Skyline Gang Drabbles 🌈 . 💬

Nightmares

The door creaked open slowly and quietly, and Candi peeked her head around it to see into the room and scope out the area. She wanted to make sure she didn't accidentally wake up Dude or Sprout with her entry.

It was around 2am. She'd woken up 15 minutes ago after a horrible nightmare – about something bad happening to Sprout, ironically enough – and immediately went searching around the house for Bud. Much to her dismay, his car wasn't in the driveway, and she quickly learned that he'd gone out to pick up Misty and Pip from a bar out in the town. Knowing he wouldn't be back for a while, she went to the next best choice: Dude and Sprout.

Thankfully, the two were sound asleep when she walked in. Sprout was lying right at the edge of the bed, one arm dangling off of the side; Dude was, shockingly, lying on the other side, flat on his stomach with his hands gripping the pillow above his head. Candi remembered that Sprout had a habit of moving around in his sleep, so he had probably started off right next to Dude before rolling over.

Shutting the door gently behind her, she tip-toed across the room towards the bed. With a clear gap between Dude and Sprout, she tried to subtly squeeze herself between the two of them. The hardest part was getting under the blanket, but she found that once she had her legs under, she could pull the rest up just fine.

Their bed was comfortable, and warm. Technically, it was Dude's bed, because it was also technically Dude's room, but he and Sprout practically shared each other's rooms. With their presence in the room with her, Candi was able to relax, curling herself into a little ball and trying to lull herself back to sleep.

Once she'd fallen asleep again, Dude woke up. Nothing in particular had woken him up, in fact he just had a habit of waking up in the middle of the night only to go back to sleep immediately after. However, this time, he was caught off guard by pink hair in the corner of his vision.

He realised almost immediately that it was Candi, and given the circumstances, he figured she'd probably had some sort of nightmare. Careful not to wake her up again, he shifted his position so he could lean up against her, pressing his chest against her back with one arm draped over her midsection.

It was a trick he'd learnt after a lot of experience dealing with a scared Candi: she slept better in close contact with people, like cuddling. He hoped that it might be able to stop her from waking up again.

His movements, however, also woke Sprout up. He was normally a very heavy sleeper, but Candi climbing into the bed had unsettled him a bit, and Dude moving had disturbed him enough to entirely wake him up.

Sprout rolled over to check on Dude, and was met with the sight of Candi sleeping in between them. He saw Dude's head peeking over the top of hers, and instinctively shuffled closer so that Candi was gently sandwiched between them both.

"...You up?" Dude murmered, opening his eyes slightly to see Sprout's face.

"Mm." Sprout vaguely nodded his head.

"Sorry.."

Dude felt Sprout grab onto the arm he had draped over Candi's side. Instinctively, he found Sprout's hand and took it into his own.

They didn't say anything else after that. They were both awake, but it was nicer to lie in silence than try to make conversation, and they didn't want to risk waking up Candi, either.

It was at least 10 minutes before either of them could get back to sleep. But even when they did, they didn't let go of each other's hands. The only movement in the whole bed was the slow and steady breathing from the three of them deep in sleep.