"Anxiety"

"Anxiety"

"Anx- common kiddo, time to get up"

Bleary brown eyes opened a smidge.

"There we go sport, up and at 'em"

Anxiety groaned, turning the other way to bury his head into the pillow.

Morality rolled his eyes and continued to shake the younger's shoulder, Anxiety didn't budge.

"I know you're not feeling so well slugger, but you can't sleep the whole day away"

The ill personality didn't respond, having already slipped back into a deep slumber.

Once more Dad rolled his eyes, he had gotten up at 5:30am, both because he wanted to bid a fair well to Prince as the Royal headed off to his meeting and because he had a nightmare.

----

To see Anxiety fade away into nothing, truly tore at his heart and he couldn't refrain himself from checking on the younger. He sighed in relief when he saw Anxiety and the little bird, still in the same potion they had been when he checked on them yesterday.

Morality moved carefully to the younger, gently placing a hand on his forehead, the fever was finally going down. Smiling, he found a cold cloth, dampened it with cold water and placed it on the ill personality.

It was then he noticed the glasses on the nightstand next to him, it was obviously Logic's, so he grabbed them gently and carefully placed them in his pocket.

The Parent wanted nothing than to take them to the Teacher, but he figured that the Secondary personality would be sleeping and he really didn't want to disturb the other, especially when he had to teach today. He'd simply pass them to Logan at breakfast.

With that thought in mind, Dad headed to the kitchen and made pancake batter from scratch for the kids. The little rugrats would be up soon, ever the early risers, they always helped him manage the lesser emotions.

Humming, he mixed the batter and prepared the pancakes, he hyper focused on the task, thinking of anything too negative in his current state would undeniably cause chaos in the mindscape, he was the Prominent personality after all.

----

All the kids had just filed in when he heard-felt it, the pure and utter distress. He had felt this earlier in the morning with Roman, it's what woke him from his nightmare in the first place.

The Regal personality had shown no signs of having a bad dream, emotions already hidden behind false confidence and bravado by the time the father had gotten there. The Prince gave him a wave, bid him good morning and told him to wish him luck with his meeting.

Leaving with no further word, the lingering stomach turning feeling went trailing after the Royal. Now Morality felt it again, this time from Logic's room.

Telling the kids to help themselves, the Parent quickly made it to Logan's room. The feeling of unease grew and he couldn't help but begin knocking frantically when the other didn't respond.

Finally he gave in and barged in, instantly fixating on the mumbling and whimpering Logic. His eyebrows were furrowed, his forehead was sweaty and his head was starting to toss from left to right.

Morality wasted no time in shaking the younger awake. The reaction was instant, Logic shot up with a gasp, causing him to pull back in fright.

Logan was mumbling about 'it being a dream', his face was blank his eyes wide and his breathing erratic, Dad gently placed a hand on the Teacher's shoulder.

Somehow or the other he ended up cupping the younger's face with his hand, he had never seen Logic cry before, every time he tried to brush away the big fat tears, more came out to replace them.

The Teacher was scared, that's for sure, his body shook with each breath. The second embrace he had with younger was nothing but heart breaking, so he helped Logic with his breakdown. All three of them had nightmares about losing their youngest.

Realizing this, he gently tugged Logic to a standing position and pulled him towards Anxiety's room, Prince didn't see the younger, perhaps that was best for him, Logic on the other hand needed reassurance. And that he received.

After he assured Logan that the younger would be fine and that he'd inform him if anything were to go wrong, he dragged the Teacher to eat breakfast.

-----

When Logic left and the children had cleared up, he decided to wake Anxiety. Not only was his dream haunting him, but the ill personality hadn't eaten. Sure he had reassured Logan, but his own nightmare had started exactly like this, the only true difference was that he didn't wake the younger for breakfast, not something he was going to risk.

As he walked to the darker personality's room, he recalled his nightmare and the coincidental occurrences so far. Prince had woken up at 5:30am with a scream, check, pancakes, check, Logic's nightmare, check, though the Teacher didn't cry in his dream, upset yes but there were no tears. And then he had the option of waking or not waking Anxiety.

In his nightmare, he didn't wake the darker personality, he remained in the kitchen. He only moved when the little blue bird rushed at him twittering in fear. The father wasted no time running towards the younger's room, he made it, barging open the door, just in time to see Anxiety fade into nothing.

Yeah... he was waking Anxiety.

----

Carefully he made his way into the room and beside the younger's bed. Dad then placed a hand on the darker personality's shoulder and shook it gently.

