Rocky gives the wooden door in front of him a few quick raps with his knuckles and waits a moment. Those seconds turn into a minute and after that he's sighing. He knows that the man on the other side won't come to the door, but it was worth a try.

He tries every time he visits.

He digs around in his pocket for a moment before pulling out a key with a small dolphin keychain attached to it (Jackie had given it to him when she gave him the key. "It's his favorite animal" she had said as the only explanation. Rocky figured it was best to keep the two together).

"Hey, Kim, I'm coming in!" He calls through the door as he puts the key into the knob. He turns it and then opens the door.

The apartment looks exactly the same as it had when he visited roughly half a month ago. He isn't surprised or anything, not sure what changes he expected, but he still finds himself... Saddened... at this revelation.

"Where are you at, Kim?" He calls through the dark entry way. It's just a formality, he knows the other man won't be answering him but it's what he does. He gives it a try every time.

It's worth a try.

He heads towards the living room first, and is a little pleased to find the man sitting on the couch. He's curled up with his knees against his chest, staring at nothing, but at least he's not laying in bed.

"Hey buddy." He greets as he makes his way over to the sofa and plops down next to the other man. Andrew's eyes flicker to him briefly, but he doesn't respond or return the greeting. He looks like he hasn't slept in days, dark circles under his eyes that never really seem to go away anymore.

 Rocky sighs. So it's gonna be one of those visits.

"So, uh, whatcha doing?" He asks awkwardly, hoping a question will earn a response from the shorter boy. It doesn't, of course, but it's worth a try. He sighs and runs a hand through his hair. "Jesus, it's times like these I wish your dumbass would just buy a television."

"No one's making you stay."

The voice is quiet and, if there had been any noise in the room, Rocky thinks he wouldn't have heard it at all. He sits up, excited. "Hey, you spoke!"

Andrew stares at him as if he's just grown another head.

Rocky makes himself sit back, worried being so upright and... Well, overall happy would make Andrew skittish. It's happened before, so he knows to be careful. Do anything he can to make sure that he remains as comfortable as possible. "I just... Ykno..." He shrugs, pretending to act casual. "You haven't been answering anything else I said to you. Thought maybe you became mute."

Andrew looks at him for another few seconds before his eyes drift away. He doesn't speak again, and Rocky feels himself getting nervous again.

Fuck.

When the hell did he even start caring about this man so much? At what point did Andrew go from being a nuisance and an enemy in his mind to a friend and someone worth looking out for? If someone said to him years ago that he would show up to his house to take care of him like some fuckin babysitter he would have laughed in their face, maybe stabbed them, so what the hell was this?

Rocky stays silent and follows Andrew's gaze to the wall. There's certainly nothing interesting there, but he's looking at it like someone was painting the fucking Mona Lisa in front of him.

The room is completely quiet for a moment as the two men stare at nothing, and then...

"Dude, you fucking reek. When was the last time you showered?" Rocky tried to think. His last visit he had asked when the last time the man bathed was and he had answered 'over a week'. Now it was later and he was pretty fucking sure he still hadn't showered. He sighed heavily.

"Okay." Rocky stood up and stepped in front of Andrew. "Get the fuck up."

Andrew's eyes slowly move to look up to Rocky's face. He looks confused, but doesn't speak. Rocky rolls his eyes again.

"I said get up." He says and leans over, wrapping arms under Andrew's armpits and hoisting the man into a standing position. The action causes a bit of sadness to well up in Rocky's chest. The man has definitely lost weight again. He thinks back to the last time he saw Andrew truly healthy, close to 10 years ago now. He NEVER could have done that to him then, even if he had exercised as much as he does now. Every bit of muscle Andrew had once had was gone now though, replaced with... Well, not much. He didn't have even a little extra weight on him. Just skin and bones at this point.

"Think you can clean yourself off?" He asks, but he already knows the answer. He needed to say it though. It was worth a try.

Andrew doesn't respond and Rocky just shakes his head, grabbing the other man's wrist and dragging him towards the bathroom.

"You probably wouldn't start smelling so bad as quick if you didn't wear sweaters all the time dude. It's fucking summer, you're gonna sweat yourself to death." He lectures as they make their way through the small apartment. He knows why the other man covers every inch of his skin, but he just feels like he has to say SOMETHING. Like if he doesn't talk he's going to explode or some shit.
He opens the bathroom door and turns the light on before pulling Andrew inside. "Please tell me you can at least try to get yourself undressed."

Andrew stares at him. Rocky sighs once more.

