The Lonely Rabbit and Broken Thief

Chapter Twenty-Seven

Warning: referenced suicide, emotional/mental burnout breakdown

When Shifty woke up, he was back in his house. Yesterday's events caught him back up and he jerked up. He gasped and went to jump out of bed, but stopped when he felt something under his hand.

He looked down and saw Cuddles laying in bed beside him, breathing softly. Shifty stared at him for a moment, but couldn't understand why Cuddles was in his bed right now.

Cuddles had made them drinks. One of them had a whole bottle of sleeping pills crushed and mixed in and the other was so Cuddles could share a drink with him.

Shifty wanted to die that night. It wasn't even midnight yet, so he would come back the within the next forty minutes.

"You just have to close your eyes and relax... it won't hurt, okay?"

"Okay..."

Shifty hesitantly reached up and pushed Cuddles' bangs back, staring at his soft, yet muscular features. He would have sat there and stared until he woke up had it not been for the chorus of footsteps rushing to and inside of his room.

It startled him so much that he shrieked in surprise, causing Cuddles to jerk awake and literally run off the bed and fall face first onto the ground. Shifty panted and stared at his house guests.

Lifty stood in front, to his side stood Splendont. Flippy stood on the other side where Splendid hovered behind. He saw Jingles wiggle his way up front with Dandy following close behind. B.M. stood a bit in the back right by Frank, watching the group as they closed in on Shifty and Cuddles.

"You're back!"

"Y-you're okay!"

"You scared us, Shifty!"

"Yeah! We were so worried!"

Shifty blinked and tried to move back, but only managed to drop back onto the ground to get away from the sudden crowd. He grunted, but felt no pain. In fact, he felt better than he had in months. He felt hands grab his waist and hoist him up. He gasped and looked to see Cuddles standing behind him, a goofy smile on his face.

"Welcome back..."

Shifty stared at him, biting his lip slightly, "Ah... thanks..."

"Sh-Shifty?"

He looked away from Cuddles to see his brother coming around the bed, a distressed look on his face. He stared at him for a second before going around Cuddles and embraced his brother tightly. Lifty cried into his shoulder and he pet his head gently. Usually, seeing his brother's face made him angry and they literally started talking again just two days ago, but all he could feel was relief to see him again.

"... thanks for coming, bro..."

Lifty sniffed and squeezed him, "Mhm!"

Shifty glanced at the others, letting go of Lifty to clear his throat, "Uh... breakfast anyone?"

Splendid smiled at him and waved, "Got that covered. We weren't sure when you two were coming back, so we were kinda raiding your house. Sorry."