“You sly dog,” Timmons said.

Reed wasn’t even fully awake yet, but Timmons was already saying shit. “You smell like the bar floor.” Lifting a hand, he went to rub his eye only to find Lily pinning it. She was asleep against his side.

Using his other hand instead, Reed flipped Timmons a bird. “Don’t wake her.” He shut his eyes to get back to sleep, but Lily stirred slightly and gasped.

“I’m so sorry,” she whispered.

“What for?” Reed asked.

“I didn’t mean to actually fall asleep.”

Reed kept his arm around her, preventing her from getting up immediately. “So what? Best sleep I’ve had in years.” She looked uncomfortable, though and he let her go. Settling onto his back, Reed rubbed his forehead. He did feel cold, though. Still partially under the blankets, Lily put her hand to his forehead, pushing his aside.

“You’ve got a fever again.” Lily moved away, leaving the bed beside him empty and him even colder.

“Did something happen while I was gone?” Timmons asked.

“I stepped through the bathroom floor,” Reed said and cooperated as Lily helped him sit up to take the medication after she checked the time.

Timmons was in the process of taking his jacket off and blinked at Reed. “So that’s why the bathroom door has a chair in front of it.”

“Bass said we’re to use a bathroom in the west wing from now on. He’ll pick one and clear a path to it tomorrow,” Lily explained.

“How am I supposed to get him to that?” Timmons asked.

“I gotta jar,” Reed said.

“That doesn’t take care of everything,” Timmons objected.

Lily put the lid back on Reed’s bottle of medicine and set it aside. “No, but it’s better than not having a bathroom at all.” She looked back at him. “You’re really drunk. Is that why you had to go out?”

“I was on a mission!” Timmons defended.

“How’d that go?” Reed asked.

Grinning, Timmons sat on the edge of his bed. “Oh man did they have a lot to say! They were entirely onboard with the plan!”

Lily snapped her gaze back to Reed. “What did you tell him to do?”

Timmons giggled. “Can I tell her?”

“Go ahead.” Reed’s teeth clicked together as he shivered. Pulling the blankets closer around himself, since Lily was unlikely to rejoin him. He slid down in bed. Lily poured some water over a cloth to get it damp and put it on his forehead.

Leaning his elbows on his knees, Timmons pressed his palms together, speaking with a grin. “I talked a couple servants from the Eastern Barracks into joining me for drinks. They’re extremely excited to get to work.”

“On what?” Lily insisted.

“Making the Eastern Barracks assholes question reality,” Timmons said.

“What about Avery?” Reed asked.

“He’s… Reed. He’s not as bad as you, but he’s still pale as a ghost and can’t move,” Timmons said.

“Oh… fuck… I forgot…” Reed long-blinked.

“It’s okay,” Lily assured.

“I thought it’d been a week already…”

“Reed. It’s been barely two days,” Timmons said.

“It’s the meds,” Reed said, knowing he was slurring, partially because the medications were taking hold and also because he was freezing.

To his surprise, Lily opened the blanket cocoon he’d made and slid back in, wrapping herself around him. “Just go back to sleep,” she ordered.

Reed settled in, curling around her again and obediently quit paying attention to what was going on around him. Timmons continued talking to Lily after a minute.

***

“You know. For all he complains about my farts, he screams in his sleep. Surprised more people haven’t heard him,” Timmons said, apparently deciding to just sleep in his clothes, since Lily was staying to keep Reed warm. “You’re in for a night.”

Admittedly, when Lily had been sitting beside his bed, Reed had violently twitched and yelped himself awake multiple times. She didn’t recall him doing that while she’d been next to him. She was a light sleeper, so knew that kind of thing would’ve woken her. Lily carefully turned to put her back against him. He adjusted to accommodate without waking up, face in her hair at the back of her neck. He was still shivering, but it seemed to be getting better. She reached back to put the cool cloth back on his head. It was soaking the pillow and her hair, and his heat was making her sweat. She knew there was a possibility he might get ideas, but she felt… like his condition was partially her fault. “Oh. Doctor said to cut his medication in half every four hours.”

