I Won't Let You Wilt

Double Nightmare

Those were the last of Basil's terrified words before he began to calm down.

Breathing heavily, eyes distraught with terror, Basil stopped thrashing around and gradually stilled his movements. As Sunny patted Basil comfortingly on his back, Basil came back to his senses.

His breathing steadied, Basil's eyes which had been darting frantically around settled to a fixed gaze towards Sunny.

Basil hugged Sunny back, exhaling in relief. His head rested gently against Sunny's shoulder.

"...I had a night terror again, didn't I?" Basil spoke.

"It's all my fault," Sunny said, his voice choked with tears. "If I didn't run off the bus today, if I wasn't so stupid, this wouldn't have happened."

"It's not your fault. I've always had night terrors all my life...you and Mari saw once, right?"

I wonder...how many of them you had while I was away for four years...

"And Polly told me I used to have them for many nights in a row sometimes," Basil said self-deprecatingly. "She even got used to it and had a routine for getting me under control when it happened."

Those words broke Sunny's heart.

I should've been there.

I should've been by your side to comfort you when you were terrified by what you saw and felt in the middle of the night.

"I'm so sorry, Basil," Sunny said, sobbing.

"Sunny...it's alright. You're here for me now."

The tears flowed freely from Sunny's eyes.

"You did great just now," Basil reassured him. "You held me and prevented me from hurting myself. That's all I can really count on anyone to do."

Sunny couldn't hold back his sadness, the sheer guilt.

The weight of all that he'd done to Basil, making him wait all those years for him to come back—it hit him like a bullet train, knocking any shred of self-pity or longing out of him with tremendous force. From now on, he'd never even think of going back to his old, isolated ways.

I'll live for Basil, die for Basil.

Sunny felt Basil's hand gently patting him on his back.

"I'm sorry for worrying you," Basil said in a gentle voice. "Was I saying...certain things back there?"

Sunny didn't know how to answer. If he told Basil what he'd heard, Basil might feel guilty about it. But he didn't want to lie to Basil either.

"I guess I said some pretty crazy stuff," Basil concluded from Sunny's silence.

Sunny held Basil in his arms, close enough to feel his heartbeat. He wanted Basil to know that he was there for him, that he would be there for him for the rest of his life, that no matter what he would never let anything tear them apart again—

A shadow crawled up around their bed.

"Wow, you really like screwing things up just by existing," mini-Something said.

He didn't have a rebuttal. It was completely true.

"Have you ever tried not being such a useless waste of oxygen for once? You'd be much less of a burden on everyone if—"

Mini-Something was quickly dispelled by Basil's soft smile.

"Sunny, you...saw Something just now?" Basil spoke in a very gentle, relaxed voice.