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Late nights like these weren't common for Moe. Usually she was the first to bed and first to rise between Ze, Regect, and herself, but she found tonight she just couldn't get comfortable. So she took to the couch to keep her mind distracted with a bit of quiet TV until she could find it in herself to sleep.
Except this plan was almost immediately thwarted upon finding Ze himself sitting alone in the dark with nothing but the soft patter of rain to keep him company. Of course this intrigued her. Regect was typically the last to bed, or she assumed he was given he didn't really need sleep, but here Ze was awake and well....maybe not very alert. He jumps when she makes herself known. She feels bad about leaving her horn upstairs.
"Hey Moe. What uh- why are you up so late?" It's dark, but she tries her best to sign slowly for him.
"Couldn't sleep. I think I might have slept in longer than usual." Is an excuse she decides she's going to go with. Not like she's really sure what has her brain so loud tonight. "Why are you up?"
"Storm had Regect pacing, so I sat with him for a while until he settled. Haven't been able to sleep much since though." So they're both here restless then. Moe sits back against the couch, her legs stretching over Ze's own to get more comfortable. He doesn't complain, so she tosses one of the folded blankets they kept nearby over them and sighs.
Wasn't very often she got alone time like this. Especially with Ze.
"Anything else on your mind?" She signs. He doesn't like opening up, Moe knows this, but it's nice to leave the offer in the air for him. Sometimes, very rarely, but sometimes she can even get him to talk a little about himself.
"I sometimes wonder why Regect gets all...I don't know, antsy? Over the rain like this." Seems tonight isn't quite one of those 'opening up' nights then, "It doesn't bother me. I- well it does, but not like- I'm just frustrated we can't help him." Scratch that, maybe it was.
"Have you tried asking him about it?"
"Of course I have! Hell, I even stood by him in the rain practically drenched for half an hour before I finally got his stubborn bug ass to get inside." She watches Ze's head settle back against the armrest, his hands mindlessly fidgeting away at the blanket shared between them.
Something Moe noticed about Ze early on was that he needed things to do with his hands when he spoke about how he was feeling. Perhaps this was because he got nervous about speaking on things so personal to himself, the habit itself was a bit endearing to her.
She nudges Ze's leg a bit so he doesn't miss her response, "None of us like talking about our past. It probably has something to do with his own."
"The rain?" Moe nods. "Well yeah I figured that but..."
"But?"
"But I also figured maybe he'd trust us enough to at least open up about it a little..." There it was. The thing that had Ze tugging so hard at the blanket. "I-I know maybe it's hypocritical because I sure as hell never talk about myself but...I don't know. It's stupid."
"It isn't stupid that you worry about Regect, Ze. You just-" She doesn't have time to even finish with Ze immediately cutting her off.
"It is stupid, isn't it? It's like three in the morning, and I'm down here sitting on the couch because I let the idea that he might wake up upset or some shit get to my head. And my rest is important, but it's whatever, because I don't want you guys to feel like you have to be alone when you're upset."
"Ze-"
"I should probably just- like- fuck I shouldn't even let it get to me. It isn't my business, I don't need to care this much about something that isn't my business, but it's raining, and he looked so upset, and he wouldn't talk and-"
Moe grabs Ze's trembling hands first. An action soft enough to startle him out of his spiral for just a moment. Their positions on the couch don't leave much room to make hugging easy, but she makes an attempt, leaning over and pulling Ze tightly into her arms. There's a burning in her side with the way she's stretched, and she's sure Ze can feel it too, but they sit there in the moment with only the rain to break their shared silence. His heart is beating so fast she swears it would have burst right out of his chest if she didn't do anything to stop him.
Ze whispers a quiet wet apology, and Moe pats his back softly in reply. The hug breaks when neither can bare the pain searing in their ribs from the leaning, and they settle back into their positions on either side of the couch with their legs once again tangled on top of each other and a blanket tossed to keep warm.
"Feeling better?" Moe taps Ze's leg for attention, "I can get you water."
"I think if I tried to hold a cup right now I'd end up spilling it." He snorts, "You're lucky I can even see what you're signing with my eyes all puffy."
"I could go get my horn."
He shakes his head, "That's just going to wake up Regect, and between you and me, I don't think I can handle that right now after just bawling my eyes out on your shoulder."
"Okay so then if your eyes are bothering you so much, close them and try to sleep." She laughs quietly, "No reason to keep them open."
"Uh- you're here talking to me? I think I have every reason to keep them open." Moe rolls her eyes, shoving at Ze's leg, "Okay! Okay! I'll try to rest my eyes, but you gotta swear you'll like- nudge me or something if you have something to say."
"I promise, now go to sleep." Moe grabs another blanket and tosses it directly at Ze's face, pulling a almost too loud laugh to be had from someone this late at night. Ze leans back a bit more in his spot. The position absolutely isn't comfortable for either of them, but neither wants to get up and move away from the either's warmth, so they stay there tangled on each other .
Moe doesn't fall asleep, instead keeping herself occupied with the rain and the faint sound of Ze's snoring. He looks comfortable despite his position, a bit hunched against the arm rest with his head leaning over and his chin resting on his chest. She considers moving so he can actually stretch out, however her thoughts are cut short with the sound of stairs creaking behind her.
"Am I interrupting something…?" Regect yawns, rubbing tiredly at his eye.
