Aphmau SMP + My Inner Demons Oneshots (Closed Requests for now)

IS THAT THE GRIM REAPER?!?! (Zane x Noi)

A/N: I wrote this while half-asleep and never got to editing it/ actually finishing it but tbh, I don't feel like editing it so here it is, enjoy <3 (also, the video above is the one I got inspo from)

"...Well. I'll probably never be able to sleep again," Zane sighed as he shifted deeper into his sheets for warmth.

It was 4:03 am, way too early for anyone in the Hub to be as awake as he currently was. And yet, he still had that feeling that his troublesome friends were still up, also tossing and turning and having a dance with their stuffed animals under their blankets. Honestly, Zane at least hoped so, he didn't exactly want to feel alone at the moment.

Well, he wasn't alone physically, but the person sleeping beside him was the last person he wanted physically close to him, no matter how long they had already been dating. After all, if you saw your boyfriend standing over your ex's body (that had somehow turned 2D) threatening to take her and your soul into the afterlife with an unfamiliar scowl, you'd be a bit scared too. Zane brought his attention to his boyfriend, Noi, who was peacefully sleeping beside him, his chest rising and falling in a slow and deep manner.

That whole night had left Zane quite frankly, horrified, and his boyfriend pulling up as the literal Grim Reaper was nothing but the cherry on top of the fever dream nightmare adventure he had just escaped from not too long ago, or rather caused for that matter. As if he needed another instance, Zane's curiosity had gotten the best of him and caused him and his friends to stay up at 3 in the morning to...see weird stuff. Well, he definitely thought that seeing Ein's head on the body of a cat was weird, so he got what he wanted.

Zane wasn't sure if the Noi he was being threatened by truly was his boyfriend until Aph made the Hub return to normal. Once she did, Noi's eyes seemed to flash with awareness and slowly descended to look down at Zane, who was fighting off Ein's apparent cat offspring before they all vanished from thin air. Before Zane could call out to him, Noi's eyes rolled to the back of his head and he fell off the well and into the bushes surrounding most of its sides, now sleeping peacefully and covered in Nana's pink roses that were made to add calm decor to the scenery. Zane rushed over to Noi's side and thought about waking him up before realizing how scared he was of his lover at that moment, that fear causing him to take a few hesitant steps back. Noi's dark robe and scythe also disappeared, leaving the Daemon in his orange pj's covered with puppies, a bright alternative compared to his previous attire. After a sudden mental debate, Zane lifted his boyfriend from the shrubs and carried him into his house before settling down beside him in bed, or at least trying to.

Noi had never told Zane about his...job? Zane wasn't sure what to label what he had witnessed, but it definitely wasn't something he knew about. Was it something that he should have known about? There were so many unanswered questions spinning inside his head and he didn't know which ones were better left unanswered. A low grunt of annoyance left his throat as Zane shifted position again. Before he could fully shut his eyes, his grunt was meant with a sleepy mumble. "..Zane? Are you up?"

Zane slowly turned around to find Noi slowly forcing himself to sit up, groaning a bit in confusion while adjusting his hair. "When did I get here? I remember I went to bed at my pla-" Noi suddenly stopped himself and straightened himself up against the bed board, his eyes now wide and his tired expression switching to full alertness in an instant. Once the silence became too deafening for him, he turned over to Zane with a near forced smile. "What's got you up so late at night? You're always saying you'll fix your sleep schedule, and yet here you are, awake at this hour."

"I could be asking you the same question, babe," Zane replied in the best nonchalant voice he could muster, his grip on his sheets tightening slightly to hide his small tremble.

"Oh, I uhh, just woke up." Noi was never a good liar, that much was true. The way his voice wavered, the sudden direct eye contact, the unconventional and uneven giggle that followed every sentence he spoke were all dead giveaways.

"Ahh, uhh, why am I in your house, huh? That's a very fair question, ha. You can't just, uh, take people from their hom-"

"You weren't at home," Zane interrupted as he also straightened himself up. "You were outside, standing on top of the well, with a scythe and a dark robe while making vague comments about how we were "running out of time", basically saying that we were going to die. Not in your house."

Noi blinked at Zane from his bluntness before his shoulders slumped and a breathy sigh escaped his lips, his legs now folding up to his chest. Noi rested his chin atop his knees while he spoke in a much weaker voice, "You saw that, huh?"

Zane immediately got a gut feeling of regret for how his language presented himself as angry when in fact, he wasn't sure he even had the mental energy to do so at the moment. He wanted to swallow the words that had spilled but it seemed a bit late for that. He reached out his hand and placed it on top of Noi's while nodding. "Yeah, I saw. I didn't, um, expect to see that from you."

"It wasn't something I wanted you to see."

"Oh-"

"Please don't say sorry, you don't have to be. It's just that, it's a bit hard to explain."

"...Well, I have all the time in the world."