“He’s been getting a sugar spoon twice a day already. That’s barely anything. That even gonna work?” Timmons asked. He hesitated and shifted to the edge of his bed, lying on his side, head propped on a hand. “Have you… seen it?”

“Yeah…” Lily swallowed. “I dropped him on the floor earlier.”

Timmons lifted his brows. “Were you carrying him or something?”

“No… just… when the bathroom floor gave out, I didn’t catch him. I could have but I didn’t. I was scared to touch his back. Bass called Doctor Brenst.”

“I can tell you now that even if you did it on purpose, he wouldn’t blame you. Even if he weren’t absolutely drugged out of his gourd right now,” Timmons assured. He leaned closer with a stupid grin. “He thinks you’re pretty. You know that?”

Lily felt herself flush and covered her eyes. She knew her mouth had twitched toward a smile. “He… said something like that. I’m sure it’s just the drugs.”

Timmons snorted. “Nope. He’s said it like four times to me way before this. Doesn’t really give a damn if anyone else knows, apparently. Confidence I wish I had.” He sighed and fell to his back, staring at the ceiling in embarrassment.

Lily snorted. “What? You think I’m pretty too?”

“I… uhm.” Timmons fidgeted, picking his nails. “You’ve got a pretty face…” He mumbled. “But I think Reed’s got claim on you—” He suddenly pulled his pillow over his face and rolled over to hide.

Lily could feel her own face burning. This… was absolutely silly. But… it felt so good to be told that for once. Liam had always said she had a horse face with fish lips.

Reed mumbled against her back but quieted when she moved slightly. His fever seemed to be breaking. She knew she needed to get back to her room now that Timmons was back, but… If having a person to hug in his sleep made him rest better…

Lily closed her eyes.

“You know, he says the weirdest things sometimes,” Timmons said. “He said he’s got forty years of experience being a troublemaker.”

Opening her eyes again, she looked over to find Timmons with his pillow on his chest now instead of his face.

“He said anything weird to you?” Timmons asked.

“Yeah…” Lily said. “I don’t know what to make of it, though. Maybe he has nightmares.” She considered telling Timmons that Reed knew Ingvanic, but realized that Timmons, being a farm boy, wouldn’t have known what that was in the first place, let alone the significance of it.

“I guess.” Timmons put his pillow behind his head and yawned. “G’night.”

***

Reed couldn’t have guessed how much time had passed. What he thought was a week was a few days. What felt like a month was apparently a week and a half.

This time, he woke up to find Avery sitting in the chair next to him. He looked hollow-eyed like he hadn’t been sleeping well.

“I’m sorry,” Reed said as soon as he understood Avery was actually there. “I didn’t know it would be that bad. I’m sorry.”

Avery’s eyes widened. “Reed…” he shook his head.

Reaching over, Reed gripped Avery’s knee. “I ain’t gonna let them touch you again. I promise.”

Grimacing, Avery shook his head again and forced himself to breathe. “Reed. How’re you going to do that? Do you even… know what they did to you?” He wiped his face with both hands. “I’ll be alright. They stopped at fifty on me because I passed out. Goddess’ Light, Reed. It looks like they peeled your back off a centimeter at a time!”

“Sounds like a cool scar,” Reed said.

Avery gripped his hair. “Ugh! No! Reed!” He threatened to hit Reed with a fist but stopped himself. “Ugh! Fuck you.” He dropped his hands to his lap with a sigh.

“Don’t feel too bad for him,” Timmons said from his bed. “He’s talked Lily into being his pillow this whole time.”

Choking, Avery whipped his head to look at Timmons and paled as he pulled the wounds on his back. Turning back to Reed he demanded. “You didn’t.”