"Anxiety"

"Anxiety"

"Anx- common kiddo, time to get up"

-----

His eyes opened once, but he couldn't keep them open so they closed.

He opened them a second time, he could hear someone calling his name, but it was muffled as if his ears were stuffed with cotton. He was a bit dizzy and utterly confused.

Someone was shaking his shoulders, rather persistently.

His head hurt and it felt like mush, the headache was made even worse when he was suddenly pulled into a sitting position.

He groaned.

"None of that now, you need to eat something kiddo"

"Eat?", he mumbled. The word echoed in his head so he repeated it.

"Yeah, you haven't eaten since yesterday"

Really? He couldn't really remember much about yesterday- his shoulder was being shaken again.

"Come on kiddo, I'll let you go back to sleep after, but you gotta eat something first"

He was being shaken again.

"Keep your eyes open-"

When did he close them?

Slowly he tried to peel his eyes back open, since when were his eyelids made of lead?

Anxiety's eyes had just barely opened when it happened. The little blue bird chirped loudly in his ear.

Anxiety jumped, completely startled awake, the muddled "mush" feeling was gone in an instant.

"Wha-?! Bird?"

The dark persona blinked as the blue creature landed on his lap, looking expectedly up at him.

"Yep, you're little body guard here-"

The darker persona looked up at the other confused.

"Dad?"

Morality chuckled.

Anxiety couldn't help but notice that his eyes were a bit watery.

"Morning kiddo", the father ruffled his hair, he pouted but he didn't bat away the offending hand. "You gave me quite a scare there for a sec"

"Why?"

"You wouldn't wake up, and our little friend here snapped you out of it"

Anxiety looked at the little bird, before picking it up gently.

"You know, I'll be honest, I didn't think you were real"

The bird instantly looked offended, chirping and twittering at him.

Quickly he petted the thing, smoothing down its ruffled feathers.

"Easy, easy, I just thought that you were a fever illusion or something, but I was right yesterday, you really are soft"

The creature seemed to accept the answer.

"Wait...yesterday...", Anxiety froze.

Morality was a tad bit concerned.

The younger then yelped and slapped a free hand to his forehead

"Anxiety?"

"Yesterday was real", groaned the younger as he flopped backwards on the bed, causing the little bird to fly up and then perch on his chest.

"Yes?"

Now the Father was really worried.

"Princey was my pillow and Logic was making Dad jokes", he said finally, moving his hand from his face.

Morality chuckled again, bit this time it sounded far more real.

Sometimes the younger could be just as dramatic as his opposite.

-----

"Come on, let's get you up before you fall asleep again"

Anxiety groaned, but allowed Morality to help him up and out of bed.

Once he found his balance on wobbly legs, the two, well three, the little blue bird was perched on his shoulder, made their way to the kitchen.

Morality chuckled when he yawned for about the third time in the short instance.

"Why am I so tired?" Complained the dark persona, "I literally slept all day on Sunday-"

"Yes but now you're able to stand without help and your fever's gone down a bit"

"But still"

"It's because you're body needs energy to heal the damage caused by the fever"

"I thought energy was the reason I have the fever in the first place"

Morality shrugged.

Anxiety groaned and rolled his eyes, especially when Dad ruffled his hair again.

"What's with you and my hair today?"

"Oh nothing kiddo, I'm just glad you're alright", he gave him a smile and walked ahead.

The younger personality paused and blinked, there was something in Morality's tone, the way he said that....It felt like something final.

Anxiety shook his head and ran after Dad.

-----

"Anxiety!"

Instantly the kids crowded around him.

"Hey you little brats, how ya doing?"

"We're good!"

He smiled at them, but before he could say anything else, Morality's son pointed to the bird on his shoulder.

"You're a pirate!"

The little blue bird puffed proudly, Anxiety chuckled.

"Yeah, I guess I am"

The boys laughed and Morality's daughter spoke up.

"Are you going to switch your eye shadow for an eye patch or are you an emo pirate?" She smirked at him.

He smirked back.

"Nah, I'll just use my hair", the personality then shifted his hair to the right, the bangs did in fact reach to his cheek, completely covering his eye.

"Nice", commented Pranks.

Rolling his visible eye, Anxiety moved his hair back to its original messy style. The bird moved from his shoulder to the girl's.

"Now you're a pirate Squirt"

The girl bristled.

"Stop calling me squirt, one day I'll be taller that you!"

