Heartbeat (3)

"Shoot" Blank hissed opening his eyes.

He must have fallen asleep at some point. Even though he had promised himself he would watch Royal until Sly's return to make sure nothing happened to him. He couldn't afford to sleep. Blank glanced over at the other side of his large bed where Royal was and froze.

Royal was more pale than a white sheet and unmoving.

"Royal!" he yelped immediately going to check on him but he wasn't responding.

Blank slowly reached out a hand to touch his forehead when he noticed he wasn't breathing. His whole body was ice cold to the touch and unmoving like a statue.

Blank gasped and shot up from his bed looking around with horror only to see a slight rise and fall from the small body that was curled up near him. A dream, just a nightmare.

Blank realized he was shaking as he carefully stroked Royal's head a few times. Then he got up and went over to a cabinet where he kept some bottled drinks. Only after gulping down five coffees did he return to Royal's side. This time he would not fall asleep.

Blank noticed Royal twitching slightly in his sleep. Dreaming of something? Or maybe also a nightmare of some sort. Blank snuggled up next to him.

"Don't worry I'll protect you." Blank whispered.

How did you even protect someone from possible bad dream though? Blank wasn't really sure. He started humming slightly. It took him a few moments to realize it was the odd song Royal has sang before. Something about a firefly?

How did the lyrics even go? Eh no matter he'd just make some new ones for it. But he did remember a few lines.

"If you want to catch a firefly, something something, go learn to fly.

Go and touch the sky, my tiny little firefly.

If you fall from the sky, I will catch you my little firefly.

Um, firefly, go ahead and I will not let you cry."

A small hiccup like sound caught Blank's attention and he looked down.

A pair of blue eyes was watching him with amusement.

"You realize you got like 50% of the words wrong right." Royal's voice sounded a bit horse.

"So what?" Blank replied. "You are your amounts, how do you know I didn't get 51% wrong."

"Wow and here I thought you wanted to be more right instead of wrong." Royal coughed slightly making Blank instantly worried.

"You probably shouldn't talk so much just rest." Blank altered his position on the bed so he could hold Royal's head in his lap.

Royal murmured quietly "A few words won't kill me. Besides I have to correct you before I have to listen to you mutter the wrong lyrics for the rest of my life. It goes like this,

If you feel like you will cry, go and catch a firefly, If you want to touch the sky, grow a pair of wings and fly. And tell me, tell me, what does it mean to you. My little firefly don't you dare go and cry. My tiny little firefly, I will catch you as you learn to fly. So don't give up on the sky. Don't you dare make me cry my tiny little firefly."

"I could of gotten that right... eventually" muttered Blank.

Royal let out a slight laugh "Yeah right, you were actually only like 82% wrong. The song has to do with chasing your dreams and that's only a small piece of it."

Royal started coughing again and Blank immediately made him stop talking. "Idiot he muttered. You can talk all you want after Sly brings back his little cure thing."

Blank could feel Royal's body shaking slightly in his arms. He had fallen back unconscious. Blank hugged him against his chest when his bedroom door opened and Sly walked in followed by Deck.

"How's he doing?" Sly asked coming over.

"He was awake and talking a little." Blank replied.

"Oh thank goodness!" Said Deck.

Sly pulled out some sort of potion thing and held Royal's head while pouring it down his throat. He then checked his vitals and injury and did other doctory things while Blank watched.

"Well he's going to be fine, so both of you chill out." Muttered Sly. "Mind you Blank, don't take anything he says seriously for the next half a day."

"Huh why?" asked Blank suspiciously.

"The potion has a few side effects that are similar to being drunk. Oh and he might run a small fever since it's fire based and he is ice. But don't worry about it unless it gets to 103F or above." Sly replied before dragging Deck off with him.

Neither Blank nor Deck saw his slight smile as he made excuses of leaving Blank and Royal to get some rest. Meanwhile Sly has no plans for letting Deck get any rest in the near future.

"Drugged?" commented Blank to the recently closed door.

He glanced back down at Royal. What would Royal even be like drugged? Maybe he'd just sleep it off since he was awake earlier, and who knew how fast acting that potion was either.

Blank continued to stroke his hair. He wanted to kiss him, but that would be so rude with him not awake. And what if he didn't want it?

A shadow appeared and grew from the floor.

"Chase?" Blank asked seeing his appearance. He stepped out of the shadow and over to the two, before looking down at Royal.

"You should be careful getting too attached to things." Chase muttered. "He looks very fragile."

Blank glared at him. He knew Chase would often get in a mood that made him very pessimistic.

"So what, if he's fragile I'll just have to be more careful." Blank replied.

"Hmm ever think that you might just love him because he saved your life? There is actually a medical syndrome for that." Chase replied.

Blank glared more, yep he was definitely in one of his down and out moods.

"No because I liked him before that. I wanted him to be mine the moment I saw him." Blank replied.

"Hmm" Chase muttered. "You can't always be there to protect him, maybe you're the thing that can hurt him the most." With that Chase vanished back to the shadows before Blank could respond.

"EH whatever sulky, come talk to me when you are not in a bad mood." Blank grumbled to the wall.

He had already made up his mind to love Royal forever. As long as Royal would also choose him. On the bed Royal turned over slightly making Blank immediately go to him as he rarely moved before now. His face was a little flush.

Blank reached out a hand to touch his forehead which was slightly warmer than it should be.

"This must be the fever Sly mentioned" He muttered to himself.

A few minutes later a pair of blue eyes opened again.

Blank looked at him in surprise, he had expected him to sleep at least another several hours.

"How are you feeling?" Blank asked.

Royal watched him in silence for a moment making Blank nervous for some reason.

"Hi hot stuff!" Royal said.

Blank nearly choked on a laugh. So this was Royal drunk huh?

"Hello." Blank replied.

"Cookies are cute, you remind me of a cookie. Sweet and delicious. You could fill up an entire cookie jar."

"Could I now?" Blank smirked.

"Yep and you should just marry me. Here is my proposal. Oh ring, I needs a ring..." Royal looked around in a very cute fashion.

"Your jacket is very fluffy like a kitten." Royal commented.

So cute, Blank should give Royal this stuff more often. He watched Royal struggle to find a ring out of the room. Maybe he should just give him a cookie?

Blank got up moving to the kitchen area to grab a cookie. He baked some before the whole incident, so they should still be somewhat fresh, or at least not stale. He opened the bag and picked out the largest one for Royal and another for himself before returning. He took a bite of his and handed the other to Royal.

"A good cookie." Royal took a bite out of the middle before grabbing Blank's hand and sticking the cookie on it.

Blank paused trying to figure out what Royal was doing. Oh a cookie ring? Blank slipped it on careful not to break the already crumbling cookie that could fit over three fingers.

"We are now bonded by cookieness, if you break it you can never eat another cookie." Muttered Royal.

"That so?" said Blank taking another amused bite of his own cookie.

"I wants cookie." Said Royal sadly.

"Huh?" Blank looked at his own cookie and poked a finger through it before handing his self made ring to Royal.

Blank slipped some of Royal's crumbling cookie ring into his mouth.

"Not this cookie." Said Royal sadly.

"Huh you want this one back?" asked Blank with a mouthful of cookie as he started to take off his ring.

"No no" said Royal as he pointed at Blank's pants "I wants that cookie."