Chapter Text
The comfort around you never left, even after the sea of stars faded into the darkness. It was a dark void once more, but it no longer felt isolating or ominous. It now made you feel safe. A soothing warmth was wrapped around your body like a soft blanket. A gentle cushion was underneath you, but a faint, grounding weight was on your back, as if the void itself was hugging you.
The sensations were fully welcomed by you.
You did have the thought that this relaxation wasn’t going to last long, as you felt yourself slowly floating upwards to the surface, gaining sensation back one thought at a time.
Your eyes peeled open, and you’re met with a warm glow cast by a lamp on a nearby table. The environment has changed once more. Instead of a bright, sunny room, it was now a darkened bedroom. No, it's still the lounge room, you discover, seeing thick blackout curtains over the windows.
Soft snoring met your ears, and you raised your head up, too comfortable to move your entire body. In front of you, the Marquis’ head was slumped to the side, mouth wide open, and eyes gone from his shadowed face. If you didn’t know any better, you likely would’ve assumed that he was dead from the lack of breathing, until more snoring occurred.
Reality hadn’t hit you, or you just didn’t care about the position you were in. This was comfortable, dammit, and you weren’t going to wake up Mar-Mar just yet.
You laid your head back down, and shifted slightly to make yourself more comfortable when you feel the Marquis move from underneath you.
God dammit, you woke up the bastard.
His eyes reappeared on his face, and they looked down at you. A slight smile crossed his face. “Hey…good morning...” He said softly, yawning. “Did you rest well?”
You nodded, yawning yourself. “I did,” The memory of the hypnotic trance wasn’t locked away. “It was nice.”
“Good.” He shuffled backwards to support his head on a pillow. “I hoped your first time in the trance wasn’t too extreme.”
“It wasn’t, don’t worry.” You faced him to lean your head on your hand. Your elbow sunk into his ribcage a bit, as the Marquis still had the squishy consistency of a soft cushion.
He immediately winced at the pressure, gently pushing your elbow off. “Ow- don’t touch that place please-”
Your eyes widened. “Oh my god I’m so sorry.” Your cheeks heated with embarrassment once more.
“You’re good,” He sighed. “I thought my non-physical stomach wouldn’t be so sensitive, because I ate a modest portion.”
You remembered what he told you before then. “So now you realize that not eating for almost 6 months is a bad idea?”
His frown deepened. “Yes, now I realize it’s a horrible idea.”
“My dude…don’t do that to yourself again, please.”
“I can’t promise that.”
You sit up, lean forward, and cup your hands on his cheeks, lightly squeezing them. “Marquis, I say this with all the love in my heart but you can’t eat for 6 months and say that you’re healthy.”
His eyes widened a fraction, not expecting you to do that. He wanted to argue, to retort that it’s perfectly normal for Somnihosts to go without eating someone’s emotions for as long as a year, but they’d been very miserable, and visibly emaciated people.
“In fact, I’m kinda surprised you’re alive and completely fine without having any side effects,” You felt around his chest and felt his ribs almost instantly. “...nevermind I can feel your ribs.”
The Marquis’ body was partially obscured underneath his clothes when you first met, but now that you were snuggled on top of him, you could get a better look. Glancing down, he did not seem to naturally have a skinny body type. If he was healthy, he would be mesomorphic in shape, but he wouldn’t be overtly muscular, but just enough to have a decent amount of strength.
“...I’ll admit I haven’t been properly taking care of myself that well over the past few months.”
He’s talking about it, good. You’d hope this talk was going to happen sooner or later. You let go of his face, slid off him, and shrugged the blanket on your shoulders off, which earned you a muffled complaint from him. That surprised you, but you didn’t express that yet. You sat down next to him as he too sat up, but reluctantly.
“At least you admit to it. I don’t think a lot of people do. It’s a good start.”
“...thanks.” A hint of bitterness was in his tone. For what you were unsure, but you had an idea. He was an honest man with you, he’d likely answer your questions truthfully. To a certain point.
“Did you enjoy the cuddle time?”
He looked away, silent for a long moment. “...yes.” You could hear the blush on his cheeks from him saying that.
“I did too,” Being truthful back was reasonable. “...and the hypnosis too.”
He looked back at you, his posture more upright, the blush leaving his face. “Really?”
