[Previous Chapter: Here. Morning regrets, and a search for dick... That's what we're working with here, expect no less.] Below the cut.
There's something uniquely mortifying about being caught jacking it, even if they are ghouls and they're all pretty open about their sexual escapades, this is a little different.
Rain can feel the building of his orgasm, much to his own horror, continue in spite of Dew standing in the doorway, staring!
He's just frozen there, eyeing Rain's dick with an expression he can't quite read, and then he opens his mouth and-
"Why is it blue...?"
-Rain gives a noise of distress, wanting to curl into himself and perish on the spot, but he can't stop himself from giving his cock one more tug, and somehow that's the one that does it.
He has to grip the counter to stop himself from toppling forward with the force of it, and Dew is definitely going to kill him for cumming in front of him like that!
Except he doesn't.
Dew doesn't make a move towards or away from him.
He lingers, and as Rain comes down from his high, he can see the other man's face growing pinker and pinker.
At some point, Dew holds his hands up, face beet red.
Rain tries to speak, but he's still reeling from his orgasm, and trying to breathe normally.
"Fuck..." he manages, "'m sorry..."
"...Your... Your..." Dew swallows, "I..."
They both stand there for a moment before Dew does something that makes Rain gape at him like a fish.
He shuts the door.
Closing them both inside the room.
Rain isn't sure what's about to happen, but the energy in the room has shifted in a strange way, and either Dew is really going to murder him or-
"...I mean, it's fine, right?" he says finally, "We're... married, so... We've probably..."
The kraken stirs.
"Dew, I don't-" Rain coughs, "-I don't think... Um... What're you doing?"
Dew has his thumbs hooked into his boxers.
"E-Eye for an eye, yeah?"
Rain wants to stop him, wants to grab his hands and stop him, but about partway through that thought, he dares a glance at Dew's crotch, and, well-
"...Oh my fucking god."
He's not sure what he expected to see Dew whip out, but this was not it.
It's about four inches long, flaccid, but wriggling with some interest as Dew takes it in hand.
"That's..."
A knock sounds on their bedroom door and Dew hastily packs himself away while Rain does similar, wiping his hands off on a nearby towel.
"Oi, lovebirds! You're gonna miss breakfast if you don't get your asses up!" Cirrus calls, then, after a pause, "...Don't hurry too fast though, Aether's teacing Aeon how to make pancakes, and I think I smell burning."
Rain and Dew share a look, considering.
Okay.
Okay, okay, okay...
"We're gonna pretend that didn't happen." Rain says finally, and Dew nods, "We've gotta... We've gotta focus up and figure out how to turn things back to normal and find the... giant metal penis."
Dew frowns, but nods his head regardless.
There it is again, that strange hesitance.
Rain wants to say something about it, but he also doesn't want to risk making Dew uncomfortable, although-
"I'm... I'm sorry you had to see my dick." Rain apologizes.
"No, no, I'm sorry I showed you mine!" Dew trills awkwardly, "Don't even... Like you said, let's pretend this all didn't happen."
"Right..."
Breakfast is... tense.
Tense, and burnt.
Aeon tried his best, but even with Aether's help, half the pancakes could be classified as briquettes, and Rain isn't sure if he can drown them in enough syrup to make them palatable.
Dew is struggling in his own way, trying to scoop up a wayward strawberry with his fork and failing miserably, until Rain jabs his fork into it and holds it up to his face.
"So, what's on the agenda for today?" he asks the rest of the pack nonchalantly as Dew considers his angle of attack, popping the fruit into his mouth before going back to carving at one of his pancakes, which basically snaps under pressure from his knife.
"Ehn, there's a meeting going on with Copia and the rest of the clergy, something about changes to the hierarchy, but nothing that involves any of us at the moment." Aether explains, "Aside from our regular duties, our schedules are all fairly free for the next week or so until they get everything straightened out."
Rain hums and pokes at his breakfast.
"Maybe we could all watch a movie together??" Aurora suggests, the only ghoul actively crunching on the burnt pancakes, giving Aeon a thumbs up when he deposits more of his charcoal bits onto her plate, looking embarrassed, but proud, "Something scary!"
As others chime in with their assent, Dew nudges Rain under the table with his knee, prompting the water ghoul to give a little push back, the two bump each other back and forth for a bit before Rain notices their packmates looking back at them.
