Work Text:
A group meeting was held today amongst all the entities. It was in one of the many small dining rooms with mirrors that adorned the walls, giving everyone a place to sit but Traplight; it was too big to fit in a small chair. Everyone was present, even entities Traplight didn't recognize or talk to that much. They felt out of place as everyone else conversed with one another, it felt like a big friend group they weren't part of.
"Everyone is here besides Virus, correct?" They heard Gray Glow say, raising its voice higher than everyone in the room.
As it silenced the room, Traplight heard all the entities sit around the table while they stood in the corner by the entrance door.
"To start off today's meeting, you all know for the past few days, there has been a lot of intruders. Virus was supposed to at least mention this to all of you, however she is not here yet. Regardless, they are not needed for today."
Traplight listened intently to Gray as it spoke. Even though they couldn't see anyone, they could tell the others were paying close attention as well; minus Irwin who always had trouble sitting still during meetings.
"I expect you all to be on guard for the next couple of weeks. You all know how this works. If you come across a human, no mercy shall be shown!"
"Do you know why that happens? It's every month! Can't humans just stay in their own homes and leave us alone?"
What does that matter? Can't take them all, bro?" Scream jokes at her older brother.
"What?! Course I can! I'm only asking for your sake. I mean, I can catch ten, easy peasy. Besides, I don't need to run back and forth like six times just to catch 'em off guard, unlike someone I know." He says, obviously teasing the other entity.
"Excuse me!" Trap hears her chair squeak against the floor as she stands up. "At least I play fair! No one said you could hunt them in the courtyard- that area is a place to rest, it's not supposed to be assigned to anyone! You just took it for yourself without asking-"
"I don't need to ask anyone, Scream!" Speedy also stood up. "I saw it and took it. It's simple! Sheesh sis, I didn't think you were this dumb."
"Speedy!" She yelled, slamming her hands on the table.
Traplight jumped at the loud noise. The two started arguing aggressively. It wasn't a shock that they were doing so, they rarely argued and when they did it was usually in a more calm way.
The two screaming voices increased in volume, hurting Trap's hearing. It hurt. Traplight held itself, wrapping its arms around its body trying to calm itself, hoping that the argument would die out soon. . . It did not. . . Everyone was irritated. It could hear Gray Glow trying to dissolve the heated argument, but to no avail.
Their hands were holding its head at this point. It was insufferable. It was a cacophony of painful sound, making them whine and thrash their head around in hopes of it going away. The other entities were contributing to the noise, trying to calm down Scream and Speedy. Traplight couldn't take it. Small tears started to form on their eyes. The pain was splitting its head in half, it couldn't breath. It wished for silence, tranquility, anything to make them stop, anything that made them feel like they weren't dying.
An ear-bleeding scream ripped through the room, ceasing all noise as all the attention was brought to Traplight. However, they didn't notice how quickly the room became silent, it was still in pain. The noise was still ringing in its head, it couldn't hear anything even if it wanted.
They felt something touch them, a hand on their shoulder. They yelled again, out of fear, none of their senses were functioning properly, they felt scared and alone.
Traplight was disoriented, they violently thrashed away from whatever touched them. They backed up into the door and lowered their head as they sprinted out the room, escaping the hell that was created in that room.
____________
There was an uncomfortable silence as falling bookshelves, broken doors and pained roars echoed through the hotel. The two culprits stood stiff, staring at the now broken door. They didn't dare to turn around as they could feel Gray Glow's glance through their wispy heads.
"I don't want to hear a sound out of you two until I come back." Gray said, its voice authoritative and serious. "Do I make myself clear?"
Two "Yes capt!" were heard as it began to walk out of the room.
"Insect, Drain, watch them for me until I return. Kendall, Sam, please keep Irwin and Fright occupied. If Virus shows up, don't tell her what happened. I don't want anyone to leave until I say so."
There were words of compliance and nods from the others easing Gray's worries as it floated out of the door after its friend.
____________
Gray knew where to go. Everyone went there when they needed a break. It's everyone's favorite place to be in.
