Static Between Us - 2-D x Reader

Chapter 2 - No One Here Sleeps Normal

You've been lying in bed for over an hour, eyes on the cracked ceiling, listening to the walls breathe. That's not a metaphor. They actually breathe.

Some nights it's subtle — a low creaking, like old pipes shifting. But tonight it sounds like something alive is on the other side. Muffled. Wet.

You roll over, pressing a pillow over your face. The mattress creaks like it's laughing at you.

Eventually, you give up and swing your legs over the side. You pull on a hoodie, step into your boots, and open your door slowly. The hallway is dim and flickering. The kind of light that makes shadows move wrong.

You don't have a destination. You just want to be somewhere else. Kong doesn't sleep, not really. Sometimes you think it can't.

You turn the corner way too quickly and nearly trip over something — or someone.

2-D.

He's sitting cross-legged on the floor in front of a vending machine, lit only by its humming neon glow. He looks up, blinking slow.

"Oh. 'Ello," he says. "You up too?"

"Yeah," you mutter, rubbing your right eye to the point where you see little things floating in front of you, like stars, but you ignore them. "Couldn't sleep."

He taps the glass of the machine gently with his fingernails. "I've been tryin' to get that packet of crisps to fall for, like... half an hour. D'you reckon if I shout at it, it'll work?"

You squint at the machine, the bright neon lights burning into your eyes. "Did you even put money in?"

"Nah." he responded bluntly.

Of course he didn't, who would even want to put money into a vending machine in your own house- well... if you can even call this place a house, it's a shithole. You sit down next to him anyway.

You sit in silence for a while. The kind that doesn't feel awkward — just tired.

After a few minutes, 2-D leans his head back against the wall.

"Y'know the ghosts 'ere don't show up if you hum to 'em?" he says.

You glance at him, giving him a look like your silently asking if he's stupid or on something. "Seriously?"

He shrugs. "Dunno. Works for me. Maybe they just don't like music. Bit rude, innit?"

You laugh under your breath. "I think they just don't know what to do with you."

He smiles faintly, eyes still half-closed. "Me neither."

There's another pause. The vending machine clicks, but nothing falls.

2-D squints at it like it insulted his mum.

Then, suddenly: "Do you fink ghosts can fall in love?"

You look at him. "What?"

He turns his head toward you, eyes a little glazed but serious in the way only he can be. "Just... wonderin'. Like if you die and stay 'ere... d'you still get all the feelin' stuff? Still want people? Or does that go too?"

You don't answer right away, you think it's a stupid question.

"I guess it depends on the person," you finally say. "Some people are ghosts before they die."

He hums, like he likes that answer.

You're not sure why you said it, you didn't even mean to say it, it just sounded smart.

Footsteps echo behind you — slapping, uneven, pissed-off. Murdoc, of course. "Oi! Lovebirds!" he sneers, bottle in hand. "Go cuddle somewhere else, I need crisps."

2-D doesn't move. "They're stuck," he says.

Murdoc glares, grunts, and disappears into the dark.

You snort a short laugh, grateful that green man is gone. "Thanks."

2-D shrugs. "He's just bitter the spirits hate 'im."

Later, when you finally go back to your room, the walls are quiet.

Still not comfortable, of course. But quieter.

You think maybe you'll try humming next time. Like 2-D suggested... or more so said.