"What about you two?" Aurora asks, propping her head up on the back of her hands, "Unless you have other plans...?"
Dew opens his mouth, but finds himself at a loss for words, looking over at Rain, who thinks for a moment before shaking his head.
"We have a, uh," Rain rolls the word 'date' on his tongue, then eyes Dew.
"I don't want to ruin the surprise." he says finally, "He's been hounding me all morning about it, even broke into the bathroom to interrogate me about what I have planned!"
"I DID NO-" Dew balks, then remembers, flushing bright red, "...actually, yeah, I did..."
The table erupts into laughter, save for Rain, who silently thanks Dew for going along with what he said, because, well, it is the truth, albeit not all of it.
"Ohh~? Loverboy is finally making up for forgetting his hubby's birthday?" Swiss teases, pointing his fork at Rain, "Trying to win back those brownie points, huh?"
Rain blinks, sitting up straight.
"I did not forget Dew's birthday." he says, sounding very offended, "I took him t-"
He stops midsentence, slapping a hand over his mouth as he recalls how the two of them spent Dew's birthday this year.
It had been a special request from his friend that they not tell the others what they were getting up to that day, even if it wasn't anything outright embarrassing, Dew had been adamant that no one else know what their plans were for his birthday.
They'd gone to the aquarium, and had spent the entire day joking about which sea creatures they'd eat or had eaten, and at the end of the day, Rain had gifted Dew a marine biology textbook, since he'd been aching to learn more on a scientific level about the creatures they'd encountered.
Rain himself had purchased an octopus plush for himself, which was absurdly large and difficult to smuggle past the other ghouls to avoid suspicion, but worth it in the end, because it really did bring his room together...
"You took him where?" Swiss probes, watching Rain squirm under the attention.
He coughs into his fist and shrugs.
"Nothing." he says, "Just saying I didn't forget is all."
"Secrets, secrets are no fun, unless you sha-" Swiss starts to chant, but Dew shuts down the nonsense by scooting away from the table and standing up.
"Bathroom."
Rain blinks at him, "Oh, uh, alright-"
"You, too." he adds, grabbing him by the scruff.
"OOOOOOH~!" the other ghouls laugh, "Someone's in trouble~"
"...Shut up." Rain mumbles, letting himself be dragged away by the shorter man.
.
.
.
"So... *come* here often?" Dew jokes, and Rain almost chokes on his spit.
They're standing in Rain's on suite again, having decided, for whatever reason, that talking behind a door that literally does not work is better than standing directly in his -their- bedroom.
"Sorry, that was... Anyway, I wanted to discuss our game plan." he says after helping pat Rain on the back, "We have all week to work unimpeded looking for that statue, after that, it'll be difficult to find a spare moment where both of us can look for it together."
"Right... Even if we could look for it by ourselves, the magic only works if there's more than one person present... at least that's the theory we have going, yeah?" Rain concludes, and Dew nods, "That being said, so far, nothing seems out of place aside from, well, us."
"Us being a couple is a significant change, especially since, based on what I've seen on my phone, we've been together for a while now. Like, years." Dew says, slipping his phone out of his pants pocket, "...It'd be one thing if the statue bound us together with some stupid spell, but this is going too far..."
"I'm sorry." Rain apologizes, "I know being married to me is-"
"I mean, it's one thing to mess with our friends' heads and implant memories of a wedding that never happened, but, like, c'mon, let me remember this stuff, too!" Dew complains, startling Rain, who was not expecting this conclusion, "I kept looking through the pictures on my phone and I don't remember any of this, it's not fair, man!"
Rain tilts his head.
"You... want to remember... or, rather, you'd want the spell to make you think we've been married?" he tries, pursing his lips, "What?"
Dew freezes.
"I... Yeah... Maybe..." he rubs his arm, "It just feels... off... otherwise."
Rain feels an ache in his chest.
"Dew, do you... Are you saying..." he pulls back and sighs deeply, "Dew, you're my best friend. I love you, but I'm not in love with you."
"...Same... Same here." Dew replies, but he can't hide the brokenness in his voice, and Rain remembers then Dew's insistence on trying the statue again.
How he'd said they had to be serious.
...How the spell supposedly only worked if the pair before it were lovers.
