Flip the Coin [BL]-Chapter 296. Childish (Grumpy) dog
"This is...." The commander opened his mouth in shock, closing it again, unable to continue. Well, there was a difference between knowing or at least guessing and seeing the real deal for oneself—one’s counterpart.
"Where does he come from?" He eventually forced that question out.
"Go away, give us a minute." I answered.
"Why only a minute?" Henry, recovering quicker from seeing the commander, asked me in a tone dripping with accusation, probably thinking that I would put him away after the mentioned minute was over.
"Do you want to fight in front of him or what?" I ran my hand through my hair, feeling like a husband dealing with his overdramatic wife.
"Who is fighting? We are just having a conversation." This dumb, stubborn dog.
"Yeah, thanks for clarifying that." I snorted before turning back to the commander.
"Go the fuck away. This is a private conversation here."
The commander finally tore his gaze away from Henry and looked at me.
"After you were so heavily injured not long ago, do you really want to stay outside at night?"
"What does that mean? I thought this wasn’t your blood." Henry growled, grabbing my jaw before I could groan in annoyance at someone saying the wrong thing at the wrong time.
And I never said it wasn’t my blood, just that I wasn’t injured.
"Half of his face was missing." The commander became more annoying with each passing second.
I was scrutinized again, my puppy clenching his jaw while touching the side of my face that still had dried blood on it—my eye, my cheek, my nose—all with his paw, thankfully without the acidifying gas added.
"He is alright again." The commander crossed his arms, still holding the hammer, watching us perform for him.
"Shut the fuck up." I hissed at him before Henry turned my face back to him again.
When he was finally satisfied, he let go and put his arm around my neck, much tighter than he would normally do.
"Didn’t you hear him? Go away." He commanded as if the commander were his personal subordinate.
"We are coming back soon." I waved the unnecessary audience away.
He froze before laughing angrily; it was unknown if his anger was directed at Henry or me, but eventually he turned around and actually left. THANKFULLY.
"Why is he here? No, forget that—what happened to your face?"
"Okay. Calm down first. Today my blood touched a crystalline figure, and that thing absorbed my blood and went berserk, but I killed it—so everything is fine now. I am alright."
"...Why were you bleeding in the first place?"
"Because I overused my powers, and before you ask for the reason, I can’t tell you because of the time paradox shit." 𝙛𝒓𝓮𝙚𝔀𝒆𝒃𝓷𝒐𝓿𝙚𝓵.𝙘𝒐𝒎
Henry let me know of his unhappiness with his ironclad grip around my neck, though the moment I lightly moved my head, he would instantly loosen his grip, ensuring I could breathe before tightening it again. Pfft.
"You think this is funny?" Henry asked.
"Nope. I am so fucking somber I could go crash a funeral." I looked at him, proving that this was no laughing matter with all the seriousness I had to offer.
"Yes, your funeral."
"No, yours," I shot back.
"Yours."
"Yours. So childish—stop it now. I’ll tell you what I can tell you: two survivors until now plus the commander, the crystalline counterparts mirror their human counterparts but mean no harm as long as you don’t encounter them with malice. Ah, there is another survivor, but he started to behave like a crystalline figure because the figure I killed was his counterpart. There should be others around here as well, so that’s it."
"How do you plan on going back?" Henry focused on something else, his intense blue eyes glowing with a warning that I should better have a plan ready to return to his present self.
"Either waiting until this world crashes with ours or until I can use the giant’s powers again and bring us all out."
"With teleportation? You can teleport with people?"
"With the giant’s power, yes, but I can’t teleport at the moment." I conjured up a wet towel and started to rub the dried blood from my face.
"Mhm. Tell me if my presence is sucking away your strength." Henry took the towel from me and started to wipe my face and throat with much more tenderness than I had used.
I hadn’t thought about it, but I had no nosebleeds or headaches, telling me that him being here was not overusing my power.
"I won’t send you back as long as you promise me that no matter what happens, you will behave the same way you did before I conjured you up when you eventually go back at some point."
"I promise. I also don’t want time to go ’paradox’, though I don’t think I would go back to the past with my memories of this place intact." Henry grabbed my chin and pulled it up, searching for any more dried blood.
