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Moonlight trickled into the room through the window. If she had to guess, Whisper would probably say it was around two in the morning. Not that she dare make a move to check, though; it’d wake the sleeping lemur snuggled up at her side. As quickly as Tangle could fall asleep, she was still a light sleeper. The slightest movement would cause her to wake up, groggy and grumpy…best to avoid doing that if she could. The wolf sighed, gazing into the darkness of the bedroom as her mind trailed off.
She was used to not getting much sleep, instead staying up late and getting lost in her thoughts. Sure, she would eventually get a bit of rest, but more often than not she’d find herself laying awake at night, staring at the ceiling, and thinking about how she’d ended up where she was. Never forget. And how could she? Living through a war started by the man responsible for practically ruining her life, watching her friends—her family —die in front of her eyes after Mimic’s, someone who she was supposed to trust, betrayal, and then living through the metal virus, having almost lost Tangle for good…that stuck with her. During the night, everything would come back to her whether she wanted to think of it or not. Namely, in the form of vivid, horrible nightmares. It wasn’t easy. For the longest time, she’d be tasked with having to calm herself down afterwards, while everything was still fresh in her mind. It was a long and rough process, but she was capable of doing it on her own eventually. It worked for her best that way; not worrying anyone with unfixable problems.
Then Tangle was added to the mix. When the lemur first suggested spending nights together, Whisper was reluctant to agree. She was fine handling things by herself, but she knew Tangle didn’t work like that; if something was wrong, Tangle would know and insist on trying to help. While Whisper wasn’t against accepting help from Tangle, this wasn’t like their first encounter with Mimic together. Tangle couldn’t just have Tails lock her dreams in a cell, no matter how much either of them wished it to be the case, it didn’t work like that. But Tangle made it clear that this was the one thing she’d wanted from her, and Whisper knew she couldn’t dance around it forever. Eventually, she relented, and for a few nights it seemed she was in the clear. But, as always, the moment she let her guard down, disaster struck yet again. The first nightmare Tangle was around to witness was probably one of the worst she’d ever had. She remembered waking up a complete and utter mess.
Whisper had to be shaken awake; her eyes flew open, only to well up with tears. Her breathing was panicked, and if she wasn’t already, she was one scare away from hyperventilating. She hadn’t even realized the lemur’s hands were on her face until she pressed her forehead to her’s. “Hey, hey! Whisper! Look at me!” Tangle yelped, her voice full of worry, “You’re okay! It was just a bad dream!”
“H-Huh? Wha…but-“
“It’s okay. You’re okay. Just try and breathe, okay?” Tangle’s hands moved from Whisper’s face to her hands, offering a gentle squeeze. Whisper could feel her gently rubbing the back of her hand with her thumb. Frantic blue eyes scouted the darkness for any remainder of the dream; for Mimic, for what remained of the Diamond Cutters, for the Shadow Androids. Not a single trace of any of them was left. “B-But…Smithy…Claire…Slinger…the…the androids…” the wolf stammered, still looking around feebly.
Tangle shook her head. “Shh…it was just a dream,” she reiterated gently, “You’re okay now. You’re awake. You’re safe .”
“Just…just a dream…?”
“Mm-hmm…look at me,” Tangle let go of one of her hands and used the free hand to tilt her head up so that they were making eye contact, “You’re awake. You’re safe. You aren’t alone. I’m here.”
You aren’t alone, such a simple phrase played over and over again in Whisper’s head. She wasn’t alone. Tangle was right there, being so incredibly patient for someone who was usually the first to jump to action in any case. The light sleeper who didn’t take well to being woken up—Chaos knows how she felt waking up to whatever unpleasantries came from her sleeping form. She’d avoided sleeping with Tangle to avoid this exact situation and yet…having her around felt so much more comforting than she could have ever prepared for. “T-Tangle, I…” she began, barely able to hold back her tears.
“Whisper…c’mere,” Tangle gently pulled her into a hug, “Is this why you didn’t want me spending the night…?”
Whisper opened her mouth to speak, but the only thing that managed to escape her mouth was a weak sob. Attempting to swallow the lump in her throat, she nodded instead.