"It was worth a try..." He mumbles. He gently pushes Andrew to sit down on the toilet seat so he can remove the other man's pants. "I don't know why Jackie wanted me to do this so bad." He says as he tugs the clothes off the other man with no resistance. "Not the bath thing. This was my idea." He pulls off underwear next, careful to be as polite and not look at anything as much as possible. "But just... Taking care of you." He pulls Andrew back up to stand and starts to take off the worst part. "Your parents have the money." He tugs the shirt over Andrew's head and then turns quickly before he has to see any of... That... "They can send you to some fancy hospital." He turns the shower on. "I don't know how that shit works, to be honest, but it's gotta be better than this..." He turns around again and feels like he's been hit by a truck. Andrew's once flawless body is littered with scars, the dark lines covering just about every inch of his arms and a great portion of his torso and thighs as well. Rocky has seen it before, but it still feels bad every fucking time. "...Let's just get you in the shower." He mumbles as he takes Andrew by the hand and gently leads the other man into the tub. He offers no resistance to any of the movements and even steps inside with no problem.

Andrew stands under the water for a second before he suddenly slides downwards, sitting on the floor of the tub.

"You okay?" Rocky asks as he watches him. He didn't draw the shower curtain closed because he was certain that Andrew would just stand there and do nothing for as long as he would let him.

"I'm... Okay." Andrew answers after a long pause, and the words come out sounding weird. Like he's parroting them but doesn't quite know what it means.

"You're still a shit liar, ykno."

Andrew doesn't respond once again.

Rocky finds his eyes trailing over the other man's body. There doesn't seem to be any fresh injuries, which is a huge fucking relief. His eyes pause on a small set of round aged scars on his stomach, and then move immediately to another older one on his shoulder, probably the worst one of them all.

"God." Rocky whispers. "You must hate me."

Andrew's eyes stare at him, unblinking. "Why?" His voice is barely above a whisper, barely there.

"You have scars. Because of me."

Andrew looks away. "I have a lot of scars."

"You know the ones I mean... The burns... The stab..."

"You didn't stab me." Andrew says, and this time his voice is louder. More firm.

"Maybe I didn't drive the knife into you, but it happened because of me."

"You didn't do anything."

"I... I did. And... Fuck, Andrew... I'm sorry."

Andrew looks back at him, clearly surprised,  but he doesn't respond. He just stares for a moment and then looks away without a noise. He draws his knees up to his chest again and Rocky knows any conversation they were having, any they could have had, was over.

He sighs and gets on his knees next to the tub. "Okay, let's just... Fucking get you clean or whatever so we can put some clothes on you." He mumbles as he grabs a bottle of shampoo and squeezes a little more than necessary into his hand.

Cleaning Andrew doesn't take that long and soon Rocky has the other man wrapped in a towel and standing in the bedroom while he digs for clean clothes through shockingly organized drawers. Jackie was an absolute saint, but sometimes she did... A bit much.

"Here." Rocky says and thrusts clothes at Andrew. "Please, god, don't make me help you get dressed too."

Andrew takes the clothes without comment and then turns his back to Rocky. The taller man looks away to give Andrew SOME sort of privacy, but he doesn't leave in case his help is required at some point.

"Okay." Andrew says after a long pause.

Rocky turns back to him with a large grin. "Do you feel better?"

There's no answer.

It was worth a try.

"Not that I don't love seeing you and all that shit dude, but you still look.. really fucking exhausted. And I know you, so I'm pretty god damn sure it's because you haven't even TRIED to sleep. So." He points to the nearby bed. The fact that it's made means that Andrew hadn't even come into his room since the last time his sister was over. Rocky would have to call her later to figure out when exactly that was, but it was a problem for just that.

Later.

Andrew says nothing as he moves to get onto the mattress. He crawls under the blankets and adjusts slightly before going still.

"Alright." Rocky says, pleased that the other man seemed to listen to him. "Get some fucking rest. I'll be back tomorrow, okay?"

"Stay." The word comes out so quiet Rocky almost didn't notice it at all.

"What?"

"Stay." Andrew whispers again.

"Oh. Uh..."

"Please."

 "Okay, Christ. Don't get all gay on me." He stares at the bed for a moment, thinks of all his options, and then sighs. "Scoot the fuck over."

Andrew obliges without comment, and soon Rocky is curled up on his side next to him in the slightly too small bed.

"Rocky?"

"Yeah?"

"Thank you. For being...Here."

"Don't mention it. Now go to sleep. I'll be here when you wake up."