"If I asked you to get over here and just lay on me like a blanket so you don't disturb Ze, would you?"
"Weird request. I didn't plan on disturbing either of you until I noticed you were awake." He squints, "Why are you awake?"
"Ze was…having trouble sleeping, so I offered to sit down here with him and chat until he fell asleep." Not a complete lie. Moe knows Regect wouldn't make fun of either of them, had she been honest, but she also knows Ze probably doesn't want him to know about the crying.
"Is that why you aren't using your horn?"
"Yeah. Paws don't make as loud a sound as horns do, obviously." She pauses a moment, thinking, "How are you feeling, by the way?"
Regect's expression is a bit unreadable, which is of course to be expected given the lack of head even with an eye or his mouth visible. His antenna twitch a moment, thinking, or maybe listening. It was still raining even if the rain wasn't as heavy as it had been hours prior.
"My joints ache." He finally says, "Or maybe my whole body aches. Kinda stuff happens all the time when it rains, though."
"Because of the rain?"
"Because of the rain." Regect decides a nice place to settle is on the floor beside the couch. While the offer to lay on top of them sounded funny, he didn't want to actually risk stirring Ze from his sleep. It wasn't like Ze got any good sleep very often these days, anyway.
"You never mentioned having chronic pain before."
He shrugs a bit, "I don't think it's something important to mention, honestly. Comes with missing uh- body parts and stuff or whatever. Just kinda gets worse when it rains."
"And that's why you get so antsy about it raining?" Moe lifts a brow, "Or is that something else?"
"Can we talk about it another time?" His gaze lingers away from Moe's hands. An attempt to drop the conversation there, to ignore any more signing she has for him. She huffs, but she understands. It's late, it's raining, and Ze was there sleeping. She considers talking about anything else, anything to distract from the rain.
Moe pats his back, snagging his attention once more.
"I have pretty severe chronic pain too. I don't think I ever mentioned that to either of you."
"Really?"
"Yeah. You think the burns are just for show?" Moe chuckles, "Chronic pain, nerve damage, I can't actually feel in some areas where they're worse than others. Rain doesn't get my joints aching too bad anymore, but sometimes…"
"Sometimes." Regect repeats, "How do you deal with it?"
"Usually a regeneration potion." She can see the way he scrunches his face, confused, "You can just snag some pain killers from the store, obviously."
"Right…" He glances back at Ze a moment, thinking. "Do you think he gets any of that?"
"Pains?"
"Yeah…"
"Maybe." Now that Moe thought about it, she swears there had been days where Ze did complain about aches and stiffness more often than others. Naturally around when it's colder, as most pains like to make themselves present. She thinks on how funny it would be if all of them managed to hide that sort of thing from one another, albeit very poorly.
How often had he been sent to boot-camp and forced to stay without proper consideration for his physical health, she wonders. Could there have possibly been more to contribute to the pains, outside of that? She could wonder, but it wasn't her place to pry. She longs for the day Ze feels comfortable enough to speak on it, as Ze longs for them to feel comfortable enough to speak with him.
"Do you think he'll ever feel okay enough to like- talk to us about stuff?" It's almost as if Regect can read her mind. Maybe it was her expression. "Not like we can talk much, you know, since we both hide so much."
"I think the whole down under thing really left him shaken up and anxious. I guess…" She pauses, thinking a moment. Studying Ze's face in the dark, how he was sleeping, "I can't blame him, neither of us can, it left us both anxious too."
"I think it left me more than shaken." Regect shifts, laying his head on the edge of the couch beside Moe. He could still see her paws if she had anything more to speak, but his eyes stay on Ze for awhile, "The rain bothers me because of that place…"
"Did it rain a lot there?"
"Kind of…" He hums, "I'm not gonna like…pour my whole life story on you, but the dip-shit down there was kinda awful after something that happened just before rain started to pour."
"I'm sorry to hear that."
"Isn't like it's your fault. Of course he would find some way to mess with you two instead of just fucking off." They both still when Ze suddenly shifts to his side, huffing something under his breath. He doesn't open his eyes, quiet snoring immediately picking back up as if he didn't stop at all. "I'm amazed he's even able to sleep like that."
"He's going to have a serious case of back pain in a few hours."
"Oh absolutely." They both laugh, "He's going to be complaining all morning. I can hear it now. Probably going to find a way to blame me for it."
"And then I'm going to have to get on his case for not just moving up to his bed when he had the chance." They share another laugh, Moe yawning almost directly after. "We should probably get some actual sleep."
"Are you going to stay on the couch down here with him?"
"I don't want to leave him alone. Are you going to stay on the floor? I can pass you some of the blankets we have folded up here so you're not just…you know…on wood."
She doesn't wait for an answer, already grabbing what was left of the blankets and tossing them down to Regect. Moe knows well enough he isn't going to go anywhere. He's already moving to make himself a nice little nest.
"Wake me up if anything starts bothering you, okay?" Regect yawns, "I don't need sleep as bad as you guys do so I don't mind."
"Yeah, okay mister cranky in the morning, I'll be sure to do that." She goes to sign, knowing full well that Regect was out before she could even get the sentence finished. Moe watches the rise and fall of his back for a moment, listening closely to the entities purring following along with Ze's own faint snoring.
This was nice. Maybe staying up late sometimes had its perks.