There he was. That man. He was there again, he appears almost every night. It was that man. That man that Ilo never wanted to see again. His mouth was moving but no words were coming out, all ilo could hear were distorted screeches and screams, they didn't even match up with the movement of the man's mouth. The man then shut his mouth and after a few seconds he began walking towards ilo. Not again, no not this again, ilo tries to scream or cry out for help but nothing more then a mere breathless whimper escaped his mouth. The man started to walk faster, his fists clenched. Ilo tightly shut his eyes preparing for what was going to happen until- "Ilo, Ilo please wake up, you're just dreaming, please Ilo wake up," ilo slowly opened his eyes to the sound of the familiar voice. He was in his room and the man was gone. The voice belonged to Check who was crouched down next to ilo's bed. "Huh, what happened- w-where is he?" Ilo stammered. "shh, shh, it's okay ilo, there's no man. You were crying in your sleep again..." check muttered. This was the third time ilo had been crying in his sleep this week, sure he'd cried in his sleep before but it was becoming way more common.
Ilo sat up and wiped the tears off of his cheeks "s-sorry..." ilo weakly said. Check frowned and gently pulled ilo into a hug "you don't need to be sorry ilo, you did nothing wrong." Check softly whispered. Ilo held onto the back of checks shirt and started crying again "I-I-I don't w-want to f-f-feel like this-s anymore--" ilo whimpered. Nobody exactly knew who 'the man' was, but he seemed to have caused ilo some sort of pain. Nobody knew if the man was real or if he was imaginary but if anyone asked ilo who he was ilo would never respond. Ilo would usually talk to zero about his dreams and only zero, maybe zero knew something that the others didn't. But none of them wanted to interfere in case it would cause ilo anymore pain. "You'll be okay ilo, I'm here and I won't let anybody or anything hurt you." Check reassuringly stated. Ilo held onto check tighter "thank y-you.." ilo stuttered. Check pulled back from the hug for a moment before lightly kissing ilo's forehead "I'll always be here for you ilo, no matter what," check explained. Ilo weakly smiled and pulled check into another tight hug.
"Ilo," check began "it's only 5 am so... you should probably sleep again..." check was nervous telling ilo to go back to sleep because he didn't want him to end up having another nightmare. "o-okay... but c-can you stay with me? Like uh... maybe stay in my bed, w-with me." Ilo pulled back from the hug again. "You d-dont have to though h-haha, it might make m-me feel a little s-safer that's all." Ilo stuttered. Check smiled "sure I don't mind, as long as you feel safe." Check softly replied. Check wrapped his arms around ilo and layed down, gently pulling ilo down as well. They were facing each other and both clearly blushing, Check still had his arms wrapped around ilo. "Are you comfortable?" Check softly asked. Ilo nodded and moved a little closer to check, pressing his body up against check's. Ilo happily sighed and closed his eye. Check closed his eyes too and held ilo a little tighter wanting him to feel safe and secure. Ilo did feel much more relaxed though it most likely wouldn't prevent him from having the same nightmare. Soon enough they both fell asleep in each others arms.
A few hours later most of the house was awake. Check and ilo were still asleep, Zero was downstairs with Mandin and Blueberry, Jenny was in the shower and flake was... well nobody really knew where he was but he was somewhere in the house. "Would you like me to make you some toast, Mandin? I'm making myself some so I don't mind making extra." Zero said with a smile. "Oh, no thanks. Why do you still eat food though? You don't need it." Mandin replied. Zero shrugged "I think it's just fun. Also Nutella tastes amazing." Zero stood up still holding blueberry in his arms. "Oh could you hold blueberry for me?" Zero asked. Mandin smiled and nodded, she held out her arm and took blueberry from zero. Mandin surprisingly didn't have any troubles holding blueberry despite having one arm. Blueberry really seemed to like Mandin, maybe it was because of her voice and her Scandinavian accent because she always giggled when Mandin spoke. "Hello there darling," Mandin chuckled. Blueberry giggled and reached her hands out to Mandin's face.
Meanwhile zero was in the kitchen humming to himself and making toast. The toast popped out of the toaster and he cought it with ease. He opened the cupboard to grab some Nutella but instead he saw flake somehow curled up in the cupboard eating raw flour. He stopped eating and stared at zero. "What?" Flake said thinking this was completely normal. "Why...Why are you eating flour?- how can you even fit in he cupboard?!" Zero asked looking pretty annoyed. Flake said nothing and quickly pushed himself out of the cupboard. He had in fact completely broken all of his bones to fit in the small cupboard so he quickly cracked them back into place. Zero looked in horror "ew!" zero shouted. Suddenly flake started running, still with the flour in his hands. "Flake no!-" Zero quickly ran after him, obviously not wanting him to eat anymore of his precious flour. Flake burst out of the kitchen and fell onto the floor, mandin jumped a little in surprise, she held blueberry a little tighter feeling nervous. Zero quickly ran out after him. "Flake, give me my flour!" Zero demanded. "Never!" Flake stumbled back to his feet and ran up the stairs. Zero groaned and ran after him.
Flake looked behind him and hissed at zero "fuck you!" Flake snapped. "Hey, no naughty words!" Zero yelled. Flake stopped at the hallway looking at all the doors wondering which one he should go through. He didn't even take note of who's room he was running into so he just kicked down the door of the nearest one. He was about to run in and hide but he was immediately faced with ilo being pressed up against the wall by check, who was very passionately kissing him. Ilo quickly pulled away and screamed. "I-I-It's not what it looks like, I swear!" Ilo blurted out. Check looked mortified, obviously not wanting to be caught. Flake was then pushed to the ground as Zero tackled him "Give me back my flour!- o-oh-" Zero's eyes widened at the sight in front of him. "I'm s-so sorry you two u-uh we'll get going-" Zero grabbed flake by the legs and dragged him out of the room. Flake scratched the carpet at he was dragged out and let out a low growl. As soon as they were gone ilo put his face into his hands and screamed. "Woah woah it's okay, I'm sure they didn't notice." Check obviously knew they had been noticed but he wanted ilo to feel better.
Flake and zero we're back downstairs lost for words. "So... uh... can I have my flour back?" Zero awkwardly asked. Flake slowly nodded and handed him back the torn up bag of flour. "Was that it? Was that all about flour?" Mandin questioned. "Well it started out that way." Flake blankly said. "Why what happened?" Mandin asked. "Well we walked in on ilo and check um... 'making out' i guess you could say." Zero explained, He didn't want to explain it in detail since blueberry was still in Mandin's arm, though she was sleeping. Mandin looked a little shocked though she did sort of expect it. "Ah, right. Should we say anything about it? Or...?" Mandin looked to zero for an answer. "No no, let's just leave it." Zero replied. Flake smirked "oh I'm definitely going to bully them for it."