"Sure Squirt"

The boys laughed, but Anxiety spun on them too, pointing at each one.

Misleading Compliment tried to hide behind Pranks, "Steven" was frozen and the boy attempted to run behind his sister.

"You two", gestured the darker personality to Pranks and Compliment, "aren't even half my height and you-", he pointed to the frozen boy in the star shirt, "are shorter than she is"

Anxiety then whirled around, pretending not to see the youngest child hiding behind his sister. "Where did he - oh there you are, geez Shrimp, you're so short I didn't see ya"

Instantly the group of children began cackling and in a blink Anxiety found himself in a group hug....the kids then tackled him to the ground.

It took Anxiety a second to realize that he was now flat on his back, with five children pinning him down, he couldn't help but laugh-chuckle, the kids were laughing too.

Morality watched with a smile on his face, shaking his head at the antics of all six of his children.

-----

"A pancake?"

Currently seated at the kitchen table, the dark personality blinked, on his plate was a sole pancake.

"Sorry kiddo, that's all that's left-"

"Don't you usually make huge stacks?"

"Usually, but it would seem like somebody ate it"

Morality gave a stern look to the three children present, each had the decency to look sheepish. His son and daughter were in the living room, so that left Pranks, Compliment and Steven.

With a sigh, Dad then turned back to the other personality. "I'm making soup right now, the pancake should hold you over till then right?"

The glare Anxiety gave the boys at that moment, instantly sent shivers up their small spines.

"Alright, if I'm only getting one pancake, you guys better have a really good reason"

Steven spoke up first.

"Well, you see..."

-----

"Ok, so let me get this straight, you three had a pancake eating contest?"

The boys nodded.

"The first one ended in a draw so you ate the rest of Pancakes as a tie breaker"

They nodded again.

Anxiety placed a hand on the bridge of his nose.

When he removed his hand, he stared the three straight in the eyes.

"Who won?"

"What?" Compliment, Pranks and Steven blinked.

"You heard me, who won?"

"He did", two pointed at one.

Pranks waved sheepishly.

Anxiety rolled his eyes.

"Alright, you three are doing dishes "

" Bu- ", before Compliment could protest Anxiety cut him off.

"I have to wait 20 more minutes, for soup, so you're doing dishes, all three of you, got it?"

"Yes Anxiety", mumbled the three dejectedly.

"Also..."

The three paused and looked back at the dark personality.

"Squirt was setting up Mario Kart, I'm getting my revenge on you three with Rainbow road"

Steven's eyes widened.

"You're on!"

He sprinted to the couch.

Pranks and Misleading Compliment shared a look, then promptly ran to the others.

Morality who was watching the whole thing shook his head, Anxiety was somehow already on the couch, controller in hand. The little bird, who had been flying around the dark persona was now perched on the counter, it chirped up at him.

Dad shrugged, "kids, huh?"

The blue creature twittered knowingly. The Parent smiled, grabbing a small bowl and some sun flower seeds from the cupboard, he poured some for the blue bird to eat. It chirped out a 'thank you' and happily pecked at the seeds. Dad went back to making the soup.

-----

It was around 11am when he felt it.

He had eaten the soup about a good two hours ago, apparently time didn't matter to his stomach, the chicken broth was coming back with a vengeance.

Anxiety swallowed thickly, he didn't know what caused the strange bout of nausea, but man was it hitting him hard. His vision was already blurring and the room was spinning. Sighing he let his player drive off the edge of the road, but not before taking Pranks, Misleading Compliment and Steven with him. The dark personality then stood up...shakily.

All five children stopped to look at him.

He tried to play it cool.

"You're driving stinks as bad as I do right now, but at least I can fix that, you three brats? Eh not so much. I'm gonna go take a shower, you all need to git gud"

With the out cries of outrage from the children behind him Anxiety headed towards his room, but before he could make his escape, Morality stopped him in the hall.

"Are you alright kiddo? You look paler than before"

"I'm fine, just need a showe-", he cut himself off when the Parent put a hand to his forehead.

"Your fever went up", Dan frowned. "Maybe a shower with some cold water will help"

Anxiety readily agreed, quickly making his way to his room. Once there, he ran to his bathroom, he practically skidded to toilet as his wobbly legs gave out, he heaved the second he lifted the toilet lid.

Thick, viscous and-he ignored the blood, spitting the foul taste away, the ill personality, slowly maneuvered his way into the shower. Morality was right, the cold water helped, though only a little. Anxiety decided to count his small blessings.

