Because I Can

Of Apples and Constellations

Virgil wakes when his hunger pangs had gotten to the point where his stomach feels like it was practically stabbing him.

He groans, awake but not fully coherent. All he wants to do is fall back to sleep but his body has different ideas.

"Here", the Lightbeam was handing him an apple.

"Thanks", he mumbled as he grabbed it and sat up against the tree. The dormant Reaper groaned. It felt as if the small movement of sitting up literally drained him. Gods he felt like he was going to pass out.

"Hey, are you ok?"

He opened his eyes to see a blurry image of the Lightbeam in front of him.

When did he close his eyes?

Virgil tried to nod but he barely managed that, his head felt so heavy and the motion caused everything to spin.

"Are you sure?" the Lightbeam came closer.

Gods the Reaper wanted to drown in the Other's warmth, but he forced himself not to move, it took too much energy anyway.

"...'m fine...jus' tired...", his tongue felt like lead, to make matters worse, his stomach growled loudly, enough to cause a minor cramp, "...'nd really, really hungry 'parently"

His eyes closed.

-----

Roman frowned, his Shadow looked so exhausted. But he knew the Other wouldn't be able to sleep, especially with his stomach growling that loudly. When was the last time he ate? He didn't even eat the apple.

Hearing the exhaustion in the Shadows voice made him wonder if he even could. Did the Blue Shadow, Logan if he remembered correctly, did he hurt his apparent apprentice?

Frowning he took back the apple and conjured a knife, cutting it into slices.

The Shadow stirred, eyes barely opened,"..'t're you doin'?..."

Roman took the apple slices and held them up to the prone Shadow. "Here, chew slowly, it should at least sate your stomach so you can go back to sleep"

His Shadow frowned, but then he sighed, accepting defeat and opening his mouth to accept the apple slice.

Slice after slice, the Shadow ate slowly, almost falling asleep at times.

When that happened, Roman would gently tap his cheek until his woke and ate the next slice.

He didn't even realize how close he was sitting to the Other until the Shadow's head fell on his shoulder. He blinked, as much as he wanted to let his Shadow rest; there was only one piece left.

"Hey, come on-"

The Shadow groaned.

"It's the last one, then you can sleep, I promise"

His Shadow groaned again but still took the last slice. Almost immediately after, he finished the apple, he fell asleep, body all but falling limply on to Roman.

Roman moved quickly to catch him and lower him to the soft grass, but the Other had other ideas. He clutched tightly onto Roman's tunic, practically attempting to bury himself in his chest.

Sighing, Roman, resigned himself to being a pillow for the second time. He groaned internally remembering how difficult it was to escape the Shadow's imposible grip.

Seeing as he couldn't really do anything about it, Roman rested against the tree. Taking one of the nearby apples, from the small pile he had brought, he reconjured the knife and cut it into slices before eating it.