dot.

11: Saviour?

  When Dot woke up, Felix was holding him gently and Nimue was standing a few paces away from the pair. Once she knew he had woken up, she turned towards the door and made to exit the room.

  "Aren't you going to stay?" Felix asked, tightening his grip.

  "He's awake, he'll be fine. There's still an experiment going on between you two here. If something bad happens or he starts to deteriorate, call for me and I'll come to get him." With that, she promptly walked out of the room and locked the door behind her.

  Dot noticed she had blood on her hand, and a little in her hair. Was it his? He wanted to check what his leg looked like, but hadn't the energy to move his head. It felt better, at least. What had once been a sharp, piercing pain had now dulled to more of an aching throb.

  Once Nimue was gone, Felix shifted his hold on Dot slightly so that his head sat against the man's chest and his lower body was propped up on his legs in a sitting position. "Are you alright?" Felix turned Dot's head towards his own to get a good look at the hybrid, but he was still too weak to respond.

  "Ah- Are you thirsty? You're probably thirsty." Felix placed Dot down onto the floor smoothly and made sure he was comfortable before heading off to find a water bowl.

  Now he was staring off across the floor, Dot noticed a neon yellow card lying a few metres away from him. What was it?

  Soon, Felix returned with the water bowl, holding Dot's head up towards it so he could drink in thankful gulps. The water smoothed down the dry itchiness of his throat and calmed his forming headache, making the world seem much clearer than before.

  The last thing he remembered was Tiro leaving the room, after that everything was just a blank. Had Felix saved him? His head swirling with questions, he continued to drink until the liquid dribbled down his chin and fell to the floor in little droplets.

  "You done?" Felix chuckled lightly, "You look like you haven't had a drink in years!"

  Dot smiled and did a full bodied stretch, easing out the residual aches and pains the plagued him. Doing this made the pain in his injured leg all the more obvious, and he suspected there must be a deeper, invisible injury. Out of curiosity he tried to move his foot, and felt his heart clench when there was only the tiniest twitching movement.

  Felix shuffled closer to him and gathered him back up in his arms. "Now, what happened to you? Do you want to tell me?" He reached out for the neon card Dot had seen earlier and brought it in front of the hybrid's face.

  "Nimue left this here so we can talk. It's got letters on it- she told me you can read- and when you press them it lets you type on this little screen here. You see?" He tapped the screen and Dot nodded in understanding.

  Being all bundled up in Felix's arms was very comfortable, his body was soft and warm and felt just like a pillow. Dot was still exhausted despite having passed out earlier, and all he wanted to do in that moment was nuzzle into the man's shoulder and fall asleep. Felix must have been the one that saved him, right? Through muddled logic Dot figured that the man must be his saviour, and therefore could be trusted.

  "Do you want to tell me what happened?" Felix held up the card for him to talk on, but Dot just shook his head. He didn't want to talk about it. It was too horrible and fresh in his mind to relive.

  "Hm, okay then." Despite Dot's refusal to talk, Felix didn't seem angry or irritated at all. He accepted his reluctance and moved on from that topic, making Dot's mouth twitch upwards in a small smile. He finally felt like his opinion was worth something; it was wonderful.

  "So..." Felix ganced around the room and finally settled on a question to ask him. "What's your favourite food?"

  'mangoe' Dot typed out. There was no punctuation on the card, only lowercase letters.

  "Oh yeah, I like that too. Have you ever had lychees? I was eating some with my brother when we were young and he almost choked on one of the seeds- he didn't even realise they were in there! He's never really been the brightest though, as mean as that sounds. You know, once we were staying at a holiday house near the sea right, and there were these two great big glass doors facing out to sea. The idiot just sprinted straight into them- there were even stickers on the door just to stop people from doing that! God it sure was a laugh though, I tell you."

  With only the slightest prompt Felix was off on another ramble, and Dot was content to sit there and listen. It was nice to hear about his stories and memories- if not a little melancholy. He wished for a life like that.

  Dot slumped his head against the man's chest, only to jump back up again when something poked him through the shirt.

  "Are you tired? You can go to sleep if you want, I'm probably boring you." Felix chucked again and shifted Dot so they were both more comfortable before leaning back against the wall.

  Dot shook his head and reached for the neon card, wanting to know what had spiked him. 'wats under your shert', he typed.

  "Oh, just this." Felix reached under and brought out a pretty glass necklace charm in the shape of a butterfly. It was quite big, and a light lavender in colour with streaks of baby blue flying through the wings. The parts that weren't coloured were clear, distorting the view of the world behind them.

  "My nan gave it to me. Nothing tragic, she's alive and well so don't you worry. She said it's supposed to help with 'healing'. Whatever that means, anyway." He ran his finger along the side of the wing and took it off his neck. "Honestly, I think you need it more."

  He wrapped the ornamental thing around Dot's head, making him flinch at the coolness of the chain and glass on his skin.

  "Do you like it? I think it looks pretty on you."

  Dot nodded and slumped back down onto Felix's chest again, typing out a quick 'thank you' on the neon card before curling his wings around himself.

  Felix cradled him and began to rock gently, humming a little tune as he went.

  Dot closed his eyes, relaxed his body, and fell soundly to sleep.