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Silent Respite

Summary:

After a long day, Tangle and Whisper enjoy a bit of quiet before bed. It’s easier for one of them, but the other one’s got the spirit, at least.

Notes:

Wow, I’m on a roll this week.

So a little after I posted the last fic I realized “wait didn’t I have a list of prompts I wanted to work with for Whispangle” and sure enough I found em with some digging. The prompt I used for this one is “sound”, hence the focus on all the little noises in this fic.

(See the end of the work for more notes.)

Work Text:

Creaaaaaaaaak.

 

Another day, another mission, another pair of exhausted Diamond Cutters collapsing on their shared bed. As much as Tangle would love to chatter on and on about everything the team had done today, she was honestly running on empty. Even if their mission today was super cool and she did a kickass backflip off of a roof to avoid an explosion, she can wait until later to start rambling.

 

…Okay, maybe just one quick little gush.

 

As she opens her mouth to begin, however, Whisper shakes her head before pointing to her head with both hands. “Headache.” she signs. Tangle is slightly disappointed, but doesn’t want to add any extra soreness; Chaos knows her whole body is screaming for a break. That, and Whisper did take a stray egg pawn arm to the forehead earlier today. That has to still be aching. She flashes her a smile and a thumbs up to go with it.

 

She can go a few hours without talking, that can’t be so bad. She just needs to figure out what to do in the meantime. She may be running on empty, but she’s still Tangle; she’s got some energy left to burn(and not talking adds a little more to that for some reason???) Doing whatever it is quietly is another challenge…but she’s never backed down from a challenge!

 

Tangle lets out a wince as Whisper’s clawed hand gets caught on a small knot in her head tuft. When did she even start running her hand through there…? Her thoughts are interrupted as Whisper points to the dresser. Picking up on the hint, her tail stretches over and opens a drawer, rummaging around a bit before emerging with two brushes in its grasp. She gingerly places the brushes down before pointing at one and tilting her head. Admittedly she isn’t sure why she’d bother brushing now when they were basically not too far from going to bed. They’d just get all scuffed up again, especially with the way they toss and turn; she woke up on the floor once. Whisper only replies with a shrug before gesturing for her to lean forward.

 

Regardless of how pointless it seems, Tangle can’t deny that there’s a touch of intimacy about being brushed by her girlfriend. The soft brsh sound of bristles combing through fur, Whisper’s gentle touch(if only the knots got the memo!), the closeness of it all…it’s all so nice. It probably helps that this is also, like, Lemur Love Language 101. That might make it seem just a little more special to her. She’s surprised she doesn’t fall asleep as the wolf eventually makes her way to brushing out her tail. She only has to hold it back three times tonight; usually it puts up more of a fight during brush time. 

 

(Maybe it is sentient…)

 

Well, she can’t just let Whisper remain unbrushed after she put so much care into doing it for her. Making the same gesture Whisper had ushered her closer with, she gets to work on her girlfriend’s hair. She’s got a knack for brushing that most people don’t really expect. She remembers jokingly telling Jewel that if she wasn’t a world-famous adventurer by the age of twenty seven, she’d get a job at the salon. Well…she isn’t world famous just yet, but she’s an adventurer with a super cool team well before that age. Ooh, she should totally call Jewel and tell her about her day. Is she awake? Probably not, but it also wouldn’t be the first time she’d woken the beetle up with the thoughts buzzing around her head. What is she doing again? Right. Brushing. 

 

Whisper’s hair is like silk, even when it’s all tangled(heheh) up from a day of death defying adventure. There’s a bit of a fireplace smell to it right now; probably the explosions. She manages to brush out a…loose screw? How’d that get th—Ah. Right. Robot arm to the head. She probably has her work cut out for her.

 

Well, might as well whistle while you work! Except whistling can be kinda loud, so she hums instead. Whisper’s ear twitches at the sound. The wolf gives no reminder of her headache, so Tangle assumes she’s good to continue. That assumption is proven correct when Whisper attempts to join in on her little symphony. She can’t quite keep up with Tangle’s tune, though.

 

“What song?” Whisper eventually signs, unable to catch up.

 

“Made it up.” Tangle signs in return, earning a hmm from the wolf. Of course she made it up! She’s always making up songs when she hums; it keeps things exciting, she claims. That, and there wasn’t much of a solid rhythm to her song. Apparently she’s got all the energy of a dancer, but not a lick of rhythm. Phooey!

