Chapter IV – Healing

It felt as if all of time slowed down and came to a complete halt. Nutty's heart skipped a beat upon seeing Sniffles, his voice completely gone. All of his breathing stopped and it even felt as if his heart stopped as well. The shock was slowly shutting the boy down until nothing but blackness overcame him as his body fell backwards and landed with a sickening thud. Nutty now found himself in a void, standing alone. There was no sound, no light, nothing. Complete and utter blackness surrounded the lone male.

Confused he looked around the veil of darkness, trying to figure out where he was and just what was going on. He looked down to his feet and the black ground seemed to ripple similarly to water as he shifted his feet slightly. Nutty's confusion only grew as he began to walk, the sound of his footsteps sounded like he was stepping on cobblestone yet there was water there, rippling with each step. To further his confusion, his own footsteps echoed and with each passing step the echoes grew in volume.

"H-Hello?" he called out, his voice echoing throughout the darkness.

No response came to him. He was utterly alone in the shrouding blackness that seemed to consume everything in his sight. Sighing, he sat down on the watery ground and brought his knees to his chest, hugging them and resting his chin between his knees. He sat there, eyes glancing around the nothingness as if searching for a possible escape. But of course, there was none. It felt like an eternity, sitting there with nothing to do but wait in this limbo.

Just as Nutty was losing hope in every finding himself in his familiar surroundings, a burst of light blinded him and caused a violent groan to escape his throat. Eyes flickered opened, the male found himself in a medical bed with the sun shining in through the window next to the bed. Confused he looked around and blinked, weakly turning his head and wincing from the terrible amount of pain he felt.

"Ah, I see that you're coming to." A kind voice said aloud, "You gave us quite the scare, never seen a concussion that bad in a long while." The voice went on to say.

"W-Where am I?" Nutty muttered weakly, trying to muster the strength and pain tolerance to turn his head to see who the phantom voice belonged to.

Footsteps made their way to the bed and then around to the front, a doctor stood wearing regular medical attire and held a clip board, a gentle smile on her face. Short curly lavender hair adored the woman's scalp; light purple eyes stared at the male in the bed.

"You're in the town's hospital. You took quite the hit to the head when you fell over. Hit the back of your head straight onto a great oak. You hit it with enough force to knock a loose branch down and that seemed to knock you out for about five days." She explained.

Five days? Could if of been that long? Nutty thought and looked at the woman, groaning lightly as he tried to sit up. The woman walked over to his side and shook her head, placing a hand on his shoulder to stop him.

"Ah, ah. Don't you be moving too much now. You just came to after five days, you're going to have to rest for a little longer before you're well enough to move on your own." She said with a kind smile.

With a small and light sigh, the yellow-green haired male closed his eyes and shifted his legs a bit to stretch them out. He felt absolutely terrible. Every muscle fiber in his body was completely sore and felt as weak as could be and his head felt like it was cracking into two. The overwhelming pain he felt in his head forced small whiny groans from the male every now and again.

The woman checked her watch and blinked a bit, "Oh looks like visiting hours start in a couple of minutes. I'll go see if there's anyone here for you right now, I know for a fact they'd be relieved to hear you're finally up." She said as she began walking around the bed to head out of the room.

Nutty laid there in the bed, staring up at the porcelain white ceiling that veiled the room from the outside elements with the help of the walls. Sighing a bit, he closed his eyes for a moment before he heard a pair of voices conversing and traveling toward his room. Immediately he opened his eyes and finally managed to turn his head toward the door despite the horrible amount of pain it gave him.

The same woman walked in with a gentle smile, escorting in a blue haired male wearing glasses, a simple white shirt and some black jeans. The male made his way over to Nutty and sat himself down in the visitor's chair. The woman nodded her head and casually walked out to attend to more patients, leaving the two men alone in the room together.

"How's your head?" Sniffles asked with a slight smile.

"Hurts…A lot." Nutty muttered.

