Centaur Stage CHP 3 {Sanders Sides Fanfiction}

Thomas squinted in the dim light as Patton returned to the kitchen. Night had fallen a few hours ago, and the centaur had decided to spend the night in the house with Thomas in order to keep a better watch on their… unexpected guest. Rain thrummed steadily against the ceiling; the lightning had stopped yesterday, and that was the only reason Thomas hadn’t dragged the stranger and Patton across the field and into the barn to make sure that the other centaurs, mostly Janus, weren’t panicking.

“He’s awake,” Patton said, drawing Thomas’s attention back to the present.

“I’ll go talk to him,” Thomas said.

Patton nodded and shifted awkwardly in place. “I got him to take some cough syrup, but he didn’t seem happy about it.”

Thomas was glad that Patton couldn’t see his expression in the dark. The last thing he wanted to deal with was an upset and sick human complaining about a centaur trying to poison him.

“Thanks, Pat. It’s late, try to get some rest,” Thomas said, gesturing at the pile of blankets and several tablecloths that they had semi arranged on the kitchen floor to act as a temporary bed for the pony.

Patton hesitated for a moment before nodding. Thomas grabbed the dim electric lantern off the countertop and walked out into the living room.

Thomas looked down at the feverish man lying on his couch. He was awake and squinting at the light that Thomas had just brought into the room.

“Sorry about that,” Thomas said, dimming the light slightly. “How are you feeling?”

The stranger was quiet for a moment. Thomas couldn’t see his face well, but he looked almost contemplative. Then, very calmly, if not a little hoarsely, he said, “I think I’m coming down with something.”

It was so unexpected that Thomas bit his tongue so he didn’t laugh. After he had calmed down somewhat, he said, “Yeah, I’m pretty sure you at least have a fever.”

The man was quiet again, and Thomas risked slowly increasing the brightness of the lantern until he could see his expression more clearly. He looked like he was listening to something.

“So, uh,” the stranger said hoarsely, “are you… new?”

“What?” Thomas asked.

“Sorry. I don’t really know how to ask this, but none of the others recognize you, and you aren’t responding when they talk either,” the stranger said quickly.

Thomas blinked. Oh shoot, was he hallucinating? “The others…?” Thomas probed.

“Yesss…?” the stranger said, in almost the exact same questioning tone. It was almost like hearing his voice from a recording.

The stranger and Thomas seemed to come to the realization that they both thought the other was acting extremely odd at about the same time. Thomas decided to ignore it for now. “Are you hungry? The power is out, so I don’t know how much I can do, but I have a gas stove, so I could try to make some soup?”

Thomas wasn’t even sure if he had soup in the house.

The stranger froze up. Thomas had never seen a human freeze like that before, and even in the dark it was clear that something he had said upset the feverish man.

“If you don’t want to eat, that’s fine,” Thomas said quickly.

“No, no,” the man said, snapping out of whatever trance he was in. “I, okay.”

The man buried his face in his hands and took a shaky breath. “Where on earth am I?”

He spoke with this mildly panicked but utterly exhausted manner that he hadn’t used previously.

“You are in my house, in, uh, Florida,” Thomas said, mentally smacking himself. Of course it was in Florida; the man clearly hadn’t walked from another state. “Where are you from?”

“Florida,” the man said, and Thomas wasn’t sure why he expected a different answer.

“Why am I in your house?” he said, still sounding tired, but his voice had taken on a slightly shaky edge.

“I don’t, uh, we found you on the porch,” Thomas said.

“Oh,” the stranger replied. “So I haven’t been kidnapped.”

“No. No, I, no kidnapping here,” Thomas sputtered. Not for a year or so at least. Although, it wasn’t really that wild of a conclusion to come to, Thomas supposed.

“Good. That’s a relief,” the stranger said.

Thomas smiled, then realized that the man probably couldn’t see him. “Alrighty, well, my name is Thomas. Nice to meet you.”

“Oh, no way,” the stranger said, surprisingly calm. “My name is also Thomas.”

Thomas blinked, then looked at the stranger, Thomas? Yeah, that wasn’t going to work. “That’s going to be confusing.”

“Why?” the other Thomas asked.

“Ah, well, I don’t know how long you’re going to be stuck here for. The rain picked up again last night. I’m not even sure I could get to the town with the amount of water on the roads. Otherwise you would be at a hospital and not in my living room,” Thomas said.

“Oh,” the man said.

“Unless you feel like you are going to die, or that you are getting worse, Lo, er, my friends wouldn’t let me drive you,” Thomas said.

After a few seconds, the other Thomas asked, “Why not just call for an ambulance?”

“Cell service is out as well,” Thomas said. “I’ve been trying to get a call out since the morning when we found you.”

The other Thomas sat up a bit straighter. “What time is it?”

Thomas shrugged. “Midnightish.”

“Oh,” the man said. He frowned. “I was out for sixteen hours?”

Thomas hesitated for a second before he admitted, “Well, you’ve been in and out of consciousness since Wednesday morning. It’s Friday now. So, not quite.”

The man seemed shocked by this turn of events. “Really? That’s, wow.”

“Yeah,” Thomas said.

“I mean, I thought it was Tuesday, so…” the other Thomas said, his voice trailing off.

Now it was Thomas’s turn to look surprised. He wasn’t sure if the man could see his face though, since he was holding the lantern. Thomas was starting to think that maybe the poor guy was more messed up than they thought. He seemed really, really out of it. Thomas internally decided that even if the rain was still going strong by Sunday, he would risk driving to bring him to a hospital.

“So,” Thomas said, “I’m not sure exactly what I have, but you should eat something.”

The man seemed hesitant but eventually nodded. Thomas left and turned back to the kitchen. He dimmed the light again, trying not to disturb Patton, even though Thomas doubted he was asleep, and began to root through his cupboards. There was a can of chicken noodle soup, actually. Although the seal on the can was broken, and when he poked it a cloud of something poofed into the air. Probably whatever was left of that poor chicken’s soul. He hadn’t been eating, or really living, in his house since he had bought Logan, and there wasn’t much of anything that wasn’t covered in dust and at least somewhat expired. Patton had brought a handful of protein bars from the barn for breakfast. That would have to do. Thomas grabbed two and reentered the living room.

“Sorry, I couldn’t find any soup,” Thomas said. He didn’t think that whatever was in that can still counted.

Thomas realized that the man was sleeping again. He frowned slightly but didn’t try to wake him. He carefully pried the still open water bottle from his hands, recapped it, and placed it on the table. The sleeping man didn’t even stir. Thomas shrugged and placed the two breakfast bars next to the water.

Hopefully he will feel up to eating in the morning.