When the Universe Began [A Blackmadhi Fantasy AU]

Chapter Thirty-Four

Nahyuta was awoken suddenly in the middle of the night by someone grabbing him into their arms. He did not appreciate this, he wanted to sleep, not be rudely awakened. Oh Holy Mother, this grip was tight. Struggling, Nahyuta managed to roll over. Oh thank goodness, it was just Simon. He'd scared him, waking him up so suddenly like that. He seemed to still be asleep, so Nahyuta gently patted his face, trying to get him to wake up. If he didn't stop this soon, he was going to stop breathing.

"...mmm, what do you need Yuty?" Simon mumbled as he woke up, brushing strands of hair off Nahyuta's face. Did he know that he hated that nickname? No, he supposed he wouldn't. He'd probably picked it up from Apollo or something.

"Please loosen your grip Simon, I can barely breath." Nahyuta said, blushing and pulling his hand back from his cheek. He immediately loosened his grip and Nahyuta snuggled into his shoulder. Simon was always so... warm. He'd probably get mad at him if he said that, so he kept his mouth shut and let himself drift back off to sleep. Simon...

~~~

When Nahyuta woke up again, Simon was surprisingly still asleep. Well that was a shock, he never woke up before him. He just seemed so exhausted, his encounter last night must have really taken it out of him. He hadn't slept much to begin with, so these last few days of his investigation had to have been draining. Would it be too out of character for Nahyuta to do something nice for him? He probably needed it, he'd done so much for him, but he had never gotten the chance to properly thank him or pay him back. That settled it, he was going to do something nice for Simon. But what? He slipped quietly out of bed, putting on a pair of slippers that he never got to use. He opened and closed the door quietly so Simon wouldn't wake up, padding down to the kitchens. Apollo would be able to help him figure out what I could do for Simon, he'd always been able to help before when Nahyuta was confused or unsure of himself. He wandered to the pantry, searching for his friend. Oh there he was. He seemed to be gathering ingredients for the day's baking, sniffing them to check if they were good to use.

"Is that really the best way to check if they're good?" Nahyuta asked, sneaking up behind him and making him scream. Would it kill him to learn how to use volume control? Damn his Chords of Steel.

"Geez, you scared me Nahyuta. What are you doing down here? Shouldn't you still be asleep?" Apollo said, yawning and throwing a handful of flour at Nahyuta's face. He stood there, shocked that he would throw flour at his prince but then laughing because it reminded him of back when they were children. Good thing Nahyuta didn't have a bag of flour as well, they'd probably end up getting into a flour throwing fight right there if he did. Apollo laughed as well, rubbing a bit of the white powder off Nahyuta's nose. Always the big brother.

"I came down here because I need to ask you something..." Nahyuta blushed, rubbing the back of his neck. Apollo didn't miss this tell and his eyes immediately filled with worry.

"Go ahead then, I'm here to listen to your worries whenever you need me to." It was nice that Apollo was always such a supportive big brother, thank the Holy Mother for that. Nahyuta didn't have any real family members that he could talk to about these sort of things... Apollo was it.

"I... want to do something nice for Simon. He's been... really stressed recently, he needs it."

"Trust me I know he's been stressed, it's been the reason I've been avoiding your room for the past few days. Sorry about that, I just didn't want to pick up on his tells. If I did, I'd want to help him but I can't even deal with my own trauma, how could I help with his? You know?" Nahyuta nodded, pretending that he had understood a single word he'd just said. Apollo's heart was probably even more burdened than Simon's, given the story behind his scar- Nahyuta was just guessing here, he adamantly refused to tell him anything about it.