ALBATROSS AROUND YOUR NECK / nightmare

[wormwood.]

i was born, on the highway, in a train wreck

with a heart, that was beating, out of my chest

After a long moment of silence hung in the air between them, Aurum immediately felt a sense of anxiety grip his chest, like the vines growing around Roy's paws had somehow wrapped themselves tightly around the lion's individual ribs. He was worried that his son was stuck within his own head again, struggling against his own thoughts and losing sight of the world around him. Roy might've been worried about making his Father lose precious sleep after the huge amount of work the older male had been doing, but Aurum felt absolutely no care for such things, just taking another step closer to try and break his son out of it. When Roy's glazed over petrified gaze finally seemed to have a spark of recognition within it, Aurum resisted the urge to charge forward and embrace the other in his arms, not wanting to overwhelm Roy so soon. He just let Roy have a long moment, watching as the tiger took in and let out long, deep breaths, clearly trying to calm himself down from whatever horrible things he had just seen and experienced firsthand in the world of dreams. The tears rolling down Roy's cheeks made Aurum's heart twist unpleasantly, but still he waited, patiently waiting to see if Roy would give him any sort of true explanation. Something tangible, that he could help with.

Thankfully, eventually Roy spoke, even if his words were slightly choppy and wavering wildly with his voice. The utterance of bad dream made Aurum wince, mainly due to the fact that he was quite familiar with the phenomenon. Whether it be right after Poetking left or right before he had found out he was an angel, the Captain had experienced quite a few terrible nightmares that had jolted him awake night after night. These days he didn't experience such things that often, thankfully, but it didn't seem as though Roy was so lucky. Aurum couldn't say he was entirely surprised, considering the trauma that Roy had slowly been sharing with him over time, but he still felt a great deal of sadness, just wanting Roy to be happy, and able to sleep comfortably. Once Roy was done speaking, and his attention seemed to be turned to the vines currently gripping him tightly, Aurum moved forward, gently touching his nose to the boy's head. He then rumbled, eying the vines wearily, "A bad dream... I know how awful those can be, trust me. I could try burning you out of these vines... but before we try something so drastic, can you do something for me, Roy? I want you to close your eyes and take a few more of those deep breaths, and just focus on imagining the vines going back into the ground, and letting you go." Sure, Aurum could've roasted the vines to shreds, but he didn't particularly want to set Roy into a panic with the flames, and surely if the boy could draw vines forth, he could send them back down, right?

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