You nod. “Mhm. It was something I have never done before, and my first time was a nice experience. The affirmations, the pretty ocean in the trance–don’t know how you did that but it was a great touch.”
A smile returned on his face. “Thanks, that genuinely means something to me.” And you knew it. The appreciation in his eyes, or the fact he bothered to sit close to you meant he was candid.
“But I do wonder, did you starve yourself because you weren’t happy with yourself?”
He paused, giving serious thought to it. “No? Or at least I think so.”
You resisted the urge to frown. He probably was not going to be fully truthful on the first meeting, but he could’ve genuinely had a chaotic six months. “Was your last six months stressful?”
“Uh-” He smoothed his hair back, and his eyes looked around the room. “-I’m not supposed to bring in my personal life when I feed off someone.”
This time, you frowned. “You looked through my memories and know my personal life. Wouldn’t it be fair if I knew some of yours?”
He sighed in apparent defeat. “...you make a good point there, but I really shouldn’t.”
“Is there a specific reason why?”
‘It’s just a rule for Somnihosts.” He seemed to really dislike this conversation topic, but you wanted to push farther.
“Why is it a rule?”
He huffed, and you saw his eye twitch. “It’s not important to you.”
Now it was important to you. He must’ve realized partway through that he opened a door that wasn’t going to close unless he gave a proper answer.
“Okay fine, I’ll tell you. It’s an unspoken rule that Somnihosts don’t tell dreamers like you their personal lives is that they don’t want any unnecessary attachments to form.” He looked away, his expression somber. “Dreamers don’t remember a majority of what they dreamed about and causes a lot of heartbreak when the dreamer inevitably will forget everything they did with you. Platonic, romantic, sexual, it doesn’t matter in the end.”
Oh. Your heart ached for him. It did hurt when an old friend had forgotten about you, so you understood partially his position. But who knew how long he lived for, and how may times he had to face this exact problem over and over again.
You stayed quiet for a moment longer before you spoke again, but this time in a gentler tone. “Did you have a close relationship with a dreamer before?”
He nodded. “I did. Very close relationship. Sexual. He made me feel appreciated during a hard time. I think you understand the feeling.”
“I don’t.”
“Huh? You don’t?”
“Yes.”
“Please explain, I don’t understand.”
“I’m going to guess the memory reading you did was very surface level and didn’t fully explain things, only giving you a baseline to go off of…based on when you assumed my interest in hypnotism was sexual at first.”
He nodded, blushing from embarrassment at his past foolishness. “Yeah…”
“I am not interested in sex, it’s really not my thing. Arousal is weird for me but that’s not my point. I haven’t had a sexual relationship before, I’ve only had romantic ones. And let me make myself very clear-” You leaned forward towards him “-I do not see you in a sexual or romantic sense. You’re not my type anyways. Let’s just stay as weird friends…or whatever fucked up predator x prey thing that we have going on.”
“Oh.” He didn’t say anything more.
“...that’s all??”
He looked at you, his face cringing. “...how can I say this without sounding really stupid…”
“Just say it, man. Speak your truth. I don’t care at this point.”
“I…agree. I see you more than just a meal dispenser.”
“...thank you?” You really weren’t sure how to take that. “I do see you as a friend.” You reiterated.
“You’re welcome. We can be friends in the future, but we can’t do much else right now,” He stood up, and pushed aside the curtain. “It’s morning, and your alarm will wake you up in a few minutes,” He looked over his shoulder. “Do you have anything final to say before we part?”
You nod, and take a moment to think. “I do genuinely appreciate the hypnosis session you did,” You stood up, and walked over next to him. “I didn’t express this earlier, but if we do meet again, I’d like to do another trance. You’re good at it. You made me feel appreciated.” You looked up at him.
He was smiling, genuinely. “Thank you, that uh-makes me happy.” A half of his face was lit up by the quickly rising sun. The shadow over his face was unbothered by that.
“One last thing, do you promise to take care of yourself? You’re going to remember to eat properly?” Not everything was addressed, but that was fine with you. This was a great start…if you remembered.
The Marquis chuckled. “I will.”
“Pinky promise?” You held out your pinky to him.
“Pinky promise.” He intertwined his pinky with yours.
The sunlight filled the room, and your eyesight was full of brilliant, warm light.