“I… I’m not lying to you. It’s the truth, it’s the truth, I swear!”

He kept his hand on Rian’s shoulder as the taller boy (but he’d curled up to a point where Aster felt as though he was the taller one) shuddered. Whatever nightmare had woken him, it was pushing into reality a little too hard.

Aster didn’t like that.

And anyway, he knew Rian could, and would, tell him lies probably more often than not. Swearing honesty when this was the most blatant lie yet was… off.

“Look at me.”

It was dark, the only light being the faint one of the sun just beginning to rise, but he paid close attention to how Rian rolled over in order to face him without apparently thinking too hard about it. Something else strange, because he just didn’t act like that.

Something flickered out of his eyes when he made eye contact with Aster, looking suddenly much more relaxed than he had seemed before. Which definitely meant it was some sort of nightmare, one he’d been very convinced was reality.

That… that definitely wasn’t good.

“You alright?”

“I’ve been better.”

“Sorry if I… uh, hurt you.”

He’d been slightly terrified when Rian began thrashing around in his arms, and more so when he heard him beg to be released. Maybe he’d been hugging him too tightly or something — maybe Rian’s nightmare was more than that.

Which made a lot more sense when he thought about it.

“Where were you?”

“What?”

“For the last… the last month. Where did you go?”

Rian twisted a lock of hair around his finger, staring at it far too intently. Instead of giving him a straight answer, he sighed. “I’m going to cut this.”

“Your sister said you were terrified of haircuts.”

“That’s why I said I’d cut it,” he mumbled, starting to look a little more uncomfortable. “Me, Aster. I’ll do it.”

“That’s a really bad idea.”

“And my hair’s been way too long for years, I do need to cut it.”

“It’s not-”

“You thought I was a girl when we first met.”

“Fair, fair. D’you want to get that done when more people are awake or in a few days?”

“I doubt you keep scissors in here.”

There’s something very wrong with all of this. But Aster couldn’t quite work out what it was.