But it had worked with them!
It had worked, and the statue had even called them out on it!
So...
Rain watches Dew wipe the corners of his eyes, trying to hide the hurt spilling from them.
...could it have worked because of something one-sided?
"I'm so sorry." Dew whispers, "I didn't... didn't want you finding out like this. Sorry, I... I'm sorry, this is how I feel."
"...I'm sorry, too."
.
.
.
The search for the statue is an awkward one.
Dew is still reeling from having his feelings exposed so easily, and Rain is in the midst of processing this new information, trying to figure out how he could have possibly lead the other on.
It's not that he doesn't find Dew attractive, or that they don't get along -they get along very well- and, sure, Rain did jack off to him this morn-
Rain feels a stirring inside of him again.
Goddammit, he thinks, is this part of the spell?
But...
As they browse the abbey's art collection for signs of one large dick, Rain finds himself thinking back on a lot of things.
This isn't the first time he's thought about Dew like that, but he's always managed to push those feelings down pretty well.
Somehow, it doesn't feel right that he's ONLY interested in Dew's body like that.
He likes Dew, he loves the guy, but... not romantically.
Does he very much want to fuck him though?
Yes.
And that's what has him shoving it all into the back of his mind.
Trying to at least.
It doesn't feel right that Dew LIKES him and that he just... he can't reciprocate it.
If he only wants Dew for his body, that's like a whole new level of leading him on.
Yeah, they're ghouls, they fuck around and move on, but things can get messy when feelings are involved.
Cirrus and Cumulus are a fine example of just that.
He cringes at the memories of their fights when they were together, how hard it had been for them to navigate the balance between the sexual freedom they both craved while being devoted to one another emotionally.
It was all a giant shitfest, until they stepped back and actually talked about what they wanted and realized they didn't click as well as they initially thought, and while they're happier than ever now... Rain can't put Dew through that.
But then again, who says monogamy is what the guy even wants?
They probably talked about all of this at some point, given their relationship status in this version of their reality, but it probably didn't happen over text, so fishing through his phone some more isn't going to help their situation.
He has to find that stupid fucking statue!
But...
Rain looks around the room, searching for Dew amongst the various artworks on display and comes up empty.
He feels a mild panic coming on when he sweeps his gaze over the room and, again, finds nothing.
"Dew??"
He looks left and right.
"Hey, hey, Dew, where are you??"
...He's gone.
Shit, shit, shit-
"I'm right next to you, you jerk." A familiar voice grumbles from beside him, and, upon looking down, Rain meets the disgruntled gaze of a very annoyed ghoul.
"Oh, shit, I-I didn't realize you were there-"
"Yeah, sure. Whatever. Let's just keep looking." Dew mutters, clearly unhappy, "Let's get this over with already."
"I..."
"...When we get back..." Dew says, "Don't talk to me."
"...For how long?" Rain frets.
"Forever if you want." he replies, hands in his pockets, "Since you're so tweaked out about shit, and this isn't something you get over in a day, or a week, or a year or whatever..."
"I can't just stop talking to you, you're my f-" Rain starts, but Dew cuts him off.
"Yeah, you're my friend, but you're already looking at me like I'm a freak because of how I feel, and I don't think I can come back from that, Rain." he places a hand on his chest, "Shit fucking hurts..."
"Dew..."
[Dew communicates his feelings... as best as a little imp can.] Below the cut.
Dew isn't sure what's going on anymore.
The ghouls are talking around him, a constant back and forth of sounds he doesn't understand.
Sometimes, one of them will lower themselves to his level, talk at him, and he'll recoil, pressing further into the corner of the plastic tub they've set him down in.
The walls too tall and smooth for his little nails to catch and climb out, so he's stuck.
He'd spent a long while hiding under his sweatshirt, the one he'd been wearing when he turned into... whatever he was now.
Rain had stuffed it in there along with his sweat pants and a couple other soft, familiar smelling things, and that had helped him relax.
At least he's comfortable.
He peers up at the aforementioned ghoul.
He hasn't taken his eyes off of him since they set him down inside the container, he looks at Rain's hand dangling over the lip of it, hanging down low enough so that Dew can scratch the top of his head and along his spine with it if he wants to.
And he does.
Rain wiggles his fingers a bit, helping him reach the itchy spots he can't get with his back feet.
