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Thunder.
Thunder is what wakes him up. It’s loud enough to seemingly shake the entire dorm, and lightning follows not far behind, lighting up Silver’s room for the briefest of seconds. The rain pounds violently against the windows, and the wind howls, indicating the storm that’s blown in is a rather nasty one.
Silver attempts to ignore it. He slides further down his bed, pulls his sheets higher towards his chin and closes his eyes in an attempt to go back to sleep. Ironically, when he wants it most, sleep eludes him. Another clap of thunder shakes the room, and he hears laughter down the hall, possibly first years riding out the storm with games and snacks.
One of Silver’s earliest memories was of a storm, just as nasty as the one now, that had seemed to shake the halls of his entire home. The magic in his childhood home wasn’t as steady as it is at Night Raven College, and often the lights would blink on and off during bad storms. When he was four (or maybe five) he remembers clambering out of his bed, getting tangled in the sheets and falling to the ground with a hard thud. He remembers that he had started crying, loud enough that his father had come to his room to see what had caused it. In the darkness, his father’s eyes had glowed with his magic, red and intense, as he came forward. He’d untangled Silver from the blankets, picked him up, and sat him back on the bed.
”Why are you crying?”
Silver hadn’t known had to answer, but he remembers yelping and curling into his father the next time the thunder crashed. His father had given a long exasperated sigh before saying, “Is this what scares human children?”
Regardless of his own annoyance, his father had laid next to him, and let Silver use him as a pillow to ride out the storm. While Silver got bigger, and his fear of storms diminished, there was still a part of him that craved the comfort of his parent when they were particularly nasty. So, he wonders if that’s why he can’t sleep now.
He sits up with a sigh as the lightning flashes against and ruffles his own hair before sliding out of his bed, and into his slippers. Without a second thought, he heads out of his room and into the corridor of the Diasomnia dorm. Sure enough, there’s a door open at the end of the hall where the light is on and he can hear laughter, as well as music and he’s sure if Sebek had his say, those students would be forced back to their rooms. Malleus tended to be lenient, and let most of the younger students get away with having fun late into the night. Silver doesn’t have an opinion either way as he’s not interested in joining them.
No, instead, he goes the opposite direction, to the stairwell, and up to the next floor. Unsurprisingly, he finds Malleus awake and walking the corridor, looking contemplative as he looks up at the sky through the ceiling of the dorm. The rain is even louder on the third floor, and Malleus seems to be enjoying it as his eyes close and his head tilts back. If he knows Silver is there, he doesn’t acknowledge him as he passes by, to the door that is cracked open.
While the lights are off, there is a light coming from the room, and when he pushes it open, he’s unsurprised to find the source to be a computer. His father seems to be deep into the adventure on the screen, his fingers flying over the keyboard as he whispers to himself about where to go and what strategies to deploy.
”Papa?” Silver calls, and his father doesn’t hesitate to turn in his chair.
His father had once said that when Silver called him papa, all he saw was the tiny human child in clothing too big for him, sniffling and rubbing his eyes. “No matter how old you get, I think I’ll always see that tiny human,” he had said once. Silver wonders if he sees the image of five-year-old Silver as he looks at him. Whatever he sees makes him turn back, type something into his computer and promptly turn it off.
There’s another rumble of thunder, a bit further away now, but still rather loud as he asks, “Can I sleep in here tonight?”
”You don’t have to ask,” his father says as he gets up from his chair and stretches his back.
Silver enters the room, closing the door behind him as he enters, careful of the clutter his father has scattered around the door room. He gets to his bed, and sits on the edge, waiting for his father.
”Was Malleus awake?”
”Yeah.”
”Hm,” his father hums, “She used to do the same during storms,” he says in that far off way of his when he’s remembering something long gone. “He’ll settle soon,” he adds before getting into the bed, patting the spot between himself and the wall.
Silver does feel like a child again as he scrambles across his father’s bed into the spot. His father is already arranging the pillows, placing the fluffier one on Silver’s side, encouraging him to lay down and make himself comfortable. He does just that, and lays on his side as his father adjusts the blankets, shifting them until he’s able to throw them over Silver before climbing under them himself. In the darkness, his eyes glow a gentle pink as he looks at Silver, and reaches out to stroke his hair, a lullaby hummed, barely audible under the sound of the rain.
Before he can stop it, he feels his eyes begin to drop. Sleep begins to creep at the edges of his mind, and he knows, soon, he’ll be in the world of dreams again. But before he completely submerges into the dream way, he feels his father’s arm wrap around him, and a kiss pressed to the crown of his head.
”Goodnight, my Silver.”