Chapter Text
Rudos never slept alone. Up on the sphere he always had Regto. After the chaos of the fall, meeting the cleaners, and everything else, he had finally been shown his own room and bed.
And it felt.. wrong.
It was too empty. Too quiet.
Laying in the bed made him feel cold. Incomplete. Regto was supposed to be there. But he wasn't.
So Rudo hardly slept. Everyone knew he struggled with it but didn't know why. Rudo would randomly fall asleep especially if he was beside someone. Even when he did sleep, he had nightmares.
It was seriously starting to affect him mentally and psychically to the point everyone was getting concerned about him.
Eishia checked up on him often but couldn't find anything. Gris had been watching carefully for weeks. He logged similarities. Rudo always fell asleep around others.
He almost always had nightmares. He rarely stayed in his room to rest.
Enjin got an idea; He just hoped it would work. After a mission and as everyone settled down in their own rooms for the night, Enjin went to bother Rudo. Really, he knew after missions the kid hid in his room and focused on his trash projects rather than sleep.
Rudo feigned being annoyed but didn't kick him out, so Enjin joined him on the bed and big spooned him in a joking brother-like hug. He expected Rudo to get annoyed and cuss him out since he was in the middle of fixing up a remote.
Instead, he was shocked when Rudo fell asleep in just a minute. He must have been truly exhausted.
Enjin told Gris what happened the next day and it seemed obvious now. Rudo couldn't sleep alone but downright refused to seek anyone out. Now the issue was how to pretend they wanted to ‘bother’ Rudo without the kid getting suspicious they were there just to help him sleep.
So they waited a day, then Gris went to check on him. It was just as Enjin said with Rudo pretending to be annoyed, but once Gris was on the bed and hugging him his annoyances vanished and it took him only a minute to fall asleep.
That became their routine. If Rudo caught on, he didn't say anything about it.
But there was now a small problem.
This was Rudo's room, so Enjin and Gris were now hardly sleeping with one another in their own shared room. So they took a one day break to also see if Rudo would be alright and slept together after kissing for half an hour.
Really they should have expected this outcome.. Gris groggily woke up to his choker chirping and answered it. He could hear muffled sniffs and sobs as Rudo was clearly trying to calm down from a nightmare.
But this was progress. He was seeking them out. "C'me're,” Gris sleepily slurred out. It only took a few seconds before Rudo walked in, his head downcast to hide his face. Apprehensive to actually join.
Gris scooted over from the still asleep Enjin and pat the space in between them. When Rudo approached, he pulled him in and tucked him in, then wrapped an arm around Rudo and nuzzled his head. Secured. Safe.
"It's fine to want help."
Rudo was still trembling. He didn't respond, just weakly nuzzled into Gris. He didn't fall asleep quickly like he usually did. It took a while. So Gris pet his head gently and waited.
After that night rudo practically never entered his own room. Any time it was bed time, he would sheepishly enter Gris and Enjin's room at first. Over the weeks, it became Gris, Enjin, and Rudo's room. Rudo still had nightmares, but they showed up far less when he was being held by his two dads, warm and protected by them.
It was after the fight with the raiders and when Gris got hurt that his nightmares returned with a vengeance. Badly.
Enjin's way of calming him was to hold him tightly but not painfully to give him pressure which nearly always worked. Gris would hold him, pet his hair, and talk to him.
Slowly, he was healing.
They could see that.
They would always be patient for Rudo.