Finding The Real You - Kaebedo

Chapter XXVIII - Recovery.

Kaeya woke up to a hand on his shoulder? His body was resting against the bed frame, using his forearm for a pillow for his head which was pressed up against the frame. He was still kneeling on the floor, but how long had it been since he had fallen asleep and woken up?

The hand was soft and delicate, if he hadn't known better then it might've lulled him back to sleep. But instead of that, he was wide awake.

He slowly moved back, making space for what he knew was to come.

He pressed his back against the wall, paying great attention to how cold it was, and using it as a distraction to the situation ahead of him.

He felt an arm go around his shoulder, he didn't bother to pay attention to whoever's arm it was. It was slim and long, and had sharp, pointy fingernails?

It was now that Kaeya turned to face them, and somehow, by some stretch of fate, they managed to get Rosaria to come all the way here to support him. No wonder he had enough time to fall asleep..

Kaeya couldn't get himself to speak, just to stare at her with thankfulness. There was a slight flicker of emotion in her eyes, one of support? It would be if that was an emotion.

Kaeya could faintly hear Lisa chanting spells or what sounded like that, it was like his body was there but his mind wasn't. He could barely focus on one thing, redirecting his eyes to the wooden planks on the ground, which were still searching for something to look at. He couldn't explain it, he wanted to watch Albedo but he just wasn't able to.

He felt a light squeeze on his shoulder, one of reassurance maybe? Perhaps it was one to bring him back to reality? Though it didn't work. He felt himself start to blink quicker, as to stop the tears from coming?

Were his eyes blurry because of the tears, or was he just out of it?

White enveloped the room for a short moment, faint traces of purple showing in it, but it disappeared as quickly as it appeared, leaving only a faint glow coming from Albedo.

That faint glow was enough to lift Kaeya's eyes from the floor, why was Albedo glowing? Or was it Lisa's hands? Lisa's silhouette covered Albedo's face, and Barbara's silhouette covered the rest of his body, only exposing his neck.

Kaeya took in all that he could see of Albedo.

The faint glow of purple was coming from the symbol on his neck? Or was it from his body in general? Kaeya wasn't able to see the star from his position, but the glow was brighter around there, and Kaeya hoped it only meant good.

Lisa took a step back, holding onto Barbara's wrist as she also stepped back, still keeping her timid pose.

Albedo started glowing a brighter yellow colour, but in an instant, it seemed to all be sucked back into him, leaving the candle to be the only light source in the room.

Kaeya's body started moving on its own, rushing to Albedo, assuming that the treatment was done.

He knelt down at his side once more, except this time a hand lay on his shoulder, the same hand that had comforted him throughout this whole ordeal.

Kaeya listened to Barbara slowly shuffle out the door, trying to close it without it squeaking, but of course, it did.

Soon another hand came down on his shoulder, one even more delicate. He assumed it to be Lisa's, but he didn't want to investigate it.

Kaeya hummed, testing if he would be able to speak properly, finding that his voice sounded horrendous.

But still, he attempted to croak out a short question.

"Is he okay?"

He kept his eyes glued to Albedo, once again feeling like a scared child, awaiting an answer.

"I.. Hopefully."

Lisa gave an answer, but it wasn't good enough for him. 'Hopefully' wasn't a solid yes, and he needed a yes. He wouldn't be able to live with himself if he let Albedo die, after all Albedo had done for him, he couldn't even help him survive?

With that, he asked another question that he already knew the answer to.

"Can I stay here?"

He propped himself up against the bed frame, ready to stay there the night before the awful sound of something scraping along the floor entered the room.

"I brought a chair for you Kaeya, in case you wanted to stay the night."

That was surprisingly good timing by Barbara, bringing both an answer and a chair at the same time.

"We'll give you some alone time."

Kaeya couldn't be bothered to tell who said what, but he heard the footsteps of the women and finally, the door shut. He was alone again.

Was he really alone? Albedo was there, though he was unconscious.

It was now that Kaeya let all the emotions flow out in the shape of tears, it's not like there's anyone to hear them anyway, right? This way he wouldn't be deemed weak.

He let the process of crying repeat. First, the tears, second, the sobs, third, the pain. His eyes were already puffy, and his headache never went away, so did the pain really repeat? Or did it continue?

It was only now he realised that he'd been sitting on the ground this whole time while there was a chair seemingly right behind him.

He lifted his head, slowly turning it around to see how far away the chair actually was.

It was right beside the door.

The room didn't seem so big when he was running to Albedo, so why couldn't he just get up and get the chair now? Nothing was stopping him, so why couldn't he do it?

Sure, he was tired, but he could still move perfectly fine. He even flexed his fingers to see how well they worked, but for some reason, he couldn't get up.

Was it that he couldn't, or did he not want to? Did he want to stay on the ground? He couldn't think of a reason that he'd want to stay on the cold, hard floor of the room, but his body wouldn't obey his wishes to move.

It was that thought that triggered a chain of thoughts on why he shouldn't move. Why would he need to move? His mind already ignored how uncomfortable the position his body was in was, if he got up he'd wake up his brain too, making the room even more unnerving.

He was perfectly fine just sitting there, but he kept on arguing with his brain on the matter. He wanted to sleep, but his thoughts were keeping him awake.

Everything almost became too confusing for him, but at the last moment, he focused his attention onto something else.

But that something else was Albedo. He was beaten up and bruised, all because he didn't act in time.

He sighed with little emotion, before resting his head back into its original position and attempting sleep.

:)

This is the first time a chapter has been on time for a while, so that's nice? I just skim-read it to proofread it, so there's probably many mistakes and I'll properly read it in the morning, goodnight.

Word count - 1187