Work Text:
A quiet, whimpery hum sounded through the bus.
He couldn’t sleep. No matter how hard they tried, the second he closed their eyes his mind wandered, like a movie playing back embarrassing or anxiety-inducing memories.
That time he just said “okay” when someone introduced himself to them. The sight of his best friend cradled in their arms, wounded and bleeding, not sure if they would make it or not. The constant threat of failure, looming looming looming like a dark cloud over their head.
He gasped, gripping his face with sharp not-quite claws. They had a show later that evening, if they were too tired to perform well (or even worse, forgot how to play)… he didn’t want to know what the rest of the band would think. He already thought they only tolerated him anyway, the newly-summoned, stuttery, anxious stick of a ghoul. Didn’t need to give them any more reason to send them back to Hell in favour of someone hopefully more friendly or confident as soon as they got home.
Shaking their head forcefully, he groaned. That’s exactly the type of thoughts he was trying to avoid. They could only hope the natural grey-blue of his skin would hide the bruiselike bags that would inevitably be under their eyes later.
Suddenly, one of the bunks squeaked. He went stiff, holding their breath so as to not get caught awake. The pounding of his heart was a worryingly loud drumbeat in their ears, praying that whoever it was couldn’t hear.
“Rain?”
Dew.
The water ghoul sighed, relaxing minutely. Out of the rest of the band, their fire ghoul was the least likely to tell Copia that he wasn’t sleeping, on account of his own tendency to do things he maybe shouldn’t as well.
“I wasn’t doing anything, I swear-“
They were cut off by the smaller ghoul speaking up again.
“Can’t sleep?”
“Can’t sleep.”
“You can come down here and lay with me, if that would help?”
“You’re sure?”
“I’m sure.”
And with that, Rain stretched out his legs and quietly padded across the aisle to their… friend’s? bunk, crawling inside hesitantly. A warm hand wrapped itself around his waist, pulling them down to be met with red-brown eyes and a sharp-toothed grin. He smiled back tiredly, wrapping their tail around Dew’s ankle. Low purrs emanated from both their chests as the taller of the pair tucked his head into the crook of Dewdrop’s neck, loosely holding the wrist of the arm not holding his waist up to his chest, pressing it between the warmth of their two chests.
Soon, though, the droning rumble of their purring lulled them both to sleep, the sounds just loud enough to distract their minds and stop them ruminating on the past.
If when the others woke up to a “missing” Rain and a pair of snuggling, chirpy ghouls in Dew’s bed, well, they can neither confirm nor deny cooing and taking photos of them. The fact that later when they looked at the two of them they all looked to be fighting off grins had absolutely nothing to do with it, of course! Nothing at all!
And the fact that Rain finally started opening up to his bandmates more had nothing to do with the fact that they started sleeping n Dew’s bunk more nights than not, which had nothing to do with the fact that he was finally getting a good night’s sleep consistently.
Absolutely nothing.
None at all.