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You were unable to sleep peacefully. Not after the dinner incident with Wally a few days ago.
Your mind swirled with thoughts of what to do or what to tell him. Do you even wanna be around him? He was still Your Darling, right? You’ve been doing your best to not run into him, but you can’t just avoid him forever, can you? You have to talk to him about it at least. But you felt so fearful of him. Wally was always a tad off-putting, you knew that, and you always adored it in the past. But now?
You woke up with a start at the sound of your phone ringing across the house. Wally called you early to wish you a good morning, as he did with every neighbor, every morning. You knew you wouldn’t have the nerves to approach him yourself, so you took your chance, and told Wally to meet with you on your favorite park bench to have a conversation. He obliged happily, tone as flatly chipper as always. You chewed your lip nervously at seeing him again, but it was necessary.
Wally arrived at the park only a few moments after you, and took a seat beside you after greeting you. “Good morning, sweetums~” he cooed softly, “did you sleep well?” he asked. You answered honestly: you didn’t. His expression fell and he looked at you with worry. “Aw, why? Did something happen? Did you have nightmares?” he responded. You couldn’t tell if he was mocking you or being genuine. It was always hard to tell with his tone.
You chose to go with the latter and confessed it all. How he hurt you that day, how agonizing it was physically, and how it terrified you to your core to lose your body like that. As you spoke, your words stuttered, stumbling over yourself nervously and looking anywhere but at him. You were afraid, partially of hurting his feelings, and partially that he might hurt you. You closed off your ramble without much resolute, clasping your palms together on your lap.
You looked up at him anxiously.
Wally was stunned. You’ve never seen him look as upset as he was in that moment. His pupils shot to pinpricks and while his smile wasn’t gone (it never was), you could tell he was at a loss. Within a second, his palms were on your shoulders and you jumped at the sudden movement. Wally pulled you into a hug, soft, warm, and comforting as always, and you couldn’t help but melt into his touch. Your shoulders slumped as all tension dissipated from them, letting you breathe easy. As scared as you were of him, you still adored Wally, maybe a little too much.
“I’m so so so sorry, dearest, I never ever meant to hurt or scare you!” he cooed, his voice nearly shrill and wavering. “I can’t believe I hurt you like that, please please forgive me dearest, I didn’t mean to make you feel this way” his palms gripped your back, clinging to you as if you might run away from him in a second. You could tell he was being genuine this time, you’ve never heard him be this expressive the whole time you’ve known him. Knowing that he really didn’t wish to pain you eased you a little bit, and you soothed him in return, rubbing his back and feeling the soft fabric of his blue cardigan.
You spent the rest of the afternoon with Wally, talking about somethings and nothings alike. His presence once again comforted you, as it always should have. Wally didn’t let go of your palm the whole day, his firm squeezes grounding you and reminding you that he’s always by your side. It put you at ease. Maybe you could put this whole incident behind you and move on, you thought. That’s what you wanted after all, you wanted to love Wally, and let him love you back.
As the sun began to set over the clear horizon, you sighed. It’s getting late, you noted as you glanced at Wally. You didn’t want your time together to end just yet, but you both had your schedules and chores to get to. Wally brought your hand up to his lips with both palms and kissed each of your knuckles. “I really enjoyed our time together today~” he hummed, rubbing gentle spirals onto your skin. You did as well, you responded shyly, and thanked him for being so understanding earlier. He smiled, reaching up to cup the side of your face.
“Don’t worry, sweetums, I will not hurt you anymore” he promised, gently caressing your cheek with his thumb as his gaze lulled you in.
You trusted Your Darling.
You said your goodbyes and parted ways, each to your own home. Stepping into your bedroom, you breathed a sigh of relief. You got to your usual routine: setting the bed, changing into your PJs, closing the window to keep the wind out, and so on. Your phone rang right as you were plumping your pillows, the call echoing from the living room all the way to your bedroom, and you rushed to answer it. Wally called you wishing you a good night, as he did with every neighbor, every night. You cheerfully returned his tone. “Sweet dreams, dearest~ I love you very much~” he purred, his sultry tone making you blush. You felt like tonight you might actually get some rest.
Slumping into your comfy bed, you drifted off to sleep, free of all worries.
