Three Years

Chapter Thirteen - Terminus

Hello guys!

Terribly long time no see, right? I start to feel sick of saying it every time, but once again, I'm terribly sorry for this delay. A bunch of exams, some important projects to work on, events and projects to work on both on fandoms and IRL, and a huge loss of motivation, and here we go with a too-long delay.

And unfortunately, it will not go better. I am terribly late on my planning for the future of this fanfic, and I need to write more chapters in advance so there will not be delays anymore for part two. Additionally, I have an internship abroad from the second half of January to the end of February, with at least two weeks when I will not be able to write at all. So this time, I don't want to make you all wait in vain. It's why this fanfic enters in a three months hiatus: the next chapter will not come in two weeks, but will be uploading the Saturday 14th March.

Well, let's have good news at least? With this chapter, part one, Kalos, is officially finish. And for the one that may want to participate in the little game "let's guess the title of part two", as nobody participated previously, you still have until the 14th Match to participate, and if you find the right answer, you can win the right to see the cover of part two before anyone else and a fanart of two characters of your choice!

With those last words, let's finally go to the chapter. And thanks to Hilda who beta-read it.

oOo

     The sun rays warmed X's face. He frowned, moaning because of the inconvenience, before slowly opening his eyes. The room's curtains were not dull, and at this time of the day, they did not protect at all from the outside light. Which was certainly a shame. The boy was tired. Groggy. Sleepy. He looked at the alarm clock. 4 PM. Why was he sleeping at this time of this day? His senses started to come back. He tried to move a bit, but the stiffness made him stop. His body was so heavy. His muscles had no strength, they were full of tiredness and pain. And if it was only that! Breathing hurt. At each inhalation, exhalation, his nose burnt, as if a poison Pokémon had decided to live in his nasal cavities. His saliva had a nasty taste, and he felt nauseous. He tried to close his eyes, but the pain was too intense, and even if he felt that he had to sleep, he simply could not.

     He sighed. So it was that? He was not really surprised that his body itself was giving up. Those last days, he had run, fight, travel, and even if he got some rest, it was apparently not enough. He had ignored his physical health, and now he had to pay the price of it. And jumping in the cold river as he did a few hours ago, it was too much to handle. Or was it only a few hours ago? Did he sleep a few hours or a whole day? He had no idea. He knew only that he was tired, and that his body hurt, hurt as it rarely did before.

     With an expression full of pain on his face, he tried to sit down. Once. Twice. Thrice. He finally succeeded. At this moment, he convulsed, his chest agitated by retching. He difficultly retained a nasty liquid to come inside his mouth. Pause. Inhale. Exhale. Calm down. Inhale. Exhale. Focus. It took a few minutes, but the nauseous feeling slightly disappears. He still felt bad, but it was supportable. Now, he had to try a perilous task.

     Try to stand down, and leave his bed.

     No matter how many times it would take, he had to try. Even if he had to decompose every one of his movements. Even if he had to stop every time the pain would be too much to handle. Even if the nauseous feeling kept coming at random moments. After a long moment, his feet finally touched the ground. He just had to leave the bed, to stand up...

     As soon that he was up, he was seized by dizziness. His legs were shaking, and as soon that he tried to make one, only one step, his limbs gave out. The ground came closer and closer to his face, and if without his reflex which clung to the night table, he would have fallen miserably on the ground. But everything comes with a price. In this case, the glass vase on the furniture item landed up violently on the parquet. The water stretched out, soaking his feet. The wet flowers were miserably standing in the middle of it, their petals gently flapping. The sound of the broken glass still resonated in X's head, giving him a bad headache, and making his nausea to come back. He had to go to the toilet, because he was sure that if he stayed here, an accident will quickly happen. His legs were shaking even more violently than before. Would he arrive at the toilets safely?