“He did. And thank the Goddess. He’s quiet at night for once,” Timmons asserted.

“You still ain’t figured out that puzzle?” Reed retorted.

“Shaddup,” Timmons grumbled.

“So you talked to our friends in Eastern?” Reed asked.

Timmons slammed the puzzle down on his nightstand and jumped out of bed to drop onto the foot of Reed’s, grinning wildly. “I thought you’d never ask!”

Avery flicked a suspicious look between Reed and Timmons. “Friends?”

“They’re absolutely losing their minds,” Timmons said. “At least ten have insisted there’s demons in the barracks. The Temple has sent priests in to bless the rooms twice. A few have completely thrown out all their belongings. They don’t know what to call what’s happening, but they are absolutely hating it.”

Avery gaped. “What did you do?” he looked at Reed.

“A little thing I like to call ‘The Shuffle,’” Reed said and chuckled. “Move everything a little to the left. A little to the right. It’s all just different enough to be unsettling when you’re used to things being the same way all the time.”

“Oh, and the pillow swap,” Timmons said, “That’s apparently driving them insane. They use fancy smells on their bedding over there, so it’s a little more noticeable that something is wrong. They haven’t thought to ask the staff what’s going on. They’re just all mad and don’t know why.”

Reed grinned. “Alright. Phase two.”

“What? There’s more?”

“I don’t remember if I mentioned the milk yet,” Reed said.

“Oh. You mentioned milk.”

“Drill a tiny hole in the wall behind their headboard, pour milk in, clean up so there’s no evidence and just wait,” Reed said.

“But that…” Avery said, eyes wide. He looked at Reed again. “Are you… What are you doing?”

“Revenge.” Reed smiled. “High-quality revenge. Other interesting things to do,” Reed counted on his fingers, “gift them bedbugs, fleas, and-or head lice.”

“That might get the servants in trouble,” Timmons said.

“Ah. In that case, I’ll think of something else.”

"Don't worry too much about it right now. They're having fun for now."

Reed nodded. "Tell them they'll have to stop for about a week, so that everyone thinks it's over. Don't want them getting used to it."

Avery laughed, then flinched and grit his teeth, wheezing.

"Dude. Brenst not give you the good shit?" Reed asked.

"He did, but it messes me up, and I wanted to come see you," Avery explained after he got his wave of pain under control.

"I ain't given you yours yet for the same reason," Timmons admitted, looking aside. "You alright?"

"Long as I don't move much," Reed said. "Honestly, I'm tired of sleeping all the time."

Timmons snorted. "Even though Lily's sleepin with you?"

"Bro." Reed dropped his head back. "Yeah. It's nice, but I can't do anything. You're there, and I literally can't."

Shaking his head, Avery said, "I still don't believe that. How did you talk her into that?"

"She dropped him on the floor and set him back on recovery by a few days," Timmons said.

Reed kicked at him from under the blankets. "That ain't what happened. I stepped through the bathroom floor, lost balance, and landed on my back. She just happened to be there. Ain't her fault."

"She said she could have caught you."

"Results woulda been the same if she had," Reed said and shrugged. "Except, she coulda gotten hurt too and that'd be three squires down."

"I should be back in another week." Avery looked down at his hands, picking his nails. "I'm... afraid of going back out there."

Reed fell silent. His gaze drifted down to his legs, where they were covered by blankets. He could still feel his toes, which reassured him they were still there, despite the half-lucid nightmares he kept having. He understood that this situation had been traumatic for the boy, but he really didn't have an answer except... you get used to it. And that really wasn't a good answer at all. Despite everything, he'd accidentally ended up as a mentor for these boys. They thought he was their age but somehow wiser. They looked up to him. They listened to him. "It ain't gonna happen again," he found himself saying. "I'm gonna make sure of that. They'll be too busy dealing with me to notice anyone else."

And even though the boys knew that this wasn't a good solution either, they had no idea how to fix the problem at its source.