About twenty minutes after Leo drank the HP regeneration potion, sensation began creeping back into the tips of his fingers and lower body— and with it came a fresh wave of pain so sharp, so suffocating, it made everything he'd felt upon waking seem merciful by comparison.
It wasn't the kind of pain that made you flinch.
It was the kind that made you question whether waking up had been a mistake.
The kind that made death feel like the kinder option.
Because as the nerves stitched themselves back together and his body slowly remembered how to feel again—
Leo genuinely regretted drinking the damn potion at all.
His breath hitched.
His fingers curled inward as if recoiling from the agony surging up his arm, while his knees twitched uncontrollably, useless and trembling, as if taunting him to try and move if he dared.
