La Sombra [Ben Hargreeves]

Side Effects = No Good

I woke up feeling like crap. My body was aching and my joints hurt. My head felt like someone stuffed it with cotton balls and then proceeded to hit it with a hammer. Nausea was my enemy this morning. It didn't help that someone was shaking me to wake me up.

"Mami!" Milo dragged out. "I think somethings wrong with Appa..."

"What do you mean, mi amor?" I groaned out, forcing myself to wake up.

"Re-remember my bedtime stories about you and Appa having powers?" Milo fiddled with his fingers, glancing over his shoulder to look at where Ben was lying. "Appa has tenta-tenti...octopus arms. He has those, but-but I don't know how if they were just bedtime stories."

"What do you mean?" I quickly sat up, pushing back my pounding headache. The room turned a monochrome black and I felt lighter. "Oh, shiitake mushrooms."

"Uh...Mami? Where did you go?" Milo's voice was laced with panic. "Mami?"

Looking around, realized I was in the shadows standing up near the door. I went into the shadows accidentally. Milo was frantically looking around his eyes getting watery. Ben was still asleep, but his body moved toward Milo as if he knew he was upset. It looked like he was trying to wake up. A swirl of emotions overwhelmed me. I took a shaky breath. Forcing down the nausea, I appeared next to the wall. I stumbled and placed a hand on the wall.

Milo's eyes widened. Ben let out a groan from his side of the bed, his face twisting in discomfort. My mouth dropped as I saw two familiar tentacles hanging off of the bed. However, instead of the tentacles coming from Ben's stomach, they were coming from his back.

"Wait, are the bedtime stories real!?" Milo jumped up and down on the bed with excitement. Ben groaned, grabbing his pillow and putting his over his face. "Are you and Appa superheroes?"

"I feel like crap." Ben's voice was muffled by the pillow.

"This is your fault." I grumbled to Ben as Milo raved about us having secret identities. "You're calling the family meeting."

Ben grumbled. One of his tentacles grabbed a pillow and threw it at my face. I bit back a curse knowing Milo was with us. Milo hopped off the bed and came over to me. A large smile was on his face.

"So is it true? All of those stories you told me about?"

"Yeah, they're true." I gave a small nod. Milo fist pumped the air and did a happy dance. I breathed out a chuckle when he tripped on the rug. I caught him before he fell face first. His stomach growled. Milo stood up and looked down at his stomach. "How about I make those migas and we can call Claire to see if she can babysit you today?"

"But I'm not a baby, Mami." Milo whined as the both of us started to walk to the kitchen.

"You're right, you are not. I apologize." I gave him a teasing smile. There was a loud thump followed by a yelp. I stifled a laughed. Ben probably fell off of the bed. "Benjamin, you're texting everyone to meet at Luther's!"