Dew purrs as Rain pets him.
This... this is nice.
Dew could live like this.
His head feels delightfully empty.
If he'd known he could do this, he would have done it ages ago and lived out the rest of his life as a whatever he is.
Simpler than being a human or a ghoul.
Actually, that makes him wonder...
Why hadn't he been able to do this before?
Why now?
Is it because of them?
He looks at the other ghouls, distorted by the cloudy, semi-opaque prison he's in.
He chirps, lightly bumping Rain's hand away, climbing over to his sweatshirt and making one, two, three small circles.
He settles into a little loaf, sighing contentedly, tail tapping against the plastic rhythmically as he lays his head over his small, overlapped paws.
"Dew?"
Dew lifts his head, locking eyes with Aether.
He can understand his name at least.
Dew watches Aether's mouth move, unable to make sense of the noise coming from it.
He lowers his head again.
There's a sigh.
Probably Aether realizing talking to him like this will get him nowhere.
Dew responds to it with a full body shaking yawn.
Being small is... surprisingly exhausting.
He feels the container move, but he's barely aware of it as he tucks into himself, he needs a nap.
When Dew next wakes, he's being held.
He's not really sure who it is that's holding him, but their hands are large, bigger than Rain's, but thinner than Aether's, and a bit too soft to be Swiss'.
He sniffs curiously.
He smells dirt.
Why does he smell dirt??
DID THEY THINK HE DIED AND TRY TO BURY HIM??
Dew's eyes fly open.
Yipping when he notices he's currently being held in the muddy palms of-
"Hey there."
It's Mountain!
Dew doesn't know why, but this... this comes as relief to him.
Better the earth ghoul than an early grave he supposes.
Mountain may be big, but he's a gentle giant, and his hands aren't constricting him like Swiss' had been before.
He keeps an open palm, letting Dew move freely, so long as he doesn't make to jump from his hands.
He's good with animals after all.
Dew wiggles at him, unable to wave.
He tries, but reaching out his front paw sets him off balance, and he almost tumbles out of his hands.
"Yes, yes, hello..." Mountain coos, "...You've had a long... a long life from the sounds of it, but it's been a long day, hasn't it?"
Dew tilts his head at him.
Why can he understand Mountain?
Does he speak... whatever the fuck?
Of course Mountain would.
That's probably why he's here.
"I want you to know, you're safe here." he says, keeping his voice soft and low, "You're safe here."
Dew croaks at him warily.
Safe?
Everything around him feels like a threat right now if Dew's completely honest.
And, and...
He's... He's so small.
How could he possibly feel safe when the world is so big?
Even on the inside, he feels...
He feels like he's still shrinking down.
Getting smaller and smaller.
He kind of hopes whatever little speck of him is leftover when all is said and done just snaps from existence so he doesn't have to think about...
Think about what exactly?
He...
He isn't sure.
What had him so worked up again?
He tries to get his head on straight, but he can't.
He feels like he's outside of his body and... maybe he is?
He worms his way to the edge of Mountain's palm.
"I need you to trust me, and let me change you back."
Change him back?
No!
Dew hisses.
He doesn't want to go back!
"Dew... you can't live like this." Mountain states somberly, "You... you just can't."
He can!
He can make this work!
Somehow...
"...I know you're scared. This has all been very weird, hasn't it?"
Dew croaks, looking down at the floor.
It's... It's a long way down.
It might hurt if he jumps down now.
"If you put your faith in me now, I can promise I'll stand by you, help you tell the others how you feel if it's hard for you to do, but this... Dew, this isn't the answer to your problems." Mountain says, "Shutting out the world won't make you feel better."
"It'll make it worse."
Dew whimpers, forcing his mouth to form the only word he can think to say...
"...sss...S...cc...areddd..."
"Sc... ared."
"Scared."
"Scared."
His little eyes water and he tries to hide his face behind his paws, but he can't.
Small as he is now, Mountain can see all of him.
And when a sudden warm drop of water hits his back.
Dew realizes, he understands.
Because Mountain is crying, too.
Big ol' softie.
Dew shakes off the moisture and chirps at Mountain, nuzzling the pad of his thumb, trying to comfort him.
Dew's in such a weird position, but, but he...
He still can't stand seeing one of his friends upset.
