Smol Fry | Hercules X Lafayette

C h a p t e r T w e n t y f i v e

"Don't worry," he began, looking down at me, "The scariest thing here is Alex's browser history, and if someone jumps out at us, I'll drop-kick them."

I giggled at his remark, but realised that he was deadly serious. Occasionally jumped at the odd noise of a broken branch, I shuffled slightly closer to the taller male, and still kept my eyes locked on the ground. Eventually, we came to some 'good quality firewood' and collected that and some other materials. Much to my happiness, we then made our way back to the campsite, me staying as close to Hercules as possible. After passing about three of the same tree, and a rock I had never seen before, I was beginning to become slightly worried.

"Shit," Hercules mumbled, observing the large rock.

"Mon ami?"

"Shit..."

"...Hercules?"

"We're fricking lost."

"O-oh..."

My face dropped and my head started to feel slightly light. Not here, not in the woods, not at night. My breathing became gradually quicker... until I was having an extreme panic attack. Even worse than how I am with heights. Feeling tears well up, I slowly leant against the rock, until I was huddled on the floor. I knew that tears were streaming down my face, so I buried ,y face in my knees, not to cause worry. It felt like all my worst nightmares had merged into one, and were attacking me at all angles.

Hercules turned to see me on the floor, bent down and put a hand on my shoulder. Even though he was trying to make me feel better, I was so light-headed, the weight of his hand caused me to fall to the ground. I felt an ache in my chest as the concerned tone in his voice drastically grew.

"Laff? Lafayette?" He knelt down further, speaking softly, but with immense amounts of worry in his voice, "Hey, it's okay, we're gonna be fine, we're not far away from the exit. You know I'm not gonna let anything bad happen to you, ever."

As I regained my normal breathing pattern, and my head started to feel slightly better, he stroked my hair whilst observing where we were. He asked me if I felt like waking, or if I wanted to stay here for a bit, as he could start a small fire, but I just wanted to see the open, rather than petrifying, colossal trees. Doubtingly, he glanced at me who was obviously not able to walk, or stand for that matter. I'm not sure what it is with me and woods, but that, plus the dark is even worse than anything humanly possible. It could've started when my older brother dared me to go into the woods when I was nine, or else my mother would've yelled at me for being inside.

"Do you... wanna go now?" Hercules questioned, as I snapped out of my trance and shakily nodded. He asked my if I could carry the firewood and to my surprise, picked me up bridal style and began to walk. I rested my head, which still wasn't feeling the best it could, on his shoulder. As I was about to fall asleep, I noticed that we were out in the open again, and I could see our camp. Hercules put me down and took the material from me.

"You okay to walk?" he asked, smiling again. His smile looked even more amazing underneath the moonlight... He looked even more amazing underneath the moonlight. I feebly waved at everyone at the camp and John rushed up towards us, panic in his eyes.

"WHERE HAVE YOU BEEN?" he cried, noticing our disappearance.

"Uh... the woods," Hercules replied blankly, handing a dumbfounded John all of our wood. It was apparent that he was not taking that for an answer.

"Herc, we were worried! You were gone for about half an hour!" John sighed, with worry still in his voice. As we got to the camp, he placed the materials next to the fire.