"Hm, I see. I didn't think you'd faint from seeing me."

"I didn't think I'd see you out of jail…"

"Well, you got me there. I didn't think I was going to be let out at all, but they found something that got me off the hook."

"What's that?"

"They found a hair belonging to the real culprit. Well I really should be saying culprits."

"I don't…understand." Nutty whispered.

"The two that really did the murder were Lifty and Shifty. They framed me for whatever reason and they're on the run now since they've been found out. Cops caught up to them one time to confront them and take them in, but they managed to get away and out of sight. I don't even think they're in town anymore."

"W-What?" Nutty muttered, "Those no g-good sons of bi-"

"Now, now Nutty. There's no need for foul language." Sniffles laughed a bit, cutting the other male off before he had the chance to finish his statement.

"I'm out and innocent, Cuddles knows the information that needs to be known and so does the rest of the town. Life can go back to normal." Sniffles began to say, "If you ask me this town is better off without those criminals. All they did was rob everyone at any given time. Damn kleptomaniacs."

"But they're shop… Who runs… the parlor?" Nutty asked curiously.

"Lumpy does now, which seems like a horrible idea but he's got a good staff working there now. I hear Giggles and Petunia are servers there now."

The two fell silent for a while as Nutty sighed a bit. Sniffles smiled and adjusted his glasses before putting his hand on Nutty's arm and gently rubbed it in a comforting manner.

"Tell you what Nutty, when you get released from the hospital's care, why don't you and me head down to the parlor and get some ice cream for the two of us? Then after we can go get you some candy. Bet you been running low now for a while." He offered.

Nutty couldn't help but smile at the other's offer. Things were really going back to normal. It was like his father and many others always told him "Good things are flying high in the sky, so keep your head high and good things are bound to gravitate around you." He nodded his head to the man's offer and couldn't stop smiling.

The two men stood there in silence for short intervals as they conversed until visitor's hours were over. Once Nutty was left alone it was already nightfall and all was still. He would end up going to sleep with a smile on his face and wake up with the same smile. Days would pass with the same regular routine, morning examinations from the medical staff, meals came in at the same times everyday, and many people concerned with Nutty would visit during the rightful hours. Sniffles was one of the frequent visitors that came each day and stayed until he was practically forced to leave.

Everyday made Nutty smile. His mangled and broken mind, heart, and body were slowly healing with each passing second and one thing stood in his mind: Sniffle's offer. Every time he thought about it, it gave him hope and happiness. His excitement only grew day by day as his recovery went on and on. After about a week and a half Nutty was well enough to be released. It was a Wednesday when he got released, but he chose to stay in for visiting hours one last time.

Like always Sniffles came in first at the very starting time for visiting hours and came straight in with a smile on his face, looking at Nutty. Soon his expression changed from happy to confused as he saw that Nutty was completely covered from his feet up to his neck compared to the usual covering up to his stomach.

"Uhh.. Why are you all covered up?" he asked as he neared the bed, head tilted a bit.

Nutty giggled, only to throw his covers off of himself to reveal he was fully dressed in a light green shirt with a cyan coloured jacket, dark green jeans and dark and light green striped shoes.

"Surprise!" he exclaimed as he jumped out of bed happily and held his hands behind his back, "They're letting me out today, so I decided to wait for you here and surprise you with the good news!"

Sniffles blinked and laughed a bit, only to cross his arms over his chest and shake his head, ruffling his usual white shirt, "You silly boy. Well I better make good on that offer, huh?"

Nodding his head, the yellow-green haired male giggled and semi-ran over to the door, turning around quickly to see the other walking behind him with a smile. The two of them traveled through the hospital out into the streets of their little town. Sniffles put his hands in his brown pants pockets, as Nutty practically skipped around happily as Sniffles walked behind.

Nutty stopped ever so often to look back at Sniffles, "C'mon slow poke! If we don't hurry we might miss out on all the good ice cream flavors!"

"Relax Nutty, they'll replace the flavors." Sniffles responded calmly.