Nearing Drain's library, Gray Glow hesitated before opening the doors as slowly as possible; it didn't want to add more pain to Traplight because of a door. It took a seat in and heard a thump from the corner, just above the stairs. It could hear Trap, growling and whining in pain that was accompanied by another thump. Making its way up the stairs, it saw them on their knees hunched over. However, it didn't except to see them scratching violently at their head with their claws (enough to draw blood) and banging their head against the wall, hyperventilating.
"Traplight!" Gray exclaimed, rushing over to their side.
The entity turned to it, roaring at the unexpected presence, their breath patterns getting fast.
"Hey- hey... shh, it's okay. You're okay." It said another time for emphasis.
Traplight roared again, basing their head against the wall again, worsening their wound with their claws. Gray Glow quickly rushed to try and hold back their hands, but it knew how much stronger they were than it. Thinking quickly, it grabbed their head and brought it to its chest. The entity thrashed against it, stilling for a second until they whined.
"Gr..." Their breath hitched. "Gra-" They whispered, cutting themself off.
They could hear Gray's heartbeat; Gray didn't really have a heart, but had some sort of echo that came from its chest, it it sounded just like a heartbeat. The quick thump of its soul brought them back to earth. They slowly touched their arm, making sure their imagination wasn't playing tricks on them before nuzzling their head deeper into Gray's body as if they were a dog that desperately wanted to be petted.
"Gr...ay?" They whispered, their voice wavering before what sounded like a small cry. "Glow..."
Glow had never heard Trap in pain like this before. There were times where they accidentally hurt themself, running into furniture, tripping or forgetting to duck when walking through doors, however this was a completely new experience; it hated it.
Hearing them cry and whine into its chest was torturous. It wanted to offer words of comfort, but it didn't want to hurt them again. The most it did was pet them as it listened to their breathing slowly even out.
"... Glow..." Traplight said in a steady voice.
"Yes...?" It replied, whispering quietly as precaution.
"I'm... sorry."
"Oh Trap."
Gray laid its cheek against the top of Trap's head and stared at the wall, sighing with relief that it was able to them down.
"Please, don't apologize. You did nothing wrong- absolutely nothing."
"But the... others-"
"Don't matter right now. What happened does not matter- What matters is that you're alright."
"Mmm... Head hurts..." Their head slipped lower down Glow's body as their tense body loosened.
"Your hearing or your actual head?"
"Head." They replied quietly, their head sitting in Glow's lap. "Hearing is okay... now."
"Right... You hurt your head pretty hard. You're bleeding, Trap. You'll need bandages."
"Wanted to... make it... stop."
"I understand friend, but please don't harm yourself... that'll only make it worse. I'm glad I ran after you. I don't know what I could have found if I didn't."
"You... ran after me..?"
"Of course! I was worried sick, how could I not?" A small trill escapes Traplight as they make themself comfortable on the floor.
"Trap, I have to get bandages. You'll have to move eventually, so don't get too comfortable." Gray Glow giggled.
They huffed, annoyed that their comfort will be eventually destroyed.
"Mean."
"Mean? I'm not mean! I'm trying to help you!" Gray retorted, its voice slowly gaining volume.
"Gray... mean to me. Makes me sad." They let out a small fake cry.
"I'm getting bandages.." It said, gently lifting Traplight's head and settling it down as it stood up.
"Wait..." They said, snatching one of Gray Glow's ankles as soon as they felt it take a step away from them. "Take me... with you..."
"Traplight, I don't think that's a good idea... I don't want you injuring yourself more. I promise I'll be quick."
Their grip only strengthened as they let out another quiet trill, this time of worry and pleading. Gray sighed and pried Traplight's hand away and walked towards the nearby wardrobe. The large entity cried loudly, reaching out to grab it again, but it had already moved.
"Hey- hey. I'm still here. I'm just going to talk to Visitor. I'm not leaving the room, alright?"
They whined in response.
"You'll still be able to hear me, just listen to my footsteps. I won't be long."
Walking around the bookshelves, it could hear Traplight huff in response, causing it to 'smile' a little (how can an entity smile if it doesn't have a mouth?).
It stood in front of the wardrobe and knocked. The door flew open almost immediately as Visitor's fins jutted out, grabbing the sides of the wardrobe and pulling himself out.