“Mmm, I had a hunch…” she could feel Tangle stroking her back, “Listen. I get it, y’know? I know you. You’re always looking out for everyone else. You don’t wanna worry me with stuff you think is your problem. But you don’t have to try and hide this from me, okay?”
“I…”
“Whisper, you’re important to me. I love you and I want to be there to help you if I can. I know I can’t make bad dreams stop happening, but…I can be there to lighten the load afterwards,” she offered another gentle squeeze to her hand, “I just need you to let me. Can you try?” she asked, fuschia eyes staring sympathetically into her own. Chaos, how did Tangle do it? Even during the zombot apocalypse, the lemur was always so optimistic and reassuring. It seemed like almost nothing was impossible with her around. Even though she was visibly tired, her only concern was making sure she was okay. Why on Mobius would she ever bother so much with her, someone so hopelessly pessimistic and bitter? How could she be so lucky?
“Whisper…?” the lemur’s voice gently called, attempting to regain her attention.
“I-I’m sorry,” Whisper replied, now meeting her gaze, “I’ll…I’ll try…” she finally murmured.
A relieved sigh escaped Tangle, and she held her in another hug. “Thank you. That’s all I needed to hear,” her tail slowly stretched its way in between them, “Here. I know it’s gonna sound crazy, but maybe you can hold my tail while you sleep. It’s soft, you can wrap yourself in it, and if another nightmare pops up, you can give it a squeeze. Kinda like a security blanket!” she chirped, her tone full of its usual optimism and pep. Whisper gently took the tail in her hands, holding it close. It was soft, and the idea of having Tangle that near by was reassuring. She wanted to thank her, but was hit by a new wave of exhaustion; likely the aftermath of all those emotions she just spilled. As if reading her mind, Tangle’s tail wrapped itself gently around her, and the lemur flashed her a small smile. “You look exhausted. C’mon, let’s try and get some sleep. You can hold onto my tail, we can cuddle, whatever you need, just ask. I’m not going anywhere.” she offered. The rest of that night, Whisper slept with Tangle’s tail wrapped around her and her own arms wrapped around her girlfriend.
It was a night Whisper would never forget. She really was lucky to have Tangle around. How did she do it…? Before she could think about it further, however, a whimper caught her attention. Alert, Whisper turned her head to the source of the noise and was surprised to find Tangle tossing and turning next to her. “Tangle…?” she began, debating on whether or not to try and rouse her. Tangle’s expression seemed pained, her face all scrunched up. In the time they’d spent together, Whisper had known Tangle to mumble in her sleep, but it was usually random nonsense that was more endearing than concerning. Tonight, however, her worry only grew from her sleep talk. “Hhhng…stay back…don’t touch m…you’ll get sick,” her expression only grew more strained. Whisper scowled; she couldn’t leave her like that. Placing a hand on her shoulder, Whisper gently shook her girlfriend. “Tangle. Wake up.” she called, brows furrowing. Thankfully, Tangle was still a light sleeper. She jolted awake, sitting up in a panic. “Hubbawha…? Wh…where am I? Where’s—“ she met Whisper’s gaze, which was full of unease, “Whisper…?!”
Whisper reached out to put a hand on her shoulder, much like she’d done for her before, but was instead met with Tangle abruptly scrambling away from her hand. “No no no! Don’t touch me! I don’t want you to get infected!” she whimpered. Ah. So that’s what it was about. The Metal Virus was a difficult, horrifying time for Whisper and many others. Constantly risking becoming a mindless robotic slave to Eggman, losing friends one after another, and living through what could only be described as the end of the world. If it was that bad for her , she could only imagine how it was for Tangle, who had actually wound up succumbing to the virus. Somehow, it was never a thought that crossed her mind until now; she’d just been happy to have her back as herself. Guilt began to eat up at her. She sighed, then shook her head. Not important. Tangle needs you. She could feel bad about herself later. Despite Tangle’s best efforts to avoid contact, Whisper managed to put a hand on her shoulder. “Tangle. Breathe.” she started, looking her in the eye.
“Whisper, don’t! Why are you—“ she looked fearfully at her shoulder and seemed shocked to find that her shoulder and Whisper’s hand were completely free of metal. “H-Huh…? I don’t understand…”
“You were having a nightmare,” Whisper murmured, “I had to wake you up. You’re okay now.”
