Flip the Coin [BL]-Chapter 455. Dread in My Heart (by Mother Mother)

Henry’s POV

I woke up because Kenny stirred in my arms, even trying to sit up at one point, but I didn’t let go and pressed him close to me.

His temperature was still a prime example of healthiness.

"It’s day?" he asked in a daze, and I hummed, feeling that the daylight was way too bright.

"They’re safe; everything is done. Sleep more." I slid further down to bury my head in the crook of his neck, getting to breathe in his scent and block out the sunlight.

"What the...wait, what?" He asked groggily, his hand combing through my hair, pulling me a bit closer before he pulled me away to look at me.

"Mhm, everyone is safe..." I reveled in his looks, beautiful and handsome as always, with the enchanting red color that was so distracting.

Love and heart and blood—for all that red stood for, and each meaning fitted perfectly.

I licked my lips, blurting out the confession when I had him already so close, so soon, and still a bit sleepy.

"Ah...somehow a bullet landed in your father’s shin."

"Ah...wait, what? Is he dead?" he asked, sounding not overly worried but also not overly apathetic, but definitely awake now.

"Probably not, it just struck his shin."

Kenny chuckled and pulled me closer again, so I closed my eyes in the crook of his neck once more.

"And how did a bullet somehow land in his leg?"

"It may have come from the gun I was holding. " I winced, curling up and holding him in a death grip, ready to melt us together.

"Thought so." He laughed.

"You are not angry?"

"Nah. Just don’t kill him; I don’t want my grandma to lose another son." He sighed, continuing to run his fingers through my hair as I sighed in relief and bliss.

Kenny really... is the best.

"Are you injured?" he asked, making me feel warm all over.

"No. The twins, Chelsea, Patrick, Harry, and Dr. Lawrence are in the gang hideout now. They are fine." Probably.

He didn’t answer immediately, thinking.

"Praise me..." I hinted in a whisper.

"Oooh... what a clever puppy. Good spot to place them. Good job saving them too." Kenny praised me, and I was ready to purr.

I laughed with joy.

"You are free now. Everything is done; now you just have to relax."

"It really is done, hm? Did I retract the rats? I don’t feel the weight of having them outside anymore."

"Yes, I told you to put them away while you had a fever." I snuck my hand into his shirt and slid my fingers up his back, outlining his shoulder blades covered with a beautiful thin layer of muscles.

"I can’t believe it..." he sighed.

"This was so fucking important, and now that it’s done, I don’t know."

"Not happy?"

"Nah, just unreal." He drawled out before falling silent again.

"We’ll have to start working in..." I thought for a moment, estimating how long we had slept.

"Monday." I couldn’t tell if we had slept for two or three days, so I settled with this.

Kenny chuckled.

"Pffft, and what exactly are we doing?"

"Good question." I recounted the nonsense the state attorney had spouted before saying,

"Though I don’t care; let’s stay at home and stay convicted together."

"No way... As a fucking free citizen, I have to follow the laws... for now. As long as they don’t get overboard..." Kenny seemed to be slowly getting into his new role as a free and responsible man.

"Though, isn’t there a civil war or something?"

"The state attorney said not anymore. That everything would go the way it was after the lockdown."

"Ah... Well, if that fucker says so..." Kenny chuckled again, and even without saying it aloud, I knew he wouldn’t be overly sad if I orchestrated a tragic accident for that ’fucker.’

"You smell so good." I wanted to stay like this forever.

"Random..." In the end, he sniffed my hair.

"You too." 𝒻𝑟ℯℯ𝑤𝑒𝑏𝑛𝘰𝓋𝑒𝓁.𝒸𝑜𝘮

I snickered, thanking my past self for showering the smoke away.

"They will bomb the city." There was so much to discuss, so many things I wanted to ask, and I was also angry that he had brought himself into a state of vomiting blood and having a fever—but in the end, I let the conversation flow naturally, presenting the facts so that we could have a pleasant day, just like I had planned.

Staying in bed, eating a ton, watching cartoons with Ren and Kitty, and everything as relaxing as possible, to let him fully recover his body and mind.

"What the fuck?! In a few weeks?"

"Yes, Omar knows as well from his parents; he probably had already informed Ethan."

"OH SHIT! Dr. Carell!" Kenny suddenly flinched, as if it just came to his mind.

"...A bullet did land somehow in his eye." I laughed and stopped playing with his shoulder blade and instead patted his back in assurance, shuffling down further to bury my face in Kenny’s chest.

"How is he still alive?" Kenny sounded dazed again, as if wrapped in his own mind, so I pulled away again to look at him.

He stared down at me, and our eyes met.

Enchanted, I needed another second to recover.

"He isn’t—not anymore," I corrected.

"Probably the Dr. Carell from our world—the military or the Lawrence family could have searched for him after his counterpart had been taken into custody."

Kenny looked at me for a few seconds before facepalming.

"Damn it!! That was way too obvious for me. I got paranoid all on my own."

He cursed some more, and I burrowed myself back into his chest.

Suddenly, I didn’t mind rescuing the insignificant people anymore, seeing how I could instantly reassure him, and the dread in my heart over the endless worries he had put me through AGAIN lessened significantly.

My hand snuck back to his shoulder blades before slowly creeping down his spine.

"When you got paranoid, you thought of me?"

And then it was all right again?

Say it.

Say it.

"Yes. I managed to get out of the paranoia because my puppy’s loyalty could never be questioned." He hummed.

I squeezed him endlessly, loving what I heard while laughing happily.

