Chapter Text
Clover found themselves in the snowdin path, everything felt foggy and uncomfortable. The thick layers of snow clang to their boots like glue, they made a struggle to move but with every step the snow felt thicker and harder to traverse, as they moved more and more they felt their boots trapped in the snow, they tried to keep going but it was in vain, they were stuck. In the distance they could see a rough silhouette moving slowly at them, when it approached close enough to recognize the person: it was martlet.
Clover let out a relieved sigh as she approached them with a worried expression, -Clover?! What are you doing out here in the snow? you are gonna catch a cold!- the bird lady said brushing some snow off of clover's shoulders and hat, a worried expression on her face, seeing their friend in front of them made clover start to sob into martlet’s embrace, “I missed you so much” they cried, martlet carefully placed her wings around clover's shivering body making sure to completely cover them, - oh clover, i'm right here it's all going to be okay…—she said returning the hug, but something was wrong… and clover could feel it, she was cold, no body warmth to be had and then they felt something drip on their shoulder, clover was hoping it was just snow from the trees above but what they found out made them yell in fear, it was martlet.
Clover tried to force their way out of the hug, feeling like martlet’s feathers became the same sticky substance that pretended to be snow. “Let me go!” clover said, struggling against Martlet's slowly deteriorating body. She looked miserable, with all of her features slowly melting and fusing with one another, dripping more and more into them, her shirt covered in a strange dust and her wings torn and burnt, clover tried reaching for their gun but there was none to be found “you are not martlet you are not real!” they cried. Martlet, red thorns poking out between her feathers and her face replaced with a black void with a single eye where her beak used to be said to them in a voice familiar but disturbingly wrong, -you don't need to worry anymore friend… I FOUND YOU!- as she said this green thorny vines spew out of the hole holding on to clover as they cried for help, the vines pulling clover closer and closer to the void until…
“No NO please let me go, please i…” clover cried, just woken up in bed, wrapped around bed sheets, they sob uncontrollably thinking that horrible memory was still happening, suddenly they hear rushed steps towards them, the panic of the child only grew larger, thinking another abomination would make their way to them to torture them further but when the lights suddendly flashed on: it was martlet.
— clover… clover! its okay im here im right here— martlet, half asleep and visibly worried hurried to hold clover to prevent them to panic any further, the child only tried to break away from any sort of comfort she could provide, thinking she would just transform in that abomination again, but to their surprise they were met with a warm hug, an actually warm hug, clover just kept sobbing into their caretaker’s wings, unable to speak a single word that wasn’t immediately suffocated by another sob, -shhh shhh it's okay clover… I'm right here, I'm real see…? --- she looks at clover directly, giving the kid a comforting smile, clover held on tighter to her like she was going to disappear in any second “it's actually you” clover said tears running down their cheeks, martlet carefully brushed them off with her feathers trying not to make the kid sneeze —of course i am silly, who else would i be? — she chuckled a little bit before realizing that wasn’t helping the situation either, I jumped off bed the moment I heard you scream. Did you have another nightmare?, martlet said trying to understand what clover must have felt, but they couldn’t talk, they just stared at her with a remorseful expression on their face like it was something they deserved, martlet couldn't understand why clover was acting like this so she did the next best thing and tried to comfort them, —its okay… I understand you don’t want to talk about it right now, maybe tomorrow over some pancakes? — Clover looked surprised but happy at the mention of pancakes, something that martlet soon noticed, —great job martlet, see? this whole parenting thing is easy I think… i just need clover to trust me enough to actually talk about these weekly nightmares— she thought to herself before noticing clover’s expression suddenly changed to a sad one again “i'm sorry i woke you up… you should head back to sleep i’ll be fine” clover let go of martlet’s embrace realizing she probably deserves some good sleep.
At first martlet just thought clover needed some alone time but as she was making her way to the door she returned her gaze to the remorseful kid and decided to stop, — you know what? maybe we should have a little sleep over, it would be fun don't you think? — with this martlet gestured clover to scoot over to let her lay down with them, this gesture of sudden friendliness only confused clover, thinking to why martlet would suddenly want to share a bed with them considering how small it was compared to her’s, she calmly rested her head on clover’s slightly dusty pillows and told them to just lay down and relax, the space was definitely not intended for two people to share, more so because martlet crafted the bed with the only intention to hold clover’s small body, but with a bit of work they soon found a comfortable position to rest, clover laid besides martlet resting their head on top of one of her wings, they just hoped laying like that wouldn’t cut martlet’s circulation, although did monsters even have circulation without blood?, just another question to the never ending bin of things clover doesn’t understand about monster biology, martlet carefully placed her other wing on top of clover as to shield them from the snowdin cold and without thinking to much she started to gently tweet a lullaby, one clover considered both familiar and extremely soothing, like they could sleep forever to it…
As martlet’s song came to a close she realized clover was almost asleep, their slow breathing combined with a warm smile could tell her they were in a happy place, market just gently brushed clover’s cheek and sayed —goodnight clover…— before being met with a “goodnight mom…” as clover drifted to sleep, yeah she could process that tomorrow once she's not sleep deprived… surely… she thought as she too drifted to a peaceful sleep.