sleep was always something he didn't understand. how humans closed their eyes and.. ceased to exist, it seemed like. they would become unresponsive for hours at a time. and all his neighbors knew how to do it. except for him.
yet he didn't have the heart to explain to this child that "sleep" wasn't something he could do. pepper looked so happy, dragging wally into the tiny bedroom and pulling back the covers on the little twin bed. (and if wally wasn't as small as he was, he'd have a lot of trouble fitting on the mattress.)
"okay, and.. then we make the pillow all fluffy.." pepper was saying. he reached behind wally, who was sitting up, and adjusted the pillow. "poppy says the best part of bedtime is all the cozy blankets."
"this blanket is very soft," wally noted, reaching for the fabric. he remembered tucking pepper in just a few nights ago when they first got the bed set up. it seemed much more comfortable for the child than sleeping in the chair with him.
and pepper, grinning as he pulled the blanket over wally's legs, looked so happy. he hadn't looked that happy since he got to Home, and his smile seemed to be contagious. and before long, wally was all good and tucked in.
"now you can take a nap!" pepper said, nibbling at the tips of his fingers.
"ah," wally said, pretending to sigh. "see, i'm not very sure how to do that.. will you join me and maybe you can show me how?"
"mm.. okay." pepper climbed on top of the bed and demonstrated how to properly lie down. "you close your eyes and lie like this.. and then just wait, and then you fall asleep."
"alright, i'll try it," wally said, copying pepper. and he couldn't quite get there, but before long the little guy next to him started to snore.
"have a good rest, kiddo," he said, gently giving pepper a pat on the head.
YOU ARE READING
A Nest Of Bugs
FanfictionA big huge pile of trash I wrote for Camp NaNoWriMo. Hash tag slay. Chapters will be labeled for their fandom.