----

He threw up again at 2:00pm on the dot.
All that tomato soup and pasta thing, wasted.

The dark persona groaned, not ten minutes ago, he was outside with Dad and the kids and now he had his face practically buried in the toilet, wonderful.

Spitting into the bowl, he shakily stood up, flushed, washed his hands, washed his face, dried off and went right back outside as if nothing happened.

He was determined to make sure that Dad- well the kids would at least-remembered him in a happy moment. He was fading and he knew it...or he thought so?

There was this heavy feeling that hung in the air, plus he could swear his hands went see-through for a second. Shaking his head, he thanked heavens that Thomas was such a good actor, he approached the kids and Morality with his trademark smirk, they were none the wiser.

-----

It was 5:30pm when he went to his room, he had eaten those goddamn Goldfish and tomato soup. He was so tired of soup! He was even more tired of throwing it up.

Walking carefully to his room, that's exactly what Anxiety was going to do. Honestly, why the hell was the room spinning?

He was happily watching Dad attempt to beat the kids in a game of Mario Party.

The dark persona groaned in relief when he reached his room, great, now he could throw up, bathe and pass out till dinner. Not exactly an ideal situation but it was something.

The second his fingers left the knob, there was a knock. Groaning internally, the youngest personality opened the door only to see, Logic? The Teacher looked...off.

"G-good evening Anxiety-"

"Uh evening? You doing alright teach?"

"I'm quite alright, but how are you? Are you feeling-?"

The younger personality panicked.

"Soup"

"What?"

Might aswell continue with it.

"Soup, all day Morality's been feeding me soup"

----

Morality smiled when he saw Logic, the Teacher looked....relived?

"Hey Logan, how you holding up?" This morning was unspoken but understood.

The Secondary personality paused, placing his hand on his chin pensively.

"Better", he replied after a second.

The Father smiled, "that's good, I'm making dinner-"

"About that...Anxiety says if he has soup one more time, he's going to go crazy, I'm not sure why, but I rather not risk it"

Dad chuckled.

"Alright, no soup tonight, hmm, how about a-a roast!"

"That's fine, but I'm not very hungry at the moment-", Logic cut himself off and took a step back, Morality was giving him that look. It was as if he were staring through the Teacher's soul.

"Logan, did you eat lunch today?"

"I-"

"You don't like eating at school when you're stressed, and after this morning...", the Father trailed of, his tone softening a bit.

The Teacher's face grew red with embarrassment.

"I'm fine-"

"Logan"

Logic heaved a sigh.

"N-no I didn't eat"

Morality sighed this time.

"Thought so", he placed a hand on the bridge of his nose, honestly Logic, you should know better-"

"I'm tired Morality, I just want to shower and sleep, I didn't get much-"

"I know", the Parent gave him a small smile, it looked defeated. "Just take care of yourself, please? We can't let this bring us down"

Logan caved.

"Fine, I'll eat something, but nothing too heavy, I just want to sleep after"

Morality nodded and quickly got to work on making Logic something light.

----

He ended up making the Teacher a grill cheese.

Roman and the kids got the roast and they enjoyed it thoroughly, everyone had eaten Dinner...except Anxiety.

Guessing that the younger had probably fallen asleep, Morality went to check on him.

When he reached the darker personality's room, he knocked three times, hearing no response, Dad let himself in. Anxiety was flopped on the bed, eyes closed and breathing shallow. The Parent gave a cursory glance at the seemingly sleeping personality. Something was off.

Placing a hand on the younger's forehead, he frowned, it was high again.

"Anxiety", he shook him gently.

"Anxiety"

"Anxiety!"

"Anx-"

No response.

Morality tried again, shaking the younger harder.

"Anx-", Dad was cut off by the blue bird, it twittered at him. Then ever so gently hopped on to Anxiety's shoulder.

The creature chirped so loudly, that the once unconscious personality shot up with a scream and Morality had to cover his ears.

Anxiety gripped his chest, breathing completely erratic.

"Holy shi-"

"Anx-"

"Now I know why Prince has you as his alarm clock- geez"

"Anx-"

"How can something this small make that noise?"

"Anx-"

"I think I'm half deaf now"

"Anxiety!"

"What?!"

"Breathe!"

The younger personality was red faced, shaking and he his erratic breathing hadn't normalized. Anxiety was full on hyperventilating. Morality quickly jumped into action, sliding onto the bed, he placed a hand on the small of Anxiety's back and one in the dead center of the younger's chest.

