Empath

Chapter 7

Chapter 7

On the fourth morning, Al was awoken by a strange groaning sound. He sat up, rubbed his bleary eyes, and looked around. He realized the sound was coming from Yui's bed. More specifically, from Yui. He was still asleep, but he was tossing and turning and making incoherent sounds. His face looked contorted and pained. Al stood up, leaned over, and shook Yui's shoulder firmly. "Hey," he called. "Hey, Yui, wake up!" His strong, deep voice did the trick, and Yui opened his big seafoam eyes. Sweat was dripping from his face. He looked positively confused. He moved his lips a little, but no words came out.

"You were having a nightmare," Al explained.

Yui wasn't awake enough to respond. He rubbed his eyes sleepily and wiped the sweat off of his face with the blanket. He then looked down and acknowledged that he was soaked in sweat. He grabbed the collar of his shirt and pulled at it to air himself out. Al helped him by lifting off his covers. He was a little startled by how much the kid was sweating, considering it was mid-autumn and the air, even indoors, was rather nippy. It must have been quite a bad nightmare to have that effect on his body.

Yui started becoming aware of his surroundings. He realized his heart was pounding terribly. He couldn't remember what the dream was about, and he didn't want to remember. He knew he felt really frightened, and he was still a bit on-edge. He realized he was very hot and wet and overwhelmed. "Could," his voice cracked from dryness, "could you get me some water?"

"'Course," Al replied and quickly left the room.

Yui stripped off all his clammy clothes, including his underwear. He had an outfit to change into in his travel bag, but he wanted to let himself air out for a moment.

"Wah!" He nearly jumped out of his skin when the door opened sooner than he expected. It was more out of leftover anxiety from the nightmare than fear of being seen naked. Al, on the other hand, was so flustered by the full-frontal naked man in front of him that his face turned very red and he nearly dropped the glass of water. He looked away and covered his eyes, before he really got a good look at him.

"Sorry," Al said, as he covered his eyes and held out the glass of water. "I should've knocked."

"It's okay," Yui said, as he picked up a blanket and covered himself with it, more for Al's comfort than his own. "I'm used to strangers seeing me naked." He held the blanket in front of him with one hand and carefully avoided tripping on it as he walked forward to take the cup with the other. He took a generous swig, like he had when he had arrived at Al's house after traveling through the desert. Yui placed the cup on the bedside table. "I'm gonna get dressed," he informed Al.

"Right," Al said. He locked the door and turned to face it. He realized there might not have been much reason to lock the door, since Anabelle had most likely seen Yui naked, but it made Al feel better to have it locked. He didn't want to get caught in between those two.

As Yui got dressed, his eyes wandered around the room, to the posters, games and toys. He didn't know why, but something about the room sickened him all of a sudden. He felt claustrophobic. Like the walls of the small bedroom were trying to close in on him and suffocate him. He felt dizzy and held his head in his hand. "I don't feel so hot," he admitted.

Al turned around cautiously, and saw that Yui was fully dressed. He was wearing a red hoodie and jeans, which were really refreshing for Al to see. He looked like a normal guy for once. "I'll see if I can find you something to eat downstairs," Al offered.

"No," Yui said, "I think I'd rather go out for breakfast. I feel like I need some fresh air."

"Want to go to that café from the other day?"