Heroic Acts

Six

Wake up. Shower. Classes. Lunch. Study. Dinner. Sleep. Repeat.

Every day was the same. Sure, the acting and the school was great but the routine was so deeply engraved into Darien's head that there just wasn't enough excitement in his life. He missed crime fighting so much, like what he used to do in Florida. He was a hero, a friend to everyone, and he had a purpose.

His love for superheroes started young. The movies and the comics fascinated him, and every year for Halloween, he was a new hero. His mother always told him that being a superhero wasn't a real job, and that's when his love for acting bloomed. He was a natural, and ironically enough, he DID become the real hero that his mother claimed would never exist.

But, for now, Darien was plain old Darien studying acting in a performing arts academy, and that was quite alright. He walked swiftly and happily across campus to get to his next class, which he excelled in, and took his seat. Oddly enough, something was missing. Darien glanced at the empty seat beside him. Where was Seth?

The class gathered in the center of the room, happily playing an improv game. It was a great way for students to really feel and create their own character in a completely random, unprepared situation. Darien was usually great with this kind of thing, but he couldn't help but get distracted by his roommate's absence. He politely pulled his professor aside to ask if Seth had come in at all today, but there had been no previous signs of him.

He didn't come to his other classes, either.

Much too curious for his own good, Darien went to his room for lunch, even though he told Seth he wouldn't anymore. He just needed to find out if he was okay or in trouble. He made it back to his dorm, put the key in the lock, and opened the door. Sure enough, there was Seth, who greeted him with a not so warm welcome.

"I told you to leave the room to myself during lunch!" Seth shouted. His back was to Darien, staring at the wall ahead of them.

"Where have you been?" Darien asked, ignoring Seth's original statement.

"I was out, now go away," he said.

"I'm not leaving, Seth. Where did you go?"

"It's none of your business!" Seth snapped.

That was true, it was none of Darien's business, but he was curious and stubborn, and was going to get his answer. He stepped closer to Seth.

"Get away from me," Seth said, turning only slightly to look at Darien over his shoulder before turning away again.

"Seth," Darien said, placing a hand on his shoulder.

"Don't touch me, Darien!" he shouted, standing up and turning around, all while pushing Darien's hand off of him.

"S-Seth? Your head.."

Blood stained a fraction of Seth's forehead and stuck to his hair. The injury wasn't awful, but it definitely didn't tickle. Seth sighed a defeated breath and looked away.

"I'm fine," he muttered.

"Let me help you."

"What?"

"Let me help. Sit down," Darien insisted and gently pushed Seth back into a sitting position on the bed.

"I don't need your help," Seth said, but Darien didn't listen one bit. He pulled a first aid kit out of his bag and sat beside him.

"How did this happen?" Darien asked, pulling out gauze and disinfectants. Seth hesitated.

"Don't make fun of me. I slipped in that hallway connected to the lobby area and hit my head on the bench this morning," he finally said.

"You should really be more careful," Darien said, applying rubbing alcohol to a cotton puff.

"I know," Seth said, watching him.

"This, um.. this is going to sting," Darien said. Giving Seth absolutely no time to react, he placed the cotton puff directly onto the wound and began to clean. Seth shouted and pushed Darien back, slipping him off the bed.

"Damn it, that hurts!" he barked, but his mood changed entirely when he saw Darien's usually smiling face fall.

"I just wanted to help," Darien said quietly, pushing himself up from the floor and making his way towards the door. Seth watched, and moved to a slight panic.

"No, Darien, wait!" he pleaded and grabbed onto his hand, stopping him in his tracks. "I'm sorry, I shouldn't have done that. Please help me."

Darien looked up and him and, after a moment, nodded and ushered him back to the bed. With a fresh cotton puff, he repeated his actions, this time only causing Seth to wince and grunt. Once the wound was disinfected, he placed a piece of gauze over it and secured it with a bandage.

"You'll need to wash the blood out of your hair, though. I don't have anything for that," Darien said. Seth nodded.

"Thank you."

"You're welcome, but please be more careful next time. We can't let you slipping and sliding keeping you from all of your studies," he said and smiled.

Seth groaned and laid down on his bed, holding his head in his hands. Assuming he had a migraine, Darien handed him some pain killers and Seth accepted them entirely. He curled up into a little ball on his bed and fell asleep within minutes, and Darien gazed at him. Seth was almost like a stubborn little kid. He had feelings and weaknesses but he never wanted to make them apparent.

Darien thought about how Seth's hand felt when he reached out for him, blushing almost immediately. He was so frantic, so.. no. No, Seth just wanted his help to clean a wound. That's all. There was nothing more to it.

Angry at himself for blushing so much, Darien wrapped himself up in the blankets on his own bed. It was only two in the afternoon, but a nap couldn't hurt anybody.

He had dreams. Dreams of Seth and himself, discovering his own identity and Seth's as well. He dreamt of his crime fighting days and his normal days, too. His mind was a beautiful world of all things he could ever imagine.

He dreamt that he was flying. Soaring among the clouds, feeling the breeze through his fingertips and flowing through his hair. He was one with the wind and the horizon alike. He was an everlasting current of air flowing through the earth. But suddenly, his weightlessness disappeared. Heavy. Was he falling? No..

He woke up to find Seth next to him, his head on Darien's stomach. He was crying.

"Seth, are you-"

"I'm fine," he said. "I.. I'm sorry, this is weird and I shouldn't have done this." He began to get up, but Darien grabbed his hand.

"You're okay," Darien said.

The room fell silent for a moment, except for the quiet sobs of Seth. He nodded and laid back down, refusing to look directly at Darien at all.

He didn't necessarily know how to react. Seth was here, laying on his tummy and crying. He had no knowledge of why, and that meant he couldn't be of much help.

"It'll be okay," he finally said and rubbed Seth's back. What was going on?

Seth eventually fell back asleep, comfortably using Darien as a pillow. He really was like a little kid, Darien thought. But he took Seth's snoring as a sign that he could slip back into his nap too, and that's exactly what he did.