Help-Solangelo

Chapter 4

WPOV:

Nico squirmed and looked up at me. He had been having another nightmare. I had tried calming him down using words instead of touch but it didn't work.

"Nico, shh, it's okay. It's okay, Nico." I told him.

"Nico, it's just a dream." I said.

"Nico, you're okay."I comforted.

"They can't hurt you now."I soothed.

Nothing I said seemed to work so I sat on the bed with him and just hugged him.

I shouldn't have comforted him. He was just going to hate me more now. I quickly started to get up. He always said I shouldn't touch him.

Why couldn't I listen for once?

Something snagged my shirt. I turned around to face Nico who was gripping my shirt tightly.

Sitting in front of me, with tears stains down his cheeks, he looked broken. Beaten. Lost.

"Will." He said with tears in his eyes, "Please don't go."

I nodded slowly.

"Please." His voice cracked.

I repositioned myself next to him and gathered him in my arms.

"I won't." I told him, "I'm not going anywhere."

"Promise?" He whimpered.

"Promise."

✨✨✨✨

The next morning I was sitting by Nico's bed preparing him for the check-up. We hadn't had anymore deaths since Nico had been here, which was great. I wasn't sure how many more deaths I could take. Nico watched everything I did carefully. Memorizing how I did it. I didn't mind. Without a word I started to lift his shirt to check his heart beat. He flinched.

"It's okay, I'm not going to hurt you, I promise." I told him softly.

He nodded and kept watching.

Proper heart rate? Check.

Even blood pressure? Check.

Reflexes? Check.

The only thing that had bothered me was his body temperature. It was way below where it should have been. But there wasn't much I could do about that. So I started to leave then remembered something and turned back around.

"Oh, and you can leave this evening."

Nico seemed confused so I clarified.

"You can leave the infirmary this evening. That'll make three days. That was all I asked of you."

He still only blinked at me.

"What is it? Is something wrong?"

He shook his head. His raven black hair bounced around his face.

"N-No, th-that's fine." He stuttered.

I raised my eyebrow and sat in the chair next to him.

"Come on, Nico. What's wrong? A few days ago, you were itching to be out of place. You can tell me."

He looked at me with his big brown eyes. They held so much pain, I almost looked away. Instead, I held his stare.

"It's okay." I told him.

He looked down.

"T-the nightmares. Th-they're getting w-worse and I j-just thought..." He drifted off.