehead band and the chin is resting on the chin rest.
Doctor Wu takes a closer look at Miss Silva's eyes, she carefully examines her conjunctivae, scleras, corneas, lenses, irises, pupils.
«For the upcoming exams there is the need to dilate your pupils» the ophtalmologist explains. «May I place drops of a mydriatic agent in your eyes?»
The courtesy of being asked for consent before being probed always catches Ava off guard (less than the tonometer, though), the nuns sure didn't have the same tact, but Doctor Wu has such a gentle way to her...
«Uh...sure»
«This will allow for a better view of deeper structures» she says as she hands her patient a gauze. «It may sting, but not to worry, it's normal»
«If you could please look up» Doctor Wu instructs before touching her patient's cheek in order to bring down the lower eyelid to put the eye drops in with more ease.
The touch has Ava flinch. Out of sheer gay panic.
«I do apologise, my hands are cold»
«No, don't apologise, it's...nice» hopefully the doctor didn't notice Ava's cheeks heating up as she blushed.
«It's hot...The weather I mean, it's a hot day, so, yeah»
Lucky for Ava, it's summer, hence it's plausible that she was referring to the swelter and NOT the doctor.
«Ready?» the doctor asks.
«Yup» this time Ava doesn't flinch, but she sure was right, Doctor Wu is so delica-
"OOOOH IT FUCKING BUUUUURNS!!!" Ava curses in her mind after the eye drop goes in.
The doctor has to repeat the whole process for the left eye and it stings just as bad.
«The dilation will take around 15 minutes, in the meantime I'll have you seat in the waiting room»
Ava dries with the gauze the tears of her poor eyes. «Oh, right»
Ava exits and sits on a chair in the waiting room, she keeps collecting the tears falling from her eyes due to whatever that thing was that Doctor Wu put in her eyes, judging from the sheer discomfort, it might as well have been acid, it's excruciating.
After a couple of minutes, Doctor Wu calls another patient, it's a shame Ava has the mydriatic in her eyes, she couldn't see the doctor in all her beauty, that almost stings more than her eyes, almost.
Ava tries to look at her phone but her vision is swimming, so she stares at the floor, it seems undulating and floating, a seabed of tiles.
The fifteen minutes are up, the other patient is gone and Ava gets called back, Doctor Wu would still be a vision if only she could properly see her.
The doctor has her patient sit behind the slit lamp once more, this time to examine retinas, retinal blood vessels, optic nerve head and macula.
Afterwards, Doctor Wu walks to the other side of the room and she gets back with some thin-looking papers.
«Now I'll insert these strips on your conjunctivae to check the lacrimation, it's called the Schirmer's test»
"WHAT THE ACTUAL FUCK?! THEY GO IN MY EYEBALLS?!"
The "gush of air" left Ava quite scarred, from that moment on she just assumed any procedure Doctor Wu will perfom will hurt like hell.
«Do not worry, it doesn't hurt» the doctor reassures Ava after seeing the sheer terror in her eyes.
The ophtalmologist is back with the filter-strips and gets closer to her patient.
«May I?»
There is such a gentleness to her, her voice is warm enough to calm you down and deep enough to reassure you.
But still, Ava won't be blindsided once more by her test, no matter how much savoir-faire the doctor has.
«Wait, wait» Ava flashes her palms at the doctor. «Is it the thing where you are supposed to say it doesn't hurt but then it hurts like hell?»
«It can be slightly uncomfortable, but never painful» the eye doctor admits. «May I, now?»
«Okay, I'm ready, go ahead»
With the gentleness that distinguishes her, the doctor manages to place the strips in Ava's eyes, with the sides hanging outside on her cheeks.
A second passes...
Two seconds pass...
«Is it done yet?» Ava asks with impatience, it is more uncomfortable than the doctor anticipated.
«The test's duration is five minutes»
"5 minutes of this? Fucking torture!"
Ava mentally rolls her eyes, she would have actually done it, but she has these fucking things fucking jammed in her fucking eyes.
"5 minutes of this with Doctor Wu? Fucking torture...With eye candy" Ava smirks, proud of her pun.
«While we wait...» Doctor Wu says as she sits down. «We'll do some questionnaires»
Ava internally groans, questionnaire is a boring-sounding word and said questionnaire will likely be as dull as it sounds.
«The survey is about rating the severity of eye discomfort, dryness and wateriness....» Doctor Wu explains while uncapping one of her fountain pens.
«On a scale of 0 to 4, 0 being "never" and 4 being "constantly"» the ophthalmologist says.
«During a typical day in the past month, how often did your eyes feel discomfort?»
