I hope you guys enjoy this chapter because I was hit with a RUSH of motivation and found something cute that I shall now write about. Reader has been having some sleepless nights due to fearing sleep mixed with exhaustion, comes in looking for sleeping remedies and getting cuddles instead. Hope you guys enjoy (Howdy is literally the best wtf)
⚠️ Self image issues, self doubt, sleep paralysis, fear of the dark
It was a quiet night, deep blueish purple that coated the sky with is shimmering stars as the moon illuminated your room. You had to think of such things, if the creak you heard was from Home, if you would have that same dream again. If the comment you made was too weird, if your fumble the other day was stupid, if others though bad of you because of the way you were, why are you the way you are? Why did it keep haunting you when you closed your eyes, you were terrified, checking every few seconds if you could still move your body, effectively throwing you out of sleeping. No matter what you tried it still haunted you, it said incoherent things, looming over you with a weapon, holding it above you, taunting you, narrating you with words of your past. You moved, you left your own home just to be stuck in the same spot again. "Ok, this clearly isn't working me, I should just see if Howdy's still awake, maybe his shop has some sort of remedy." And that's exactly what you did, still wearing your sleep shirt, way longer than any normal shirt you had, and slipped on your fuzzy slippers as you grabbed your pillow and tracked down your stairs, opening the front door and being immediately nervous of how dark it was out.
You convinced yourself it was ok, eyes wider than ever before as you made your way to Howdy's shop, He was so sweet to you and you were sure he would have something, if he was even awake. As you approached the front door you heard rustling, and it scared you into it, the bang hurt your head but the shuffling only got louder as you started to knock on the door, just a bit more frantically than you anticipated, your back to the door as your fears overcame you. No the neighborhood's safe, safe, safe, you're safe, but you aren't what if something was going to harm you? As you began to freak out your eyes didn't adjust quick enough, the dark almost felt consuming. Then you heard a slick behind you and fell backwards, only to be caught by three arms, your pillow caught by the other, "Gee, what's got you so skittish little peach?" You looked up at him and the noises seemed to have stopped, "You alright? What brings you around so late?" You snapped back to reality as he picked you up and placed you back on your feet. "I um, I just hoped you were still awake because I just can't sleep," you fiddled with the buttons of your large sleep shirt, a bit embarrassed by your irrational fear. "No trouble at all, what's bothering you?" He seemed so nice, he sure was the right person to go to for this, as stupid as you felt it was. When you finally actually looked at him, you noticed the slight disheveled bed head he had, and the distinct lack of a hat, and the actual pajamas he wore, surprisingly he was wearing a shirt with distinctly big holes on either side allowing for all four of his arms to be free to move, it was quite cute really.
"Well, I've been having these vivid nightmares and I was wondering if you had something for them?" He laughed and pulled you inside, placing your pillow back in your arms, "Sure do, care for some tea?" You were a little confused but nodded anyway, he locked the door behind you and walked through his store front, asking you more questions "How long have you been having this problem for?", "Months" you responded, he looked back at you smiling "But you've waited this long to tell me?" It was strange, he spoke so warmly about helping you. "You like cherries? They help with sleep." You nodded, it wouldn't hurt to try after all. "Oh this might help, oh and I know you like these, that probably wont work." He thought aloud as he scanned every inch of his store, it had all the amenities you could possibly need in the neighborhood. When he cam back he was carrying teabags, cups, cherries in a bowl, and an unopened snack, "This should work, head upstairs with me, we can sit on the couch and talk." His voice was so soothing, you could probably sleep with him just talking to you if it weren't for your fear.
