Fearless - A Fedex Story

Part 21

2 weeks and 4 days. That was how long Dex had been asleep - in a coma. Right. Fitz liked to refer to Dex as anything but 'in a coma'. It made it easier. Fitz liked to pretend that Dex was fine. He would often talk to himself, expecting Dex to be quietly listening along, then proceed to answer with the most sarcastic comment in the world.

Fitz laughed softly, almost hundreds of memories resurfacing from that one thought. As the young Vacker sat there, in the small armchair Elwin had dragged near Dex's temporary bed in Splendor Plains so Fitz could be close to the Technopath, he chewed his lip and frowned, his leg bouncing up and down rapidly - sometimes, that leg movement was the only sign that Fitz was moving and alive. Ever since ' Dex's Thing ' - as Fitz liked to call it - his anxiety had gotten worse. Much worse.

...

But he was okay. He wasn't acting like a zombie or anything. He was getting enough sleep ... Almost enough sleep, but it was close enough. He was also eating proper meals and stuff like that - he had enough self respect for basic hygiene and health. He was okay. And Dex was going to wake up. He had to.

"Breathe, Fitz," he mumbled to himself, fiddling with his fingers. After three shaky breaths, most of the nausea faded from Fitz's stomach. He tipped his head back and closed his eyes, exhaling slowly.

While Fitz was going through his extremely depressing thing, Dex, on the other hand, was having the weirdest fucking dream. At the start, he was in the Flamingo Riding Olympics ™ and halfway through the race, he ordered a smoothie from some delivery service and the delivery dude just gave it to him by chucking it at him from the audience?? ... But that's not the important part - just the weird part. The important part was what happened afterwards.

All of a sudden, the scene faded away, like it had become liquified water. It seemed to be - it fit perfectly with the actual water that swept Dex away. It was strong, powerful. It felt like a tidal wave. It washed Dex up on a beach. He groaned. His head ached and his skin itched from the sand that stuck to his damp skin. Dex tried to rub his eyes so that they were cleared of the mixture of salt water, sand and seaweed that had been stirred up in Dex's recent Sweeping of the Wave.

That was when another wave crashed down on him without warning. Except, this time, it wasn't moving Dex away - it was rooting him to his position. More came, relentlessly crashing down on him, sinking him further and further into the ground. ... Dex missed the flamingos. The waves started getting bigger and heavier, the sand softer and less stable. Dex could hear his bones screaming for help as he started to slowly crumble.

The entire time, Dex didn't feel anything, though. Actually, that probably doesn't make sense, as I did use a lot of sensory adjectives. It was more of an illusion in his mind, He didn't actually feel any of these things but he had the idea that he was meant to - which made it just as painful. In his head, the rest of his body didn't hurt - just his head.

"Fitz?" Fitz's head snapped up. He had dozed off. Fitz smiled at the blurry figure above of him. "D- Dex?" The person came into focus, revealing that the male elf was, in fact, not Dex. "Nope, just boring old me," Elwin replied, running a hand through his dark brown hair and adjusting his glasses.

Dex was staying at Splendor Plains - Elwin's house - where all his healing equipment was. He allowed people to come and go as they liked - so Fitz was there most of the time. Elwin had frequently been trying to encourage him to go outside, but to no avail. Fitz just went home to sleep at night, although he'd sometimes accidentally dozed of at Splendor Plains, and occasionally for meals.

"Oh."
"... I know I just called myself boring but you didn't have to agree with me."
"Oh, no- I didn't mean-" Elwin just laughed good-heartedly. "Lighten up, Fitz - I'm just joking." The elf pulled up a chair so that he was near Fitz, and sat down. "Here," he said, offering Fitz a small silver tin. After Fitz didn't do anything. Elwin rolled his eyes. "Relax, they're not poisonous - just Fluffcreams." Elwin opened up the tin and picked out one of the flaky pastries, popping it into his mouth. "See?" he said, voice slightly muffled from the food in his mouth, "Not poisonous!" Fitz finally let out a small laugh.

Elwin smiled at being able to get a reaction from the young Vacker. It was hard to know if he was even alive these days - seeing the boy smile made Elwin flood with relief. He cleared his throat, trying to adapt a more serious tone to his voice. "Look, Fitz, I know how hard this must be." Fitz's expression darkened and he laughed dryly. "And I can't imagine what you're going through, seeing someone you love, like... that. It's horrible, really. That's why I've been- Do you understand, why I've been trying to get you outside. It's- I just- I don't want you to have to..." Elwin found his voice trailing off.
"No, no. ... I understand, Elwin." He could hear how Fitz tried to adopt a more positive tone - even though he knew that was anything but what he felt. Fitz made a small gesture to the tin of Fluffcreams. "Thank you." Fitz chewed his lip. "B- but can I stay? Just for a little bit more? Please?" Elwin could see the desperation in Fitz's eyes. He sighed. "Okay - just a bit longer."
"Thank you," he whispered.

Fitz watched as Elwin got up and started to walk to the door. "Wait," Fitz said, voice slightly higher. Elwin turned around and raised his eyebrows. "U- um did you, uh, say.." Fitz stammered. Ewlin frowned - not really a concerned father kind of frown but more of a what is wrong with this kid frown. "Say what?"
"When you were, um," Fitz swallowed, his throat suddenly feeling incredibly dry, "j- just telling me how hard must be with Dex in this, ah, state - d- did you say the word love? Because, if so, I wasn't, like, agreeing, or anything. I think I just didn't hear you correctly? I don't love Dex - that would be, haha, so weird. I-" Fitz stopped his rambling when he saw the amused smile on Elwin's face. "What?" Fitz asked quickly.
"Nothing, it's just-" Elwin stopped for a moment as he chuckled to himself, "- you kids these days! Haha!" He leaned against the door frame and continued to look at Fitz with that annoying amused expression.

"Fitz, do you know who made those Fluffcreams?" he asked, gesturing to the tin on Fitz's lap. The Telepath frowned. "Who?"
"My husband. He's a baker - a really good one. Do I," Elwin getured widely to himself, "look like the kind of person who can bake?" Fitz let out a small laugh. Elwin grinned at this. "I'm definitely not a baker, but he is." Fitz gave him a soft smile. "So are you trying to tell me...?" he guessed. Elwin smiled. "I'm fine with it, Fitz, okay? I- Wait, did you seriously think I wouldn't notice? Man, you guys were obvious - to me," he added, after catching Fitz's worried expression, "I, being the self-proclaimed adoptive father of you all, obviously noticed - but I don't think anyone else would have. You were actually quite discreet."
"... Thank you?" Elwin let out another soft chuckle. "You're welcome. Now, make sure to finish those Fluffcreams - I don't want to have those beautiful pastries go to waste."
"Okay, okay - I will. ... Thank you."

There was something in Fitz's eyes that told Elwin that the 'thank you' wasn't just for the pastries - and this made his day just a little bit brighter.

Wow I'm cutting close updating at literally the last day of the week 😅 I'm sorry but the back-to-school homework's finally kicking innn 😭🙏 Also, guys the amount of depressing comments on the last part like I knew it would have an effect but omg im so sorry 😭😭 AHASJASKHGAFKHAGDHAF BTW WE HAVE TWO CHAPS LEFT OF THIS BOOK AND WE'RE AT 2.7k VIEWS, 103 VOTES AND 474 COMMENTS WTF ILYGSM ❤❤