Chapter Text
The first time that Juan woke up in the field, he thought that he had sleepwalked. It had never happened before and his joints were sore.
Darcy used to sleepwalk, especially when she moved to new places. The first couple of nights that she had stayed over were sleepless nights pulling her back to bed with soft words and whispered curses. The mornings after she would always complain that her joints were sore or her muscles had been pulled in the wrong direction.
God he wished that this was a dream. That he would wake up and Darcy would be there, hair strewn across the pillows, smelling of strawberries and acrylics.
It wasn’t.
Thankfully the woods closest weren’t too far from his apartment. He had gone out here sometimes when he needed a quiet space to do some observational drawing.
Juan had sat up, cringing at the way his lower back cracked and his joint burned at the movement.
He had made it back to his apartment in record time, the adrenaline wearing off as the sun had started to peek over the horizon and he crawled back into bed.
Darcy had always been a heavy sleeper, so it was no surprise that when Juan woke up again she was in the same position as early this morning.
He crawled closer towards his girlfriend, praying that whatever weird sleepwalking ability he had developed last night was a one time thing.
He was lured into a false sense of security.
It had stopped for a couple of nights. He would wake up in his own bed, tucked up next to Darcy and the smell of acrylic paint thick in the air.
Then, the ceiling was blue, and his hands were sticky and dry and he felt like he had drunk a bucket of iron.
His chest contracted as his blood ran cold.
This was not normal sleepwalking.
He looked down at his blood covered hands.
This was not normal.
Juan cringed, wincing at the way his tendons pulsed as he sat up. Giving himself a moment to get his bearings before trying to stand up.
He fell the first time, the second was wobbly but stable and the third almost made him collapse as a sharp pain crashed down on his hip.
As Juan limped through the wooded path towards the outerbanks of Seattle, he hoped it was still early enough that people wouldn’t be walking the streets.
———
The raccoon was unexpected.
The dog? That was downright cruelty. Juan would have felt remorse for the poor thing if his current internal monologue wasn’t ‘Fuck Fuck Fuck! What the fuck just happened? How the fuck did I get here?”
He had just gotten back to his apartment, his joints searing with pain and his back in need of a really strong massage when Darcy shuffled in the sheets.
Juan panicked and dived headfirst into the bathroom, his blood running cold as he looked in the mirror only to see the bottom half of his face smeared in blood.
He washed off his face and scrambled out of his torn clothing. Wrapping his sleeping gown over himself and opening the door to smile softly at Darcy with a small “sorry.”
His mind was both stalling and running at a million mph. It wasn’t normal to wake up surrounded by dead animals right? It’s not some kind of late puberty thing that the treatment had stalled out?
He had quickly stuffed his ruined clothes into the rubbish bin, praying silently that Darcy didn’t go through the bin in her spare time. And brought out his phone, shaking out his hand in an attempt to get the muscles to cooperate properly.
“I’d like a croissant.”
Juan looked up. Darcy had leant up against the doorframe of the bathroom and despite the way that he wanted to immediately take her back to bed and bury his face in the crook of her neck, he softly tilted his head with a small frown.
“You asked if I’d like anything, I’d like a croissant please.”
Right. Yes. Coffee and a croissant. He could do this. He could go downstairs to the small independent bakery at the bottom of their apartment building and get a coffee and a croissant. He could do that.
“Uhm, do you wanna throw on some clothes first?”
Ah. That might be the better priority.
Darcy watched Juan go back to their room with a small stumble in his step and wondered if he’d hit himself in the shower again. Wouldn’t be the first time. She smiled softly at his dazed expression. Whatever new idea had got him caught up had got to be big if he was preparing to go outside in his dressing gown.
Darcy couldn't shake the small feeling that something was up though. The way that he held himself. It was as though every single muscle and bone needed to take a moment to be sorted back into place.
She frowned slightly as she made her way over to him, snaking her arms around Juans waist and placing a soft kiss to the back of his neck.
“Are you okay?” She tentatively asked and Juan nodded before deflating slightly.
“I had a really weird bad dream, and I guess it’s stuck with me.” Juan hummed slightly as he leant into his girlfriend's embrace. “I’m sorry if I worried you.”
Darcy shrugged slightly “as long as you’re alright that’s all that matters to me.”
Juan couldn't tell her. Not when he didn’t even understand what had happened, or is happening.
He will go to the clinic today. He would get his pills and hopefully this occurrence of blackouts and waking up in random places would stop.
He hoped.
Darcy squeezed him and Juan winced. The pressure had been nice but it had accidentally pulled on his arm.
She smiled slightly as she went off to have a shower “oh don’t forget, you’ve got to pop into the clinic today.”
Juan snorted “trust me Darcy, nothing in the whole world could stop me from getting my pills.”
At that moment Juan probably jinxed himself.
Because the next morning went exactly the same as the other two nights.