"Follow me, breathe in"

The darker personality gasped, trying his best to follow.

"Come on try again"

He inhaled.

"Breathe out"

The younger gasped and coughed, his rapid breathing began again.

"Anx-, easy, try again, you'll be fine, I won't let anything happen to you, I promise"

Anxiety shakily inhaled.

"Good, now breathe out"

----

It took a good twenty minutes to get Anxiety to calm down.

Morality sighed, gently running his fingers through Anxiety's hair, the younger was now curled onto his chest and holding onto him as if he were a lifeline.

"I heard you", he mumbled into the blue shirt.

"What was that?" Dad lowered his head to hear the younger better.

"I heard you but...I couldn't see, I couldn't move"

Morality swallowed thickly.

"I-i couldn't move, I couldn't open my eyes, then there was a scream. I know it was the bird, but it sounded so much like a scream"

The bird flew onto Anxiety's shoulder, chirping gently and nuzzling his cheek apologetically. The dark personality didn't respond to it, the blue creature twittered sadly and flew off somewhere.

Morality watched it go with a small frown, but decided it was best to have the little creature go for a while, he didn't want to jump start another attack.

"It's...it's alright kiddo, it was just a dream-"

"Yeah, I still got my hands", agreed the younger.

"Hands?"

"They were gone...then my arms, then the rest of me, just like that-"

The plain morbid acceptance in Anxiety's voice, caused the Parent to choke up. "I-it won't happen, you'll be alright, I'll make sur-"

"Don't make empty promises-"

"I-"

Anxiety cut him off by squeezing his midsection, the Parental understood, the younger wasn't one for pity, he'd see the negative and hope he was wrong, he hated false hope. Morality continued to card his fingers through dark locks, the Father sighed once again, shakily as before but this time with unshed tears.

----

The two remained in silence for a good while, that is until Anxiety's stomach growled.

"Hungry?" Asked the Parental coyly.

The younger curled up more in embarrassment.

Dad chuckled at the action.

"Come on, I'll make you something to eat"

The transition from the room to the kitchen was quiet, as was the return back to the room. Anxiety's dinner, unlike Logic's was a ham and cheese sandwich.

Back in the room, the quiet resumed, but it wasn't as strained as the first one, this one was actually quite comforting. The eldest and the youngest personalities resumed their positions, Morality playing with the younger's hair and Anxiety using Morality as a teddy bear.

-----

It was around 3am when four similar screams reverberated throughout the mindscape.

Logic ran, glasses halfway on and pj's rumpled, he met Prince in the hall connecting the rooms, the Royal was also in his pj's. The two shared a look and sprinted towards Anxiety's room.

Neither were surprised to see Morality already there, though they didn't know that he was in the room from the beginning. Anxiety was shaking, but his rapid breaths were calming down some. The youngest personality had tears streaming down his red face, he didn't make a sound.

Each of them knew what happened, they all knew what the darker personality had seen in his dream, after all they've each had a similar nightmare one of their own. While Morality slowly brought Anxiety into a comforting embrace, Logic and Prince made their way on either side of the younger. Logan may have not been one for feelings and the like, but this was far too important, emotion issues be damned.

They stayed together until Anxiety's breathing calmed completely, they stayed when his eyes started drooping. All of them stayed together during that night, locked in that Sander sides hug, all four eventually drifted to sleep.

-----

AN:// aaaay, sooo it seems like we need to make a bit more renovations to the angst train, so enjoy this stop just past fluffvile. Morality being a dad to Anx gives me life ok? And group cuddles for the win. The chap was going to be angsty, but because of the delay, y'all get fluff, angsty fluff ;)

Alright so your probably wondering what's with the day late update? Well, last week I was in some serious pain and this week it was ten times worse, plus I somehow caught a cold and for every cough, my entire body was wracked with pain. I'm heading for either surgery or therapy for my spine, I had a spinal tap two weeks ago and now I'll be getting the results. This is what happens when you live in a sad third world country :(

Wish me luck you guys, I'm tripping.

Anyway, down to business.

COMMENT OF THE WEEK:
BY MoriTiamore

"YOU CANT JUST KILL ANXIETY.
THEN BRING HIM BACK.
THEN KILL HIM AGAIN"

Heheh ;)

UPDATE: ok so I just got out of the hospital, currently in my room, I just took some of the pain meds they gave me and holy hell, these things are super strong, HALP, it's 6pm, I don' wanna sleep :(