Huffing, Nutty crossed his arms and pouted before perking up quickly with glee, "Betcha I can beat you there in a race!"

"What? Are you kidding me Nutty?"

"No, of course not! You're just scared that I'll win."

"Really now? Heh, well then you're on squirrel!"

With that Sniffles was off, running past Nutty as the two began racing toward the ice cream parlor. For a while the two were neck and neck until Sniffles was growing tired. Nutty was still bursting with energy. Nutty won by an arms length, the both of them panting quite a bit as they reached the parlor. Sniffles hunched over a bit, hands on his knees as he tried to regain his breath and Nutty leaned against the wall of the establishment. After the two recovered their lost breaths, they looked at each other and laughed a bit.

"Ah, well seems like you won that bet squirrel boy." Sniffles said as he placed his hands on his hips.

"You got that right nothing is faster then a squirrel when it comes to racing anteater." Nutty giggled before propping himself up off the wall and went to the double doors.

A bell rung once the double doors opened and the two males were greeted joyfully by Lumpy who was behind the counter, waving like a complete idiot.

"Hi guys! We're having a two for one special today. Interested?" he said with his usual goofy smile on his face.

Sniffles shrugged his shoulders while Nutty happily exclaimed "Yes, yes!" and ran on over to the front counter to check out the various flavors they had. Sniffles lingered behind and looked at Nutty, smiling softly as he saw how happy the other was. The same old hyper-active, crazy, child-like squirrel he had missed seeing so much after three years of imprisonment. For some reason it made his heart and stomach flutter.

Nutty gazed at all the flavors before picking out the various ones he wanted to have mixed together for his own personal taste while Sniffles finally walked over to make his own selection. After the two of them were done ordering they headed over to the exact same table they sat at the first time they were ever here together at the same time when Lifty and Shifty ran shop. Almost the exact same amount of people were in the shop again this day, some new faces and some familiar faces like Pop taking Cub for a father-son ice cream day.

"Feels like Deja-vu." Sniffles said as he looked around the parlor.

"Whaddaya mean?" Nutty asked.

"Hm? Oh nothing, just talking out loud. That was meant to stay in my head, I'm sorry."

Nutty giggled, "You tend to do that a lot, huh?"

"Do what a lot? Say things out loud when I think?"

"Yeah."

"Seems like it. You know I never really noticed it before."

"Really? I thought you would have noticed it a long time ago."

"Why's that?"

"You're always talking out loud to yourself."

"I am?"

"Yeah!" Nutty responded.

Sniffles thought about what the other had said for a moment and wondered how long he had been doing that for. Days? Weeks? Months? Years? His entire life? Who knew? Certainly not Sniffles.

"Huh. I guess you'd know better then I would seeing as I had no idea I was or rather had been doing that." He finally responded after giving it thought.

The two of them continued to talk, laughing at funny comments that were made by each other as they waited for their ice creams to be served. Soon enough a happy, blue-long haired woman came by wearing a light blue servers outfit, holding a serving tray with two bowls of ice cream on it walked up to the table and smiled warmly. She set down the two bowls to their respectful recipients before leaving.

"Enjoy!" she said as she walked away.

Sniffles and Nutty took up their spoons and lightly tapped them together in mid-air, almost like a high-five for spoons before digging into their ice creams and enjoying their flavors. Nutty of course was enjoying the ice cream far more then Sniffles, but then again it was in his nature to. Nutty giggled and laugh as he ate the sugary dairy product and finished it faster then he had expected, giving himself a horrible brain freeze.

"Ooohh…" he groaned as Sniffles laughed at him a bit.

"Take it easy now, it's not like that ice cream was going to be going anywhere other then your mouth and stomach." Sniffles responded.

Nutty rubbed his temples and shook his head, biting his lower lip as the freezing sensation continued until slowly subsiding. Sniffles picked up a napkin and reached over, wiping the other male's mouth clean of the mess he had after his brain freeze was over. Nutty blinked as his cheeks began to feel warm and started to turn a light pink colour. Did he really just do that or was this just all in his head?

