Look, I'm helpful :)

[muscovy]

Who: Muscovy & Rey
What: Just checking in on Mommy having a nightmare.
Where: Rey's bedroom.
When: 1st of February
Warnings: tba



It's not the first night that Rey is having a nightmare (and yes, he knows this because he has checked in on her. If you bring a stepping stool and then stretch to get on her windowsill, it's really not that hard to just happen to be looking into her room at night). But this night, it seems to be especially bad.

She looks like she needs to be woken from it. A good friend and family member will wake her.

So he does the reasonable thing and very quietly opens her window - you just need to shove a paper through the narrow slit between window and wall, it's practically open - and climbs inside, letting himself drop down to the ground and then wandering over to her bed to prod her.

Comments

[circumitus]

Bad dreams and restless nights have become so commonplace that Rey doesn't even wake up screaming anymore. Not that that's an option right now.

Despite having gone to sleep in bed sitting upright, back propped to the wall, at some point she's rolled onto the cold, hard floor. Face up, mouth agape and gasping for air, lungs tightening, throat dry and sore. Her hands are pulled inwards, her body scrunched in a way one would when trapped in a closed, confined, and claustrophobic space.

The walls she feels around her are cold. Metal. Feelings of insect legs crawling on her skin. Worms digging into her insides. She wants to yell. Scream and cry and call for help. But no one is coming. And she can't breathe, anyway.

She can't breathe.

A final breath draws inward, and her eyes snap open to find a silhouette in her room.

Her immediate instinct is to grab it and snap their neck. She seizes Muscovy by the shirt first, giving the boy a violent yank.

[muscovy]

He does exactly what he did when Firo reacted startled to the little brother in his room, keeping perfectly still and trusting that Rey will notice that he isn't a danger - that it is him even, perhaps - before gravely injuring him. Not that he wouldn't recover, but he'd really prefer to not be hurt.

And it's not like he could actually hold up against Rey in a proper fight. Especially not when she thinks that she's up against something out of her nightmare.

[circumitus]

Reality doesn't take long to settle in. By then, Rey's clasped the collars of Muscovy's outfit, her teeth grinding together and expression twisted with rage. Features which freeze, and then melt into confusion when the dream-thoughts start to fade away.

"Muscovy?" She eases her grip, and leans back a little. "What... the hell are you doing here?"

[muscovy]

"You were having a nightmare, yes?"

He only starts to move again once she's clearly back to being herself and her grip easens.

"So I came to wake you up."

[circumitus]

Oh. So that's what this is about.

Rey can't help but feel marginally embarrassed. She's supposed to be better than this.

"You don't have to sneak in here for that. I'm used to it," she says as she releases him entirely. She also realizes that that might not have been the most consoling response. "Plus, I could have hurt you."

Haven't you heard what they say about 'let sleeping dogs lie', Muscovy?

[muscovy]

"It looked worse than normally, though, like it hurt you to have the nightmare."

And nightmares, particularly the really bad ones, can be pretty painful and stay with you for the whole day after. He doesn't want that to happen to Rey.

"And I will heal, yes? I cannot die." ...Muscovy, you shouldn't smile when saying that.

[circumitus]

Rather than being comforted by that food for thought, Rey just frowns at Muscovy.

"Just because you can doesn't mean that I want it to happen."

It's hard enough just trying not to be a safety hazard for the people she cares about. Immortal or no, she doesn't want to cause undo harm to them. Regardless of her state of mind.

[muscovy]

"And I don't want you to have bad nightmares for longer than necessary either, yes?"

Clearly those two things are at about the same level.

[circumitus]

Huff.

"You don't have to worry about that. Your safety is more important than stupid dreams." Even if they aren't all that stupid to her while she's experiencing them at the time.

[muscovy]

"But they hurt you. They should not hurt you, yes?

It would be silly to let them hurt you." Nevermind that hurting him would probably hurt her worse. It didn't happen, after all. He trusts her to wait before she does bad things to him.

[circumitus]

"That doesn't m--"

But she stops, her jaw tightening in frustration.

Abruptly her hand slaps over her face, and she releases a sharp breath. "Just... don't fight me on this, okay? I'd rather just die than hurt any more people for no reason."

[muscovy]

"Then I will wake you up differently next time."

He should be able to come up with a different method that doesn't risk Rey hurting them, he'll just have to think on it. Because just letting her sleep when it is hurting her is very much not an option.

[circumitus]

And letting her hurt someone she cares about just because they won't die isn't a much better option.

So where does that leave them?

"Different how?" Rey asks warily, not sure what the alternatives entail.

[muscovy]

"...I could call you, yes?"

Her device ringing should wake her up, too, and that way he doesn't risk breaking her window by banging against it.

[circumitus]

"Yes," she agrees. "That would be better. Not that much a heavy sleeper, anyway."

Rey is the type of person who snaps awake at a fly farting. A phone call would definitely be enough.

[muscovy]

"I will do that, then."

He can still sneak in and hug her once she is awake and in no danger of strangling anyone.

[circumitus]

"Good."

She'd much rather he do that than startle her into clubbing him with a lamp or something. But now that she's awake and lucid, she is definitely huggable.

Or, at least as huggable as someone like Rey can be. It didn't seem to be an issue with Muscovy before, though.

[muscovy]

No, Rey is definitely very huggable. At least she doesn't sometimes grow see-through like his lord father used to. Not that he couldn't still be hugged at those time, but with her he at least doesn't need to worry about her just fading away from grief.

Which, as you might have assumed, he considered a very silly concept.

And hugs she will get, once she settles down again.

Or rather a lapful of tiny nation.

"...What do you dream about when you dream bad?"

[circumitus]

It does take a moment for her nerves to settle. She's been tense since before awakening, still alert and of a mind to fight something. Anything.

Rey would just rather it not be Muscovy.

At this point she should expect it, but even now she is caught by surprise when the small child climbs onto her her, once she is resting upright with her back propped against the wall. This is how she normally sleeps. But she wasn't having a normal dream.

She mulls over Muscovy's question, not sure how to answer or if there is even one swirling about in her head.

"Lots of things," she says at last, quiet and vague. "Reminders, usually. Memories. Things I try to forget."

But can't, when you've got a brain like hers that soaks information and experience like a sponge.

[muscovy]

He's used to Rey needing time to adjust to him being close, so he doesn't particularly worry about - hardly even notices, really - her taking a while to settle her nerves.

He just waits until he can and then curls up and continues waiting until an answer comes forth.

"Bad dreams are worse when they are true." A nod goes with that. They really are - unless, sometimes, they are about things that just so might be true, and for a long moment you don't know if they are or not. "Because then they won't fade away as the day goes on."