L's POV

I dragged B upstairs and into his bed, covering him with blankets. Even so, he was still shivering, so I sat next to him, hoping my body heat would warm him up.

I ended up falling asleep that night, for the first time in about a month. But I was thrashed awake the next morning at around 6 AM. I turned to see that B was violently shifting from side to side. Alarmed, I attempt to shake him awake.

"B!" I nearly shouted, "B! Wake up!"

My clone jolted up into a sitting position and screamed.

No, howled more like.

My god, I had heard that he had night terrors, but I didn't know they were this bad!

"B! It was a dream! It's okay! It was just a dream!"

I heard a distressed sigh, and saw he was grabbing his forehead and wincing.

I moved his hand and felt his forehead. He was sweating, and his forehead was so hot, it almost hurt to touch.

"B, you're burning up," I said, getting off of the bed. "You wait here, I'll go get some Tylenol! Be right back!"

I was only gone for about fifteen minutes, but when I entered the room I saw B shaking in the corner of the room, knees to his chest. I nearly dropped the bottle of medicine.

"B-B!" I blurted, rushing over to him.

"L! D-don't leave me like that! You told me you were going to be right back!"

It must have seemed like longer to him…

'Dammit, B! I thought you got over your abandonment issues years ago!' I thought. And suddenly I wanted to hit myself. Why hadn't I realized it earlier! It was so obvious!

And before I knew what was happening tears welled in my eyes, and I couldn't stop them from falling.

"L? Do-don't be sad, L! Please, please don't be sad! I-I don't- I don't…"

I wiped the tears from my face and sat down across from B. "I'm sorry… It's just- It's just that I'm the one who didn't attend A's funeral, I'm the reason he was stressed, I made you believe I wouldn't be home for Christmas, I-!"

B grabbed my wrists, and looked deeply into my eyes, and I looked into his ruby red ones. The intensity of his stare was almost frightening.

"L," he said firmly, "It's not your fault."

His voice kept cracking, and it was difficult to take him seriously for most of the time, but he really seemed to captivate me this time, and I listened carefully to his each word.

"L, I… I… I love you!"

I was at a loss for words, so I grabbed the first ones that came to mind.

"I… I love you, too," I managed to spit out rather dumbly.

We stared at each other for what felt like an eternity, and I took in every mesmerizing detail of his pale face.

His pale…

Green…

Face…

Wait, green!

"Uh, B? You don't look so hot…"

BWLUKH!

And then, he vomited into my lap.

I just stared in awe at the mess on my legs for a moment, then looked up at my successor, who was currently clasping his hands over his mouth, and his face was flushed a dark red.

I felt my head lighten, and a small giggle escaped my lips.

"Hahaha!"

I sat there, laughing for the first time since I had called the boy who had just barfed on me.

"Wh-why are you laughing? I-I just puked on you!"

I stopped my mad-giggling and sputtered out;

"Oh, oh just- just the timing! It was funny! Do- do you feel better?"

B looked slightly shocked. "Y-yes, I- I do feel a lot better!" he replied.

"I'm glad."

I smiled slightly, and pulled the shy teen close to me, our heads touching.

"I love you," I whispered.

"I love you too," he copied.

Epilogue

Life went on after I came back. Everything was pretty much back to normal. B toughened up a bit, and even managed to give his former tormentors swirlies. Yeah, I had to give him detention for that one. He also seemed to be happier; I guess he just needed to get a few things off of his chest. He got over his anxiety problems before the week was up, and I couldn't have been happier about anything. His stability snapped in two shortly after I left again about a month and a half later.

He ran away at age 17.