Insomniacs (#1)

78. insomniacs

final little chapter, before the epilogue <3

Aria.

I shift and move my leg to sling it over his waist. Instead of his skin, I feel the bedsheet underneath my legs and reach out my arm instead, eyes still shut as I groan.

When I feel nothing, I shoot up. So fast that it makes me dizzy and my eyes frantically land on the empty bed besides me. He's not here. He isn't here.

I look around the large expanse of my room and see nobody so on shaky legs, I stand and rush out. My heart's suddenly pounding too fast as I'm making my way down the hallway, scouring. He's gone. Have I lost hi-

My eyes turn to Miguel's room and the small crack that's open. I rush over and beg, hope that he's there but just as I am to shove open the door, I see him.

I relax, pressing a hand to my thundering heart.

He's here.

I watch through the small crack as he sits by a sleeping Miguel, a book in his hand. Miguel's book, the one he had gifted to him. I take in the sight of him to try and relieve the momentary fear that had consumed me. I'm gonna have to work on that.

Luca flips a page and reads whatever is written in there. I want to walk in and scold him for invading Miguel's privacy but he looks enamoured by whatever it is he's reading. Miguel hasn't seen Lu yet, not when we returned so late and he was already asleep.

I look at Luca. Take him in. Despite how I'd had all night to, it doesn't feel like enough. Even if I trapped him in my embrace forevermore, I don't think it'd suffice.

I go to walk back to my room but halt when I hear the ruffling of the sheets and see Miguel stir from his sleep. Luca tenses, resting the book on the bedside table and looking down to his little brother.

Nerves rattle through me, for some reason. But I don't know how Miguel's gonna react. All I do know is how dearly he missed his brother all this time.

I can see Luca's uncertainty but he has no time to dwell because Miguel's eyes flit open lazily. He stretches for a moment and then I watch his eyes land on his brother.

"Jesus! Fucking shit!" He shrieks and shoots off the bed so fast that he falls right on his ass.

Well. That wasn't what I was expecting. And now, I have to slap a hand over my mouth to keep from laughing.

"Sorry- shit, sorry." Luca shoots up off the bed now, both of them a distance apart in the dark. Miguel scrambles up off the floor and as far away as he can get, fear written all over his face.

"Oh god. Oh shit, I knew I shouldn't have smoked that cigarette. But I'm- nicotine can cause hallucinations? I'm going to die." He rambles, eyes wide.

He what?

"You what?" Luca snaps, angry in an instant, "You smoked? What the fuck were you thinking?!"

Miguel doesn't flinch. He just tilts his head slowly, eyebrows furrowed in an examining way where he's backed up against the wall, "Huh. That sounds annoyingly like Lu. Great. So I'm literally dying."

"You're not dying." Luca barks and moves past the elephant in the room, being him, and instead asks, "Whose cigarette did you smoke, you shit? I die for a bit and you think you can get away with that?"

Miguel's eyes slowly widen. And then he's blinking back at his brother, "You look like an angry elf." He breathes out as if he's come to some sort of realisation. Me and Luca have the same perplexed looks on our faces until Miguel clarifies, "Only Luca looks like an angry elf."