20 minutes into your little nap, you began to dream of being held in a soft embrace, two four-fingered hands making you feel safe and secure.
And then you opened your eyes, only to realize that it was more than just a dream.
Limbs entwined with yours, John Doe stared with unblinking eyes at your drowsy form. In his mind, everything was just the way it was supposed to be- you'd thrown yourself into his home without a second thought...so that meant you wanted this, right? He chose to ignore your insistence to leave, instead focusing on how peaceful you seemed right now.
Your stomach was killing you and your back hurt from the awkward position you'd slept in, but what bothered you the most was the feeling of someone's nose pressed against your head. You flung yourself backwards, getting caught up in a tangle of limbs as your rats all woke up and began squeaking in alarm.
The room broke into pure chaos as the alarmed rats skittered to your aid, chewing at Doe's exposed ankles. You were still partially stuck to Doe, legs at an awkward angle as you panicked. Not knowing what else to do, you rocked your weight back onto the eldritch being, throwing yourself on top of him to gain control over the situation.
A fiery blush spread across his cheeks as you leaned over him, panting from exertion. His pupils dilated, a dopey grin on his face as he looked up at you in all your glory. Okay, that was kind of creepy- you jumped off of him in embarrassment, your former crush on the being still holding some control over your feelings.
Doe jumped up after you, grinning and holding his hands together in an excited manner.
" ɢᴏᴏᴅ ᴍᴏʀɴɪɴɢ ! " He chirped, treating this whole situation like it was normal.
You raised an eyebrow, taking a more open stance as you considered your options. Suddenly, you winced. Looking down at your hand you noticed a shallow gash- the wound was slowly leaking blood as you stood in place, making you feel a little dizzy at the sight of your own life source.
How ironic it was that you could handle all bodily fluids except for your own blood.
Doe's eyes followed your gaze onto the open wound, fixated on the blood dripping down your palm. He didn't blink, just slowly approached you.
" ʜᴏᴡ ʟᴏᴠᴇʟʏ , " you could've sworn you heard him rasp under his breath, eyes unblinkingly concentrated on the sight of your dripping blood.
He reached out a hand, snapping himself out of his daze.
" ɪ ᴄᴀɴ ʜᴇʟᴘ ᴡɪᴛʜ ᴛʜᴀᴛ , " he purred, grasping your arm before you could pull away.
You were surprised when he pulled out a little roll of fabric and began wrapping it around your hand, fully expecting him to do something creepy like lick you instead, how nice of hi- no, wait, he just took a taste, nevermind.
Doe finished the clearly amateur dressing and gazed lovingly at you, hoping for your praise. The best he got was a slightly less perturbed expression on your face. Oh well, it was the best he was going to get for now.
"Doe, are you keeping me here on purpose?" You asked, trying to get answers out of the lovestruck creature.
" ᴍᴀʏʙᴇ , " he pouted, refusing to make eye contact with you and fiddling with his hands.
You sighed, this was going to be harder than you thought.
"Look at me, sweet thing. I need you to take me home, okay?" You cooed, reaching forward to cup his face in your hands and make sure he was looking right at you as you spoke.
He averted his gaze and whined, conflicted between melting due to the pet name or crying because you wanted to leave him.
" ʙᴜᴛ ᴡʜʏ ? ᴅᴏɴ'ᴛ ʏᴏᴜ ᴡᴀɴᴛ ᴛᴏ ꜱᴛᴀʏ ᴡɪᴛʜ ᴍᴇ ? ɪꜱɴ'ᴛ ᴛʜᴀᴛ ᴡʜʏ ʏᴏᴜ ᴄᴀᴍᴇ ʜᴇʀᴇ ? " He looked at you with increasingly unstable pupils, his perpetual grin turning more downcast by the second.
You panicked- if he snapped then you'd have no chance of getting out of here. It was best to just suck up to him for now.
"Of course I do, sweet thing, but I'd rather be with you in my own home. Doesn't that sound nice?" You tried to reason, breaking into a slight sweat while you watched the cogs turn in his little brain.
" ʙᴜᴛ ɪᴛ'ꜱ ꜱᴀꜰᴇ ʜᴇʀᴇ . " He stared at you with desperate eyes, clearly trying to find a reason why you shouldn't go.
"Look at my hand, sweet thing. Is it really that safe here for me?" You brushed some hair out of his face, reveling in the fiery blush that spread across his cheeks, "I need to be in my own home." You watched as his face fell and then flinched as he nearly toppled you over, wrapping himself around you.
" ᴘʟᴇᴀꜱᴇ ᴅᴏɴ'ᴛ ʟᴇᴀᴠᴇ , " Doe whimpered, face burrowing into your neck.
A heated blush rose to your face and you froze, not sure what to do. Suddenly, you noticed movement below you.
Ratricia cautiously made her way to Doe's leg, wrapping her little rat arms around him as much as she could in a tiny facsimile of a hug. Doe noticed, gingerly letting go of you to kneel down with the rats. His face brightened up into a huge smile, eyes shining as he watched Ratricia's tiny antics.
The rest of the rats scampered over to the familiar wild man, looking up to him with wide eyes as he slowly pulled something out of his pocket. In his hand was a cluster of little rock-like objects, the odd shape of them catching your eye.
Yeah, you didn't really want to know what those were.
The rats started wiggling around in excitement as soon as the little rocks came into view- wow, your closest companions were very easily bribed. The rodents crawled up onto Doe's hand as soon as it was in range, quickly devouring the rocks in a messy swarm.