Even on his own behalf.
"Will you trust me?" Mountain asks, and...
And how can Dew say no to those big sad eyes??
He chirps at him.
.
.
.
.
"Maybe we should wait to turn him back."
Dew blinks at Aether.
Having been returned to the kitchen by Mountain, the other ghouls had sat down to discuss the matter of turning him back, and, focusing very, very, very hard, Dew had been able to... ehhh... vaguely understand the mechanics of it, understand them at least.
"Probably a good idea." Swiss says, "If he was just starting his heat for the first time, him turning into an imp for a couple days is probably the safest option, since he won't experience it in that form."
He won't?
Come to think of it, his little... uhh... leaking problem had gone away as soon as he shifted forms.
Good.
Great even.
If he can just do this the next time that ha-
The next time.
This... this could, no, this would happen again.
Dew lets out a miserable little burble and buries his face in his paws.
"Aw, Dew, it's..." Rain cuts himself off again, shaking his head, "...It's not okay, and, we need to talk about it."
Dew grumbles at him.
"Hey, at least he can't deny he's a ghoul anymore." Swiss shrugs, "I get that he's freaked about it, especially after all this time, but living in denial about things... Like, I know he's not happy he doesn't know what's happening, but, like, Dew, man..."
He gets down on Dew's level, "You have to admit, if you were even a little bit more open to the idea... we could have talked to you."
"No, Swiss, we should have talked to him about it regardless." Mountain corrects, "This... this isn't all on him. We assumed a lot, and pushed hard thinking we were right and that Dew was just... being silly! But..."
"I agree." Cirrus interjects, "But Swiss... Swiss isn't wrong either exactly."
"We all failed to communicate properly." she says, "And it forced a reaction, which, while it does prove our theory... it was wrong to back Dew into a corner like this."
The ghouls argue back and forth.
Trying to shift blame.
Dew tries to cover his ears.
It's embarrassing being talked about like this, especially when he can't defend himself.
"Scared."
The room goes quiet.
"Scared."
Aether tries to comfort him, but the shadow of his hand makes Dew flinch.
"Sca...ry."
"Scary."
The only words Dew can seem to utter are ones of fear.
Of distrust.
"Why?" Rain asks, "Why 'scary'?"
Dew... isn't sure why.
He just is.
Something about the ghouls.
No, something about BEING a ghoul is absolutely terrifying to him.
And he can't place why.
"I brought my tablet!" Sunshine calls from the doorway, interrupting the oppressive silence, "Imp paws work on touch screens, right?"
Imp?
Oh.
Oh is that what he is?
"Should work." Cumulus says, taking the tablet and setting it down in front of Dew, "Thanks, Sunny. Okay..."
Dew stares at the screen.
"Just tap the pictures and tell us how you feel, can you do that?"
Of course Dew can do that!
Dew baps the screen with his paw.
"Fuck you."
"SUNNY!"
"Hehe, sorry, sorry, I figured he might want to vent his frustrations a little..."
Dew slaps the screen a few more times over that one before he decides to get serious.
Rain leans over the table, "Okay, Dew... why scary?"
Dew looks at the pictures available to him, swiping at the screen to find the right words.
"No. Choice. Scary."
"It's scary... because you didn't get to decide?" he tries, and Dew bobs his head at him.
"No. Choice. Scary." he looks through the pictures, "Make. Small. Small. No. Like."
"You don't like feeling small?" Swiss questions, "Elaborate?"
"No. Like. Small. Feel. Like. Lie. Lie. Lie."
"Lie?"
Dew stares at the screen.
"Dew?"
"Like. Lie. Life. Lie." he baps the screen one more time before curling into himself again, "Silly."
"You feel... silly... because you didn't know?"
Dew chirps.
"But we all... we all did? Because we thought we knew?"
Chirp.
"And that made you feel... small."
Dew lifts his head, staring up at his friends.
"We made you feel small... so you made yourself small?" Aether asks.
When you put it that way...
Dew bats at the screen.
A steady rhythm of "Fuck you".
[Dew is sick Swiss has some feelings about it. Contains discussion of being sick both in the sense of being unwell as well as in the physical sense. A fair bit of angst with a mild resolution at the end.] Below the cut.
