Liam POV

I woke up next to Nickel a few hours after coming to sleep with him. I had pulled my arm away from him sometime in the night. Luckily, he was still resting peacefully. I carefully turned to look at the digital clock. It was 7 meaning I needed to get up to begin getting ready. I stretched my limbs out on the bed hearing a satisfying crack from some of my previously aching bones. Making sure to not make any noise, I got out of bed and went to take a shower in my own room. Once I was done I decided to style my hair better than usual so I could look more presentable.

I cleaned up the sides with the clippers then tousled the curls in the front before putting on my clothes. I dressed in a black, knitted turtleneck topped with a black blazer. I paired it with blue jeans, a brown leather belt, and brown shoes. Then I decided to wear my glasses instead of contacts being that they seemed to pair with my outfit.

I went downstairs to prepare some coffee for myself and pushed away the urge to make a french omelette aside. Nickel wouldn’t be able to eat or drink, so I thought it’d be shitty of me to have him wake up to the smell of food. Instead I ate a banana with peanut butter on toast. I finished my small breakfast rather quickly checking the time every so often. It was only 7:25 when I headed back upstairs to pack a few things we may have needed at the clinic.

By 7:40 everything was done and the only thing I needed to do was wake Nickel up. I sat on his side of the bed. “Nickel,” I said leaning over to his ear. I saw his tail move from under the covers but he made no move to get up. Slowly, I removed the sheets from him hoping that the cold air of the cabin would wake him. “I’m going to lift you up if you don’t move,” I said teasingly. “Just five more minutes,” he mumbled. “I’m sorry, but we have to go soon. The hospital is a minimum of 2 hours from here.” I stroked his cheek watching him slowly open his eyes. “I don’t want to go.” With that, he closed his eyes again. “Do you want me to pick you up?” I questioned. He shook his head no but still wouldn’t get out of bed. Finally, I decided to follow through with my threat. I slowly slipped my arms under his, causing him to jolt. In a swift movement, I lifted him up off the bed and into my arms placing one hand under his butt in order to better support him. He started cussing at me but I just snickered as I ran to the bathroom with him in my arms. I let him go, placing him on the toilet seat. “You’re annoying, you know that?” I leaned over him and poked at his cheeks making them go red. “ And you’re really not a morning person, huh.”

I left him to get ready. I myself packed the car, revved it up so it would be warm, and opened the garage door. When I came, I could already smell the slight scent of gasoline.

Nickel sat on the couch fiddling with his fingers. “It’s going to be ok, alright?” I promised, trying to calm him down. “Come on, we need to be leaving now so we aren’t in a rush.” He pursed his lips in distress but still stood up and followed me to the car. Once there I entered the address to the hospital and the car pulled out of the garage. “Have you ever been in a self-driving car?” I asked putting my coffee in the cup holder. He shook his head putting his seatbelt on, still clearly frightened. By that time, the car was going down the open road and I didn’t feel the need to make sure we didn’t crash into anything. I focused on Nickel after that. He kept his head down twiddling with his fingers again. His emotions were haywire; it was hard to tell whether he was more anxious or angry.

I leaned over the console and carefully placed my hand over both of his. “Please look at me,” I spoke, wanting to hold him but knew he’d only freak out more. He turned to me, his gaze sharp. “Liam, what if they fuck up? What if they decide to send me back because they find out you lied. You told that man you’d speak to your father. Did you ever do that?”

“Nickel-,” I tried to intervene.

“No, I’m so fucking serious right now please tell me you authorized this with someone! If they know you didn’t we’re so fucked they’ll send me back, worse they’ll fuck up the surgery on purpose. That shit happened to someone I roomed with! They were being careless and he fucking died.”

I grabbed his face with both of my hands and brought him closer to me; perhaps using too much force. “Hush!” I said sternly but keeping my volume low.

I could hear his heart racing, filling in the silence. “Calm down.” I raked through his hair with my fingers. We sat in silence for nearly 5 minutes before I could sense his breathing returning to normal. “What can I do to keep you calmed?” I asked. Nickel looked up at me. His scent was also back to normal but I could sense his worry. “Please just promise me you won’t let anything bad happen,” he whispered, avoiding my gaze.

“I promise I won’t let anything happen to you.” I sighed. “Are you scared of going into surgery or scared that you’ll have to go back to the facility?” I questioned but I more or less knew the answer. “Both, but I’m more afraid they’ll take me from you. Or...or kill me,” he stuttered the last part. “I don’t know. I’ve never cared about living or dying until meeting you.”

I squeezed his hand tightly. “Nickel when I say you aren’t going back unless you want to I mean it.” He gave me a pained laugh. “If they do try and take me I’m sure as hell not going back to that shithole without one of those motherfuckers losing an eye,” he said bitterly.

His statement came as a slight shock. “Nickel,” I spoke in a stringent tone. I forgot how aggressive and sharp-tongued he could be. It seemed to grab his attention as he finally looked me in the eyes. “Stop it.” He bit his bottom lip, clearly still a mix of anxious and upset. 

“I’m not quite sure what I can do to help you relax. If you go in that place acting like this then it’ll raise suspicion. I know you think that I’m just going with the flow but I have a plan set up. One in which all you need to do is play along.” In actuality, my plan was to go with the flow, but I fibbed to get him calm. It wasn’t as though I had no clue as to what I was doing, it just wasn’t as structured as he wished it to be. “It’s ok to feel the way you’re feeling, but keep in mind there is no use in stressing over something you can’t control. You can’t control anything in this situation.”

“That’s precisely why I’m stressed out!” he said through gritted teeth. I inhaled then exhaled closing my eyes for a moment before looking at him once more. “You trusted me enough to let me kiss you and hold you. Enough to open up to me about things that you’ve kept inside for so long.” I watched as his expression softened at my words. “Now I need you to trust me enough to take control and handle everything. If I’m handling everything, what's there for you to worry about?”

“Nothing,” he mumbled. “That’s right.” I cupped his face and leaned over to place a firm kiss on his cheek. I tapped on the screen of the car and turned on the morning news station to watch. “That’s cool,” he commented. “Yeah, since this car drives itself there’s a t.v. option on the screen.” I realized he was probably looking for something to distract him since he never seemed interested in watching the news. “Maybe you should sleep until we get there,” I offered. He shook his head still watching and listening to the reporter. “Too anxious,” he responded. “Are you in any physical pain?” He nodded his head. “My stomach hurts.”

“Do you want me to stop somewhere to get you some tea?” He shook his head no. “Ok.” I felt bad for not being able to help so I decided to just remain quiet.

Almost an hour flew by. We both watched the news and didn’t speak to one another. I noticed Nickel looking tired. I rubbed his hand with my thumb hoping to relax him. He didn’t fall asleep as I had hoped, but he let me continue that motion for most of the ride. 

Thanks for reading! Please like, subscribe,comment, and share! Thank you guys for sticking with me. I've been going through some stuff and I didn't even want to open tapas. I hope to finish this story soon and continue on with my other plans for stories when I'm doing a bit better mentally wise. I hope you all continue to support me! Thank you so much. 

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