Stories of Reformed Daniel

Daytime Sleeping

Daniel let out a loud yawn as he entered the mess hall, rubbing his heavy, baggy eyes with his wrist. He ignored all the quick glares and whispers that he earned from entering and made his way over to the Quartermaster and grabbed one of the stale biscuits he was serving for breakfast that morning. Quietly walking over to the table that Gwen was seated at, he plopped down and began to munch lazily on the breakfast food he had been given. Gwen shot the blond man a glare when he sat down and rolled her eyes when he let out another yawn. "Did you not get that much sleep, Daniel?" She questioned though, her voice was laced with distrust and annoyance. Daniel frowned up at Gwen. The young woman still didn't like or trust him, not that he really blamed her.

He rubbed his eyes tiredly again and shook his head. "Not get much sleep? Try none at all, I was up all night." He had never been a very good sleeper. Even before he had been forced into the cult by his parents when he was a child, Daniel had been a very, very light sleeper. Any small sound or noise would rouse him from his sleep, living in the city didn't really help due to all the passing cars and barking dogs. After the 'Kool-aid Incident' his sleeping patterns considerably worsened. The sounds of nature kept him up. Animals, leaves, all of it kept him from sleeping for long. But if the noises didn't keep him awake, then the nightmares definitely did. Most of his nightmares were consistent.

They would start at Camp Campbell. The children would be dressed in all white, laughing and staring up at him with wide dead eyes and dilated pupils. A purple substance would be dripping from their mouths. They'd start to slowly walk towards him, he'd try to run, but for some reason his legs wouldn't work. The children would tackle him, pin him to the ground, no amount of struggling would break him free. Then he would see...himself, his old, crazy self approaching him. His eyes were completely purple and drippy, almost like they were melting and the same purple liquid would be dripping from his monster-like grin. In his hand he would hold a red solo-cup full of a familiar purple drink. Without warning, he would kneel next to him, force his mouth open and begin to pour the cup's contents down his throat. The children's laughing would stop and instead would change to the loud chanting of; "Join us Daniel, ascend. Join us Daniel, ascend."

Then he would wake up, clutching his neck and gasping for air. That was the nightmare he had the most. He had others too, but this one shook him up the most. It was yet another reminder of what he did. Daniel propped his head in his hand and quietly finished his biscuit. On days like this Daniel normally would get a mug of coffee to wake himself up a bit, but the coffee maker in the counselor's quarters had broke down the previous day so he had to settle for a cup of milk. Oh well, he'd been through worse. The food in his system did little to stop his exhaustion, if anything, it made it harder to stay awake. Daniel's heavy eyelids slid shut as he began to nod off. For a few brief moments Daniel had fallen into a dull slumber. Maybe he could get in a few extra minutes of rest before the day truly began. It helped that the campers were normally docile in the morning, so there was little noise in the mess hall, save for some low whispering. It was almost peaceful.

"Gooooood morning, Campbell Campers!" Daniel was startled out of his calming sleep by David bursting through the mess hall doors with his normal and seemingly unending enthusiasm. A few groans came from the campers and Daniel. He was not in the mood for this. It was way too early for happiness and Daniel was way too tired. David smiled as he individually wished the campers a good morning, only receiving a few grunts in response. Then David made his way over to the table that Gwen and Daniel were seated at. "Good morning, Gwen!" The woman in question shot David a quick glance. "G'morning David." She mumbled, before taking a bite out of her biscuit. David's grin grew a bit from the response and he turned to Daniel. "Good morning, Daniel!" The blond flinched a bit from the loud greeting and stared up at David with half-lidded eyes. "Morning, David." Daniel rubbed at his eyes again. David's smile disappeared and was replaced with a look of concern. He had taken notice of the dark circles under Daniel's bright blue eyes.