“But I…you…wh…” Tangle looked around, seemingly having a hard time figuring out what was real and what wasn’t. She knew that feeling all too well; it was heartbreaking to see Tangle like that. She was always so upbeat and confident, it didn’t feel right to see her any other way. Whisper shook her head, bringing her focus back to reassuring the lemur. “Tangle,” she began, taking one of her hands and holding it up to her line of sight, “The Metal Virus is over. You aren’t infected anymore. This isn’t a dream; this is real. You’re okay, and I’ll be okay. I’m not going anywhere.” she murmured, rubbing her thumb along the back of Tangle’s hand like the latter had done so many times before.
“R-Right…right…a dream…” Tangle repeated, still eyeing their hands cautiously. For a moment, she was quiet, as if questioning her next words. Then, with a sharp inhale, she spoke again, “Okay…this is gonna sound really lame, but…could you just…hold me? Please? I-I need to be sure that’s something I can do, I—“ she was surprised when Whisper suddenly took her into her arms without a word, but welcomed the embrace nevertheless.
Silence yet again, save for the wolf’s wisps hovering around them and offering what Tangle could only assume were words of comfort in their language. She was grateful for the concern from them and the last Diamond Cutter, but she couldn’t help but feel a sense of guilt. Tangle let out a deep sigh. “Look, Whisper…I’m sorry, I…” she began, trying to find the right way to phrase things.
“You don’t have to apologize. I was already awake when I noticed you were in distress.”
“No, not that! Well—I mean that’s good that I didn’t wake you up—but,” Tangle looked away, “I’m talking about during the plague. I knew you would’ve been hurt if something happened to me, but I was still careless. Amy told me how you tried to run back into a horde of zombots just to get to me, and it really gets me thinking about how bad I screwed up.” tears started to form in her eyes, “If I’d just slowed down, or looked out more, you wouldn’t have had to relive losing everyone again, I would’ve been able to help more people, and I wouldn’t have—“
“Tangle!” Whisper interrupted, looking her in the eyes, “Listen to yourself! It’s true; I reacted in a rather…intense way when I found out what happened to you.” she looked away, still somewhat embarrassed about losing her composure like that, “But I never blamed you in that moment. You didn’t get infected on purpose. You weren’t treating the virus like a game. You weren’t responsible for Eggman attacking your hometown. All you wanted to do was the same thing you’re always giving me credit for; looking out for the people you care about. You were willing to throw yourself into the fray to make sure Jewel was alright. No one with their head on straight would ever blame you for that.”
“But I—“
“But what? If it’d been me, would you hold it against me?”
“No, of course not!”
“Exactly. I know it’s…difficult to shake that sense of guilt. But if I can at least try, I’m hoping you will too. I love you. I don’t ever want you feeling so bad about yourself.” Whisper said, patting her back. Tangle couldn’t help but smile a little. Whisper didn’t use the L word as much as she did; hearing her say it now was exactly what she needed now. She was so unbelievably glad to have her around, to be able to call her her girlfriend. A small chuckle managed to escape her. “Since when were you the one doing the pep talks?” she teased.
“I learned from the best,” Whisper replied, kissing her forehead, “Are you feeling better…?”
“A little. But I think I know what’d guarantee a good night.”
“Oh? What’s that?”
Tangle pat the bed they were laying on, “Easy: you, me, and your little buddies. All of us, spending the rest of the night together.” she suggested, a warm smile on her face.
Among the wisp chatter, Tangle could hear Whisper’s soft laugh. “I’d like that.”
The rest of the night was peaceful. The wisps had each found a spot to settle down and doze off between the two girls, who remained in each other’s arms. Tangle’s tail was wrapped neatly around the two of them as sort of a makeshift blanket. Just as they seemed to start nodding off, Tangle spoke up again, “Hey, Whisper?”
“Hm…?”
“Thanks for tonight. I know this kinda stuff isn’t your thing, but—“
“Hush. You’ve done it for me more times than I can remember. I’m happy to be able to help.” Whisper replied.
Tangle smiled, pressing closer into the wolf’s side. “Love ya, Whisper.”
“Love you too.”