Innerworks

4. Summons

Stairs hurt like hell man

..................................................................................

Fwip

Psh

BANG!

"Gah!..hnn...-what the?!"


"Anxiety?"

The personality squinted at him, from his curled position on the stairs.

"Thomas? What the hell?"

....

"I'm so sorry I didn't mean to! It's just that everyone was so worried about you and I didn't know what was happening to you a-and I didn't mean to summon you!

Somehow Thomas had managed to summon Anxiety, straight out of his bed and straight onto the stairway, hard. The sick personality was dragged out with cold cloth, black sheets, pillow and all.

The pillow had landed just a bit above Anxiety's head, while parts of the sheet were splayed out beneath him, the other portions were wrapped around his leg and hip. No part of the sheet covered his face, so his expressions could clearly be seen, tired, sweaty, sick, and in pain.

Currently Anxiety was curled up, holding the back of his head and groaning, Thomas winced, there was no way that didn't hurt.

"Hnn...yeah well, thanks for the concussion-"

"I'm sorry, let me jus-"


"Wait-", Anxiety squeezed his eyes shut.


Thomas froze on the spot, looking nothing but the epitome of guilty.

"The room's spinning", he groaned, head lying back he tried his best to get comfortable enough, with limited movement, while waiting for the room to stop doing its mimic of the goddamn washing machine.

The Manifestor sighed silently in relief, Anxiety wasn't mad- well too mad at him, he hoped.

----

Anxiety groaned again, usually he wasn't so vocal when it came to pain, he'd hush up and take it, but he was tired, his brain felt heavy and everything freaking hurt.

Thomas was in front of him, this was their first meeting since the incident, not the best of conditions but right now he could care less.

Speaking of, he was sure he dreamt of the incident and Prince had somehow managed to pull him away from the worst part, he was shaken but he just couldn't move, he couldn't open his eyes, his body and mind just felt drained.

The next thing he knew, his eyes were open and he could move, into the fetal position, yeah, a staircase to the back of the head would do that to you.

He didn't know when Thomas had moved but he came back with a bucket, he barely had time to sit up grab it when his stomach decided to heave the non-existent food within.

Having not eaten anything since yesterday all that came up was thick, acrid bile.

------

Thomas was feeling guiltier and guiltier, Anxiety groaned once more, eyes closed, semi curled and swallowing thickly, he had opened his eyes once or twice but they were blank-no dazed and his dizziness could be seen quite clearly in them.

He jumped when the personality's body jolted a bit, Anxiety groaned again and swallowed, Thomas instantly knew what was going to happen, taking the blue cold cloth from the part of the stairs it had fallen.

The boy ran to the kitchen, rinsing out the cloth and grabbing a bucket from under - where ever he got it from and rushed back, and not a moment too soon either, the second he got there Anxiety sat up, took the bucket and heaved.

The sounds of gagging and retching caused Thomas to winced again, he hated being sick because it always got this bad, sighing he left, he knew Anxiety wasn't one for contact, so he couldn't do much for comfort.

-----

After a few good minutes of dry heaving, his stomach finally realized it was empty, groaning he spat into the bucket, the taste of bile was awful.

He then blinked as Thomas appeared with a water bottle, mumbling a small "thanks", he took it and rinsed his mouth, before spitting the water into the bucket.

Thomas moved the bucket into the flat corner way of the stairs so it wouldn't get in the way, groaning again he let his head fall back, his small movement pulled the sheet which in turn pulled the pillow right under his head at that precise second, ok gravity, a point goes to you.


Sighing into the pillow with his eyes closed, he could feel Thomas placing the cold cloth on his forehead, he opened one eye to look at the boy.

Thomas had a question.

----

"Can you go back?"

"That would require both energy and concentration, two things I don't have right now"

"Wait, it takes energy to 'sink down' ?"

Anxiety sat up slightly and gave him an incredulous look.

"We literally leave the plane of physical existence"

"Oh, right, I forgot about that", he chuckled, "sometimes I forget how this whole Manifestor thing works"

Anxiety rolled his eyes, "Logic wrote a book about it I think"

He shrugged a bit before laying back on the pillow with his eyes closed, but if you looked closely, there was a small up tilt of his lips, Thomas happened to be just close enough.

