To Stray Too Far From Home (Wally X Reader)

Where Words Fail

A week passed by in the blink of an eye, every night spent in Wally's bed due to your fear that the sentient house would sacrifice you to the eldritch horror that lurked the town by night in your sleep.

Also, apparently Wally owned a car? A royal blue, 1967, Chevy Impala to be exact. You didn't know who gave him his license, but it needed to be revoked. Something about him just screamed 'don't trust me behind the wheel of a motorized vehicle.' And when you had asked him what it ran on as there was no gas station in sight, he had replied that Home powered it for him, whatever that meant?

At least by now your scrapes had all healed, a few of the deep ones leaving faint scars. However, the gash on your face and sprained ankle still required some more time to heal, but you could at least bear weight on your foot.

On a plus note, in the span of the seven days, you had been introduced to everybody, Wally's uncannily cheery face not being the only one you've seen within the long timeframe.

Poppy stopped by early in the week to drop off freshly baked treats and coddle you, speaking with you in regards to everything baking wise and putting in good words about her fellow neighbors. Though she didn't seem to be too fond of Barnaby, stating that you should be careful around him as he had a tendency to forget his strength and she didn't want to see you anymore injured than you already were.

As the saying goes; speak of the devil and he shall appear. Barnaby came to visit later that same day, nearly breaking down Home's door with his rambunctious knocking. Wally had opened the door, you not wanting to leave the chair you had been sitting in to get it. The moment the massive puppet entered the house, he sped over to you and began swarming you with stories and jokes, asking you things about yourself as well. He was probably the worst kind of headache personified and you found that his jokes slowly lost their initial hilarity after the first ten times. It was a miracle that he left and you had a second to breathe.

The next to show up at Home was Sally, whomst was far too energetic for her own good. Her high pitched voice was lovely to listen to for the first few minutes, but then she wouldn't stop talking and it became grating. For a good hour she sat there chatting your ear off about plays and you made the mistake of telling her you were a singer. After that, Sally had pleaded with you to play in her future performances as the vocals and you had begrudgingly agreed only to shut her up. No offense to her, she was nice, however, she was on a whole other energy level than you.

Howdy had stopped by at some point later in the week, bringing you some materials he thought you might need such as clothing and even a toothbrush- you didn't even ask why puppets would need to own a toothbrush seeing as this was meant to model a children's show and health and safety were often introduced through media, including oral hygiene. Though Howdy didn't stay for long, the friendly caterpillar left the instant the sun began to set, heading off to his bodega where he lived on the second floor.

Making his appearance at some early hour of the morning, Frank had decided to be polite and introduce himself fully and greet you as a fellow neighbor. Just like everyone else, he called you Songbird- it was interesting how no one had tried to pry your name out of you, in fact, no one had even asked about it at all. Frank had spent a good half hour talking with you about the niceties in the neighborhood and dropping small facts whenever he could. He was honestly the most patient and calm neighbor you had met and it was almost a shame to see him go when he had told you he had plans with Julie, mentioning how she still needed support in regard to her sisters.

The day after, Julie made her first debut, handing you a plate of cupcakes when you opened the door, Wally getting prepared for the day in the washroom. She had a delicate tone and her voice would waver at times as though she weren't really there at the moment. For her sake, you stayed as far away from the Puppeteer topic as possible, not wanting to hurt her further, it was clear she was going through something and it definitely had to do with her sisters. When she had returned home, you had analysed every part of your frivolous conversation ensuring that you hadn't hurt her feelings or made her feel any worse than she already did.