When Dew gets sick, It starts with a weakness in his fingers, an inability to grip things in his hand without it feeling... off.
His muscles and joints feel loose and wrong, so he clenches his fists tighter, strains and tires himself without realizing until he can't manage simple tasks anymore.
His hands shake, and his sight goes to static at the edges, save for a strange, drifting clear spot in his vision, that has a filminess to it like a soap bubble without the rainbow sheen.
The pain doesn't set in right away, but the inability to focus his vision, combined by the sudden loss of his fine motor tells him it's only a matter of time before it does.
So when his hand refuses to close around the pen he's been using to scribble down notes with, he knows something's wrong... and he needs to deal with it before someone sees him.
Dew wets his lips, grateful to have caught things in the early stages, before his stomach has a chance to turn, before he feels that familiar numbness in the back of his throat...
He drops the pen onto the desk and closes his eyes, trying to strategize how exactly he's going to make it from his desk to his on suite bathroom without jostling himself too much.
He only needs to make it ten feet.
Why does that seem so far away now?
With great difficulty, Dew stands on unsure feet for only a moment before feeling lightheaded and dizzy.
"Shit." he staggers uncoordinatedly in one spot before carefully lowering himself to the ground, knees pressing into the hardwood, and crawls to the bathroom instead.
He can barely reach the handle from the floor, but when he does, the door refuses to budge, and Dew bumps against it weakly with his shoulder, accidentally knocking his head and wincing.
He really needs to get this thing fucking fixed.
His head and the damned door.
Dew grunts awkwardly, smacking his hand uselessly against the flat surface.
It doesn't even make a sound when his hand slaps it, looks more like he's drunkenly petting it if anything.
Fuck.
His eyes water, clouding his already hazy vision as the pain starts to really set in.
It's like someone stabbing him repeatedly in the head with a metal fork, but lifting each time to scrape against the insides of his skull, and the only thing he can think to do is press his face to the floor and hope it's cold enough to soothe the persistent pulsing in his brain.
He tries to breathe normally, keep himself from clenching his jaw, but it's hard.
His body feels impossibly heavy.
He shivers.
Across the room, he can hear his phone buzzing.
Someone's calling him, but he just closes his eyes, trying to block out the noise.
It's not easy, and the grating sound of it rattling against the desktop feels like a knife in his ear, but, eventually, he's more focused on keeping his stomach settled and his head cooled that he's too out of it to realize his bedroom door is opening.
.
.
.
When Dew opens his eyes again, he's in his bed, bundled up in a sweatshirt too big to be his own, propped up on his side by a pillow wedged under his back, and a blanket covering him from the waist down, so his legs stay warm, but ensuring that his tender stomach stays relatively cooler.
A cold compress falls from his neck as he lifts his head, looking around the room tiredly.
He's dully aware of two things as he comes back to himself.
His mouth tastes like... peppermint.
Whoever put him here also brushed his teeth, and...
There's a distinct smell of artificial lemons in the air, like the floor cleaner they use specifically for the wood floors when there's been a spill so it doesn't leave a stain.
He tries not to think about what the person needed to clean up besides, ya know, him.
Dew sniffs again, but something about the action causes a fleck of spit to go down the wrong tube, and he lets out a little cough, which quickly turns into a groan as the muscles in his abdomen contract.
"Ah, you're awake."
Dew makes a small, befuddled noise in the back of his throat, followed by a weary chirp when he sees Rain walk into the room, smiling at him.
Dew drags himself up into a sitting position, and Rain is quick to rearrange his pillows to keep him upright.
"...Did you clean up my... the mess?" he croaks, his throat feels painfully dry, "Ow..."
"Mm-mm." Rain shakes his head, uncapping a water bottle and handing it to Dew.
"Nah, that was Swiss, he's the one who found you on the floor. Said he was coming to show you something stupid he bought and... yeah."
Dew tries to lift the bottle to drink, but his hands are too shaky and he spills a little down the front of his shirt, pouting.
Seeing his predicament, Rain steadies the bottle enough for Dew to drink a few good sips of water before taking it back and setting it on the nightstand beside the bed, "Better?"
"Mn..." he clicks his tongue, "I feel like... a rock... a rock made of shit."
"That's... I have no idea if feeling like a coprolite is better or worse than you felt before, but I'm going to assume that means you're feeling... relatively okay?"
