Mirrors and Fevers

Part 4 to Hunted, following on from Bang Bang Bang. I don't think Henrick liked me for what I did to Felix xP

Coral stormed into the building, the ends of her coat flapping angrily at her ankles. "What did that idiot half-brother of mine do now?"

Henrick looked up from the book he was reading to the older woman standing in the doorway. He didn't know Felix's half-sister very well. She and Felix didn't keep in touch very often, but she was the only family Felix had left. They had never been close, since she had moved out long before Felix had his accident and inherited Aiolos from their grandfather. She took him in as a teenager without any question though. Her daughter was quick to make friends with Henrick who was around her age. She'd moved to Australia a long time ago, and Henrick only kept in touch with her through emails.

"There was...an attack."

Coral sighed, moving to stand next to the slumbering form of Felix. He was hooked up to several machines that were beeping away. Physically, it seemed Felix was fine. His body had no direct injuries. His mind was just not inside his body. "Do they know about his...umm...thing?"

Henrick shook his head. A nurse at the hospital had been a 'scout'. The moment Felix had been rushed through the doors she had placed herself on Felix's case. She removed any evidence that there was anything abnormal about Felix's body that was directly linked to Aiolos from leaking out to the rest of the hospital. Her symbiont was two hundred years older than Aiolos. She knew what she was doing. It turned out that in releasing his powers to such a degree, Aiolos hadn't been compeltely sheilded from the onslaught. The symbiont was the one sporting the physical scars. In such a damaged state and with such a link to Felix, it was no wonder Felix was in a coma.

"Will he wake up?" she asked, concern now fully blown. She brushed her hand over Felix's pale face.

"I don't know."

"He was in a coma before. He said it was Aiolos that healed him. If Aiolos can't heal him now...he'll..." She swallowed hard, leaning down to place a kiss to her sibling's forehead. "He said his spine was damaged."

"The nurse said that if Aiolos starts to deteriorate anymore, then Felix's body will be unable to handle the stress that happened back then." He clutched the book tightly to his chest. If Aiolos started to die so would Felix. The thought terrified him. He didn't know what he would do without Felix. "He said he'd live with me until I died, and find someone to take Aiolos so that he could...he could..." Tears streaked down his face, rendering Henrick unable to finish what he was saying. He reached over and clutched the lifeless hand of his lover.

Coral looked away to give Henrick a few moments to himself. She looked at the window, watching as the rain ceaselessly attacked the window. It had been raining for days now. No one could understand why. It had been relentless since the day a mass-murderer had been caught. Felix said his grandfather had told him it had rained the entire time he was in a coma back when he was involved in a traffic accident. Nothing was controling his power, so it was just releasing the energy on its own.

She stayed with Henrick until it was time for visitors to leave. Henrick went back to an empty apartment every time the nurse told him to leave, and returned with each vising hour. This routine continued for weeks. He barely ate. Cadence started visiting to force feed him. She and her family tried their all to try and keep some semblance of life in the apartment the two men shared. Gethin visited Felix often. Coral and her daughter came on occassions, but no one spent more time there than Henrick.

One day, the nurse slipped inside while Henrick lay with his head on the bed. "Henrick?"

He didn't open his eyes to acknowledge her. She was a host though. She would know he wasn't sleeping.

"Aiolos is...communicating again."

He slowly lifted his head to look up at her. "What?"

She gave him a small smile and moved closer to the bed where Felix lay and glanced to the machines monitoring him. "He's weak, but he's starting to project his thoughts now. We should start seeing results any day now,"

"You mean Felix will wake up?"

"It'll be a while, but there will be signs that Aiolos is repairing him. He'll sing."

Henrick looked to the blank face of the sleeper. "Felix once said that Aiolos sang. I hear him humming in his sleep sometimes."

"It'll be faint, but if you're quiet, you'll hear him humming again."

Four days. At first, Henrick thought it was a sound outside, but looking to the face, the slight parting of lips, the way the throat moved; Felix was humming that odd sound he used to do when they were curled up in bed together. His heart leapt.

Five days, and Henrick was told that if he spoke to him, Felix would be able to hear him. He wouldn't remember it when he woke up, but he was no longer close to death.

Two months of lying in a hospital bed after confronting the killer, and Felix opened green eyes to stare up at a blank, white ceiling. There was a weight on his chest. Aching body was stiff as he tried to sit up to look down and see what was resting against him. Slowly, a smile slipped across his lips as he saw Henrick sleeping on him. Reaching over with the hand not hooked up to an I.V. Felix stroked his fingers through the soft hair growing from the younger man's head. The weather outside brightened, the two month long near-constant rainstorm finally giving up.

It was quiet inside his head. He'd been so used to the sounds of a thousand voices that it felt rather empty inside. Aiolos just laughed at him for such stupid thoughts of 'getting a roommate' to bring the noise level back up. He'd face death, and had won.

Again.

He now owed Aiolos his life twice.

But at least it meant he could be with Henrick again. Nudging the sleeper's shoulder, Felix beamed down at him when sleepy eyes were rubbed and focused upon him. There was a yell of relief, and Henrick threw his arms around Felix's shoulders.

"You're awake!"

"How long was I out?" he asked, rubbing Henrick's back.

"About two months," Henrick replied as he pulled back to look at Felix's face.

"Two months?" Felix raised a brow, then smirked slyly. "Well, looks like I've got a lot of sex to catch up with."