Nature's Angel - (Pico x Keith / BF)

❀┊ Ch.23: Courage

i came back from the dead— sorta rushed chapter sorry!!

"Fucking hell!!" Pico cried, catching Keith as he collapsed. Quickly, Nene rushed to Keith and took her sweater and wrapped it around his bleeding arm, stopping most of the blood from coming out. "Nene w-what are y-"

"Pico, calm down. I know what I'm doing. This is only going to prevent the blood from coming out." Nene said, panicking but keeping calm. She signaled Darnell to get the nurse to call 911, while Pico rushes behind with Keith on his back.

Nene called for assistance to clean the blood and notified the office about the mess. It looked like a crime scene was on the floor.

"Keith.. please stay with me." Pico whispered, running down the halls, passing other students who looked in confusion. They passed Cherry, who was worried but noticed Nene's sweater tightly wrapped around Keith's right arm.

"Move it!" Pico shouted, running down the halls, following Darnell. He pushed some students who wouldn't move, falling to the floor. He didn't care one bit if they got hurt, all he cared about at the moment was Keith being safe.

They arrived at the nurse, ignoring the front office. She perked her head up and Darnell said; "Please call 911, my friend is suffering from blood loss and I don't want him to die."

"Alright, calling them now. Please set him on the bed." The nurse said, running to the phone and dialing 911. While she waited for them to pick up, she quickly asked the two of them; "Check his pulse, do you know how to do that?"

Darnell nodded and placed two fingers on the side of Keith's neck, waiting for a heartbeat. There was one, although really faint and slow.

"There is a heartbeat, it's slow.." Darnell said. The nurse nodded as she talked to 911, who were on their way.

She placed the phone down, reminding them that they are coming in less than 5 minutes. Eventually, they heard the sirens and the nurse signaled them to bring him outside. The two saw doctors bringing in the medical bed. He gently laid Keith down, while the doctors bring him to the ambulance, driving to the hospital.

Behind Pico and Darnell, were two girls running towards them. Cherry and Nene, gasped for air as they saw the ambulance drive away.

"Is.. Is Keith okay..?" Cherry said between breaths. Darnell let out an exhausted sigh, he shrugged.

"I hope he's okay, his heartbeat was rather.. slow." Darnell said, trying to explain.

"Didn't you see the blood glitch back?" Nene said, confused. "I swore I wasn't the only one."

"T-There was blood.. I thought I was hallucinating when it disappeared.." Pico crossed his arms. Looking at the ground, kicking a rock. "It turns out I wasn't."

Cherry's face reacted to the sentence Pico said. She thought for a minute or two while the other three talk things out.

"Pico, can you tell me- or us, what happened when Nene and Darnell weren't there?" Cherry said, all the others now looking at Pico.

"Sure.. quite a lot happened though." said Pico. All of them went under a nearby tree, ignoring the fact they were still in school.

"Go ahead, Pico." Cherry said.

"I bumped into Keith unexpectedly while I was trying to go to the bathroom, I was kinda in a bad mood.. well, I was. I shoved Keith into the wall without thinking and it turns out he hit his right arm in the process." Pico sighed. "He even stuck up for himself and used that same arm to fight back, like he didn't even mind that his arm was bleeding."

All of them were silent. Cherry's eye sparked red, staring at Pico dead in the eye.

"I didn't really notice the blood on his sleeve, or on the floor until he mentioned about it. It triggered, if he didn't tell you." Pico said, looking down in shame.

"H-He told me that he was asleep for a whole day, he was in distress.. he kept blabbering about how I opened up his wound, which he had a right to say those things.." He continued, tears welling up in his eyes. "Then I heard.. her."

"Who's 'her'?" Cherry questioned.

"The person who traumatized him." Nene blurted out. Cherry nodded slowly and allowed Pico to continue speaking if he needed to.

"Then Nene and Darnell came, right before I was about to slaughter Keith right on the spot, I think that was when the blood disappeared.." His voice trailed off at the end. "Wait, that could've been a spell." He realized.

"Then why in the world would he.." Cherry muttered. "Was he trying to.. kill himself..?"

"No.. no!! He w-wouldn't.." Pico cried.

"Hey.. Hey, it'll be okay Pico, we can talk to Keith when he's well. We can visit him later, sound good?" Darnell said, the others smiling and agreeing.

"Yeah, that's sounds good. I'm sure he's well and okay," Nene said. "He's recovering slowly."

Cherry hummed in response, and Nene's face lit up as an idea popped in her head.

"Hey guys, what if we skip class today and get some gifts for Keith?" Nene exclaimed, "We can visit him later."

"Wait he going to the hospital he went to last time?" Darnell asked.

"I'm pretty sure, let's get our bags and get the hell outta here!" Nene yelled. "Meet up here when y'all are done."

Everyone was at the same spot after 10 minutes, except for Pico. Nene sat down and leaned her head on the tree trunk, on her phone.

Five minutes later he arrived, making Nene sigh and stand up.

"What took you so long?" Nene exclaimed.

Pico scoffed, "Stupid teachers."

All of them sat in uncomfortable silence before it was ruined. Cherry suddenly stood up and aggressively put her phone in her bag and put both hands on her hips in a sarcastic manner.

"Well?" Cherry said, "Lets go!"

The rest stood up one by one before Darnell let out an "oh."

"What is it?" Nene said.

"Are we gonna.. walk?" Darnell asked.

"What does it look like to you?" Cherry chuckled.

"Fucking nuts."

That whole afternoon, all four of them headed to several stores and each one of them bought Keith a special gift. Some of them were wholesome, some of them were just funny decorations to lighten up the mood. As for Pico, he bought him roses and a couple other gifts.

"Pico this isn't Valentine's day." Darnell teased, grabbing random baby accessories from the isle. Pico rolled his eyes and continued looking for a bag to fit the things he got.

Cherry and Nene on the other hand, found a blue bunny squishmallow and the two had a quick argument on who should give it to him. In the end, Cherry ended up being the one giving the squishmallow to him. Nene then explored other isles and found microphones. She decided to get one of the microphones that already had a speaker attached to it.

A few more hours passed by, and school already ended. It was evening and they purchased everything they got for Keith. They all decided to go to Pico's place to wrap up the gifts and make little positive letters to go with.

As much as Pico wanted him back, safe and sound with him in his arms. He missed him, so much. As he saw Cherry pack up the bunny squishmallow, it reminded him of his cute face, the time where he was with the baby bunnies in the forest.. those times.

It's all fine, he thought. He would be back in a few more days.. they all thought. They know Keith is fighting for his life.

And, what they don't know?

When, will he wake up?