Unknown Sencen {DISCONTINUED}

Stress

Your POV

I woke up with Tam still asleep and hugging me tight. I smile and somehow manage to escape his hold without waking him up. I get ready for Foxfire, since it is the dreadful day of Monday, and go downstairs to get something to eat. I find myself wondering what Tam confessed in the "therapy" session with Tiergan. What could have been so bad that he cried so much? I figure Tiergan will say it's not his thing to tell and I don't know if Tam will ever be able to talk about it. I'll ask Linh at some point. Speaking of, she comes down write now, also ready for Foxfire. I go up to Tam's room, since it's highly likely that he's still asleep, with Linh behind me. We had the fun idea to wake Tam up using water. Linh puts the water into a ball on top of Tam's head as I just stand by to make sure he doesn't kill her. She releases it over his head, and it splashes him, successfully waking him up. 

"LINH!!" he yells. I laugh and push Linh out the door. 

"Go, go, go!" I say hurriedly.

"COME BACK HERE!!" he yells. I laugh again as Linh and I take the steps two steps at a time to get to the Leapmaster.

"SEE YOU AT FOXFIRE!!!" I yell down to Tam.

"Y/N!!!" he yells. We gather our concentration and leap as Tam arrives at the top. We arrive on campus and start laughing our heads off.

"What's got you two so joyous?" Keefe asks as he arrives with Sophie. 

"We woke Tam up by splashing water on his face and his reaction was perfect," Linh manages to explain through her laughter and gasps for breath. Keefe busts out laughing.

"I'm the only mature one in our entire group," Sophie mutters and walks off. Us three are all laughing incredibly hard as we enter the actual building for orientation. Tam arrives and we know this because the whole place darkens. He is not happy, which makes Keefe and I shut up in the Level Six area. 

"It randomly got a whole lot darker. What did you do to Tam?" Fitz asks as he approaches us.

"Linh and I may or may not have woken him up by splashing him in the fac with water," I respond sheepishly. Fitz sighs and shakes his head.

"At least you three are all in separate levels," Keefe says, trying to lighten the mood. Ironic, since the whole place is literally darkened.

"I'm more worried about Tam than I am Linh or I. Yesterday, when we got back to Solreef after talking some sense into the Councilors, we found him on the floor with tearstained cheeks and Tiergan comforting him. When I asked Tam about it, he just said he didn't want to talk about it and we went to sleep. I'm worried this is making things worse," I vent. Keefe hugs me and I struggle to hold in my tears. Just then, Magnate Leto appears and starts talking to the students, as always starting with "you kids." I arrive at my first class, which I realize is elementalism. Fun. Especially since I know the Councilors will not let me anywhere near fire. As I expected, it's really cold in the classroom and we're bottling tornadoes from the cold front. By the end, I'm shivering and barely managed to catch one tornado because of how cold I was. I arrive at lunch and Tam notices how cold I look. He wraps his arms around me and helps to warm me up.

"If I got that cold in that classroom, I don't know how the Mentor didn't freeze to death," I hiss as I grab some cinnacreme.

"Damn. That must have been bad," Tam says. He seems out of it.

"Are you alright? You don't seem all here."

"I'm fine. Just a lot on my mind," he responds. I know there's more to it, but I don't press on. I look at my schedule and see I have Shade training with Tam. We walk together once the bell rings and make our way to the classroom. We enter and Lady Zillah instantly notices something off. She gasps when she sees Tam's eyes. He quickly tugs on his bangs to hide it.

"What?" I ask.

"You're stressed, Tam. Why?" she says.

"I thought you were a Shade?" he asks, clearly just as confused as I am.

"Rarely will you catch a Shade whose eyes darken with their mood. It appears you have this condition. Your eyes are pitch black, meaning you are really stressed about something. Sit down let's talk," she explains.

"Great. Another therapy session," Tam mutters as he sits down. I sit down too.

"What's got you so stressed?" she asks.

"A lot of things, actually. I don't really want to talk about it, though," he responds.

"Talking about it will make you feel better," she presses.

"NO! It won't! All it will do is make me a sobbing mess on the ground as I think about how shitty my life has been since Exhillium!" he snaps and storms out of the room as the whole room gets darker. My eyes widen in shock. Something is wrong. I just need to figure out what?

"Homework for you, Y/n," Lady Zillah says. "Get him to open up. Tell you what he's feeling. Find some way to help him through it. We won't bring this up again in this room or any other room here at Foxfire. I'll be able to check your progress through his eyes. If you can get them back to the silver-blue by midterms, you pass immediately. We need him to be less stressed if we want him to stay in any classes. Also quite possibly, on this planet. God knows what he'll do when he reaches his true breaking point. Keep an eye on him and make sure he doesn't break." I nod and run off to find Tam. He's in Keefe's ditching spot and Keefe's comforting him as he cries.

"I don't know why I'm so pissed off at the world now. I was fine a couple days ago. I saw those damn scars, and everything's been downhill since. Everything seems to make me blow up. I don't know what I'll do if I accidentally hurt one of them. I wouldn't be able to live with myself. If something happened to either of them..." Tam trails off into another round of relentless sobs. Keefe notices me then. I give him a look that asks if I can go over to them. He nods slightly and I move forward and hug Tam. He cries into my shoulder.

"It's alright, Tam. We've all been through moments where we just feel helpless. The truth is, you're not. Just you being here and alive lights up my day. Admittedly, seeing you so stressed is worrying me, but I know we'll get through because that's what we do, Tam. we persevere through even the hardest parts where we don't think we'll ever get farther. When we think all is lost. We keep fighting because we know we are cared for, loved, and can help, even if it's just a little bit. I'm here with you every step of the way and I will never leave. Because I love you, Tam. And this probably sounds like some sappy, romantic movie shit, but it's the truth. I love you and if you don't trust me or yourself enough to tell me what's going on in your head, then that's alright. I'll be patient with you. And I'll never leave," I comfort him.

"That was the most heartwarming speech ever," Keefe says with tears in his eyes.

"I love you, too, Y/n. But I'm not ready to spill everything again. Not yet, at least. It's really tough and it sends me spiraling. I don't want to keep it from you. I really don't. But I physically can't take it right now. I'll tell you in time, but right now I just want to go home," he says. I nod and help him up.

"Couple goals," Keefe says.

"You have all of this and more with Sophie so shut up," Tam and I say in unison. Keefe laughs and walks off to study hall.

"One more hour of torture. Then we're free for the day," I say as Tam and I walk to study hall.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

A/N: Two chapters in a little over an hour! It just started flowing and I'm both opposed to it and not opposed to it because it means I'm out of writer's block but also now probably going to be sleep deprived. Love y'all!