***Mike PoV***
"Ugh..." I awoke slowly with a groan, looking around. I was in the subconscious. It was weird not waking up in real life... Almost alarming really... I stood, disoriented, and walked cautiously towards the living room. Well, the equivalent of it. I guess technically speaking I didn't actually GO anywhere... Eh, whatever. A sudden pain interrupted my thoughts and my hand shot up to where I was hit. 'Ow...' I cringed, rubbing my head. 'Why does something that's literally "all in my head." Hurt so much?' I entered the room, and was flooded with relief to see Svetlana among the others on the couch. I nodded to Manitoba.
"Good work mani." I smiled, then winced a little. He was pleased and nodded at the praise but looked concerned.
"Y'alroight mate? Ya got hit pretty hard." He said, shooting a withering glare at Vito. the mention of the incident caused Svetlana to leap from her seat and start fawning over me, barraging me with questions, worry plain in her thick Russian accent. I waved her off, assuring her I was fine.
"Yeah, just sore. Vito's got quite a swing..." I rubbed my head again, as Vito smirked and nodded his head, flexing with one arm and elbowing Mani with the other, obviously taking it as praise, and very proud of his work. Manitoba just rolled his eyes in reply, rubbing his temple, obviously resisting the (very strong) urge to deck the other personality. Vito as always remained oblivious to the restraint. Sometimes I feel bad for mani. I looked at Svetlana.
"I'm more worried about you. Lana, are you alright?" I looked at her with concern. What had he planned? She showed a flicker of fear but shook it off, nodding to assure us.
"Yes sveetie I'm fine, do not be vorrying. It VAS frightening, but it's over now. If ze scoundrel returns, ve'll be ready." She spoke with conviction, putting me at ease. I'm convinced that they can handle it if anything were to happen down here. ...Unfortunately, the same could not be said of those in the real world. Who knows what the villain was up to out there? I had to go deal with that first and foremost.
"Well... I'd better go, I hope this guy hasn't done anything..." I paused and gave them an assuring smile, reasoning with myself. "Well, I mean, how much could he do?"
The others nodded in agreement.
"If there's trouble in hea we'll let ya know mate." I smiled gratefully and took control again, noting the slight resistance.
Once back in reality, I blinked and looked around, noting the familiar bunks, still a fairly odd sight for me, as I've never really slept in one, being an only child. I looked at my roommates occupying them. Connor was laying cross legged reading his book, Derek was nowhere to be found, (can't say that I was particularly concerned, he's kind of a scary guy. Probably just got in trouble. Connor says it happens a lot.) I was standing beside mine and Josh's shared bed, facing him while he sat on the bottom bunk looking at me fearfully, and pressing himself to the far wall, attempting to put as much distance possible between him and I. 'Uh oh...' I thought to myself.
"Hey josh!" I said with a friendly smile, extending my hand toward the frightened boy, hoping to assure him that I meant no harm. To my dismay, he flinched back and a creeping feeling of dread came over me. '...How much could he do...?' I thought with worry as I quickly withdrew my hand. His expression changed to one of cautious confusion as he studied me. 'Oh boy... I've got some explaining to do...'
"Ah... Hem... I should tell you guys something..."
*** some time and a lot of explaining later ***
When I finished talking, I looked on their faces for the other boy's reactions. Josh stared at me with awe the entire time. Connor had put down his book long enough to hear what I had to say, eyeing me with a spark of interest before rolling on his stomach and looking at me intently until I had finished. He now nodded pensively.
"Huh... Well good luck with that." He rolled back onto his back and opened his book again without another word. At least he took that well. Josh continued to study me. I shifted uncomfortably.
"Uhm.. Hey, Josh? ...you okay?" I asked him cautiously, unsure of what to do. He snapped to attention, shaking off the trance like stare for a more lively, inquisitive expression.
"What's it like? What do you mean by you don't remember much? How did it happen? What are you going to do about this new personality? Are you scared?" Suddenly I was bombarded with questions, them shooting from his mouth faster than I could answer them. He had a lot of them. Some were pretty hard to adequately respond to... I answered most the best I could, Which in all honesty wasn't much, but I tried. It was a pretty strange feeling for me actually... No one but my therapist had ever shown this much interest in the others. I was happy to share. We chatted, only getting loud enough to be shushed by Connor a few times. After what had to be hours someone banged on the door to inform us that it was lights out. Josh wasn't done asking questions but he seemed satisfied for now. We climbed into our beds. I think I'd just made a friend. That'll be nice... I smiled and laid on my bunk, drifting to sleep. 'I guess it's not so bad here... Not as bad as I thought for sure.'