One of the pebbles fell by your feet. You bent down to inspect the object, holding it up to what little light there was in order to identify it.
Teeth. He was feeding them teeth. Of course he was.
You grimaced, trying to ignore the now-disturbing crunching noises, instead focusing on the expression Doe held.
He looked like he was at peace, perpetual smile more relaxed than ever and eyes gleaming with adoration for the small creatures currently surrounding him. This was a side you hadn't yet seen to Doe, a side that made your heart melt and your stiff posture loosen.
You were conflicted. On one hand, you still held some semblance of love for the possessive creature; but on the other hand, whatever you felt for him didn't change the fact that he had trapped you and your precious rat children in here with him. You were hungry and you knew that neither you nor your rodents would last much longer without fulfilling your basic needs of food and water. The best you had was a container of expired snacks and a little puddle of...something. You didn't really want to know what.
In conclusion, something had to be done. And quickly. You put on the most concerned face you could muster and placed your hand on Doe's shoulder, turning his attention to you.
"Doe...I really didn't want to have to tell you this, but Ratticus...h-he has a terrible disease that can only be cured...in my apartment," you let out a single fake tear, driving your point home.
It worked.
Doe panicked, quickly snatching Ratticus out of the rat pack and cradling the confused rodent to his chest.
" ᴡ-ᴡʜᴀᴛ ᴅɪꜱᴇᴀꜱᴇ ? " Doe stammered, clearly distraught over the notion that the precious baby rat could possibly be in any danger.
'Probably stupidity,' you thought to yourself.
"The doctors don't know...they say he only has 10 minutes to live," you covered your face with your hand in a grief-stricken manner, giving Ratticus a wink between your fingers.
The furry gremlin took your hint and flopped over- sticking his tongue out and pretending to be dead.
Doe froze in horror, clutching the little rodent to his chest and freaking out.
"Quick, he needs to get to my apartment- ASAP!" You exclaimed, momentarily losing your balance as the dark room around you glitched out of view and was replaced with your very familiar main room.
"Oh, thanks." You grinned, stretching out your arms and leisurely making your way into the kitchen while the scraggly eldritch being continued to panic over Ratticus's 'death'.
You reached into the fridge, pulling out the freshest apple you could find and cutting it into slices while the rat pack ran around Doe in a frenzy.
Whistling, you caught the attention of a 'dead' Ratticus. Said rodent quickly scampered out from John's hold and bolted across the floor until he reached the plate of apple slices you'd put down onto the floor.
"Oh look, he's cured," you flourished, acting as if you'd delivered the magical treatment.
Doe fell to his knees in front of Ratticus, tear streaks prominent on his face. He gazed up at you as if you were a god.
You almost felt bad until you remembered how he had almost starved you and your rat children to death.
" ᴘʟᴇᴀꜱᴇ ᴅᴏɴ'ᴛ ʟᴇᴀᴠᴇ ᴍᴇ , " he begged in reference to your escape from his dark room.
"Oh, sweet thing, there's no need to worry. I mean, look around you, isn't it nicer being here with me?" You reasoned, trying to get him onto your side so that he didn't just teleport you back to his home.
" ꜱᴏ . . . ɪ ᴄᴀɴ ꜱᴛᴀʏ ? " He looked hopeful, making you deadpan internally.
You couldn't really turn him down. It was either he became your new roommate by choice or by force; you didn't doubt his ability to make your life a living hell should you try pushing him away.
"Sure, make yourself at home," you sighed, defeated.
The skrunkly man beamed up at you, wrapping his arms around your waist and hugging you while still on his knees. You grimaced.
"You have some serious abandonment issues, sweet thing." You muttered under your breath.
" ᴀʙᴀɴᴅᴏɴᴍᴇɴᴛ ɪꜱꜱᴜᴇꜱ ? ᴡʜᴀᴛ ᴅᴏᴇꜱ ᴛʜᴀᴛ ᴍᴇᴀɴ ? " Doe looked up at you with innocent eyes.
"Oh you sweet summer child, don't even worry about it." You unlatched Doe's arms from their place around your body, feeling slightly creeped out as he began to trail behind you wherever you went.
To him, everything was wonderful. More than wonderful- absolutely PERFECT.
The little rats followed him as he followed you, starting a horrible conga line of mismatched creatures behind your oblivious form. You were too busy trying to put your house back together to really care about the cult following, instead directing your attention to all the cleaning that needed to be done. Unfortunately for your furry companions (the tall one included), that meant bath time.
Some time later you found yourself nestled between a clump of (probably somewhat feral, but clean) rats and an equally rabid eldritch being. Your eye twitched as the little rodents crawled over your body, about to brush them off until Doe reached over and gathered them into his own lap, admiring their adorableness and ignoring the fact that they were the spawn of literal demons. Okay maybe that last part was your own personal opinion, but that wasn't important.
You threw your head back and closed your eyes for a grand total of 2.7 seconds before just passing out, exhausted from the events of the day.
Doe's grin grew across his face, accompanied by a small blush. He loved it when you slept; the way your face relaxed and how you didn't flinch away from his human form brought him immense joy. He fantasized, sometimes, that your relaxation was due to his presence. In spite of his daydreams, he knew good and well about your aversion to his ministrations, but still held some hope- deep down- that you might open up to him someday.
Rats in hand, he curled himself around you, laying your body down gently and making sure the rodents were safe and sound.
He purred into your shoulder, being careful not to wake you up as he enjoyed you and your soft, warm self.
ᕼE ᗯᗩᔕ ᕼOᗰE