{COMPLETE} Should Have Realized Sooner [Miritama]

17. I Must Be Dreaming, Right?

Tamaki had the most amazing yet horrible and terrifying dream last night.

It was about finally leaving that godforsaken basement and getting a chance at freedom. Granted, dream Tamaki is just as much of a coward as real Tamaki because even in dreamland, he accidentally ran AWAY from people who could have potentially helped him. As stupid as that was, he wasn't going to die from the embarrassment when he woke up, but he felt really bad for running away WITH Cecil in the dream. Just because his cowardice made him run without really thinking, that didn't mean he had to drag the poor kid down with him.

As Tamaki slowly started to wake up, one of his first thoughts was that he should share the dream with Cecil. He could imagine, rather clearly, the little boy laughing at his dream antics before assuring him that, if it were real life, things would have turned out differently. Tamaki's next thought was about how his throat burned and how he felt very light, almost high and floaty as if he weren't chained to the concrete floor. His next thought after that was how he was definitely not on the floor. Had their captors finally gotten them a mattress? How come Tamaki didn't remember?

The next thing he thought was that it was entirely too bright behind his eyelids for it to be their basement. Had they gone through with selling them? Was it just him? They said they weren't going to do it but had they changed their minds? Tamaki let his eyes flutter open and squinted. It was REALLY bright, way too bright for a criminal underground human trafficking thingy or anything Tamaki had first assumed. As his eyes adjusted, he managed to look around at his surroundings.

He was, in fact, in a bed. A hospital bed. Tamaki couldn't make any sense of it, why would his captors bring him to a hospital now? And what for? Very early on in his kidnapped life, he had broken his arm in one of his many escape attempts where they simply put a crude splint on it instead of any form of medical attention. What changed? Tamaki didn't even remember feeling sick and especially not enough to warrant being hospitalized.

What happened?

As he continued to look around the room he spotted someone else in there with him. He immediately tensed when he failed to recognize the boy. 'They had gone through with selling us, didn't they?' Tamaki thought dismally. 'They sold us but something went wrong and now I'm in the hospital with another one of their victims to watch and see if I try anything'

The boy's back was turned to Tamaki, noncommittally wandering and searching the room for something to entertain himself with. He did look vaguely familiar, but not enough for Tamaki to trust him, he was probably there when Tamaki was being sold, despite Tamaki not actually being able to REMEMBER being sold.

He was pulled out of his frantic, and frankly really depressing, thoughts when the boy gave a loud heavy sigh, obviously not entirely excited about just sitting around a quiet hospital room alone with an unconscious wreck. He turned around with a dismal, and quite bored-looking, expression, eyes downturned to the floor before giving a quick glance in Tamaki's direction. The aforementioned teen held his breath as the boy took a few seconds to register that he was awake, but when he did Tamaki almost regretted not just trying to go back to sleep or pretend to still be unconscious.

Almost.