The Manifestor smiled, this was just like how they were before the incident, ever since the whole Disney thing, Anxiety's been rather...pleasant?

Well as pleasant as Anxiety can get at least, he still brought that cold, unnerving, sinking feeling with him but his words had less of a bite.

Words went from "something's going to get you" to "if you don't close that closet door something will get you", it's Anxiety what did you expect?

He was still snarky as usual and downright savage when he wanted to be but he'd been getting along with the other personalities quite well, heck he had even started to get along with Lilly as odd as that would seem.

Being a fellow Manifestor, IISuperwomanII and Thomas were in contact quite a bit, usually Thomas would ask her about her busy day and she'd ask him how they were doing (him and his personalities of course).

As Lilly was the older Manifestor, Thomas would sometimes ask her for advice when it came to his personalities, hence the 'Battling Anxiety' video came out.

Anxiety and Lilly actually became- well they weren't friends, uh-well they could tolerate the other for longer than they did before? Thomas wasn't really sure.

All he knew was that one day Lilly was watching Anxiety's favorite movie with him and he had pre-ordered her book, but that's a story for a different time.

Blinking out of his odd trance, Thomas looked to his side, and there was Anxiety, battling with his eye-lids, so far the personality was losing.

Thomas winced for probably the third time today, the fever was obviously still plaguing the other and he could practically feel Anxiety's exhaustion.

"Hey"

Anxiety opened one bleary eye.

"Hmm?" Mumbled the personality sleepily.

"Since you can't get back, why don't you just stay on the couch? It's much more comfortable than the stairs"

Nodding tiredly, Anxiety stood up, albeit shakily, grabbed his pillow and the edge of his sheet Thomas stood up as well.

He moved the bucket out of the way, he would have to wash it out as soon as Anxiety was settled, the high smell of bile was starting to get to him.

-----

Gently Thomas assisted him to the couch, it wasn't a far distance at all, but with the fever and the fact that he was ready to drop, made the mere two-three feet feel like a marathon to Anxiety.

The personality hazily realized that this was the first time since the incident that he had contact with his host, looking down he could see the bandages that were wrapped around his left hand, the poor guy probably couldn't write much less eat properly.

He wanted to feel guilty but he was tired and Thomas had picked that exact moment to look up at him with a reassuring smile, sighing he nodded, slight and jerky, but continued trudging.

They moved ever so slowly, Anxiety with his pillow clutched in his arm and the sheet trailing behind him like a huge ebony cape.

Once at the couch, he threw down the pillow and flopped unceremoniously onto the couch with a 'PAUF'.

Thomas couldn't help but chuckle, after Anxiety found a comfortable position, he then realized that his sheet wasn't covering him, trying and stretching to reach the other end of the sheet without moving from the comfort spot was proving to be rather difficult for the personality.

Finally giving in to the tiny whines that Anxiety probably didn't even know he was making, Thomas reached down and covered the other with the sheet. Seemingly satisfied with the sheet, Anxiety closed his eyes and drifted off to sleep.

"Wish I could fall asleep that fast", murmured Thomas.

Anxiety opened one eye.

"Same"

------

"He likes it when you play with his hair"

Thomas jumped at Prince's words, it had been a good hour before Anxiety had finally fallen asleep.

He had been sitting on the handle of the couch, watching a TV sho-well not really, the show was droning on in the background, he was busy worrying about his sick personality.

As a host his personalities were his responsibility and vice versa, the personalities were to protect their host.

Shrugging at Prince's random and not-so-subtle suggestion, he gently ran his fingers through Anxiety's hair, it was far softer than his own, not fair.

Anxiety sighed in his sleep and leaned to the touch. Seeing this Thomas smiled and continued, he'd be alright.

-----

"You think they'll be ok?"

"It would seem so Morality"

"Here's hoping they do", whispered Prince.


Logic and Morality were sitting next to each other while he was sitting on the arm of their couch. Their couch was adjacent to the one Thomas and Anxiety were asleep in.

Anxiety woken up for a brief moment and some way or another he ended up on Thomas' lap and both of them had drifted off.

The other personalities, Morality and Logic popped in right after they had fallen asleep.

Dad took a picture.

-----

AN:// Aaaay, I actually made it fluffy, hehe just wait till the next update ;)