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Anya exhales harshly through her nose and turns under the covers. She blinks at the digital clock on her nightstand. It reads 01:11 AM.
The last time she had looked at the clock it said 12:57 AM. She uses her fingers and toes to count like Mama taught her. And then she huffs in frustration, her eyes growing warm.
Only fourteen minutes have passed. She was hoping it would be more.
She can hear Bond snoring at the foot of her bed.
“Bond,” she whispers.
No response.
“Bond,” she whispers louder. This time Bond whines as he wakes. Anya feels a little bad but she wants the company. She doesn’t like being alone when the scary thoughts and memories of the bad people from before try to scare her when she’s trying to sleep.
She’s not really alone, she knows. Bond is in her room. And Mama and Papa are just in their rooms which are not very far from hers. But when she’s the only one awake, it always feels like she’s alone. And it makes her want to cry.
Anya peeks down to see Bond stand and stretch, sleepily blinking. He yawns. And then waddles around to the side of the bed.
“I’m sorry for waking you,” she says quietly reaching out to pet him. Bond just pants, grateful for the pets. He places his front legs on the edge of Anya’s bed and gives her cheek a nuzzle. And then he stands back down, dropping to lie down where she can see him. His snores are instant.
Snuggling back under the sheets, Anya tries to get comfortable again. She glances around her room to make sure her other friends are guarding their posts. Mr. Chimera is held between her arms. Agent Penguin is standing guard in the corner. Bondman in her poster is ready to attack any bad guys. She sighs and closes her eyes.
The next time Anya wakes, her eyes are blurry with tears so it takes her much longer to read the clock. She rubs them with her fist to clear them. They quickly fill up again when she realizes it’s still dark outside. She’s so tired and just wants to sleep.
Lying awake once again, Anya cautiously flips through the images from her bad dream that are quickly fading away. She can’t fully remember what it was about but she knows it’s why she woke up crying. And Bond’s deep snores are not comforting enough anymore.
She really wants Mama and Papa…
She contemplates this for a while. Anya doesn’t want to disturb either of them. In the bad place and the orphanage, she always got in trouble when she tried to go to the adults when she was scared or didn’t want to be alone. She knows that Mama and Papa are not like that but…she’s not sure she can wake them for this.
Before Anya can decide on what to do, her ear picks up a sound from the kitchen. At first her mind thinks it might be a villain breaking in. But Bond hasn’t moved one bit. Anya focuses her powers and sighs when she realizes it’s just Mama. All she’s thinking is stay quiet. Yor, you don’t need to make tea loudly.
Maybe Anya can have tea with Mama in the kitchen and it will make things better.
Slipping out of bed, Anya makes her way to the door. She hears Bond wake and follow her too.
Mama is standing in front of the stove, watching the kettle spew out steam. Right as it’s about to whistle, Mama removes it. She hums softly as she pours the water into a cup with a teabag she has ready. When she turns to carry it to the table, Anya is already sitting there, waiting for her.
“Oh!” Mama exclaims, a bit of the tea sloshing out of the cup and onto the floor.
“Sorry,” Anya whispers, starting to tear up again. Every small thing is making her cry and she doesn’t like it. But Mama smiles at her softly and it helps a bit.
“That’s alright,” Mama says, setting the cup onto the table. She looks down at Anya for a few seconds, something in her expression changing. “Did you have a bad dream, Miss Anya?” she asks quietly.
Anya opens her mouth to answer but her lips wobble. So she nods instead. She rubs her eyes again.
“Would you like to have some tea with me?” Mama asks, already moving to the stove to pour another cup. “It helps me with my bad dreams.”
Anya’s eyes widen. “Y-You…You have bad dreams too?”
Mama smiles sadly and nods. Anya watches her silently as she prepares her tea. Anya has read Mama’s thoughts before, many times. And they can be scary. But it was scary because Mama is scary when she’s fighting bad guys. Anya never thought they could be scary for her too, enough to give her bad dreams.