"You called?!"
"Ah-!" Gray jumped back a little. "Visitor! For me sake- a little warning next time you decide to jump out like that!"
"Sorry, sorry!" He retracted into the darkness slightly. "Is um... Is Traplight okay?"
"Yes, they're fine. Don't worry. How are the others? I hope Scream and Speedy have stuck to my command."
"They have. They're getting impatient though. Irwin is testing their collective patience. It's more Speedy's patience than Scream's."
"I see... Well, anywho, I'll be back with Trap in a bit. Could you do me a favor?"
"Sure, what is it?"
"Traplight needs bandages. The roll kind, not the small tape ones. A first aid would help as well. They injured themself quite badly and I need to patch them up before it worsens. I'd go get them myself, but they don't want me to leave them alone."
"Oh, I see... I can get them."
The door shut quickly and a quiet wispy sound was heard inside as Gray Glow heard Visitor move to a different wardrobe.
How did he do this? It's still a mystery to them all.
After a moment, the doors opened again as the eel entity exits with a bandage roll in his mouth and his tail wrapped around the first aid handle.
"Here." He handed everything he grabbed. "I'll let everyone know, and uh... the siblings say they're sorry."
"They can tell that to Trap themselves when I'm done here." It calmly said with care laced in its words.
"Okay well... right. I'll leave you to it. Call me again when we can come on over!"
Glow nodded and slowly shut the closet doors before making its way over to Traplight.
____________
The floor was hard underneath them, however they made no attempt to move. Gray Glow sat against the wall with Trap's head in its lap as they laided on their side on the floor. It had finished cleaning and bandaging their wounds a while ago, and was now letting the poor creature rest. It watched Trap's chest slowly rise and fall as it occasionally felt their warm breath touch its face. It wished it could always have this tranquility. No intruders, no loud sounds, just peace and calm.
There was a knock on the library door along with muffled chatter from the other side. Gray sighed and some of its sparkles move away from its body, directed to the library entrance.
"You apologize first. You started it-"
"Both of you are apologizing. Your attempts at an argument now are useless. Ah, Glow."
The sparkles moved towards the commotion, all eyes on it.
"I thought you meant it was actually here, not doing its sparkle thing..." Scream elbowed Speedy's side. "Ow-! What was th-"
Drain cleared her throat, effectively shushing the siblings. He looked at the floated particles from above. "Gray, we are all here. I am aware Traplight is resting so we can wait outside until they awaken, however these two are becoming quite..." they paused. "Rowdy... so I would like it if they spoke to Trap quickly so as to not cause more problems today, if that is alright with you."
The particle glowed a bit more brighter for a couple of seconds as if to say "Yes, that's fine." before the brightness returned to normal.
"Thank you. I will give you a minute to wake them."
The sparkles floated away and returned to its body. It felt a hand on its face, Trap's hand.
"Oh... you're back."
"Why... is your hand over my face? I thought you were asleep?"
"I was, still am. Heard them outside... Tried talking... to you... didn't answer. I figured you... were out there with... them. Touched your face... I was right."
"Right." Glow said, slowly taking Traplight's hand off its face and instead choosing to hold it on its lap. "But how did you know I was back? I didn't say anything until now?"
"I... don't know ...Y ou got... lighter when you... came back."
"Lighter? How did- how does that even... happen?" It sounded confused, yet intrigued.
Traplight's words made Gray feel soft. It reminded it of some of the romance books they've read together with the heartwarming scenes where words of endearment are shared between two characters (unlike me, I can't write them well ;-;). Oh, it loved those. It may be the environment it was stuck in, however it adored the love that was given to each and every character in Drain's library. It often wondered what Trap's opinion was; it hoped it was similar.
"I can... only assume it... comes from..." Traplight moved its hand that was still being held to Gray's chest. "...here. That's where it is for... humans."
Gray hummed and smiled. "You're an interesting being, Traplight."
"...Huh?"
"Nevermind, the others are waiting. Let's go." Glow says, lifting Traplight's head off of its lap.
"Wait but... what do you mean?"
"Come on Trap." It quickly stand up and walks down the stairs.
"Gray!" Traplight exclaimed, chasing after it.