Fixing Nico [boyxboy / yaoi]

Ch 14 - Hating Happiness

… Ten Months Later …

~NICO~

It was another cloudy, cool October's day… the kind of day where it was in limbo between rain and blue skies; the gauzy, grey and white blanket drifted across the horizon and over my head. The occasional frosty wind ripped through the trees as the bare branches snapped together and the cold pinched my cheeks. But, other than that, the day remained relatively warm.

And it was getting warmer.

Australia's October was that month - when, one day, you'd be walking across grey concrete, the litter of crimson and rusty, ochre leaves crunching underfoot as branches stripped like skeletons poked the cloud cover above you, and the city was a dim prickle of bright lights that peeked through the oncoming gloom as the sun set at only four-thirty and the darkness was falling around you… Then, the next thing you know, you wake up and look out your rain-splattered windows to find those wide azure skies you hadn't seen in months stretching over you, and the trees that were bare and skeletal only yesterday were suddenly bursting with fresh, brilliant neon-green leaves that glinted in the golden sun that hadn't shown its face in weeks.

October was the month I'd been dreading; October signalled the death of a blissfully cold winter, and the beginning of a hot, sticky, sweltering summer from Hell.

It's pretty ironic that my birthday is in October, huh?

My eyes were open, but I still wasn't sure if I was awake or asleep… I was only staring up above me at the faint wisp of a crack that webbed itself across the ceiling of my boring, white bedroom, the warm comforter pulled up around my chin. My breaths came steadily, in and out, and the faint grey light of a cloudy morning filtered through the gap in my blinds. I didn't… I couldn't move. 

I was well aware that it was already 9:30, and I'd been wide awake since 7:45. I had no energy left to haul my tiny body from my bed… It was a weekend, after all. I didn't need to go anywhere, I didn't need to do anything.

What did I have to get out of bed for?

A loud bang, followed by a thump, thump, thump and the echoing din of voices that sounded from the hallways, however, was an instant answer to my question - with a groan, I shifted under the heavy, warm blankets of my bed and curled up on my side, pulling my head under the sheets turning so my back face the door.

'Nico!!' a faint voice coaxed as I heard the door's hinges creak in complaint as they opened. The voice scoffed; 'Nico? God, you're still lying in bed pretending to be asleep? Nice try. Wake up!'

I groaned again under my sheets, but I was secretly grinning at the voice of the very reason I got out of bed some days… to feel the corner's of my lips lift was I feeling I savoured every time it occurred - and only he could make it happen, by some God-given miracle… I had no clue how he managed it, but he never failed to make me smile.

I felt his hands rip the sheets off my bed - I yelped, bolting upright instantly as I was encased by the chilly morning air. 'It's cold!' I protested, wrapping my arms around myself desperately. 

Andy smirked evilly, my sheets and comforter held high above his head in triumph - 'You'll never get these back!' he shouted to the invisible cheering crowd before him. 'Never again will you lie in bed until ten pretending to be asleep!'

I pouted. 'How do you know I wasn't really asleep?' I demanded. 'Easy,' Andy replied with his mischievous grin, 'I know you. Now - get dressed. We're going somewhere.'