As you reached the top of the stairs, you saw the interior of his home, it had some real and false plants along the windowsill, a work desk with a butterfly lamp with a landline that had flower patterning adorning its handle. Then you looked next to it and noticed the art and writing he collected from your other neighbors, looking a little more intently, you noticed that your items were dead center, the craft you did, the short stories and dumb poetry you wrote. It was all there, right in the middle, you could tell from the color of the notepad paper, and your signature at the bottom corner of each one. "All set! Ready for your own personal sleep therapy?" He beamed at you, Howdy then recognized that you had been staring at his art wall, "Oh, you're looking at my personal museum huh? Isn't it intriguing? All of Wally's art, Eddie's crafts, frank's research pages, and my favorite is your writing. It's definitely interesting the way you describe things, it's like, you have this crazy ability to immerse me in whatever story you want to tell." You blushed, a bit embarrassed by your amateurish writing, "My writing isn't all that special." He shook his head, "Well I think its wonderful, like you!" This made you electrically joyful, you? Wonderful? It was nice to hear. "Wow, I'm flattered Howdy," he realized the unintentional awkward situation he caused and immediately changed the subject, "So umm, your sleep habits?" Awkwardly rubbing his neck, he gestured towards the couch waiting for you to sit.
You quickly did so, shuffling over and sitting down, he placed the cherries in front of you and walked over to the kitchen area, separated from the living room by a mere half wall/counter. You heard the ticking of the stove turning on as he added water to the tea kettle he brought out, as he made it he started up a conversation, "So, what had you so shaken up earlier?" You froze up a little "Oh uhh, its stupid don't worry about it really." He sighed, "It can't be nothing if you're as scared awake as you are now. Did you have some sort of nightmare?" Bingo, right on the money! He could read you like a book, it was so obvious to him when something was bothering you. It's like he could hear your thoughts, feelings, and emotions, it wasn't in a bad way it could just be comfortable silence and it would all be ok. As much as you hated silence, you didn't hate anything about him. But that didn't mean you could tell him, "Yeah, It's a long story I'd rather not bother you with it." You looked down again, too embarrassed by everything to even think straight.
It was silent, like nothing was moving for a second, the only thing you heard was the ticking and burning of the stove's flame, and then you heard footsteps in your direction, and when you looked up, Howdy was standing right above you, "It's not a bother," he then grabbed you gently and held you up, "You're never a bother, but I'm sure I am right now, help me make our tea." You were so flustered you felt as hot as the tea that was currently boiling, what the heck? But it was strangely comforting. As he walked back over you noticed he was holding you with his bottom set of arms, and hugging you with the top set, it was sweet. As he went back to making the tea you hugged him, he just glanced at you, chuckling. It made your face more flush than it already was, and you were so glad he couldn't see your face right now. "Tea is made, wanna pick out your cup?" He asked, setting you back down, you decided rather than being completely sad and silent the whole day, it would be more fun to banter with him, "You act like I'm some precious little six year old kid!" He looked at you for a second, it felt like the longest second of your life, "Well, the precious part is true." You stopped, panic ensued. Precious? Did he really mean that you were precious to him or was he joking? Or were you thinking to far into it? Or? Or? "And I do mean it the way you think I do." Ok, world, spiraling.
"Don't get too flustered now, or Wally might mistake you for an apple." Hearing this you covered your face with your hands, it was so effortless, like he was just so comfortable saying it that it made you feel loopy. Was he really serious? He had to be, he's not the type to kid around with this kind of stuff. "Oh, tea's ready, go get comfortable, ill bring over some more things, oh and you want this cup, its your favorite color," quickly you nodded and spun on your heel, rushing over to his couch and covering your face with your pillow. He walked over and set everything down on the coffee table in front of you, making himself comfortable on his couch, holding the warm tea close to himself, "So, tell me what's got you like this?" He asked you for like the 5th time already, you really wanted to avoid it but he would keep asking if you didn't answer so you thought, why not? "You mean how embarrassed I am right now? Or the reason I'm over here in the first place?" He chuckled, "The latter, but I do want to hear about the former." You sighed, trying to work up the courage to talk, "I have, well, I'm not entirely sure what I have but. Every time I go to sleep, I can hear things that aren't really there, I can't move and this, thing, this creature is standing there staring down at me, with eyes that have no pupil, no iris, no color. It's just a white void, and occasionally I feel like I can hear it speaking, or feel it touch me. But its not as authentic as when I'm touched when I'm awake, it feels fuzzy, like they are hovering over me rather than touching me. Or when that doesn't happen it will haunt my actual dreams. It was the worst about 3 days ago, I was sitting down, at home, downstairs, and instead of my regular dreams, it came inside, I couldn't leave, it chased me and kept saying these awful things and I-" you paused, feeling a hand over yours, "It's ok, you don't need to tell me the whole thing if it's too much," you weakly smiled at him, holding his hand and taking a sip of your tea as you continued.
