There had been a scramble of thoughts and questions and reassurances that spanned the next half hour. There was no getting around it. Josh could hardly keep his own mind straight for what felt like ages. He wouldn’t even talk after his initial shock awake. All he could do was listen while his friends tried to calm him and ease him back into consciousness.

“Just… stay here. I’ll get some blankets. And a bucket.” Sara reassured him as she got up from the couch. “Connor, get him a towel.”

“Sure. But why the bucket?”

“Dude, we all just consumed liquid poison and solid foods. He’s gonna puke.” Not two steps away from the couch Sara felt the sting of that poison herself. It hadn’t been that long, but the height of the effects were passing and her body was trying to shut down much the same way Josh’s had.

“You look like you’re gonna puke.” Connor said with a drunken chuckle.

Their departure was only momentary. Sara returned with blankets and then left and came back again with the mop bucket that had been used to drench him and set it down on the floor next to the couch. Josh was about to wrap himself up into a cocoon and never emerge again, but Connor arrived just in time to plot a bath towel over his head. The touch felt, for a moment, unbearable. Like the invasive influence of whatever creature he’d connected to in his sleep. But as soon as Connor’s hand withdrew he felt better.

“Hm.” Connor hummed.

“Yeah.” Sara said with a narrow glare at Josh. “Yeah, I saw that too.”

“Let him dry off first.” Connor grumbled with a shake of his head that nearly sent him into an inebriated balancing act.

Josh wasn’t paying much attention to what they were saying at that point. He only processed that they were talking, and didn’t care to try and decipher what they were talking about. Drying himself off as much as he could was his primary objective, and he was doing so quite well. The water had hit him at and angle, so most of it had landed on his face and shoulders. His shirt was a little soaked, but the couch was dry. As were his pants. Which he was grateful for.

The remnants of the alcohol he’d consumed, while he had only really had enough to let himself get knocked out, left Josh far less caring about certain things. Things like, caring where he slept, or what was happening around him, or if he kept his shirt on. There was no hesitation as the problem of his damp clothing was solved in the easiest way possible. He was just going to cocoon as soon as it was off anyway, so what did it matter.

“Oh.” Sara gulped the word down as she watched Josh disrobe.

“Yeah…” Connor hummed. “I mean. Sure.”

“And no mark.” Sara said with a nod as she caught a glimpse of Josh’s exposed arm. “That’s good.”

“Probably.” Connor agreed.

Again, Josh wasn’t as concerned with what they were saying. Even if it was about him, the only thing he wanted was to be wrapped up tighter and disappear from the world. But their actions next were beginning to infringe on that.

“Hey, can we sit here too?” Sara asked warmly, patting the couch cushion next to where Josh was curled up.

If he’d been bundled up as much as he wanted to be, he wouldn’t have seen the gesture or cared about it. But it was the middle of three cushions and closer to him than they needed to be. They wouldn’t be too close though, so Josh nodded. The signal was enough for Connor and Sara to jump at and they quickly made themselves comfortable. Sara sat closer to Josh, and Connor leaned on her shoulder like a pillow.

“It’s actually kind of chilly tonight, and I gave you all the spare blankets. Can we borrow this little bit?” Sara asked again, just as warmly and just as innocently. She was far too drunk to be deceptive, or so Josh thought.

Another nod was given, and the tail end of one of the larger blankets was lifted up and draped over Sara’s legs and part of Connor’s arm. It obviously wasn’t going to do much, so Josh didn’t make a fuss when they nudged a little closer to get more coverage.

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“My feet are cold, actually.” Connor mumbled as he tried to adjust his body into a more comfortable position. “Let me just… can I get on your other side?”

Again, Josh didn’t object. It made sense. They wanted to be warm. It was a nice feeling after all. Connor shifted to Sara’s other side and in so doing brushed up against Josh’s foot. He retracted the limb immediately and found himself completely curled into a tight stressed up ball.

“Alright. I think that’s good.” Connor said with a very slow and gentle nod. “Ugh, but I’m getting a headache now. Can’t I… can I lean my head up against the outside of this blanket bundle?”

It was obvious now, what they were doing. Josh wasn’t a stranger to the story of the camel in the tent. But it definitely felt like they meant well. They had asked at every step, and he knew that if he’d shaken his head no to any of the requests they would have stopped. And unlike the tent in the story, there was plenty of room on the couch for all three of them.