Ava does her best to answer the questions, distracted by the annoying pieces of crap in her eyes and well, the doctor that placed them there, Doctor Wu looks absolutely stunning sitting on a stool in front of her, with one leg crossed over the other, jotting down her answers on the clipboard.
Doctor Superion gets back, quickly discusses the case with her resident and then they perform other diagnostic tests.
That last one, ocular surface staining, was soooo scary for Ava, her eyes turned Hulk-green, due to the lissamine green dye, but Doctor Wu, after seeing her panic, kindly assured it was just temporary.
In the end, the doctors both agree on the diagnosis: digital eye strain.
And so Ava is out of the hospital with a diagnosis, a prescription, some recommendations and the hots for the hot doctor.
The rest of Ava's day is uneventful, but anything would have been after meeting Doctor Wu.
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Hansy🇨🇭🍺 |
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Hans is Ava's closest friend and business partner, they met in Switzerland when Ava got there with JC, Randall, Chanel and Zori; they were regulars at bar "La Vasseur" for the two weeks they were there, but Ava was short on money and she didn't want to ask for handouts, so she applied for a job there.
She wasn't that great at making drinks, but the clientele still appreciated her since most of them knew her already, she did spend more time chatting up customers than she did pouring drinks (which she'd argue earned her more tips), Ava was charming and had that "therapist bartender" vibe, people liked sharing (or oversharing) with her since she seemed a good listener and had an aura of goodness radiating from her, Hans liked to call it the "Halo effect".
It was set, JC and the others eventually left Switzerland for Berlin or Brussels, or maybe Budapest, Ava couldn't remember, but it was definitely a city that started with "B", while Ava stayed in the Swiss Alps for some more months and learned the craft from Hans, he was a great mentor, they became very close and even shared a tiny apartment at some point.
Ava had noticed in her travels that far too many tourists had difficulty striking up conversation with the locals, despite their perfect grammar, they sounded too stiff and ended up thinking too much about what words to say and how to pronounce them, too afraid of saying the wrong thing and that the grammar police would come and get them, they'd say nothing at all.
"La Vasseur" was no different, one day Ava talked to Hans about it and, between a Negroni sbagliato and an Irish coffee, the two would joke about how they'd open up a language school and teach people how to be breezy in their respective languages.
Slowly, the joke became more serious and they'd research teaching methods, how to actually set up a school and such, they liked to fantasise about it.
Perhaps in the next life.
Ava's life was nice in the Swiss Alps at the bar, with Hans and the regulars, the drinking and the dancing.
When, after a few months, the time came for Ava to regroup with the others in Paris, there was an heaviness to it, almost as if she knew this was her last trip with the gang, she liked to have a place to call home, wandering around was nice, but she wanted to set down some roots.
The occasion presented itself when Hans had to move to England to be with his dad who was sick, naturally Ava hopped on the metaphorical train and decided to make England her home.
They did some bartending at first, they both noticed how people struggled to strike up conversation in England as they did in Switzerland and so, after some long and stressful months to set it up (most of the time was spent deciding on the name and slogan), their dream finally became a reality and "Soltura", their very own language school, was born.
While looking back on how it all started, Ava has reached the bar, she spots Hans and sits with him.
«Rum and coke?» he asks.
Ava always drinks one of the three: either lemon drop, sangria for when she feels homesick, or rum and coke, which Ava learned is different from Cuba Libre because one (1) night she made the mistake of using "rum and coke" and "Cuba Libre" interchangeably and Hans said it was heresy and he was also kind enough to explain why they are different.
«Yep» Ava nods, he never guesses wrong.
Hans orders a new drink that the bartender, now a friend of his, made.
«How is it?» Ava asks, glancing at the drink Hans is holding.
«Overall good, but could use some more acidity» he says while sipping his drink.
«How was school?» Ava asks.
He shrugs. «It was alright, same old, same old»
«And how is your dad?»
Hans doesn't reply, he takes a long sip of his cocktail, instead.
Ava gives him a half-smile, Hans' dad is not getting any better, dementia is such a bitch.
Hans wants to change the topic from the grim fate of his father. «So... The hot doc?»
«She is sooooo beautiful» she starts. «She is soft-spoken and eloquent and reassuring and kind and gentle»
Hans listens to Ava's seemingly interminable list of qualities the doctor embodies.
«And her touch is so gentle...» Hulk-green eyed Ava says. «Some tests did hurt, though»
«They hurt? But I thought she was gentle» Hans playfully remarks.
«The paper thingy was shit, the eye drops burned soooo much, my eyes are still a bit green...»
Hans moves his head closer to Ava's to check. «Oh yeah, a bit»
«But still...» Ava sighs in sapphic yearning and, against her better judgment, orders another round.
«I hope I'll see her again».