"Clean." He stuffed the towel back into my hands, as if he just remembered that he was still angry with me.
I suppressed my laughter and turned around to change into fresh clothes before motioning for Henry to come with us.
"True, we only know after we sent you back." Or I could ask present Henry when I visit him tomorrow in Harry’s or Patrick’s body.
"Let’s go back, or that fucker comes again. If you think of a question I can actually answer, then ask it tomorrow." I looked at him, but besides putting his arm around my neck, he didn’t answer.
"Ah, by the way, your future self can teleport meanwhile."
He was just looking at the lit-up flowers around us as we walked back to the cave.
"I can?"
"Mhm, just telling you." I peeked at his face but found my dog not wagging his tail in happiness, instead just looking like suppressed fury itself.
I know it was my fault for disappearing and fighting the giant on my own back then, and I understand why the current situation triggered him moderately. But this time it was clearly not my fault. Though... I did go kill people using the giant’s power, which was probably the reason why it went out of control in the end.
Yes, yes, it’s my fault, all my fault.
"Do you want something to eat...? Or drink...?" I asked him, not recognizing my own voice that suddenly sounded like a butler’s and not like a master’s.
"Neither hungry nor thirsty." This guy was really so childish—unbelievable.
I swallowed the ’suit yourself’ that lay on my tongue and instead chose a friendlier version.
"Then tell me if you get hungry or thirsty."
Henry didn’t answer me, and we soon spotted the commander standing in front of the entrance. On the ground behind him lay an unconscious Mr. Aslan.
"You knocked him out?" I asked the commander. No wonder he hadn’t come together with his current target of imitation to the spot where Henry and I had talked.
"Mhm." The commander’s eyes were stuck on Henry again as he entered the cave with us.
"You got everyone mattresses, blankets, and pillows." Henry noted unhappily, looking at the still-sleeping office guys and the one who was unconscious with enmity.
"Here is my mattress. Let’s sleep a bit more." I pointed at the one closest to us, and Henry nodded briefly, taking a seat at the end while I let myself fall directly into the bed.
"Can’t you get him his own mattress?" The commander asked me.
"No." I simply answered, noting a tendency towards unwanted talkativeness in both the commander and Henry.
"Max and Sarah, I met them." Henry hummed all of a sudden, still sitting at the end of the bed.
I could feel the air stagnate for a moment and looked at the ceiling in resignation.
"Very nice and polite children. I also met your wife—she thought I was you." Henry continued.
I sighed audibly, unsure if I should step in, because contrary to me and my counterparts, they were not trying to kill themselves, so it was going somewhat well? I mean, they aren’t friendly to each other, but they are still just talking.
I conjured up another pillow for Henry and closed my eyes.
"She did? But we look nothing alike." The commander chuckled dangerously.
"I agree. I am so much better looking, younger, and stronger than you." Kindergarten—though he was right.
"Do you want to go out and test that theory?" Kindergarten2—no, Kindergarten3 if you go after the number telling which world the commander was from.
"Sure." Henry answered.
I propped myself up on my arms to look at Henry’s back, and sure enough, his hand was wrapped in shadowy energy.
"What the hell is that?" The commander hissed, looking at me for a moment before looking again at his counterpart’s hand.
"Do you want to tou—"
"Henry." I interrupted.
"Come here." It was a clear command, and the moment I spoke it out, Henry let the shadow disappear and moved backward to lie down beside me.
"We’ll sleep, and then we’ll continue our journey tomorrow," I decided, lying down sideways and putting my arm over Henry’s upper body, ignoring the commander’s presence.
The stubborn dog didn’t close his eyes or cuddle with me, which was probably good because of the others, but he also didn’t push me away.
I flipped the coin, seeing that Henry would still be there when I would wake up tomorrow.
Soon after I heard the commander going wherever, I feigned to be asleep, taking deep and regular breaths, asking myself if I would finally get my hug in the end, and who would have thought?
Henry eventually sneaked closer to me, cautiously placing my head on his chest, before he finally held me in his arms. After squeezing me lightly, he sighed in content.
With his heartbeat, his warmth, and his antics, I was suddenly so damn grateful to have him right beside me again.
Having a grumpy dog was far better than not having a dog at all.
Everything was better than not having the dog.
