Above and Through it All (Kellic)

Chapter Seven.

Time skip of about five hours.

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The thunder finally faded from the night air, leaving us with a ringing silence that was almost tangible. Vic had ended up curled tightly into a ball on my bed, his breathing ragged and shallow. I collapsed into the overstuffed armchair in the corner of my room, completely exhausted. There was no reason that I should have felt so drained, other than the fact that I had spent until almost two in the morning trying to ride with Vic through the waves of fear and tears. He had clung to me like a lifeline, not relenting his grip until almost an entire hour after the last roll of thunder pierced the night air.

I laid my head back against the backing of the chair, sighing deeply as Vic's ragged breathing finally began to even out. Shit. Mike. He was in the next room over, probably having a heart attack or something awful, and neither Vic or I had thought about him. I picked my way around my room, being sure not to trip over the haphazard pile of clothes on my floor. As the door swung open, I heard the bed creak behind me and I silently cursed myself and my heavy footsteps.

"Kellin?" Vic's voice was an octave deeper than normal and much more gravely. I froze and turned to look at him, finding him sitting up and rubbing his eyes with his fists like a little kid. Damn it, but he was cute. "Where are you going?" He muttered, the words more of a slur.

"I'm going to check on Mike." I said softly, walking over to him and kissing his forehead. He smiled tiredly as he looked up at me, his brown eyes dull and bloodshot. I felt so bad for him. I'd never seen anyone as affected by the thunder as he was.

"Mmkay." He murmured, falling back down onto the bed and closing his eyes. He muttered something else that sounded like... No, he didn't say that. It was only a noise he made that I was manipulating in my mind to make it sound like he said... No.

I left the room a lot more silently than I had the first time, crossing the hall and easing Mike's door open slowly, wincing as the aged hinges squealed in protest.

"Mike?" I whispered into the darkness, hearing something rustling around to my right. I couldn't tell if it was Mike rolling around in bed or... I didn't have a chance to finish the thought before I was enveloped in a mass of fur and claws. One of the cats. Fucking brilliant. I suppressed every urge I had to spit and curse the wretched animal, instead removing its claws from my face and putting it down, watching it streak into the darkness of the hallway. I eased the door open further and stepped inside, groping for the light switch. The light flickered on tiredly once my fingers found it, illuminating the rather clean room, and Mike, sound asleep in the centre of the spare bed. He looked like a little kid, with his hair strewn about him like a halo, his breathing deep and even, like he didn't have a sorry thought in the world.

"Mike." I said softly, feeling quite terrible as he turned over in the bed, his eyes fluttering open and his gaze coming to a confused rest on me.

"K-Kellin?" His voice even sounded like a little kid's, a bit higher and much more innocent.

"Are you alright? There was a thunder event." I said, not stepping any closer to him than where I was in the doorway. He looked around, really confused now, and nodded.

"I'm fine. There was thunder?" He raked his hand through the gnarled mess of hair atop his head and yawned.

"Yes. Go back to sleep." Well, that was a relief. I watched Mike lay back down before turning away and stepping out of the room, my hand hovering over the light switch.

"Wait, Kellin." Mike's voice sounded more awake and more than a little bit worried. I turned around and looked at him through the doorway.

"Yeah?"