Chapter Text
After she finishes catching Multi up on her latest tasks from Dark Cucurucho, Katie fully expects for the door of Nacho’s room to be shut in her face. But instead…
“You wanna come in?” he asks.
“Oh!” She reacts, slow in case he changes his mind, “I wasn’t sure if...”
As Multi held the door open for her, her movements rejuvenated.
“Yeah, I’m coming in!” She said while reentering. As she looks around, she spots Tomate fast asleep in Nacho’s big-boy gaming chair and Nacho sprawled out across the carpet.
“Alright, bedtime, Nacho!” Multi announced in a sing-song voice.
“Z z z. A mimir,” the toddler mumbles.
His father gave a breath of laughter at the boy but easily lifted him to return to bed and kissed his forehead, “Yes, that’s right. A dormir.”
Watching the two’s wholesome display, Katie soon got lost in thought. Everything had more or less gone according to plan, she was convinced it was too easy for some reason. It still felt unreal for all her loved ones to suddenly be in arm’s reach. After a solid month since her husband was taken just after the wedding and days since she saw Nacho, it was an odd, conflicting sensation for her to feel so crowded and alone.
Her heart was still racing in her chest, like she was awaiting another lightning strike, another message from Dark Cucurucho, something that would destroy her happy little bubble. It was like the Reactor’s siren had yet to stop ringing, constantly alarming her of an unknown danger she couldn’t even see approaching.
But as she watched over her little egg—still in human form but now in his bed, upside down and without so much as a blanket covering him—relief was slow to soothe her paranoia.
“I’ll be in the bathroom-bed—don’t ask. Good night, Katie.” He said as he left for bed.
She wished him a goodnight as well but frowned at the misgiving against Nacho. But instead of complaining to Multi, she took it upon herself to tuck Nacho in before grabbing Tomate and returning home.
Slowly and carefully, she wraps the toddler in a baby blanket unevenly embroidered with flowers and butterflies that Multi must have embroidered himself.
A laugh escapes her at the image of Multi, between projects and taking care of Nacho, practicing embroidery to create something so soft, cute, and pink just to make Nacho happy. She quite likes that thought and finds that it fills her with unimaginable delight.
As she cautiously slips away from the bed, she is stopped when a hand tugs on her clothes and a squeaky voice softly asks, “Mama, do you hate me?”
“What? No. No, baby, of course not!” She tries to reassure just as quietly, returning to Nacho’s bedside.
“Then- did I do something wrong, Mama? Is that why?”
Recalling her subpar explanation, she tried again to squash the boy’s worries, voice still soft but louder, “Of course not baby. You are the best little boy a Mom could ask for! Remember how-”
“Then why are you leaving,” he whispers with a whine, face distraught.
“Why am I- Oh! No, Mommy’s not leaving. She’s not leaving, see! I’m right here!”
“Nooo! You have to be in bed, you have to sleep. It’s bedtime!”
“Right. Yes, o-kay,” she says as she corrects her mistake and squeezes in to join the toddler in bed, “Tada! All better now!”
Abandoning his blanket and upside-down position, he curls right-side-up beside her and continues the conversation she unintentionally introduced, “Did you know what they were gonna do to me?”
Katie purses her lips as she thinks out her response, “Well…honestly? I didn’t have any exact details. But I did know that they weren’t gonna kill you, I did know that. And I also knew that my baby was brave and strong so he would always be okay.”
Nacho’s little face scrunched up with displeasure, “Mm, I don’t think that anymore, Mama. What if I fall asleep and this is all just a dream? And I’m all alone in my cell and scared?”
“Hm, that’s a hard one. Then I guess your Mama will…” she stretched out the word as her fingers creeped towards the boy’s face, “pinch your little cheeks so you know it’s not a dream!”
The toddler squealed with laughter as he wriggled around. “No! You can’t pinch my cheeks!” He giggled, pushing her hands away just to press his face back against her palms when she laughed.
Once their laughter died down, another question arose in its place.
In the quietest voice she’d heard from him—as though he was admitting to a terrible secret—the boy is teary eyed as he asks, “But what if fall asleep an- and I have another nightmare?”
Heartbroken at the sight of her son holding back tears, especially since she’d ignored him the last time he cried, she carefully answered, “Then, your Mama will sing away the bad dreams.”
With a gasp of excitement, he hurriedly readjusted again so that this time, he laid across his mother’s torso—once again, ignoring the blankets and pillows—and pressed his ear against her heart, watching his mother’s face with stars in his eyes.
Smiling at her son’s obvious delight, she too adjusted herself to wrap one arm around the boy that allowed her to gently run her fingers through his soft white locks while her other arm rubbed soothing patterns into the small of his back.
Then, she began.
In an airy voice, she sang her son a lullaby, then two, then three, singing each one she knew until she began to simply repeat soft & sweet melodies.
In another room, Multi lays half-awake, disturbed by the sounds of life.
However, placated by overhearing Katie’s words—combined with the relief of finally having his family back home, unharmed—the soft melody of Katie’s singing is enough to soothe his hardened heart until he can fully drop his guard until morning.
With the others already having drifted off to sleep, Katie continues her delicate tunes long past her son’s loss of wakefulness and Multi’s reawakening. The gentle swell of her singing continuing to fill the room until it faded when she too succumbs to slumber.