The Nightmare Man's Journey

Chapter Ten

If there was one thing that Harrison disliked about sleeping, it was that he rarely knew how long he had been asleep. So mostly he slept in fits, almost as if his mind forced his body to wake up every few hours to make sure he didn't sleep too long. Because when he wasn't careful, he'd wake up and weeks would have passed, and while that was fine in the past, it wasn't so fine now.

But when he worked his body too hard, he crashed. Coming through a Veil and throwing his magic around like an idiot was pushing a lot of limits and he hadn't been that surprised that he passed out upon returning to his home.

Waking up wasn't easy. His eyes felt sore and gritty, his body ached as if he had been lying still for too long, and he was overly warm. But as he opened his eyes a bit, he recognized the ceiling as that of his own bedroom, to which he drew the conclusion he was at least in his own bed.

And since he no longer smelled like death, someone had indeed thrown him in the bath. Judging from the soreness in his body, and the fresh state of his hair, he must have been bathed more than once.

Harrison tried to lift his arm to rub the grit away, but something was weighing his arms down. He wasn't alone in bed, which once would have been unusual but since adopting children, it was still common enough that he wouldn't be shocked at finding one or more of them in his room.

Angel peeked up from beneath the covers, clinging like a barnacle to the arm he had tried to lift, and his movements seemed to have woken her up. He looked down at her, and her eyes slowly widened. For a few moments, neither of them blinked.

Then the barnacle on his other arm, sorry, Lucy, sat straight up and stared at him.

"He's awake!" she then yelled through the half-open door.

As if waiting for the opportunity to pounce on him, a fierce headache tore through Harrison's skull which made him hiss, reclaim both arms only to pull the pillow over his head.

"Not so loud," he groaned, voice hoarse.

Lucy breathed in and Harrison had instant regrets that he ever opened his mouth.

"Good morning!" she yelled, the loudest she could, and as near his ear she could get.

"Oh dear Merlin, someone smother me already."

Angel started poking his side insistently, and when he finally removed the pillow she flopped down on his stomach, digging her elbows into said stomach. He grunted at the sharp pain, which made her giggle. Of course it made her giggle, that little devil.

"Was that really necessary?" he asked her.

"Yeah!" she agreed.

"Alright, if you say so."

"You made everyone sad," Angel said.

"Sad?"

"Yeah, you disappeared and made everyone sad."

"Hardly everyone," Harrison said. "I assure you at least three people cheered in triumph."

Angel wrinkled her nose at that, before insisting that no, everyone was sad.

"Did I make you sad too?" he asked.

Lucy's face twisted hearing that, before she turned her head away. He could still hear her sniffling wetly, and turned his head slowly to look at Angel. Angel, whose eyes were big and round and wet, and fuck. He did not deal well with tears. In fact, he hated dealing with crying people.