"Ehn." Dew shrugs, "...my head doesn't hurt anymore, but my stomach's being a bitch..."
"Do you think you're going to throw up again?" Rain asks, worriedly eyeing the bathroom door.
"No... it's just sore now." he says, sinking back into the pillows, looking around the room curiously, "...Where'd Swiss go?"
"To take a shower." Rain says, glancing at the floor.
Ah.
"...'m sorry." Dew mumbles and Rain just smiles sadly and pets his hair.
"If you want to apologize to properly, you've gotta rest up and get better, okay?"
Dew nods, purring sleepily as Rain scratches around his horns.
"Any idea what made you sick?" Rain asks and Dew shrugs.
"Mn, migraine maybe... dunno..." he tugs at his shirt, "...Whose is this? Is this a unicorn riding a... riding a motorcyle, what?"
"It's Cirrus'."
Dew pinches his eyes shut and grumbles, "How many of you saw me all... gross and shit?"
There's a brief pause of consideration before Rain responds.
"Uh... When Swiss found you, he kind of shouted and..."
Dew covers his face with his hands.
"...Fuuuck..."
"We didn't know what was happening and-" Rain cuts himself off, watching tears dribble down Dew's chin, "Dew? Dew, does something hurt?"
"'m fuckin' embarrassed, what the fuck..." he whines, turning away from Rain and smushing his face into the pillow.
"Dew, it's-"
"'s'not okay..." Dew mumbles, "...I don't even remember what happened between being on the floor and now, and you all... that's fuckin' stupid."
"How's it stupid?"
"...I'm stupid. This is stupid-"
"Dew-"
"-My body's fucking stupid!" Dew cries, whipping around and throwing the pillows off his bed in a fit, flopping back down only to kick the sheets off as well, sniffling angrily when they refuse to untangle from around his legs.
"I'm a fuckin' demon! I'm supposed to be tougher than this!"
"Dew." Rain says a bit more firmly, grabbing his knees, forcing his legs to still, "Dew, I know it's upsetting, but we've got this, yeah? We're gonna take care of you."
"I don't want that..." Dew wipes his eyes with the sleeve of Cirrus' sweatshirt, "Don't want it..."
"Don't want us to take care of you or..." Rain tries, lowering his voice.
"Don't want..." Dew rolls onto his side again, "...I don't... I don't like..."
Rain tilts his head and waits.
"...I don't..." he can't finish the sentence.
He doesn't even know how he's supposed to articulate what he's feeling right now aside from sick.
His brain feels like pudding and all he can keep thinking about is how all of them...
...All of them...
"...Don't like it when you see me... see me like that..." he says finally, picking at the mattress, "Just leave me on the floor next time, pretend you didn't notice-"
The door creaks open and Swiss enters with his arms crossed.
"You... you know we can't do that, right?" he scoffs, holding his hand up when Dew opens his mouth to argue, "Sorry, baby boy, but I... we don't like seeing you suffer as much as you seem to want to hide it, so, like, no."
Dew hisses, but feels the fight leaving him when Rain sends him a sympathetic look and kneads his shoulder soothingly.
Swiss enters the room fully and shuts the door part way, leaving it ajar, before sitting down on the end of his bed, just out of kicking range in case Dew throws another tantrum.
"...This is fucking humiliating..." Dew huffs, staring daggers at his ceiling fan.
"Which part? Your sweet new sleep shirt curtesy of Cirrus, or the fact that we all love you so much we wouldn't let you lie on the floor in agony?"
Dew tilts his head down to look at the shirt again.
"...The latter."
He does have to admit he likes the design, but that's not the point.
"Well, too bad. We love ya, and you're going to have to get used to that." Swiss teases, "But, really, dude... We were really worried."
Rain nods.
"I would have been fine..." Dew whispers, "Not my first rodeo with this shit, so..."
"And you know that's more concerning, right?" Swiss points out, "Cause here's the thing; I don't care if you don't care about your own wellbeing, I mean, I fucking DO because you should care, but that's not even... What I'm trying to say is, if you're not doing well, you can tell us, you know that, yeah?"
Dew frowns, returning to glaring at his ceiling.
"Dew..." Swiss sighs, "I..."
He takes a deep breath and leans forward to hold his hand.
