Reap the Earth at Which you Stand [boyxboy]

Chapter XXXII

~Monday 8th January 2018~

Dakota groaned softly, resting his head against the cupboard to his left as he sat back onto the bathroom floor. He thought about rising and returning to the bedroom but his stomach still churned, threatening to force up anything that might actually still remain within. It was better to wait, and hope that the feeling subsided quickly. The shaking had already stopped, which was a good sign, however, Dakota was still coping with the headache.

Despite Vasile assuring the boy that the transition he had to deal with multiple times a month would get better, that didn't seem to be anywhere near the truth from what Dakota was experiencing. Granted, none of them had been the same level of pain as the first, nor had they left such a mess, but they weren't exactly pleasant. It had to be the stress, Dakota told himself as he hung his head between his knees, sucking in deep breaths in the hopes that it might dull the throbbing in his skull.

The previous transition, that was on Dakota. He had fought against it, hence why he spent a great portion of the evening feeling as though his flesh was stripping from his bones, no matter the substances that Pete had given him for the pain. Yet, this one was horrific in so many other ways. Dakota knew it was because of the fear, because of the worry and guilt that consumed him at the thought of being found out. Joshua would kill him, and Vasile would die too. Alone. Unknowing of the cause. It wasn't fair, Dakota couldn't allow it.

If there was one aspect of Dakota's mind that wasn't broken, it had to be his anxiety levels. He had never been one to worry too much, there wasn't much point when everything was out of his control anyway. That night changed something though. Dakota couldn't stop worrying. From the moment he woke - or rather his body did - apprehension for the day ahead knotted within him. He wanted to call Vasile, to hear his voice, to know that the man was thinking of him, but he couldn't even do that. The signal had gotten worse that day due to the heavy rain, barely any of Dakota's texts even went through. It was agonising.

"De? You OK?" At least he had Loral. Dakota couldn't imagine the pain he would be in if he didn't have at least one person there to understand what he was going through. He couldn't cope alone, not anymore. It was too much.

"Yeah, I'll just be a minute," Dakota struggled to his feet, taking everything slowly in the hopes that it wouldn't worsen the pressure in his head. He took a moment to brush his teeth, hating the awful bitter taste that clung to his mouth, before looking at himself in the mirror. His eyes flickered all over his face, searching for any sign that his transition might have begun. The moon was barely up, but there was still always that risk.

"Pete says this should help with the nausea," Loral presented Dakota with a glass of ginger ale when he opened the bathroom door, "sip it slowly, don't gulp," Dakota merely forced a weak smile, sipping the drink and grimacing at the taste. He hated ginger. He hadn't thrown up because of his nerves for so many years. He remembered he had spent a lot of time in the medical wing of Briarmere during his stay because the doctor's believed he was forcing himself to throw up. That wasn't the cause, of course. It was withdrawal, and fatigue, and probably some side effect of the empath's influence lingering there too.

"Did you call him or something?" Dakota asked as he settled onto his bed cautiously, propping some pillows up behind his head so he didn't lie flat and resting the glass on his thigh. It was cold on his fingers, turning them numb but he didn't care. It was nice to focus on something else other than the discomfort weighing in his stomach.

"No, he sent through a few texts earlier. I mentioned you were feeling really shitty and he just gave me some generic remedies," that was suspicious, but Dakota didn't bother to dwell. Loral overreacted a lot of the time, and Pete tended to enable that. It was better to just hope that nothing was wrong and Dakota was just having a bad day.