"It told me how unlovable I am, how much you and everyone else didn't care about me, how ugly I am, how if I was normal none of this would be happening. It told me I should just leave and never come back, and. And." He pulled you closer, "Nope, that's enough of that." You looked up at him, yeah "It's dumb right? I know it is I just hate myse-" "NOPE, shush! You don't talk about y/n like that! They are pretty, smart, caring, and adorable so you better not talk about them like that in front of me, or yourself." This made you giggle, "Tell y/n i'm sorry then haha," you laughed for a second before telling him the rest. "So, It got even worse when it caught me and kept stabbing me with, well something, I could feel a phantom pain and still felt it when I was awake, or well mostly awake, I couldn't move my body. It scares me so much, too much, I was frantically knocking at your door because I heard rustling and thought that was it coming after me, I can't even be sure when I'm dreaming or not, it feels so real, too real.". Staring at your tea, you finished the rest of it, carefully placing it down. Howdy seemed to be thinking about what you said, thinking of some sort of reply or answer, you were oblivious to this and kept eating the cherries and spitting out the pit. "Wait a second, three days ago, have you slept since then!?" The worry he expressed made you think about it.
You had to answer honestly, lying would quite literally do you no good "Umm, no?" It sounded more like a question than anything. "What!? Y/n that's not good for you why didn't you come over sooner!" You didn't answer just rapidly blinking, "Was I supposed to?" He huffed, holding the back of his neck again, "No, but I do want to help you, I just can't believe you haven't been sleeping, that's it I'm kidnapping you and forcing you to sleep, if you get a nightmare i'll be right there so you don't worry." This was a cute sentiment, but you really didn't know if it would help, but oh my god was he right about the cherries & tea, you felt like if you blinked for a second too long you might just pass out.
"Ok you, come on we are sleeping, my room, on a bed, cuddled up." You smiled, "Okayyyyy, whatever you say Mr.Pillar." He scooped you up, why did he do that so much? And took you away to what you assumed was his room, and plopped you down on the bed, before leaving and immediately coming back with your pillow in hand(s). "Ok, I'll sleep on this side, you sleep on that side, sound ok?" You nodded, slipping under the covers and placing your pillow over your head, noticing the careful way Howdy lied down next to you, it was super easy for you to fit there, the bed could fit two of him and like 3 1/2 of you so you were not complaining at all. Then he hugged you, before whispering a quick "Goodnight, my personal plushie," you laughed, "Goodnight, cuddle bug," he looked at you dead in the eyes after you said that "You need to stop hanging out with Barnaby, his bad puns are rubbing off on you.".
"Oh come on like your jokes are any better!" More laughter was heard and you both got a little more comfortable, but you had to say something before you fell into the best sleep of your life, "I think you're precious too." Well, any chance of sleep Howdy had is now out of the window, "Wha- You- Heyyyy! You can't turn the embarrassment around on me!" You didn't answer him, but he didn't really say anything more, just looked at you while you drifted off. He thought it was, well, "Cute,".
I hope you guys liked my self indulgent chapter, I know many people suffer with vivid nightmares or scary sleep paralysis. I know I've had my fair share, so I thought this might be something interesting to write, since I like to make myself depressed and then write happy endings lol. Thank you! Please share your thoughts on this one!