catfish and the bottlemen imagines for rainy days + mondays

Afraid of Everyone / Sam

You jolted awake to a darkened bedroom, only to see it lit up moments later with a frazzle of pink and orange firey light. You'd fallen asleep with the telly on earlier that evening, hoping to sleep through November the 5th in its entirety. It was one of your least favourite nights of the year. 

You whimpered, pulling the covers up over your nose and mouth, doing your best to shrink as best you could into your quilt. 

Sam wasn't back yet even though he'd promised you he'd try to get back before seven which was usually when people started setting them off. 

You bit your lip and turned to the window, wincing as if you expected another to go off right outside your little flat. Of course they didn't but the quiet and the darkness which cloaked your little bedroom now wouldn't last long and you knew it, so you didn't let yourself relax and you didn't bother trying to go back to sleep. 

Your heart was still thudding in your chest from the first and knowing that it wouldn't be the last only made you more tense. More jumpy. 

"Oh my god," you squeaked when another string of explosions set the sky alight with colour. The colours weren't the problem, the fireworks themselves would be beautiful if they weren't so sudden and shocking. In fact you often got sad that you couldn't enjoy them the way everyone else seemed to, you'd tried so many times to just get over the fear, but you couldn't. Because it wasn't so much a fear as a reflex and it was a reflex that was so instinctive to you that you couldn't undo it. Not without therapy and lets face it - you weren't ever getting to the end of that waiting list. 

You squeezed your eyes tight shut and scrunched yourself up into a tiny ball, pulling your covers right up so that you were completely hidden, suddenly glad Sam wasn't home so that he couldn't see how stupid you looked right now. Hiding under the covers from some fireworks like a little girl. 

Another set of fireworks went off, each bang louder and more sudden than the next, the sporadic hiss of their spray through the sky, the booms and claps like a thunderstorm, leaving you a jittery mess, your hands clamped over your ears as you mumbled to yourself. 

"Go away, go away," 

You hated bonfire night for this, the way it reduced you to a quivering wreck, because for the most part you managed to get through life just fine, you were an anxious mess maybe, but you were functioning. You certainly didn't find yourself crying under your covers like a five year old over anything else. 

But here you were, crying under your covers, shivering and startled by every other movement so that when Sam finally did make it home, he couldn't find you. 

"y/n?" you heard him call from the hallway, heard him open the bedroom door, look around and then leave again in confusion, "where are you love?" he called out to you again, not hearing when you shouted back to him from your new hiding place, because your timid voice was drowned out by another string of explosions in the sky. 

You heard him search the rest of the house before returning to your bedroom where he called out to you again. 

"y/n pet, it's alright love am home now..." he said, his voice trailing off before you'd managed to call his name out or tell him where you were. He'd already worked that out and seconds later you saw the break of light as he opened the wardrobe door and shifted the clothes that were hanging up inside away from your face. "Aw, babygirl," he chuckled sympathetically, "Am sorry am so late," he said softly, crouching down in front of the wardrobe where you had curled up to sit and hide in the dark until he came home. 

"Sorry," you whispered knowing he'd only shake his head, which he did, his fingers reaching out to brush the tears from your eyes. 

"Ey shush," he said gently, his fingers lingering to stroke your cheek, "its alright baby," he said, "s'okay," he said offering you his hand, "but am home now so dya think you might like to come out now?" he asked with a little smirk, opening his arms for you to lean into when you shuffled to the edge of the wardrobe and slid out. 

You had a blanket in there with you and as you stepped out into his arms he caught it before it could fall and, as he stood up, he wrapped it back around your shoulders, his hands rubbing your arms before he pulled you into one of his bear hugs. He kissed your forehead once and then your nose before lowering his hands to your hips. Again a loud bang from somewhere outside startled you and again he felt you flinch beneath his hands but he didn't tell you to calm down and he didn't belittle you. Instead he just smiled softly, kissed your hair again. 

"Carry?" he asked you with a knowing smirk, he was used to seeing you like this by now and knew exactly how to deal with your anxiety flare ups. When you nodded he smiled and kissed your cheek once more before counting you up to your jump where he slid his hands beneath your bum and boosted you up, your legs wrapping around his waist. 

He held you in his big arms and rocked you for a moment, kissing your cheek again when you nuzzled into his shoulder, this time when the fireworks went off he felt you jump in his arms, his grip tightening on you instinctively to stop you losing your balance and falling. He heard your whimpering next to his ear and sighed a gentle hush against your cheek. 

"S'alright babygirl," he hushed you, his lips grazing and lingering against your cheek as he carried you across the room to your bed. "S'alreet am hyem now," he said drawing a smile from you as he flexed his geordie accent in a weak attempt at distracting you from the noise outside. "You're safe little one, av got you," he said placing you down at the edge of the bed, stroking your hair and then, when another firework startled you and you jumped out of your skin yet again, caught your hand in his to stop you from biting down on your thumb - something you often did when you were feeling this scared. 

"Sorry," you whispered again feeling stupid for letting yourself get this bad, if you'd just fallen asleep with earphones in instead you might not be having this problem. You might not have been so bad. 

"Shhhh," he said pulling the covers back and fixing them so that when he kicked his jeans off and climbed into bed beside you he could pull them up over the two of you. "Whatre you apologising for baby girl?" he asked you, knowing you weren't going to give him an answer, knowing that all you would do was blush and shake your head or hide your face or simply shrug your shoulders. And when you did he smirked. "Yeah," he said, "thats what I thought... now," he said then, "you gonna come here and let me look after my baby or not pet?" he asked, another knowing smirk, enjoying the shy blush which stained your cheeks when you looked up at him and nodded your head, shuffling up closer to him so that he could wrap his arms around you and pull you up into his lap where he cradled you to his chest. 

His lips lingered in your hair as he scattered kisses across your parting, his fingers intertwining with yours as he rocked you subtly until you really had calmed down, lulled by his warmth and his tenderness. 

"There we go," he whispered, "thats better, you're alreet," he said kissing your nose and your cheek, sliding down the headboard so that he was lying down with you cuddled up to him, dozing on his chest. Your thumb lingered adorably close to your lips and when he looked down at you you looked peaceful, really peaceful for the first time since he'd found you hiding in your wardrobe, and knowing that you were sleeping soundly left him settled too. But he didn't let himself drift off until he was absolutely certain that you had fallen back into a peaceful, dreamy sleep.