"Daniel, are you okay?" He asked, voice full of genuine worry. Daniel shrugged. "I didn't get much sleep last night." He admitted, choking back another yawn. "It's nothing though, I've been through this before, I'll deal with it." He muttered tiredly. David's mouth gaped. "You've been through this before?" Now David did have a few sleepless nights over the course of his life, but Daniel looked like he hadn't slept in weeks! "Yeah, not getting sleep has pretty much been most of my life at this point, I'll just take a cold shower later and I'll be fine." Daniel waved off David's shocked look and continued to chew on his biscuit. Suddenly the man felt himself being lifted up, causing his head to whirl around to see who had their hands on him. It was David. David shifted the other man so that he was holding him bridal style. The realization of his current position set in quickly and Daniel's face turned bright crimson. The campers began to all whisper amongst themselves, their eyes planted firmly on the blond in David's arms. Oh god , this was embarrassing! The campers were staring at him! Gwen was staring at him! Oh god!! 'How is David strong enough to pick me up??"

"David! What are you doing!?" Daniel whispered harshly, staring wide-eyed at the grinning brunette. David began carrying the struggling blond out of the mess-hall and towards the counselor's quarters. "Getting you to get some sleep!" He responded in a sing-song tone. "What?? D-David, I'm fine!" He retorted, still questioning how David was strong enough to pick him up. The man continued his arguing the entire walk to the counselor's quarters. David managed to open the door to the cabin, briskly walk down the hallway and entered Daniel's room. By now, Daniel was annoyed and very embarrassed, but he couldn't fight the man holding him due to how drained his body was. Still, he buried his face in his hands to cover up how flustered he was. "Gah! D-David, just-! Would you put me down already!!" He blurted out in frustration. This was too embarrassing for the poor blond. "Okay!" Without warning, David dropped Daniel, causing him to bounce when he hit his mattress.

When Daniel recovered from the initial shock, he stared up at the grinning brunette standing next to his bed. "David, I'm fine. I don't need sleep, this is normal for me, it happens all the time!" David dropped his enthusiasm and for once switched to being slightly serious. "Daniel, you do need sleep. It's concerning for this to be a regular occurrence. It shouldn't be normal, It's unhealthy to have bad sleeping patterns." He stated firmly, keeping his forest green eyes locked with Daniel's bright blue ones. Daniel shivered at David's firm tone. It wasn't the first time David had discarded his joyful and happy tone for a more serious one, but it never ceased to make Daniel listen. Something about David of all people suddenly acting serious was so wrong and yet so right at the same time. "But, what about you and Gwen? Won't the children be too much for you?" David couldn't help but smile a bit at the question. "We'll be just fine, after all we had to watch after all the campers by ourselves before you became a co-counselor." Daniel averted his gaze from David and frowned. He still felt slightly guilty about the idea of letting David and Gwen take care of the campers by themselves.

"Daniel, right now you don't need to worry about me and Gwen. Right now, you need to worry about you ." Daniel stared up at David in surprise. First, David's a nice, concerned person and now he's a mind reader?? "Missing one day isn't going to hurt you, in this case especially, it will help you. You won't be able to help with the campers if you're falling asleep standing up. You need rest." Daniel let David's statement set in, then he nodded his head. "Okay...I'll rest for today." David's smile came back in full swing when the blond man finally gave in. "Great! I'll let you get some well deserved sleep then!" He beamed happily as he practically skipped towards the door, pausing just outside it to throw out a; "Have a good sleep, Daniel!" before closing the door behind him.

Daniel continued staring at the door for a few seconds before sighing. Might as well attempt to get some rest. Who knows? Maybe this time the nightmares will leave him alone. Pulling his blanket over his body, Daniel laid on his bed in silence, not even bothering to change into his sleepwear. He replayed David's words in his head for a good few minutes. 'Daniel, right now you don't need to worry about me and Gwen. Right now, you need to worry about you.' He smiled a bit as he thought back to the look of concern on David's face when he told him that not sleeping was a normal occurrence for him. That man was way too caring for his own good. It was heartwarming at times, not that Daniel would say that out loud. But he still wondered how David was strong enough to pick him up without trouble. Heh, maybe David's stronger than he gave him credit for. Daniel didn't take notice, but his eyes had begun to drift closed. David was a nice man. He was glad that he at the very least has him when at times, it almost felt like he had no one. Soon the blond allowed the peaceful embrace of sleep to overtake his body.

Daniel had no nightmares that day..