Your dream was rather pleasant, involving Wally and yourself. You felt yourself enveloped by his touch, relaxing into him. You melted as a hot candle and dripped between his gentle fingers, pooling into a puddle of wax on the ground. Through it all, Wally was doing his best to contain you in his palms, despite the ache of the burning wax. He never broke his smile, only gazing at your adoringly, and using his hands to shape your wax body back into a stable figure. There was not an ounce of tension in your body. You felt at peace, letting Your Darling toy with your form in this way.
You were content.
You woke up to the sound of chirping birds, and watched as a pair of doves landed on your windowsill. The wind hit your cheeks, brushing you with a warm breeze to sooth you awake. Groggily rubbing your eyes, you watched the doves preen each other and puff up for a while, sweetly cooing that rolling purr of theirs. You stood up from your bed and stretched, walking over to the window to breathe in some fresh air. As the doves flew away from you into the clear sky, it hit you.
You were fairly certain that you shut the window before bed, as you always did. Did you forget it last night?
You probably did just forget, there’s no reason to panic. Other than that, you slept well, although you did feel a little sore, mainly in your chest. Nothing your morning drink can’t fix.
The sound of your phone rang throughout the living room, and you picked it up to your ear, drink in your other hand. “Hello~?” a familiar lazy tone hummed from the speaker. Who else but Wally, calling to wish you good morning, as he did with every neighbor, every morning. You responded with your own ‘hello~’, your voice still a little rusty from your rest. “Hello sweetums~” he chirped back, overjoyed to hear you.
You sat on your sofa and chatted with Wally, exchanging sweet nothings and flirts back and forth. You smiled to yourself, maybe things really can just get back to normal. He asked to meet up with you in the park as you did yesterday, and this time you obliged him. The two of you exchanged goodbyes and hung up, and you finished your morning drink with a light breakfast.
Wally waited for you on the park bench, legs crossed and palms folded on his knee. His face lit up the moment he spotted you, cheerfully waving at you to beckon you to him. “Good morning dearest!” his smile glowed like sunshine. You sat beside him, and he quickly reached to take your hand in his own. “Did you sleep well today?” he asked, eyes curiously scanning your face. How sweet of him to be concerned after last time. You admitted you slept wonderfully, and even had a nice dream about him. Wally chuckled. “So it worked then” he hummed. You tilted your head at him in confusion. What worked, you asked?
“Tasting you didn’t hurt this time” he gazed at you.
Your smile faltered, and you tried to puzzle out what he meant. He hadn’t done anything of the sort yesterday, you’re pretty sure you would have noticed. You asked him to explain.
“See, I couldn’t rest yesterday, so Home said I should take a walk around the neighborhood to relax.”
Alright…
“Well, as I walked, I spotted you from your bedroom window, and you looked so peaceful and beautiful.”
Oh no.
“So I couldn’t help myself.”
Oh no.
“I had to get a taste of you again.”
It felt as if a brick had been dropped on your heart. You immediately shuffled away, putting distance between you and Wally, clutching your chest. “Don’t worry, I didn’t break in or anything” he put his palms up innocently, trying and failing to reassure you. “I only leaned on the windowsill and watched you” he said, as if that in itself wasn’t a monumental breach of privacy. You demanded he explain himself to you.
“Well, after our conversation yesterday, I thought to myself, if your eyes hurt because you couldn’t close them, it wouldn’t hurt if they were already closed, right?” he reasoned, and you paused to think about it. He was right, kind of, your eyes didn’t hurt. You did wake up a little sore in the chest, but you wouldn’t have struggled to wrestle back control of your breathing anyway, you were asleep. Besides, you had woken up with way worse aches in the past caused by anything to nothing at all. Overall, you slept fairly undisturbed, even your dreams were pleasant.
But that wasn’t an excuse. Wally watched you sleep and tasted you again without even asking first. He hurt you again, maybe not physically, but he took advantage of you at your most vulnerable. And if he just gave himself permission to this to you, you what else would he allow himself to do to you when you’re unaware? You began to panic as once again fears swirled in your mind like a raging cyclone. He was a creep, he was a freak, he was-
He was laughing. His stunted, disjointed laugh filling your ears with mockery and your heart with dread.
“I’m so glad it didn’t hurt, because I might not be able to help myself from now on” he hummed playfully. It made you sick to your stomach. You swallowed dryly, and asked him to explain. “Well, it turns out-“
He pulled himself closer to you, shrinking the distance you’ve put between the two of you.
“When you’re not panicking or afraid, you taste so much sweeter~”