"Have any of us... ever made you feel like it isn't safe to talk about this stuff?" he asks.
"...No."
"But, do you... feel like it's not safe to talk about it?"
Dew doesn't answer right away, but when he does, his voice wobbles a bit.
"Yeahh..."
Rain returns to petting Dew's hair, "We've got you."
Swiss gives his hand a reassuring squeeze.
At some point, Dew falls back asleep.
His dreams are nightmarish and provide little to no respite.
.
.
.
When Dew wakes, Rain is gone, but Swiss is lounging on his bed beside him scrolling through his phone, and Dew angles his head to take a peek at his screen.
"...Is that a dog or a cat?" he asks, his words a bit slurred from the way he's squished.
Swiss startles and almost drops his phone, "Jesus!"
He places a hand on his chest.
"I thought you were asleep!"
"I was." Dew mumbles, "...And now I'm awake."
"Thank you for the rundown, Captain Obvious.... Geez... You're scaring me a lot today, you know that?" Swiss pinches Dew's cheek and gives it a pull.
"Aughh diiidnth meean tooahh..." Dew says, "...'m thorry."
Swiss lets go of his face and sets his phone off to the side.
"You really did though." he says, ruffling Dew's hair, "I got scared seeing you on the ground like that, I didn't know what to do, and if... if something..."
He shakes his head.
"Actually, let's talk about that later, when you're better... How're you feeling now that you've slept some more?"
Dew yawns, "Weirdly more tired..."
Swiss snorts, "Yeah?"
"Yeah..." Dew wriggles closer to Swiss, looping his arm around his midsection and bumping his head against his chest.
"Whatcha doin' there, bud?"
"Lay down." Dew nudges him, "Sleep."
"Well, since you asked so politely..."
Dew lets Swiss go in order for him to get settled, resting his head on the pillow beside his.
"I'm still upset with you." Swiss informs him, but still allows Dew to snuggle up against his side, "...Glad you're not dead though."
"You thought I died?"
Swiss hums.
"You weren't responding when I called your name or shook you, so... yeah... yeah, I did." he says, resting his chin on top of Dew's head, "Aeth came running, made sure that... that you weren't... ya know."
"...Ah..."
"I..." Swiss swallows, voice cracking, "...Everybody was scared, but then you woke up! And we got you to answer some questions, and then... then you..."
"What did I do?" Dew asks nervously.
"You, uh, you... it was like the meme... You were just standing there, like dumbfounded about it, and meanwhile I'm over here like, 'BRO'..."
"This clears up nothing."
"You ruined my crocs."
"Oh. Ohhh..."
"Yeah."
They sit in silence for a moment while Dew processes this new information.
"...In hindsight, that's... that's at least a little funny." he says, "...Who brushed my teeth?"
"Oh that was Aeth and Rainy, they had a hell of a time getting into your bathroom, so they took you to Cirrus' room and got you all cleaned up. That's where we got the shirt and the shorts."
Dew lifts the blankets and stares.
Pink with white polka dots... what kind of cursed wardrobe is Cirrus hiding in her bedroom?
"After that, Mount made some weird tea and made you drink it, which, like, I don't know what was in that stuff-"
"Peppermint and chamomile with a sprinkling of ginger and two ibuprofen on the side!" Mountain calls from the other side of the wall.
Swiss blinks, "Damn the walls in this place are thin..."
"Anyway, you drank, like, two cups of that and zonked out, and that's about it. Still embarrassed?"
"Little bit... Less now that I know what happened... that's the scariest part." Dew confesses, "...It's the idea that something happened and I don't remember, but other people do, combined with... I dunno, not being able to stop it from happening to begin with..."
"Well... maybe a trip to the doctor is in order to help with that last part." Swiss says, rubbing Dew's back, "...Hey?"
"Yeah?"
"I love you, Dewboy."
"Love you, too."
"We all love each other, now go to bed already, some of us are trying to sleep!" Cirrus chimes in from across the hallway, sending a pillow through the open door.
"You're all ruining the moment!" Swiss complains.
"If everyone is awake right now, can someone get me a glass of water?" Sunny inquires.
"Didn't I already get you-"
Swiss gets up and closes the door.
"Bedtime?" he asks.
"Bedtime." Dew confirms, holding his arms out for Swiss to collapse back into.