The glancing touch to the foot had reminded Josh that human contact wasn’t the worst thing. It was uncomfortable in the way that being close to anything could be uncomfortable if you weren’t careful about how you positioned yourself. Getting close to people always had a risk, a risk that they could take advantage of vulnerability. And physical touch was no different. But right then, it was pretty much the only thing Josh really wanted. Not the exploitation of weakness, but the rewarding warmth of allowing trust to blossom. All he wanted was a hug.

“For crying out loud.” Josh hissed, only mildly annoyed. “Just get over here.”

“Yay.” Sara muttered with mock joy. Her lackluster tone was more due to a growing headache than sarcasm.

“Alright, get over here Sara.” Connor grunted as he lifted her to sit between him and Josh.

With a quick shifting of blankets, Josh allowed them into his cocoon. It was only mildly uncomfortable to be shirtless underneath all the layers of blanket, but it was odd to have Sara pressed up against him without a shirt on. Sara noticed, perhaps because it had made her just as uncomfortable, and sat back up a little.

“I forgot you took your shirt off. Weirdo.” Sara chuckled weakly as she proceeded to remove her bulky university hoodie. “Here, put this on. It only smells a little sweaty.”

The request was unusual, and Josh couldn’t think of a time when he’d actually worn a girl’s clothes before. Not that it bothered him, per se, but it was the first thing that came to mind when he put it on and seemed significant somehow. Like he’d just won a dare or reached a new world record. It was a silly feeling, and hard to ignore. The hoodie, however, was incredibly soft on the inside and very warm. It smelled a little like Sara too, which Josh noticed and hoped to himself that it wasn’t creepy that he had. Not long after he realized that the smell was hers, he realized that Sara was now wearing just her tank top amid the pile of blankets they were all thoroughly entangled in. He couldn’t feel anything specific pressed up against him because of the hoodie, but there was a light pressure on his chest that told him at least part of Sara’s body was resting up against his there.

With all three comfortable and close and warm, Josh felt like he might sleep again. The horrors of the dream he’d just had, though fresh in his mind, didn’t scare him off from the prospect of sleep as they had in the past. He was as close as he’d probably ever be to the two people that could keep him safe from those dreams. And they didn’t seem intent on leaving. Sara didn’t have sleep in mind just yet, though.

“What did you see, Josh? In your dream, I mean.”

“Lots of things.” Josh grumbled in answer from within the folds of blanket. “But I think… I saw inside the thing’s head.”

“The thing?”

“The other being that my dreams seem to be connected to, with the alien mark that makes you feel uncomfortable. I think I saw his perspective.”

“His?” Connor asked. He looked like he was barely fending off unconsciousness, but he was awake enough to be invested.

Josh nodded slowly, still not entirely sure himself. “It definitely felt… masculine? I guess? I don’t think it necessarily knows anything about gender, but it had an attitude that I would call male.”

It hadn’t been very clear when the change in perspective had occurred. Josh had almost slipped into being the other creature; it had almost been like falling asleep and then slowly realizing that you were dreaming, except he’d known it was a dream almost the whole time he’d been asleep. Thinking about it conjured up the fragments of what the dream had contained. Josh couldn’t recall everything with perfect clarity, but most of the events had stood out. Up until he had entered the perspective of the other being at least. Beyond that, it was far more fuzzy.

“I think I saw something else too.” Josh closed his eyes to try and focus and sharpen the image in his mind. “Part of the dream was like the first dream I’d ever had about him, only from his perspective. He was very… possessive. But I saw… I think I saw myself. But…”

“You don’t have to explain it if you don’t want to.” Sara said with a yawn. “Dreams can be weird and private.”

“No, it’s just. I can’t really see it in detail in my head, but I know what I saw.” Josh opened his eyes again and looked at his roommates, full seriousness clear even in his drunken state. “In my first dream, I left my bubble. I reached out and he grabbed my arm and pulled me into his. And when I left my bubbled, I saw my arm change like it had when the fake mark appeared. But seeing it happen through his eyes, I think I saw the whole thing. I think I saw what I’m apparently supposed to look like… later. After I reset.”