Crumpling up the napkin after he was done wiping the other male's mouth, he smiled and set it aside as he continued to eat his ice cream, taking small scoops with his spoon in order to savor every bit of the creamy dessert. Nutty gulped a bit and looked to the side, trying to divert his attention away from the blue-haired male as he began thinking.

"W-What in the world was that? F-Friends don't u-usually do that to friends unless t-they have some sort of feelings for them…Right? C'mon Nutty, you're in over your head! There's no way Sniffles could like you more then a friend, just take it easy…He was just being nice. Yeah that's it! He was just helping out a friend." The male monologued in his head.

At the same time Sniffles was also thinking in his head and since he was stuffing his mouth full of ice cream ever so often it prevented him from saying his thought aloud like he usually would do.

"Geez Sniffles! The hell was all that? Have you finally cracked a gasket? That was a completely random and strange thing to do. And to a friend, a friend that is the same gender as you are no less! Am I really…? No, there's no way. Perhaps I'm just overreacting and taking things out of proportion. If that is so…Then what is this sensation I keep feeling when I'm around him? Every visit to the hospital…It seemed to grow more and more. And the more I'm around him it seems to get stronger; am I really developing feelings for him? Oh bother, what am I to do?" he thought before sighing lightly.

Nutty heard his sigh and looked at him a bit, the light blush that had stained his face before already gone, "Something the matter?"

Shaking his head, Sniffles stood quiet and proceeded to finish his ice cream before smiling at the other, "I was just…Thinking about something. No need to worry." He said reassuringly.

Soon Nutty waved for Petunia to come over and take their bowls away and she did gladly. Sniffles paid and the two of them got up from their seats and proceeded to head out the parlor. Lumpy waved at them and said good-bye and the two males did the same, smiling. Once the two left they ended up roaming around town looking at various window displays in the shopping district.

Hours passed and it got closer and closer to dark as the two spent more of the day together doing nothing but roaming around and talking to each other about what has been going on in town as of late. The more time the two spent together the more apparent and clear things started to seem for Sniffles. A few more hours passed and it was now night time. The stars dotted the sky like acne on skin and the two males were staring up at the dotted sky from a park bench next to a light post that illuminated the area they sat in.

Sniffles looked at Nutty and admired him for a moment before breaking the peaceful silence with his calm voice.

"Nutty…I've been thinking about this a lot lately, especially today."

"Mm?" Nutty hummed as he looked at the other and blinked a bit.

"Well…I feel odd saying this, but it seems like it would be the right thing to say and you have the right to know of course."

"Uh, alright. Lemme hear it then."

"Since we've been spending all this time together I've been feeling this weird fluttering feeling inside myself for a while. Now I have no doubt in my mind what these fluttering feelings are. Nutty, these feelings…I only get them around you and since these fluttering feelings are usually associated with the feelings of love I've concluded that I developed feelings for you. Feelings that go beyond being friends. I can't help my emotions and I have the feeling that perhaps you might be feeling the same way since you were blushing at the parlor earlier today when I wiped your mouth clean."

Nutty's face lit up light a Christmas light as he stammered and stuttered, "Y-you s-sa-saw that?"

"Yes I did. That's not the point here though. Nutty, I've developed feelings for you and I'd like them to expand further…With you. I supposed what I'm trying to say here is…Um well…W-Would you like to become my special one?" Sniffles asked, his cheeks turning a bit red.

"Y-Ye-Y-Yes. I-I would l-like that…A lot."

The two looked at each other and Sniffle's took a hold of Nutty's hand. The two gulped a bit before Sniffles leaned in slowly. Nutty's face reddened by the second. Soon, Sniffles and Nutty's lips gently touched each others in a soft, shy kiss. Sharing their first kiss together, the two were now joined by their feelings as a newborn couple.