Author's Note: Here's another Fly and Chuck centered one, this time of the hurt/comfort variety. Sort of. Anyway, enjoy. :)


Someone To Talk To

Chuck awoke abruptly to a hand nudging on his shoulder. "Chuck. Hey, Chuck!" a voice whispered.

The boy looked with tired eyes at his night stand at the blurred lights coming from his alarm clock. Reaching over, he flicked on the lamp and grabbed his glasses, setting them on the bridge of his nose. He saw that Fly was sitting on the side of his bed, watching him with a straight face.

Chuck took another glance at the clock then back at his cousin with furrowed brows. "What do you want, Fly?"

"I need to talk to you about something."

The first thing the bespectacled boy noticed was that Fly's eyes were alert and his voice was full of energy he would have during the day, a suggestion that he hadn't slept at all. The second thing was that Fly sounded serious. It reminded Chuck of a child that was frightened and needed assurance from his parents that nothing was going to hurt him. He had a pretty good idea what was keeping his cousin up at night.

"Are you thinking about…the incident?" asked Chuck.

Fly shrugged, averting his eyes to the side. "Yeah."

"Okay…" Chuck broached cautiously. He had no idea where to even start. Admittedly, he was no therapist, but he was going to try and help. "You wanted to talk about that?"

"Not really," said Fly.

Chuck stared in utter confusion. "Well, then…why did you wake me up?"

"'Cause," said Fly. "I wanna know how you found that secret boss in Space Blaster 2."

Chuck said nothing for a few seconds, feeling his eyelid twitch. "You're serious right now?"

"Yeah," Fly said very casually. "I played the game all the way through ten times, and found nothing. How did you do it?"

"Fly!" Chuck glared at his cousin. "You woke me up at three in the morning to talk about Space Blaster?"

It was as though Fly didn't hear a word Chuck said. "C'mon, tell me. I've been trying to figure it out for months. Gimme a hint."

"I'm going back to bed," said Chuck with an exasperated sigh. He turned off the lamp and was about to remove his glasses before the light came on again. Fly wore a pleading look.

"Chuck, please," he said. "I can't sleep. I need to get my mind off things. Just for a few minutes? That's all I'm asking."

The serious tone was back, though this time Fly looked anxious. There was something about it that triggered an instinct in Chuck. Chuck knew the kinds of things Fly dreamed about. Memories of the ocean deep. Nearing death himself, and then witnessing it happen to someone else. Chuck had had his fair share of trauma during what they called "The Fish Potion Incident", but he couldn't imagine anything like that. Fly had carried the burden alone in knowing what happened to Joe, and he had kept it to himself all this time. Chuck only found out because he pried it out of him some time ago, and though his cousin was scarce on the details, Chuck could still deduct what exactly took place in the pipe leading from MacKrill's lab to the ocean floor. Frankly, he didn't blame him one bit for never talking about it.

Chuck lowered his hand from his glasses and readjusted his seating on his bed. "Fine. You need to get the Meteor Bombs first."

Fly smiled slightly, now engaging in Chuck's words. "Yeah, I got it."

"So once you reach Mars, take a right at the canyon's entrance."

"Okay."

"Then if you stay right, there'll be a pile of boulders on the ground. Shoot it with the bombs. It'll open up a hidden path."

The blonde-haired boy's jaw dropped. "You're kidding! You mean to tell me it was right there all along?"

Chuck nodded. "Well, to be fair, it's pretty easy to miss."

"All right!" Fly's smile widened. "And I saw a high medal count on your save file. How do you explain that?"

"That," Chuck said with a self-satisfied smile, "is because I'm just good at the game."

The boys then decided to open Chuck's laptop so Fly could follow his cousin's gaming tips. They were so caught up in each other's laughter and smack-talking that they didn't notice the morning light's soft glow entering through the blinds of Chuck's window. Chuck dismissed the lost hours of sleep. After all, it was the weekend. It didn't matter that much.

The sun rose a little higher in the sky before Chuck noticed Fly's gradual dip in performance in the game. The blonde haired boy was trying to keep his head upright and his eyelids from drooping. It was evident that Fly wasn't going to earn a medal for this level, so Chuck simply closed the laptop with his palm.

The boy wore an indignant, yet haggard expression. "Hey! What're you doing?" he demanded, a heavy yawn drowning out his words.

Chuck removed the laptop from the bed, and he smirked. "Get some sleep, Fly. You seriously need it."

There was no argument from Fly as his head slammed against Chuck's pillow. Chuck took the comforter and pulled out over his cousin. Fly was already knocked out cold. He's finally at peace. Good, thought Chuck.

The bedroom door opened quietly with Chuck's mother peeking in. Once she saw someone was awake, she stepped in the room. "Good morning, Charles. How did you boys sleep?"

Chuck took a glance at Fly sprawled out on his bed before replying. "We slept fine, though I think Fly's going to sleep in for a little bit."

His mother smiled. "I'm just letting you boys know that I'm preparing breakfast and it will be ready in a few minutes."

"Thanks," said Chuck with a grin. "I'll be out soon."

Though Fly, Chuck thought with amusement, would most likely skip breakfast and lunch today.

Chuck threw on some clothes, a polo shirt and a pair of slacks and headed for the dining room, first passing one last look at his cousin, who still hadn't stirred in his spot.

"Pleasant dreams, Fly," Chuck passed a whisper before leaving the room, and gently closing the door behind him.

And he genuinely hoped so, too.


Author's Note: Just to add, I have no idea what kind of game Space Blaster is, so I made up that it's some kind of rail shooter game, a la the original Star Fox, where you fly around in a ship and shoot stuff. It sounded like a game more contemporary with the film's setting than, say, Galaga or Space Invaders.