Author's note: Eric had a rough day. Post 'Zero Days'.
Dubigail: Thanks!
"Still awake?"
A notification bar along the top of his screen showed him the text from Nell. It was nearly two in the morning; he had barely four and a half hours to get some sleep before work tomorrow but, no matter what he did his heart refused to stop thumping in his chest. Every little noise was amplified and impossible to ignore at the same time.
He looked away from his phone for a moment, rubbing his eyes and trying to focus on the roof. It felt like hours ago that he had taken off his glasses and laid down with the intention of going to sleep. When he looked back at his phone and began to respond he realized it had in fact been just over two hours.
"How'd you know?"
He barely had time to switch back to the article he was reading before another notification appeared at the top of his screen.
"Call it an educated guess. You alright?"
"I'm fine. Shouldn't you be asleep?"
"I've been trying two 3 hour cycles lately. You're sure?"
The first response that crossed his mind was of course, to lie again - to tell her what he had coached himself to tell everyone over the years. If it was anyone else in the world he wouldn't have thought twice about it but, instead he was staring at the stucco on his roof again debating how to respond – debating how honest he was going to be. Before he even really realized what he had said the message was away.
"I'm not."
The tremor in his fingers only got worse after sending the message; now his heart was racing for two reasons. It hadn't been five seconds of staring at his phone when he couldn't stand waiting for her response anymore and switched back to the article he was reading, hoping that this would be the one to finally calm him down.
His phone ringing caught him completely off guard, when the Castlevania ringtone began to blare he just about threw it across the room.
He tapped accept but, after doing so he took a few seconds to try to compose himself.
"Nell?"
"Hey Eric." She chirped, sounding way too awake.
"How's biphasic life?"
"It's okay. I mean, I don't think I'm more energetic or anything so that sucks. Definitely making the best use of a 24 hour gym though."
He had never actually worked up the courage to suggest they go to the gym together, he would just see her there occasionally; though he had definitely noticed her absence in the last month. "Yeah. I tried it back in my undergrad - staying up til 3, sleeping until a 730 class, and then sleeping again in my spare before labs started in the afternoon."
"Eric Beale the party animal; I never would have guessed."
"Haha, yeah, let's go with that."
She giggled lightly. "So what's up? Can't sleep?"
"No." He responded heavily, letting a full breath out before continuing. "I tried everything. I went for a run, I finished my book, I cleaned my computer…"
She hummed thoughtfully before responding. "Did you… imagine the butterflies?"
He opened his mouth to respond but, he couldn't think of what to say. Butterflies, the ocean, a thunderstorm, a campfire; he had gone through them all.
After letting the silence ring out for a moment she continued in a more hushed tone. "Wanna talk about it?"
His eyebrow twitched just at the mention of it. Suddenly his hands were shaking again and he could smell the gunpowder from a hundred bullets blasting through brick and skittering off metal around him.
"N- not really."
"Alright." She took a breath before continuing. "Well, tell you what, Mr. Beale? I'll let you in on a little secret."
At first he didn't even realize it but, the corners of his mouth had curled upward a little bit when she said that. "Oh yeah?"
"You have to promise to not tell everyone this time; this isn't like the cosplaying thing."
A chuckle escaped his lips before he could stop it. "Come on, everyone agrees that you would make a cute Elisabeth; you already wear blue all the time."
"Eric." Came her stern response.
"Fine. My lips are sealed."
"Okay. When I was in college, especially in my first year, I'd get homesick a lot because… I'd never really been away from home before then. In the first week of November I basically asked her to come take me home, instead she told me to do something for her."
When she paused he almost sat up in anticipation, though he did his best to hide it in his voice. "What?"
"She had me put her on speakerphone and lie down."
Suffice to say that wasn't what he was expecting. After waiting a few seconds he hesitantly replied. "Uh, am I supposed to…?"
"Put me on speaker and lie down, Eric."
"Okay, okay." He replied, hitting the megaphone-shaped button and rolling over onto his back. "Ready."
"Then she'd read to me, just like when I was a kid."
He chuckled softly. "Seriously?"
"Quiet, Beale." She said with a shush. "It'll help. Close your eyes."
"They're closed." He complied.
"Is the light off?"
"It is."
"Perfect. Any requests?"
He grinned. "Ooh, I know, tell the one where a beautiful princess is having problems with her computer so the dashing knight braves LA traffic to come to her rescue and then drinks all her beer."
"Har, har. How about the one where a beautiful princess is accused of plagiarizing her history paper and had to take it all the way to the Dean?"
"Seriously? They thought you plagiarized?"
"Shush. So this was back in university, I think that was… 2006? No, that can't be right." She paused, mumbling something while Eric smiled at the thought of her counting back with her fingers. "Yup, 2006, God I feel old sometimes. So, Mr Basim had never really liked me, I refuted pretty much every statistic he used to justify himself which ordinarily made my teachers like me, I don't know what his problem was. Anyway, he assigned a paper on the industrialization of South America but he limited us to reporting on…"
She wasn't even halfway through the story when she heard a familiar snort. He had been silent for the last five minutes or so but, now she could hear long, slow breaths through her phone.
"Eric?"
For a few seconds she listened but, he didn't respond.
"Night, Eric." She whispered sleepily, hanging up and putting her phone down on her night stand.
Author's Note: Too fluffy? More like this? Less like this? Let me know with a review!
