guarded by ghouls [g.b.c.]

twenty-eight.

"-i'm not just going leave her on the floor!" rain hissed, his voice waking me up as i felt myself being lifted from the ground. "okay! okay, just- be careful. she can't know." mountain responded, dew whining at something. "i know, dew. but we have to go to practice.." mountain mumbled.

"okay.. how long is practice? will she wake up before we're back?" rain asked as i was set down on my bed. "like an hour.." dew grumbled. "hour and a half, but no, i don't think she'll wake up. but we have to go now." mountain corrected. rain sighed and i felt a kiss pressed to my forehead before shuffling footsteps sounded, my door closing after.

i grumbled to myself, bringing my hand up to my eyes and rubbing them. i let my arm drop as i stared up at the ceiling, blinking quickly to wake myself up.

practice..? what on earth are they practicing for?

i groaned, rolling out of bed and stumbling slightly.

i quickly adjusted how i looked, making sure i didn't look completely dead tired before leaving my room to follow my three ghouls.

after about 10 minutes of looking around for them, i had completely lost the sound of their voices and footsteps.

i sighed in frustration as i turned a corner, running into someone's chest.

i yelped slightly, looking up to see ifrit with alpha, omega, chair, and cowbell behind him.

"y/n! what are you doing near the ban-" alpha quickly slapped his hand against ifrit's mouth. ifrit smacked alpha's hand away, the older ghoul grumbling.

"i'm looking for rain, mountain, and dew.. i woke up to them talking about 'practice' and they were gone before i could process and ask what they meant," i explained, looking around the halls of the ministry. "have you seen them?" i asked.

chair and cowbell shook their heads as omega spoke. "no we haven't. but!" omega smiled nervously. "we were looking for you! we were going to go down to the kitchen and see if we could steal any snacks before we watched some movies in the common room. wanna come with?" omega grinned.

i thought for a moment before shrugging and nodding. ifrit smiled happily, looking slight relieved as he made me laugh while picking me up and running with the other four ghouls to the kitchen.

i grinned as i settled into alpha's chest, covering our legs up with a blanket and holding the popcorn in my lap.

alpha was sitting against the couch on the floor, his legs extended in front of him. i sat in front of alpha, nestled between his legs while using his chest as a cushion.

"what do we want to watch?" ifrit asked, sitting criss crossed on the couch right above alpha and i. i shrugged, looking up to my left at cowbell. he shrugged as well, extending his legs across chair who was sitting next to the arm of the couch and ifrit. somehow, cowbell as gotten comfortable in the small space between chair and the arm of the couch.

everyone turned to omega for a movie choice.

"uhhhh.. tangled??"

"YES."

aether stiffened as he heard the thoughts of all five older ghouls that were a floor above the band room. all of them were along the lines of:

we ran into y/n a hallway over from the band room. mountain, dew, and rain are cutting it close.

"hey," aether stated, sliding up his strings as he cut off mummy dust. dew looked over, mountain stumbling slightly as he abruptly ended what he was playing.

"what's wrong, aether?" papa asked. "ifrit, alpha, omega, cowbell, and chair all found y/n a hallway over from here." aether stated. rain's eyes widened as he quickly looked over between dew and mountain.

"look, i understand you guys are trying to keep this a secret for something cute," aether started, looking between the three ghouls. "but we have a tour coming up and you're cutting it way to close. i don't know how much longer you can keep this from her." aether sighed.

"i don't think you three have taken into account how y/n might be upset that you hid this from her." cirrus injected, resting her elbow on the top of her keyboard, cradling her chin with her hand. sunshine nodding along. "but we haven't spoken to her much, so we might be wrong." cumulus quickly tried to ease mountain, rain, and dew's conscious.

dew sighed, walking over to rain and resting his head on the water ghoul's shoulder.

"it'll be okay, dew.." rain whispered, hoping to hide his own nerves while wrapping his arm around the fire ghoul and hugging him. "she won't be mad..?" dew asked, starting to have second thoughts about the plan that he himself had come up with. "i highly doubt it." mountain cut in as he walked over to the pair, papa calling a break.

"she's been in this room before! how has she not realized?" dew asked, his anxiety starting to show as he took his guitar off and set it down. rain quickly took his base off, setting it next to dew's guitar before pulling him into a hug. mountain joined the hug, both him and rain using their abilities to calm the fire ghoul.

"dew, aredeo, everything will be fine.." mountain whispered, freezing for a moment after he realized he let a small term of endearment slip out. dew smiled softly at the latin word, moving to lean into mountain's chest. rain looked up at the earth ghoul, smiling at him and leaning against his shoulder. mountain smiled softly, hugging the two shorter ghouls that were leaning into him.

"what, i don't get a cute latin nickname?" rain asked softly, teasing mountain. mountain chuckled, pressing a kiss to rain's helmet as he whispered a soft:

"my little imber.."

980 words !!
small filler as i try to figure out a transition to the main part of this arc <3