 

When she’s satisfied with her work, Tangle uses her tail to slide both brushes off the bed. Whisper shoots her a look of disapproval, but is too exhausted to do much else about it. That, or the nervous smile she gives her is enough to get her to let it go for now. She can pick it up tomorrow! The dresser’s so far away; she doesn’t wanna stretch her tail again! …Okay, for once, she’s being a little lazy. And she may or may not have liked the clacking sound of the brushes hitting the ground.

 

The two sit in silence for a bit. Sleep sure is taking its sweet time to hit them, huh? C’mon already! Every second she’s quiet is like, a bajillion seconds! It’s so much easier to ignore that when she’s asleep. The sandman must be getting revenge for all her bursts of energy. Yes, clearly that’s what’s going on here. Curse you, sandman!

 

Chirrp, chirrp, chirrp…

 

Crickets! Now it wasn’t total silence, at least. Props to the little dudes for setting such a cozy atmosphere. Tangle listens along for a while. Wonder if they want any backup noise…

 

Whisper’s a little surprised Tangle’s been quiet for this long. Even the humming had a decent pause between this moment. She’s touched to see her putting in the effort, she knows how much Tangle likes to talk; especially after an eventful day like today. In the lemur’s words; she could never plead the fifth, she loves chit chatting way too much. It’s okay. She’ll let Tangle talk about her backflip as much as she likes as soon as this headache dies down. She isn’t much for input, but she does like to listen to Tangle talk. It’s energetic, it’s passionate, it’s…just a little too loud sometimes. 

 

Pop, pop, pop, pop.

 

Whisper glances over to see Tangle making popping noises with her mouth. Ah, there’s the random noises. Tangle always does that when it’s quiet like this; says she’ll “‘splode” if she doesn’t. Usually, it’s popping like this, although sometimes she’ll whistle, click her tongue, or repeat something she’d heard somewhere. It kept her mind occupied. A small exhale escapes her nose; the sound is dipped in fondness. It’s funny how the two work sometimes. She can’t imagine herself being loud on purpose, and Tangle can’t go an hour without making some kind of sound. They’re like two puzzle pieces that you wouldn’t expect to fit, but they do. 

 

The exhaustion begins to catch up on her, so Whisper opts to use Tangle’s chest as a pillow. She never really minds, and in this case she takes the opportunity to kiss her forehead. Her head suddenly hurts a little less, but she has no energy to let Tangle know. She’ll listen extra hard tomorrow, she decides, nuzzling into the lemur’s chest fluff. She can hear her heartbeat:

 

Ba-dump. Ba-dump.

 

It’s a comforting sound, reassuring. It’s surprisingly calm for someone who always seems to be so lively. Perhaps Tangle must be tired, too. The symphony of crickets and popping(and in Whisper’s case, heartbeats) continues around them. It’s relaxing. Oh, so, relaxing…

 

Snnnnnnorrrreeeee…

 

Tangle doesn’t have the heart to tell Whisper she snores. Like, surprisingly loud for someone who hardly makes a peep. Honestly, it’s cute! And kinda funny. She runs a hand through her hair, gently as not to disturb her slumber. Yup, it’s decided. Crickets and snoring will be her white noise tonight. She’s real sleepy all of a sudden, she figures it must be the day catching up. Helps to be petting something soft, too. She can’t call Jewel with a girlfriend on her chest, but that’s okay. She can always do that tomorrow. Surely Whisper’s headache will be gone by then? That way, she can talk, and talk, and…talk…and…

 

The symphony of crickets continues peacefully, with only the occasional snoring in the background.

Notes:

Wanted to try something a lil different for the sound prompt, so I tried to have as little dialogue as possible while giving attention to the noises around them. Hopefully it came out okay? At the very least I had fun playing with the idea. I thought sound worked as a prompt for these two since they take the concept and run two different directions with it; I tried to display that in their thoughts but maybe I wasn’t clear enough? Oh well.

If anyone’s curious, the prompt list I had for Whispangle was because I’d missed Whispangle Week and toyed with the idea of hosting my own…then proceeded to get way too shy to make any official posts about it, and then life stuff. So it never saw the light of day, but if anyone wants the prompts for a rainy day I’ll slap em here:
Thrill
Sound
Sun+Moon
Trust
Colors
Picnic
Promise

Feel free to play around with those if you want; you don’t have to but if you do I’d definitely wanna see what people come up with :>