Work Text:
Carl was exhausted.
Hours upon hours of nonstop grinding had finally, completely worn him out. While walking to the saferoom his limbs ached. He still needed to work on more bombs and check in with everyone, but God was he tired. Not to mention the several debuffs he had gotten.
He ignored all the NPCs inside the bar as he stumbled to the saferoom. He should probably head into his room, get some quick rest, and wait for the debuffs to leave but...
His eyes lingered on the couch in the middle of the room.
It was a bad habit of his, sleeping on the couch. Bea would always get pissed when she came home to him taking a nap on their couch which would lead to more sleeping on the couch. She would talk about how important it was to sleep in a bed and how she couldn't watch her shows with Carl taking up the couch. He hasn't really done it since the dungeon. But then again...
Old habits die hard.
He plopped down on the couch and let out a groan.
God he was tired.
He wouldn't sleep, he told himself, just take a little break.
He leaned back fully, his eyes slowly blinking.
Maybe just... 10 minutes.
He shut his eyes and fell asleep.
Katia was coming into the saferoom to ask Mordecai about a few potions.
She had a couple guildmembers that were inflicted with spells they had never heard about. Mordecai had said he could possibly make something to cure them.
It was hard running a guild. She expected it but she couldn't have been fully prepared for something like this. She used to be a pretty quiet person but now here she was, networking with over 50 crawlers.
She figured if she wanted to survive, she would have to get used to change.
She went inside and sent a message to Mordecai about arriving and turned to see if anyone else was home. It seemed like she was the only one inside the living room until she looked down at the couch.
It was Carl.
Mr. Workaholic himself.
Sleeping.
Plenty of people had slept on the couch before, Mordecai, herself, even Donut had passed out on it once or twice.
But this was Carl.
The workshop door opened loudly.
"I've got your potions ready-"
Katia quickly shushed him, pointing down at Carl.
His beak snapped shut as he looked down at the sleeping form.
He was currently a sky fowl, or at least some kind of one. Even with this form Katia could still see the clear surprise on his face.
She gestured to the workshop silently and quietly creeped towards it.
The door shut behind her with a click.
"That's the first time I've seen him sleep outside his room."
"Yeah."
The silence lingered as they both looked at the door.
"Well, back to business," Mordecai said, breaking the silence.
Mordecai gave her a quick rundown on how the potions worked and the drawbacks before handing them to her. They talked about the guild and how it was going. Mordecai being a guild master and a previous crawler, had some advice for her.
While talking about some of the systems in the guild, they heard something coming from the living room. The conversation paused as they heard faint shuffling and groaning.
They peaked out the room to see Carl moving in his sleep. He had a pinched expression on his face and was moving slightly on the small couch.
He was having a nightmare.
Katia felt a wave of sympathy. It was probably the first time in a while Carl had actually slept and instead of being able to enjoy it, he was having a nightmare. She turned to Mordecai to ask whether they should wake him but, before she could get her question out, he pushed passed her. He went straight for couch and got on his knees. He began softly rubbing Carl's back and whispering comforting words. With all of his experience, it definitely wasn't his first time seeing a crawler have a nightmare.
Katia continued looking at the scene, eyes watering, before shaking herself out of it. She went into one of the many closets the room had and pulled out the softest blanket she could find. She went to the couch to see Carl, now calmed down, snoring softly with Mordecai still rubbing his back. He looked up at her and smiled before shuffling back, giving her room. Katia quickly wrapped the soft material around Carl, tucking him in.
They both silently watched over the sleeping Carl for a while before turning to each other.
Katia nodded and headed towards the door. Carl had done so much for everyone, it was only fair she let him sleep.
She sent a message to Lewis to ask him to keep Samantha busy for a bit longer.
She left the saferoom with a smile.
Donut was wrapping up her daily talk with her chat.
She loved her princess posse to death but sadly she couldn't talk to them all day. They had been doing an event on the server about what color looked the best on her.
It was purple obviously; she only deserved the most royal colors.
She told everyone she was going to take 5 to freshen up in the shower.
Which was true, but she was also worried about Carl.
He hadn't messaged her about coming home yet, which was odd.
She went out to the living room, writing out a message, when she saw him. There was Carl, sitting on one side of the couch, snoring his heart out.
He was wrapped in a soft baby blue blanket. She knew Carl would never sleep outside of his room in normal circumstances, and he certainly wouldn't have allowed himself a blanket.
She couldn't help but smile, Carl always had a habit of sleeping on the couch. When Miss Beatrice was mad and when he got home from work, she could always find him snoring like a lawn mower.
He was lucky Samantha had left for a bit to bother Lewis, probably to trying to convince him to have sex with her. If Samatha was here Carl wouldn't have been able to sleep a wink.
It had been far too long since she's seen him actually sleep. They had many things to do, but she figured letting him sleep was okay.
She softly padded over to the couch and slipped under the covers.
She allowed herself to purr.
They both needed this.
The first thing Carl noticed was how warm it was. Not like the fire from an explosion or molten lava, just warm.
He blinked open his eyes and stared at the ceiling.
Huh, it had been a while since he felt like this.
He looked down to see Donut snuggled up against him. They were both under probably the softest blanket he has ever felt.
Carl looked at the time for the dungeon collapse.
He had slept for 6 hours.
His first thought was to panic, he had wasted so much time sleeping, time which could have been used working.
He looked back down at Donut.
But he really did need this. His mind felt completely clear for the first time in days. There had probably been no emergency considering Mordecai hadn't come wake him up. And it seemed like there was no rush considering the blanket and Donut.
He felt Donut stir on top of him and open her eyes.
"Why didn't you wake me?" Carl asked quietly, voice rough from sleep.
"You looked like you needed it," Donut replied, slipping from under the blanket.
"I need to go back to my livestream," Donut announced while walking to her room, "We'll get to work tomorrow."
"How did you get the cover from the closet?"
She paused before smiling.
"I didn't get the cover," she said before entering her room.
Carl looked down at the covers, feeling the soft material in his hand.
His vision began to blur but he wiped the tears before they could reach his face.
The last time he had been tucked in was a long, long time ago.
His mother had always stayed with him until he fell asleep, promising to protect him from any nightmares. The last time she did it was before his birthday.
He had never slept the same.
Until now.
He couldn't help the watery smile that broke out on his face.
It had always been obvious he cared about fellow crawlers, his family.
But he realized that his family cared for him too.