Chapter Text
Anxiety hasn't slept in days. Sure, if he missed one or two every week or so, that wouldn't be too big of a deal, but this was getting out of hand. The man himself, famous for saying that sleep was pointless, wanted nothing more than to get some shut eye.
Not that he would tell the other sides. He was called Anxiety for a reason, after all. He also absolutely refused to ask Thomas to take some sleeping medicine, because he hasn't taken it in a while, and what if he has lost his immunity to medicine, and was too tired, and accidentally took too many because he was too tired to count, or because of the sleeping medicine he didn't wake up if someone broke into his house, or he slept through his alarms and missed his doctors appointment tomorrow, or-
Now that doesn't even make sense, but these are the kinds of things that ran through Anxiety's sleep boggled mind.
Anxiety yawned, rubbing his eyes with his sleeves, effectively smearing his eyeshadow. At this point, he didn't even care. He was in his room anyway, it's not like the other sides were suddenly going to pop in and say hello.
Why would they even check on him anyway?
"Screw this," he muttered to himself, snuggling further into his blanket, desperately trying to get some sleep, any sleep at all. After a few minutes, he changed position. After a few minutes, he changed position. After about an hour, he buried his head underneath his pillow. When he was starting to run out of air, he pulled his head out.
Eventually, after about five hours had passed, he decided to give up on sleeping. He sad up, frustrated tears welled in his eyes, and he angrily wiped him away. Day number five of this extreme insomnia would be no problem, as everything was pretty much fuzzy anyway.
No, that wasn't right. Not fuzzy, but plastic-like? Did that make sense? It was as if he was trapped in one of those penny machine plastic bubbles, but the air was thick.
He checked the time on his phone, which was a mistake. It was as if someone had shined a flashlight into his eyes. Before he threw his phone across the bed, he managed to see that it five something am.
Anxiety huffed as boredom overtook him. To diminish that a little bit, he decided to go and get some food from the kitchen.
He was too tired to process that noises for him were not as loud to the others, as they were in entirely different hallways and rooms, and jumped when his door creaked open. He would oil that later, but creaking doors were better in his opinion, as you could tell when they were being opened.
After a moment of listening for any signs that he had woken the others, Anxiety was met with silence. Satisfied with this, he started tiptoeing towards the kitchen.
"What are you doing awake?"
Anxiety whipped around to find.... no one there. Of course. Audio hallucinations were common symptoms that followed sleep deprivation, as well as visual ones. He really shouldn't be so freaked out by this.
He turned and resumed his trek to the kitchen, hissing at the brightness when he turned on the lights. Why can't there be half lights? Like lights but not as bright. That would be a million dollar invention.
He opened the fridge, peaking in and browsing the contents. There was Chinese, there was some fruits, salads, pizza- perfect!
After putting three slices on a plate, Anxiety stuffed in into the microwave, and started routing through the fridge for a drink. What was something what would put him to sleep? There was some hot chocolate packets in the cabinets, that much he knew. If he put the sink on the hottest setting, he could make a cup of hot cocoa.
Yes, that sounded like absolute heaven right now. He closed the fridge and turned towards the cabinets, letting out a choked gasp when a shadow darted across his vision.
"It's not real," he told himself, slowly walking over to the cabinets. "I'm just hallucinating."
He grabbed the hot cocoa mix, as well as a cup and spoon, then started making the hot chocolate. By the time he was done with that, the microwave went off, signaling that his pizza was done. Anxiety gathered his stuff and sat down at the table, scrolling through tumblr on his phone with his free hand. At least tumblr was there, when no one else was.
It was always fun to watch ship wars, even when he wasn't in the fandom. He couldn't help but imagine actual old pirate ships firing cannons at each other. The thing Anxiety thought funny was the fact that none of them knew how to pilot old ships, and would most likely crash into each other, sinking both of them. Well, it wasn't too off from being in a fandom in the first place, the only difference being that the ships were already sinking.
He was polishing off his second slice of pizza when he heard, "Anxiety, why are you awake?"
Thinking that it was just another audio hallucination, he ignored it, siping at his hot cocoa. It was when a hand touched his shoulder things changed.
He screamed as loud as he could, flinging himself from his chair, and turning to face the monster at hand. Instead of one, he just saw Patton standing there, looking extremely confused.
"Oh, hi, Patton," Anxiety said after he calmed down a bit. "What are you doing awake?"
"I'm about to cook breakfast." Patton looked Anxiety over, making the other self conscious. "What are you doing awake?"
"I got hungry."
"Did you sleep?"
"Yes."
"Anxiety." There was that parental tone that made Anxiety squirm. "Are you lying to me?"
He looked to the ground, refusing to answer the question. Coming to the kitchen was a mistake. He should have just stayed in his room.
He always makes the decisions that end badly. He really can't do anything right can he, and the others will eventually see that, then they'll leave him alone, completely abandon him, and then they'll convince Thomas to take anxiety medication, and if he does that then what would happen to him? Oh, if that happens- what if it makes Anxiety diss-
"Are you with me, kiddo."
He shook his head, clearing those thoughts. "Yeah, sorry." Anxiety shuffled a bit. "Were you saying something."
Patton sighed. "I was just telling you that I'm worried. How are you feeling?"
"Like plastic."
Suddenly there was a hand on his shoulder. He honestly didn't remember what happened after that, but when he was tuned back in he was being tucked into bed, the older personality laying next to him, over the covers. Most likely he was going get Anxiety to go to sleep, then cook breakfast for the others.
"What are you doing?" Anxiety asked him, feeling the others hand playing with his hair.
"This gets the others to calm down quickly. I figured it would work on you too."
Anxiety huffed at the happy go lucky trait, too tired to actually make him leave. All he could focus on was the slight scratch of nails on his scalp, shifting hairs and warm fingers drawing shapes and writing words on his head.
Next thing he knew he was waking up, sunlight pouring into his room, and his bed void of the cardigan wearing parent that had been with him earlier.
He yawned, rubbing the sleep out of his eye as he gazed around his room. Anxiety wanted to make sure that nothing was out of place. He knew Patton wouldn't betray his trust and go through his things while Anxiety wasn't able to stop him, but he was called Anxiety for a reason. It was never a matter of distrust, it was a matter of being safe.
Nothing was out of the ordinary except for a pink post-it note on his nightstand.
'Hey there slugger, just wanted to let you know that I saved your breakfast in the fridge. Have a good morning's sleep!!
~Dad!
Ps, you look adorable when you sleep! You should do that more often.
Pps, did you know that you are a cuddler? I could barely get you off of me! That's not to say I didn't appreciate the cuddles though.
Ppss, you purr like a cat when someone pets your hair!'
Anxiety wanted to be annoyed at the note, but he was too tired to care. Instead, he just laid down, and went back to sleep.