G/T One-Shots

Night

-same characters as my last two one-shots as well as my story called Storm which you should totally read-

Things have been harder and... weirder since Robin's tagged along. She's very fragile and afraid, but also always fired up and ready to attack me. Both are justifiable I guess, I can admit that I sort of stole her and I'm a good few zents taller than her. If I were in her situation, I'd be the same way. Probably not as angry, but surely scared out of my wits.

I've set personal rules for myself, and I think I've followed them accordingly. Don't talk too loudly, don't walk too loudly, don't scare her intentionally, try not to scare her unintentionally, never hurt her, don't set her as a lesser being, and always feed her. I gave her a pretty big scare earlier by grabbing her without her permission, but dear god do I regret that.

 It's only day one, but she's doing fine already. She hates me and has already attacked me, and likely will try to again, but she's warmed up a little bit. She lets me hold her now and doesn't send death threats my way, but that could also just be out of fear. I hope it's not, I'm really not a scary person, I'm just part of her unfortunate situation. Being a human, sheesh. Sounds terrible.

I set my glasses on the nightstand and drift off. I assume Robin does the same. My dreams are calm as always, she doesn't really show up in them but I didn't expect her to so soon. But eventually, I'm awaken by shuffling. It's small and nearly unnoticeable, but sound wakes me a lot easier than touch.

I open my eyes and rub them, focusing in closer at Robin since I can't see much at the moment. Poor little thing is tossing and turning all over the place. Is she having a nightmare? I should try to calm her down, but I don't know how.

She won't want me to touch her, she'd slice my fingers off if I even tried while she's awake. She is asleep though... no, that's weird. She can't consent to anything when she's asleep. Maybe if I just calm her the way people calm pets. She's not a pet though... she's a human. Which is basically a giant. Just really tiny.

It's fine, people do this to their kids too. I lay back down to be eye level with her, then softly go "shhhh-shhhh-shhhh-shhhh-shhhh..." , and follow at my lowest whisper. I know I'm quite loud to her, so the quieter, the better. "It's alright, nothing's gonna hurt you." I imagine this would be extremely ironic if her nightmares have me in them, but it's probably got a layer of narcissism to assume I'm taking over her life, positively or negatively. Might as well stay safe anyway. "I'm not gonna hurt you."

She slows down for a second, much calmer. Isn't it said somewhere that you can stabilize a person who's having an external nightmare by rubbing them? -I don't know if that's true don't touch people when they're asleep unless you know it's okay- I slowly extend my hand out, realizing how scary this could potentially look to her. I then very lightly stroke down her exposed arm with my index finger. Then again, and again. She calms down all the way. If she can sleep now, I think I can too.

So out I go, not even realizing that I'd never retracted my hand back.

I'm awaken again, this time by actual touch. I'm much groggier this time and can't process much. Something is getting at my hand. Is it Robin? Must be. She's fine now, but it's probably still night time, since my eyelids aren't red. I really don't want to move. "Go back to sleep, Robin..." and back to sleep I go.

However I'm awake yet again by the human, who now feels the need to tickle my hand. If she's trying to wake me up fully, I'm not doing that at this ungodly hour. If she needs something she can vocalize it. I bring my hand back to my body real quick. She stops tossing and turning, but I don't check to see if she's awake.

Why'd she even get so close to my hand anyway? I begin to drift off once more, and right before my body shuts down, I realize. My hand was on her. Was it crushing her? Could she breathe? I'll dwell on it later, so long as I remember. I did keep to my promise that I don't move when I'm asleep. I just hope she doesn't get mad at me for it. I never wish to hurt her intentionally.

Once I'm awake, it's all been forgotten by now. I don't understand her anger and just imagine it's because of how early it is and how much energy she needed, now cut off. She was shaking all over the place yesterday, definitely due to a lack of energy. Or fear. Hopefully not fear.

That evening, it hits me again. I definitely was hurting her. Oh my god... oh my god. "I'm so, so sorry for last night."

"What?" she sits on the arm of the couch, staring at the walls and the counter, and more importantly, the front door. I know what she's thinking about. Her head turns to face me, deep black eyes piercing me.

"I was hurting you. It wasn't on purpose, and I completely forgot until now. If you want me to set up somewhere else to sleep, I understand. But I promise I won't touch you again, I wasn't asleep when my hand was on you..." I said too much.

"Oh... why were you, uh..." her eyes get shifty and worried, and she brushes her straight, black hair out of her face. "Why were you touching me?" She's assuming the worst, she even scoots back a little. Murder me.

"You were having a nightmare..." I trail off. It's the truth. "It woke me up and I hated to see you so scared, tossing and turning around, so I tried to like... rub you to calm you down."

She nods, keeping a calm expression but showing complete horror in her eyes. "Thank you."

"Uh, yeah. No problem. Do you want somewhere else to sleep? I really can make you somewhere-"

"I'll be fine. Just don't touch me again please, if that's okay."

My cheeks burn, I can feel it. I hope I'm not red hot right now. "Of course. Sorry again." She doesn't reply. She's never going to get used to me, is she? I don't want her to be scared. Not that I'm scary. I've never been a scary person. I don't have that vibe.

Right?

I mean, when I grabbed her earlier she started crying. I kept going anyway... I didn't stop. The only reason that ended was because I put her up. Then she got hurt because of that. And then she got hurt again. She gets hurt a lot. And it's my fault.

But I've gotten mad at other people before and they don't see it as anything. I guess other people aren't locked in my hand when I'm mad though. And they just don't have her perspective.

She's scared of me. She's terrified and uncomfortable whenever she's around me, I can see it in her eyes. Might as well come to terms with the fact that she'll always be distant with me. It's reasonable. I'm naturally intimidating to her, and my actions don't help my own case.

I look at Robin, and she's back to looking at the front door. It does seem appealing, I suppose. Hopefully the storm passes soon.