Chapter Text
It felt like he has been sleeping for too long−
Maybe he has, maybe he hasn’t.
It felt like he has drowned somewhere, in the middle of an unfamiliar deep ocean nobody would ever think to cross, or maybe drowned in a dark forest, lost. Lost in an unfamiliar dark forest where lights barely touched the land beneath the trees, as the trees are thick and sometimes, intimidating. And it just−
Frightened him.
So, he just, let himself get awakened by the deep voices (voice...?), pulling him up with thorns. This, he’s familiar with.
Thorns…?
He never remembers any thorns.
He doesn’t know any thorns, does he…?
Does he?
When Silver woke up, he was expecting a pure, white ceiling. He didn’t expect a dim, and little dark bedroom with a man obscuring his already blurry view. Short black hair, with pink streaks. In a uniform he had seen before. NRC. Pointed ears. Most definitely a fae. Silver mentally decided that this man reminded him of someone he vaguely, maybe, faintly, has met and talk to once.
No...
This is the man, Lilia Vanrouge himself.
Why is he here?
Who was he again…?
“Why… am I here…?” he groaned, still feeling groggy from the bone deep exhaustion he felt.
“Good morning too! Why, you said? What else, my dear? you fell asleep of course!” Lilia Vanrouge opened the curtain of the nearby window to let the sunlight in as he answered cheerily. Though if Silver had dared to guess, the Vanrouge also sounded as if he was worried… for what, he didn’t know.
And Silver did not dare to guess.
“Where… am I…?”
“Hm? Is anywhere hurt, Silver? This is your room in Diasomnia dorm of course. You asking questions like that make me worried.”
My−
Diasomnia…? NRC? … My room?
Silver was about to ask more questions again, before he was interrupted with a series of harsh coughs coming from himself. The man beside his bed baffled him so much he didn’t realize how dry his throat was.
Before he realised it, Lilia Vanrouge already sat himself on the bed he was in (obviously not his bed) to give him a glass of water, which he took very gratefully.
“Easy there, boy. You’ve been sleeping for the last five days, drink slowly or you might hurt yourself.”
What.
Five−
He coughed on his water, which resulted him in a series of cough once again. Lilia Vanrouge started to rub his back like what a parent would do to their child. At least from what Silver had seen and heard from other people.
Not that he would ever know or experience it.
“Sorry, my dear. I suppose I should not have dropped the bomb to you like that. But yeah, you were asleep for the whole five days.” The Vanrouge already took the empty glass for him, and now is wiping his mouth with a handkerchief. How parents would do to their child his brain supplied unhelpfully.
“All of us were getting a little uneasy, But I’m sure the others would be very relieved now that you have awakened from your slumber.” Now, he smiled genuinely, with relief as if a heavy burden was taken from him. As if Silver waking up was the greatest news he could have heard the whole week.
Now feeling a bit more himself and awake, he asked the question, the same one as he still did not understand.
“Why am I… here?”
“I just told you, my dear. You were sleeping for five days straight, of course we put you here. Where else would we put you?” Lilia Vanrouge said as if it was the most obvious thing ever.
Him sleeping, suddenly or not, was never weird
For five days straight? Weird enough he would call back home ( home? ) to ask, maybe a quick ‘is this normal?’
The real question he was going to ask isn’t any of the above.
“No, I mean… Why am I here , in NRC, with you, Vanrouge-san?” The name felt weirder than what he thought in his head.
Though, Lilia Vanrouge’s reaction seemed to be weirder, like he was dumbfounded by the question.
Maybe he was.
“Silver?”
“Yes?”
“What do you mean?” Lilia asked, very seriously, almost as if he was interrogating.
“I’m not supposed to be here?” he answered, unsurely like it was a question instead.
Silence. And in silence, the room was so tense as they looked into each other’s eyes.
Lilia Vanrouge’s expression looks like he was an inch away from being actually terrified. He held the glass so tight. He got a little worried that it would break. He was open-mouthed and speechless. Like Silver just said something very wrong. Though if Silver had to say, still very hard to understand. He did not know why Lilia Vanrouge, a man he barely knows, so surprised, so shocked at his words.
“Did I say something wrong, Van− “
“Where else then, Silver… Where else are you supposed to be right now? ”
The Vanrouge stands up, now, it’s as if the man is taller than Silver. He looked at him expecting an answer with an expression Silver couldn’t quite put his finger on. Fear? Concern?
If Silver had to guess, The Vanrouge sounded and looked like he was scared of the answer.
But alas, Silver still did not dare to guess, so he just answered.
“… Royal Sword Academy? RSA…?”
The glass in Lilia Vanrouge’s hand slipped.
There wasn’t any shattering sound.
As the glass from Lilia Vanrouge’s hand slipped, Silver was already expecting a loud shattering sound, he closed his eyes as if expecting the impact. But the sound didn’t even come. Which is strange.
When he opened his eyes, expecting the shattered glass, what he saw instead was that the glass didn’t even touch the ground. Probably only an inch away from shattering to the ground.
Oh right. He’s a fae, using magic comes as easy as breathing to him, Silver reminded himself.
Remind…?
“I am so sorry for that, Silver.” The man said abruptly as he picked up the almost-fell glass with his hand, breaking his train of thought. Lilia Vanrouge, to say the least, looks so shocked even Silver can see how hard he was trying to hide how he felt. He continued to look anywhere but Silver’s face. “I am going downstairs for now. I think you’re still too weak to do anything, so please stay here and don’t do anything, alright?”
“Okay…”
And just like that, he left the room in a hurry, leaving him by himself.
Now… What should he do?