ﾟ･stars were made for falling ﾟ･ (original)

16- the goat's dagger

It was a little over a week when Aldrich finally reached out again, leaving eight long days in between the Arrow and the next trip. During that time, Leo's nightmares only seemed to get worse and worse, waking both him and Casper up almost every night that week. And every time he woke up in a cold sweat, hearing Casper grumble and sit up, without much thought, Leo would start apologizing, begging for Casper to not worry, and to go back to sleep. And every single time, Casper would shoot him down, stubbornly shaking his head and sitting on the foot of Leo's bed.

"No use in trying to sleep now, you've already got me to move and everything. Besides, I'm used to being woken up by now." He would laugh to himself, shaking his head a little as he added, "I probably deserve it, all the times I would wake Percy up when we first moved. As much noise as you make though, I'm surprised the whole house doesn't come running in to check on you."

"But I don't mean to wake you up, really," Leo would stammer, fingers still digging into the edge of his blanket with an iron grip. "It's my problem, not yours, I should be able to deal with it on my own-"

"Oh, shut the fuck up, will you?" Casper wouldn't even look at him, head reclining against the wall. "It's my problem because I said it's my problem. We've been doing this for long enough, I don't care anymore. And besides, I know you'd do the same for me. Otherwise, I'd just ignore you."

And then Leo would shut up, laying back down as he watched Casper absentmindedly trace his fingers over the top of his blanket, or hum to himself. He never got Casper to sing again, though, of course, he didn't ask him to- the thought was mortifying. Still, whenever he would hum, it was the same melody as before, the one that brought with it an odd comfort that automatically made Leo feel sleepy again. Even without the humming, the simple act of being there was enough for Leo, and would usually put him back to sleep pretty quickly.

And during the day, they would usually just do their chores, like they normally would, talking occasionally, but also sometimes working in comfortable silence. Truly it amazed Leo how easily they tended to get along now, how familiar Casper seemed to him, despite only knowing him for a month or so. Something about his personality, once Leo was used to it, was so routine to him that he came to rely on it.

Casper was hardly ever gentle or nice to anyone, obviously, but when those few moments did happen, those small glimpses of compassion- those more than anything, were alien to Leo. He almost preferred the snarkiness, the sarcasm, the tendency to poke fun at himself or other people, because something about the random tenderness scared him more than he could really understand. And the worst part about it was that he wasn't sure if he enjoyed that fear or not.

As the days wore on, a cold front seemed to pass through, making the whole house much colder. Miles took to wearing a coat around the house, while Liz simply seemed to flourish in it, often wearing short sleeves and seeming to bask in the chill. Ivan's mood also seemed to improve, with him commenting a lot about how the weather was "finally getting nice." Halley was relatively unaffected, though she didn't seem to like it very much, preferring heat but not being affected too much by the chill. The only people who seemed to loathe the change were Leo and Casper, who also took to wearing coats inside.

Casper took it a step further, wearing gloves and socks constantly as well, glowering at Liz's joy every chance he got. He never said anything to her about it, as they still weren't on speaking terms, but Leo got to hear it as soon as she left earshot.

"Parading around in her fucking summer clothes, what has gotten into her?" They were out in the barn when this rant began, with Casper aggressively sweeping the floor, while Leo quietly watched the sheep and goats from the doorway. Cola sat close by Leo, watching Casper with a similarly concerned look.