Incessant Insomnia

"Hic! You! Do you practice a drunken technique hic! There is no way your still so sober you bloody kid!"

"I told you old man, I'd drink you under the table"

"Hic! I don't believe it!!"

"Haah…"

After an hour and a half of non-stop back to back drinking everyone at the table was finally drunk, everyone but Yu who remained normal throughout the entire ordeal, his very awake self not wavering a single second

"Its like-hic! Like your drinking water….wait, maybe you are drinking water?"

The drunkard leaned over the table and peered into the half-full mug of Yu and spotted beer, still, he looked into his own mug to compare the two as if he didn't know what beer exactly looked like only to find it empty

"One more!"

He yelled for the waitress who readily filled it once more

Gulp gulp thud

He downed the whole thing in but a few gulps and fell face-first onto the table just like Gaga, Jax, and Udo who were all wasted by the alcohol already

"Maybe, maybe you are filtering the alcohol out like poison? Your spe-hic! Constitution would probably...do that….."

The drunkard drifted into sleep just as he raised an interesting point, snoring loudly after his trailing word came to a halt

'I have a special constitution that filters poison? Well I did quickly shrug off that narcotic back in the village, though I thought it was just because I couldn't sleep that it remained ineffective at the time'

He mulled over the thought for a bit, he wasn't the only one that took note of the comment though as the slightly sober Trudy and Amy were both thinking about what the old man meant, Trudy trying to decipher more about the mysterious young man before her and Amy for reasons of her own or perhaps mere curiosity

After a few minutes of only snoring caused by the last of the talkative duo going to sleep Yu decided to call it a night seeing as he was the only fully sober person left and looked on to the blonde girl who's been sneaking glances at him for a while now

"Do you need help getting Gaga home?"

The girl was surprised that he directed his words to her but it was only momentary, she shook her head in response to the question

"Our group members will come looking for us in a bit probably, don't bother yourself"

"Alright then, have a good night"

With that he got up so he could support the old man and go home, but as he moved to him he realized that he himself was on crutches and would take some effort walking...

"Don't mind them, won't be the first time they sleep in a tavern, come with me to the house"

Trudy called out saving him from the embarrassment of asking for help after just offering it, even though he didn't ask for it there was still a funny smile on Amy's face anyway

When he turned to follow Trudy out the door he noticed the waitress barring his path

"The bill will be four silver coins and thirty bronze"

She said opening her hands to receive the sum

His brow shot up at the ludicrous price, he bought a backpack and some stuff for less than a silver but now a few beers cost as much as four silver and a half

'Then again it wasn't just a 'few' beers at all'

Forking out the money he paid the bill and followed the ginger-haired woman who he suspected intentionally left first to make him pay

The walk back to their building was a silent one, he couldn't be expected to converse with her until she let loose some of the guard she had against him, the drinks did nothing to lower it either

'Living with these guys is going to be hell'

He started to consider asking the old man to let him venture out on his own, that way he wouldn't have to see their scowling faces most of the time

When they arrived at the house they saw Calum waiting in the hall, perhaps he wanted to make sure everyone got back safely after the journey with Yu

"The rest?"

He asked seeing as only two came in

"Drunk and asleep at the tavern"

She replied much to his surprise, never would he have thought they would be so casual with this nemesis of their's, in fact he noticed that even Trudy was a bit wobbly even though she tried not to show it

He didn't bother asking though and only nodded his head, gave a glare at the innocent Yu, then left for his room

"Come with me"

Trudy guided the man on crutches from the hall out the back where the training field was, she walked with him all the way to the building standing alone next to the wall, much further from the rest of the house

Opening the door revealed a mess of items inside, a lot of them lay around messily, none of which looked like it belonged to a house and seemed like it was more of a storage

"You will be staying here, there isn't an empty room in the main building so you will be living in the storage"

He merely shrugged and walked in

"I hope no items will go missing during your stay"

"Can't make any promises"

The reply was followed by the door being slammed shut in her face

'Man, even if I have a bad reputation and even stole she shouldn't be so rude'

Looking at the mess his mood worsened even further

'Haah, I'll sort this place out in the morning, I really want to sleep now'

Carrying himself with the help of the crutches he found an empty spot on the ground to lay and drift off into sweet sweet sleep….

….

...

"Yeah I thought as much"

An hour later he couldn't help but speak in his 'sleep'

"Why would I even think that I could sleep at this point, I should forget that notion all together"

It was no longer optional coming and going like the wind

"Hmm, though if I think about it I can sleep in the woods normally, I just can't get any of it in the city"

It didn't take much observation to notice this glaring fact, the only time which he slept int the city was after the smoke left his body, every other time his mind got some rest he was in the wilds

"Well, no use laying around and thinking about it, I should clean the place since I have free time"

If Lyra was with him perhaps laying silently with her, smothered in her warmth, would be appealing but since he was alone on the cold hard ground he might as well get to work instead

Overlooking the storage he noticed most of the stuff in here were tools, some looked like they belonged at the blacksmith and some he didn't quite know the use of but could tell whether or not they belonged to the same profession

Next, he took walk inside the small building, there were three rooms on the bottom floor and one big room on the top one which had a small shower, the big room had a dusty forge and more than a few worn out anvils, it looked as if someone was intentionally smacking the poor metal into uselessness

Once he was done getting a good look at the surroundings there was a general layout in his mind

'The second floor has a lot of room so Lyra could walk around freely, I should make it the most livable place, two of the rooms on the first floor will be used for storage and I will keep one room to store my own things'

With a plan in mind he moved straight into work, starting with the first floor where the small tools were so moving them would be easier, the heavy stuff could ait until the squirrel woke up, after all how could he lift anything heavy with these disabled legs of his

Time trickled on for the busy Yu, a time where everyone was blissfully enjoying their sleep, or perhaps sweating profusely in their nightmare, either way it had nothing to do with the sleepless him who finally finished all the light stuff by sunrise

'Time to call the big boy out'

Summoning the now awake squirrel he greeted the little fellow with a few pats to the head before requesting him to stack the anvils on top of each other in the corner

Hearing his request the squirrel didn't move straight to it and showed a reluctant look instead

"Hmm? Oh, perhaps you don't want to sleep yet? I guess you do sleep awfully a lot when you transform"

The squirrel shook its head at his assumption and pointed at the dim gem in its chest

"??"

Yu didn't understand however forcing the small creature to utter a silent sigh and start demonstrating its meaning

It pointed to itself and made a big gesture, curling its finger and trying to look fierce referring to its transformation, then it pointed to the gem in its chest and started to lower its hand next to it, slowly lowering it until finally it reached the bottom, that's when it poked its tongue out in exhaustion

"Oohh, transforming consumes the gem's energy?"

This time the small fellow nodded repeatedly at the correct guess

"I see, how do you replenish it"

It brought its hands to its mouth and pretended to nibble at something

"Food, okay, we will go eat later then"

Finally getting what it wanted the squirrel raised its arms victoriously

'Hehe, what a funny fella'

The cute actions brought a smile out of him, one that hadn't found its way to his face for a while now