"Pfft... then I was in the maestro world; the shit gets crazier every time..." He told me about the Kennyrope, and my squeezing turned from happy to punishing.

I swallowed the words, ’If you just stayed at home, that bastard wouldn’t have gotten to you,’ while feeling the dread returning.

I hate his counterparts daring to use his name, face, and eyes and even injuring him or wanting to kill him.

I don’t want to believe that they really hold or are part of Kenny’s soul or being... At moments like these, my black-and-white thinking made it much easier for me to navigate, and I resolved to use it on this matter too, just hating them unconditionally.

Because they were not my Kenny.

I hummed.

"Take me with you next time; I’ll kill that bastard."

"Sure... I’ll try." Kenny’s hand in my hair tightened its grip slightly when my fingers reached his lower back, so I slid up again, not wanting to annoy him on this special relaxing day.

"Can you imagine this shit? Up and down, up and down, what the fuck?" He asked as if he wasn’t putting me through a constant rollercoaster, bringing me up and down and up and down.

"...I can." I nearly choked on the two words.

He chuckled and patted my back before starting to tell me about his visions inside the Maestro world and about the space theory.

"So when you tried to extract yourself, you landed in his own personal memories?" I asked on my nth round around his shoulder blade.

"Yeah, I think so."

"Can you make a space without the giant’s power?" It would be the most useful weapon; just thinking about how he had brought the zombies inside the space and, in the end, left them there to rot or get swallowed by nothingness, he would be even more invincible than he was now.

"No, I think it would blast the table—the crystalline surface."

"Alright. We won’t do anything to provoke the table." I said solemnly, and Kenny broke into laughter.

I know he said he wanted to try not actively fighting against the use of the giant’s power, but I was against it, and seeing that he just laughed and didn’t speak about it again, I was relieved.

"About the city—" However, it came as it had to come; are we talking about saving people again?

I interrupted him by quickly moving back up and crashing my lips on his. My hand crawled from under his shirt through his collar to the back of his head, pressing him to me so that he had no way to escape.

I slipped my tongue in his mouth and turned him so that he lay on his back while I leaned over him.

Exploring his mouth, tastier and sweeter than anything could be, I was ready to pounce on him for good when I heard the fast steps of a child hurrying down the steps, probably running to us.

I pecked Kenny’s lips a few times while extracting my arm from under him and leaning against the wall right beside him.

The door opened, and I pulled my legs up, thinking, ’Perfect timing,’ and meaning it.

Today was a relaxing day, and I wanted to hold back so that... I could start to negotiate the moment he was fully recovered.

Kenny chuckled at my posture, but it died down when he spotted Ren in the doorway, whimpering silently with a tear-streaked face.

He held a paper in his hand and pounced on Kenny, making me clench my jaw for being unable to do the same.

"What’s wrong, Ren?" Kenny asked while patting his back, taking the paper out of his hand.

I glanced at it and saw that it was Kenny’s drawing of Ren and his mother, but it was not only full of creases; the lines had also smudged.

I chuckled with schadenfreude; what a rookie mistake.

I always stored the drawings with their back to my body, and my body temperature was way lower than that of a child. Plus, I used the unfinished drawing against my skin; it served as a puffer.

Kenny elbowed me, and I shut up.

In the end, however, he himself smirked.

"Don’t worry; I can draw it again. I have an idea." He reached for his phone, but I was faster, presenting him with my own.

His friends had probably spammed him with missed calls and messages, and they were definitely excluded from this very relaxing day.

Kenny took my phone, and after yet again seeing the dark background picture of his profile and giving me a condemning look, he opened the messenger.

He opened the chat with Ethan and typed his message before giving me back the phone.

I instantly sent a message after him, telling Ethan not to speak about anything strenuous today, as we were resting.

Ethan knocked at the door twenty minutes later when the kid had cried himself to sleep.

"Come in," Kenny said, and I lowered my legs again, not feeling that tight anymore.

Ethan came in, asking how we were doing, bringing over a pen and paper, as well as a golden medallion.

"You really found one?" Kenny asked, surprised.

"In the depths of the attic." He nodded before saying he would bring food in an hour.

Kenny showed me the medallion, and I nodded.

"You are spoiling him," I said in the end, and I saw him raise his eyebrows.

"Who taught the kid to hatch? It’s your fault; you should have come up with a solution."

"How could I come up with this? I am not that clever." I leaned sideways with my head against his and watched him open the medallion, measuring the space inside with his pencil before drawing a small oval on the paper he propped against his legs, which he had now pulled up as well—just for a far more innocent reason.

"The puppy is playing dumb~" he said while copying the drawing from before into a much smaller frame.

"The puppy wouldn’t dare~" I said back in the same singsong tone.

"Though the puppy is quite daring~" he grinned handsomely.

"You have no idea how daring the puppy can be...be~," I said earnestly before remembering the singsong thing we were doing.

I looked at the closet, feeling my heart drum into my chest from fear and anticipation.

"I don’t want to know~" Kenny answered, and when I looked at him, I saw that he was luckily concentrating on the paper.

I watched the pen slide and looked at how he created something out of nothing right before my eyes—the woman, the child, the big smiles; everything just as clear and realistic as before, just tiny enough to fit in the medallion.

I was in awe much more and soon felt drowsy with the strong light shining in from the windows on the wall behind us, the dust particles dancing happily, and the pen strokes that made such an assuring sound against the paper.

In the end, my eyes fell shut; all the dread was gone, and my heart felt light and settled.

The rollercoaster moved upward, though so slowly and steadily that I could finally take a bit of a rest as well.