The Bed is where the Heart falls asleep

Living at the habitat was fairly decent. The air was good as long as they didn't get too close to Martha, they couldn't feel lonely with so many people around and somehow, tasks seem to find them just by themselves. They made people happy. Slowly but surely, smiles started to fill the halls. Of course, there were still a lot of sad or angry people left. It filled the day with work. It didn't necessarily make them happy tho.

Communication was hard. There wasn't a lot they could explain by just nodding and shaking their head. They suspected that some people preferred it that way too. It felt like most of the adults around the complex didn't take them very seriously and acted like they were still a small kid. The kids were cool tho. Most of them seemed to respect them as some sort of older sibling and what else could they want? Being an older sibling was obviously cooler than any other role.

That's just how they spend their days. Talking to people as well as they could, helping them and solving weird family issues. All went well until night came around.

Curfew sure was something. Even in their room they were never able to fall asleep when they should. They couldn't. They hadn't been able to do so for years. Of course habit didn't really care for that. Each night another creepy warning kept them company while they sat in the darkness. After Day 3 they decided to not walk up to their room in time anymore, they would see Habits warning anyway. It didn't make him any happier but neither were they happy about it. But they couldn't change their sleep problems. Surprisingly, they fell asleep outside their room. Well, that was the wrong way to phrase it. They fell unconscious. Later the night, they would wake up again to see another message on their screen.

As annoying as it was to fall to the floor each night, the 3 hours of shut eye were worth it. Nightly sleep was luxury.

It wasn't enough in the long run.
On day 8, they simply collapsed on the floor while talking to Trencil. Of course, they weren't really able to know what happened afterwards but according to Nat, it was a huge mess. Trencil panicked while Millie had attacked Ronbo, blaming him for killing them with his clown powers. They wish she could understand them because someone had to teach this little ball of destructive energy that clowns weren't really supernatural. According to Nat half of all the habititans were around their unconscious body at some point but they could hardly believe that.

When the crowd was at its most chaotic stage, the big man himself had arrived and announced that he would handle the situation. They nearly couldn't believe Nat but thinking back it made sense. There was only one person with medical knowledge around.

Of course, Nat had told them all of this the following morning. So when they woke up in the middle of the night, high on what they hoped was only painkillers, they weren't privy to all of this information.

Moving was difficult. Their limbs felt like someone were pinning them to the ground, wanting to keep them there. They started only moving one finger at a time, trying to fight their own body. A few moments were lost to them trying to adjust to the newfound heaviness in their legs and arms. Finally, they decided to sit up. Halfway there, suddenly, a weight pushed them back. It took them a moment but they realized it was a hand. A large hand with sharp fingers. Green. Their vision was too shaky and it was too dark to recognize the figure next to their surprisingly quiet cowboy bed. But the following sentence sealed the deal. “Ooops! No getting up. U need sleep :-)” They were very unsure how they could hear a smile. But this was happening. Habit was sitting next to their bed, next to them, telling them to sleep. Oh god.

With newfound energy, they tried to get up again but they were no match for the arm pinning them down. They needed to leave, now! This situation, it was simply too much. “No! D-: no gettin up Flower Brat! U break curfew enough times, now sleeb!” They felt like blowing up but unable to move, they used what was left. Their hands. Frantically signing, they complained that they can’t sleep anyway and that it was useless and that they were kinda worried and confused if this was because he had enough of them breaking curfew, which it should not because they were a grown up no need to put up a curfew for adults, right but if it's about the curfew were they gonna be punished? They couldn’t sleep, if they could they wouldn’t break curfew but whatever was in the air at night did help them fall asleep so they just kinda stayed up super long so they could enjoy like a few hours and they were sorry, really sorry, it was their fault, they wouldn’t do it again, they didn’t not sleep on purpose they just-

Before they had lost themselves completely in panic, Habit pushed their hands into their chest. “If u go so fast, I can’t understand anyting!” he exclaimed. “But no worries :-0 no being punished. If I understand rite.. you need help to get some sleepies!” Wow. This was really happening. They took a moment to regain their breath and then nodded. Habit hummed satisfied, which made the whole situation even more surreal. “Habit will help! No more curfew for you!” With that, the same heaviness pulled them back into sleep, as it always did when they broke curfew.

The next morning, even with the extra info Nat had provided them, this whole effent still felt unreal. At least they seemed to have gotten a good amount of sleep out of it, they haven't been this awake for weeks. It was nice (?) that someone with some amount of medical knowledge, even if it was in an unrelated field, had taken care of them.

They tried to ignore it and go on with their usual daily routine, talking to the habiticians and trying to help them. It wasn’t so easy, everybody kept asking them if they were okay. Of course they were! They were just fine, totally fine, nothing wrong. Let’s not overthink the weird shadowy owner of the habitat helping them and making weird threats/promises (?) after they had a breakdown in front of him.

They had to wait for curfew to see what habit had in store for them. He said no more curfews. They were sitting on the stairs, waiting for the sun to set. Tapping their fingers on the concrete, they started to hum. Nothing really bad could happen, now could it? They looked out of the windows, the stars were beautiful. Slowly, their eyes were getting smaller as the air changed and something seemed to cover up the lights in front of them.

They woke up the next morning, on time. They were in their bed, blanket carefully pulled over them. Did they really sleep for the whole night? Without any creepy tapes playing? They stretched their arms and with a yawn, a smile crept on their face.

For once, they weren’t the only one making people smile in the habitat