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“NO!”
Macaque shot up in his bed, breathing hard and looking around frantically before realizing he was in his room.
His room.
That was right. A place to stay, far away from the Lady Bone Demon and Sun Wukong.
He was free, they were gone, and Spider Queen was safe. He repeated that a few times in his head before he felt he could really believe it. He was free, they were gone, and Spider Queen was safe. He was free, they were gone, and Spider Queen was safe...
He made the mistake of closing his eyes.
A flash of his nightmare burned in his mind.
He opened his eyes again and took a steadying breath.
When was the last time he got a full night of rest? Was it the night after the fight, where he was just too exhausted to sleep at all?
He rubbed his eyes and flashes played in his mind again.
Regardless, it was clear he wouldn’t be getting any more sleep. Not like this.
He wished he could just go to see his queen, that might—
Wait...
Why couldn’t he?
Yes, yes, the fact it was—he glanced quickly at his clock—one in the morning gave him pause but... well, what harm could it do? He could just portal to her home, peek in to make sure she was alive and well, portal back home, no harm done!
It was a perfect plan!
Or he could get himself a snack and just try to force himself to go back to sleep. It was possible. He could just go back to bed.
He should.
...
Macaque pulled up the portal anyway.
~
This was a terrible idea.
He had no idea why he thought portaling right outside of her room was going to be a good idea. But now? Now that he was standing outside of it with only a door between them?
Macaque had never felt more silly in his entire life. And, considering the fact he could still hear Huntsman awake and muttering just a few rooms over, he should get out of these as soon as humanly possible. This was the worst idea he’d had since actually agreeing to join MK and Mei in their spicy noodle challenge.
Except...His ears could pick something up, soft and faint and not something anyone else would have been able to hear through her door normally. But with his six ears it was as easy to hear as an air horn.
He could hear her talking in her sleep. Well, not talking, not really.
More like muttering. Soft and concerned and scared.
He didn’t even think for more than a few minutes before he fell into the shadows by her door and came back up in the shadows of her bed.
“Sweetheart,” Macaque said softly, reaching out and gently nudging her shoulder. “Sweetheart, wake up. You’re having a nightmare, it’s alright.”
He probably should have expected her to jolt away, fist aimed at whatever it was that was touching her. Thankfully his reflexes were still in top shape, leaning back just in time to avoid a mean right hook to the face.
“Whoa, easy easy,” he said softly as he retracted his hand and held it up between them. “It’s just me.”
“Starlight?” Spider Queen asked groggily, blinking at him in confusion. “...Why are you in my bedroom?”
“Yeaaah, uh...” he chuckled awkwardly, rubbing the back of his head with a grimace. “I realized this was a little weird like... immediately after I did it. I uh... ah, I came to check on you, actually. I...”
“You had a nightmare too,” she guessed, rubbing her eyes and sitting up further on the bed to rest against her mountain of pillows. Macaque wondered what that was like, his bed barely had one pillow and a blanket.
“Yeah,” he agreed, yawning despite himself. “Hope they’re not contagious, I would hate to be the reason you were having yours.”
“No,” Spider Queen said with a laugh and a shake of her head. “No, it’s not from you.”
“Do you wanna talk about it?” Macaque offered.
“Do you want to talk about yours?” she said lightly, giving him a knowing smile.
“Noooot really, no,” he said with a shrug. “Not yet, anyway.”
“Me either,” she said with a yawn of her own. “I’ve told Huntsman and Goliath but... it doesn’t help, not really.”
A silence settled over the two.
“Well,” Macaque suddenly said, standing up and stretching. “I suppose I should get going! Did what I set out to do, saved a pretty lady from a nightmare, good job me, I—”
“Oh no, you’re not,” Spider Queen said, grabbing him before he could even react and pulling him onto the bed. “You woke me up and now I can’t sleep. You’re going to be punished by being my conversation partner until I do.”
He didn’t react to her words at first, too shocked by the fact she had pulled him into bed with her to do so. His heart started to race: whether that be from fear or comfort or maybe even both, he didn’t know. Was he always this warm? Was she always this cold? Was it... scary that they seemed to fit perfectly together? And the bed was so soft. His bed wasn’t hard, but it wasn’t nearly this soft. Not with nearly as many pillows, not with the silken sheets in layers upon layers.
Truly a bed fit for a queen.
“But, uh... what about your bodyguard?” Macaque asked jokingly. “Pretty sure Huntsy wouldn’t be too jazzed about catching me in your bed after everything.”
“Huntsy can deal with it like the grown man he is,” Spider Queen replied in a deadpan tone. And he couldn’t help but laugh at that, genuinely laugh. “Besides, you’d hear him coming from a mile away. You can shadow portal yourself out long before he gets here.”“Well, in that case,” Macaque said, trying to position himself to be more comfortable. Spider Queen helped him, wrapping her arms around him. “What does my queen want to talk about?”
It didn’t take long. Surprising, really, given how hard it was for him to truly rest. He’d grown accustomed to sleeping lightly and taking time to rest, but he could have sworn they’d both fallen asleep mid-sentence.
There were no more nightmares that night.
Unless the angry yelling of one braid-having spider waking them up when Spider Queen had vastly overslept counted.
That was a nightmare that would last a lifetime.