When Mama brings her cup, she accepts it with a quiet “thank you”. Mama brushes back the hair sticking to Anya’s forehead before taking a seat at the table too. Bond sneaks under the table.
They drink the tea quietly. Just having Mama across the table is enough to calm her. Anya feels a lot better by the time she sips her last sip. But then she realizes if they’re done with the tea, Anya will have to go back to her room again. So when Mama gets up to put the cups away, Anya hops off her chair and rushes to cling onto her hand.
“I—I don’t wanna…”
Mama blinks down at her and then she smiles again. She puts the cups in the sink and then crouches down in front of Anya.
“Would you like to sleep next to me tonight, Miss Anya?” she whispers. Anya freezes, surprised. That would definitely help her feel less scared, to have Mama near her. She didn’t think she was allowed to ask for it—she’s always been told to be a big girl and sleep in her own room whenever she’s tried to ask in the past.
“Yes, please,” she says, the bad feeling in her chest starting to go away again.
Hand grasping hers, Mama leads Anya (and Bond) to her room. They pause in front of the door. Mama looks uncertain and Anya quickly reads her mind. Her weapons. Anya shudders weakly as Mama asks her to wait a minute while she goes inside to “clean up a little”.
Anya waits, her body swaying in place as she gets sleepy again. Knowing that Mama is going to be next to her is making it easier to feel tired again. She’s just about to topple forward against the door when another one opens near her.
She turns to see Papa stepping out of his room. His eyes are wide and his hair is messy. He looks around, alert and breathing very fast.
It takes him longer than usual to notice her. “Anya?”
“Yes,” she answers. He just looks at her, confused. Almost like he’s trying to figure out where he is. Anya doesn’t even have to read his mind to understand this time—if Mama can have bad dreams like Anya, so can Papa.
Without a word, Anya steps up to him and takes his hand—it’s very sweaty. She tugs him to stand in front of Mama’s room with her. The door opens before Papa can ask her any questions.
“Oh!” Mama exclaims like she did earlier. “L-Loid!” Her and Papa just look at each other.
“I’m sleeping in Mama’s room because I had bad dreams,” Anya explains easily and they both look away from each other and down at her. “Can you be here too, Papa?”
Papa immediately looks like he wants to say no. He opens his mouth but he doesn’t say anything. Anya tries to read his mind but it’s too messy for her to understand it so she stops. She glances up at Mama whose cheeks have gone pink.
Mama clears her throat. “The–The bed is big enough for the three of us,” she says, smiling at Papa.
This time Papa’s cheeks also turn pink. They both just look at each other again. Anya yawns.
“I’m sleepy,” she announces, making her way into the room. Bond follows her and plops himself down at the foot of the bed. Anya climbs into the middle of it.
Once she’s under the sheets, she peeks over the top. Mama shakes her head like she’s clearly her thoughts and comes to join her. She carefully slips in next to Anya, to her left. Papa still stands at the doorway.
“Papa, what if the bad guys come and attack Anya from this side of the room?” Anya says in a loud whisper.
Papa’s eyebrows scrunch together. “Anya, that doesn’t make much sense. There are no bad guys coming here, much less through the wall.”
“How do you know??” Anya cries.
“We can help protect Miss Anya together, Loid,” Mama adds.
Papa has no responses left. He breathes out through his nose and finally shuffles inside the room. He pads to Anya’s other side and stands there awkwardly. He waits for a beat before getting in bed too.
Anya feels so warm, inside and out. She snuggles close to Mama, burying her face under her chin. She searches behind her and finds Papa’s hand. She pulls it over her and over Mama too. Papa’s arm is stiff for a few minutes but then he relaxes. He scooches closer and Anya feels like she’s in a cozy cocoon.
And it’s to the sound of Bond’s noisy snores and two distinct press of lips to the top of her head that Anya drifts back into sleep. The bad dreams don’t even try to bother her this time.