Love Birds (adult Clover X Martlet)

Love Through Trauma

Authors note: This story was completed a while ago but I will be posting chapters slowly.

Clover sighs as he stares at his computer. A half-written essay was displayed on his screen about Criminal justice. Clover had wanted to be a cop when he was younger, but meeting Starlo, and the feisty five back underground, only reinforced that dream. "How am I gonna finish this by midnight? I'm exhausted." Clover takes a moment to break his eyes from the screen, observing his room. An unmade queen-sized bed sat in the corner of the room, the pillows and comforter scattered across it. Clothes overfill a dirty hamper, it seems he's neglected his room's cleanliness. "I need to clean this place up."

A knock at his bedroom door grabbed his attention, he turned to face the door seeing a blue feathered bird, leaning in through the door frame. "Hey, roomie how's the essay going?" Martlet and Clover shared an apartment as they attended college together. The two thought it would be a good idea to go together after Clover graduated high school.

"It's getting there Martlet, I'm just having a hard time focusing."

"You look exhausted, have you been getting enough sleep?"

Clover had a hard time sleeping at night; he had been struggling with nightmares ever since he came back to the surface. His memories flooded back to him after the barrier broke and his soul was sent back to his body. He remembered everything, he remembered his first run, the run where mercy wasn't an option, the run where he killed everyone in his thirst for vengeance, even Martlet wasn't spared by his rage.

"I've just been having a hard time sleeping is all." He said turning his head back to face the computer screen. He never talked about his nightmares with anyone. The only person who knew was Asriel. Clover and Asriel became friends after he apologized to Clover for what he did as a flower, now the two talk about their memories as a way to cope with their past, but to Clover, it wasn't enough to stop the nightmares.

"Ever since we moved in together you seem to have a hard time staying asleep at night. The number of times I've caught you in the kitchen eating leftovers at 3:00 AM is unbelievable." She laughed at the memories of her seeing Clover looking like he was caught in the middle of a heist when she caught him eating cold leftovers out of the fridge.

Clover sighs at the comment "I get hungry when I wake up."

"Yeah, but it keeps you awake. You got written up at work the other week due to you dozing off while monitoring the mall's security cameras." Clover worked as a security guard at the local mall in town, his lack of sleep had caused him almost to get fired from his job. The two made decent money from their jobs, but if one loses their job, bills become an issue. "You're lucky it was a write-up, I know how strict watch jobs are."

"I know, I just need to stay asleep and stop having these nightmares."

Martlet tilted her head at the comment, what nightmares was he talking about, she knew he had nightmares but he just told her it was just the classic being chased nightmares and chalked it down to stress. "Clover if your nightmares are bothering you why don't you talk about them?"

"I told you already, they're just your classic nightmares." Clover grew frustrated at her attempt to get him to talk about it. This wasn't the first time she tried to get him to open up.

"Classic nightmares don't cause random humans to go to the kitchen at 3:00 AM and eat the whole fridge. Please just talk to me."

"MARTLET JUST LEAVE IT!" The shout caused the bird to jump back in shock at the sudden response. Clover's eyes widened at the realization of what he did, he never raised his voice at her, no matter the circumstance. "I'm sorry....I didn't mean to yell at you, I'm just stressed about this essay, it's due at midnight." Clover hung his head staring down at the hardwood floor below his feet. He felt as if he messed up by shouting at the bird, he hated seeing her upset, she was pretty sensitive to yelling, which made him wonder how she dealt with Undyne in the royal guard.