Archive of Our Own ^beta

You awoke with a jolt; your hands gripping the blanket that covered you as your eyes flew open. Slowly, you pushed yourself up into a sitting position on the couch, blinking in the dark. You were currently in your neighbor’s living room at who knew what time of the night, startled awake by a loud noise.

You had come over last night to join the skeleton cousins for their weekly movie night on the projector screen in their living room. It had been a blast, with a lot of B-rated awful movies, and you had laughed so hard your sides had felt like they'd been on fire. Apparently it had worn you out so much that you’d crashed on their couch not long before it was over.
Not the first time it’d happened of course. You’d slept on this couch more than once during your visits over here. You were just grateful none of the skeletons minded how often you slept over.

Your hand found your face, rubbing your eyes to clear the sleep that still clouded them.

What the hell had been that noise?

As if on cue, you heard it again, and you startled beneath the covers of the quilt.
Your eyes flew to the back door.
It sounded like it came from the backyard.

Tentatively, you slipped your legs out from under the blanket and crouched on the floor, creeping your way towards the window, your heartbeat thudding in your ears.
Your first immediate thought was that it could’ve been some sort of wild animal. Raccoons and other nocturnal animals were relatively common in your neighborhood, and you’d seen a few wandering the streets late at night.
But this hadn’t sounded like some small animal scrabbling around outside.

This had been a voice.

It hadn’t sounded like talking… more like a muffled groan, or a slurred word or two.

You’d never heard of burglaries happening anywhere near where you lived, but you knew it wasn’t impossible.

You crouched below the window, slowly edging yourself up so that you could peek into the backyard. It was pitch black out there. Whoever it was could be staring right back at you through the glass and you wouldn't have had any idea they were even there.
You swallowed as your eyes darted around the blackness, searching for movement.

You felt your blood run cold as you locked onto something moving, and you froze-

From what you could see, it looked like a cluster of two small… glowing lights?

They were farther back in the yard. One blue and one red…

Your brows furrowed for a few moments in confusion before you connected the dots in your head.
You heaved an internal sigh of relief.

Oh, thank god. It was just Ash out there.

The soft-spoken skeleton had a unique pair of eyelights that occupied his sockets. Where the others just had one color, Ash had two. One crimson red on his left and a deep blue on his right. His brother Poplar had told you that it had something to do with his soul-magic when you’d asked about it once; something you didn’t quite fully understand yet, but nevertheless you were relieved you wouldn’t have to call the cops or bash some burglar’s heads in tonight.

Just as quickly as your confusion cleared though, a new question surfaced.

What the hell was Ash doing outside so late at night?

You knew the skeleton loved to garden, and he spent more time out in the yard than in the house. But… gardening now?? Past midnight?

You hummed in thought as you took a few steps back from the window and stood to your full height. Should you bother him?
You put your hands on your hips, glancing back at the couch.

After a few moments of thought, you sighed, grabbing the quilt and heading towards the door to slip your shoes on.
No way in hell were you going to be able to sleep knowing Ash was wandering around outside at almost 2 in the morning.

You reached for the doorknob and hesitated. Thinking for a moment, you plunged your hand into your hoodie pocket; relief flooding through you when you felt your phone. It hadn’t slipped out while you’d been sleeping. You pulled it out, swiping to your flashlight, before turning the knob and stepping out into the cold night air.

The soft chirping of crickets reached your ears immediately as the door clicked shut behind you. Tugging the quilt around your form to ward off some of the cold, you lifted your phone to illuminate the yard as you took a few steps forward on the wet grass. The light did very little to help you see Ash, but at least you could see where your feet were going.

You lifted your gaze every so often to look for his eye-lights, but you could see nothing now.
Despite yourself, you shivered. A little bit from the cold, and a little bit from fear.
You knew Ash. Dare-say you even liked him. Maybe a little more than you’d like to admit-

You knew how sweet and shy of a skeleton he was. You knew he’d never hurt you in any way…
Come to think of it, you didn’t even know if he had it in him to hurt anyone.

But the thought of him wandering around aimlessly in the dark did freak you out a little.

“Ash..?” you said quietly, stopping in your tracks to listen for him.
You didn’t hear a response. Just some shuffling noises a little ways off from where you stood.

You swallowed, clearing your throat as you took a few hesitant steps in that direction, raising your phone above your head to see better. “Are… you okay? I heard you from inside-“ your voice trailed off as the glow of your light finally caught the blue of the washed-out overalls he always wore. His dark blue hoodie covered him, and you could see his clawed fingers twitching every so often from beneath his sleeves.
He was barefoot, swaying slightly unsteadily in the back corner of the yard.

Ash stood with his back to you; his left hand placed on the trunk of the tree he stood beside.

He mumbled something, although it was so slurred you didn’t catch it.

“…Ash?” you repeated, a bit louder this time.

Then, you saw his sharp phalanges dig into the tree’s bark, and he growled.

Hearing such a threatening sound come from Ash made you rethink how to approach this- You weren’t sure what kind of state he was in, and you highly doubted he was trying to play some kind of scary prank on you…

Although you were already chilled from the night air, you felt yourself go cold as Ash turned to face you.
His eyelights were pinpricks, and the magic within them seemed hazy and unfocused. His expression was slack, and he didn’t seem to even see you in front of him.
He mumbled something, and once more, it was far too slurred for you to understand.

He was sleepwalking.
You were sure of it.

You knew it was never a great idea to wake up someone that was sleepwalking. But you had no idea where that fell when it came to skeleton monsters…

You also knew there was no way you were just leaving him out here like this.

“Hey, Ash. Buddy, you’re sleepwalking… Ash, can you hear me?” you said, lowering your light a little so it wouldn’t freak him out.
When he didn’t react, you took a slow step towards him, reaching out your free hand to try and touch his shoulder.

Just as you started nearing him, he let out a guttural snarl deep within his chest and lunged unsteadily towards your hand.
You startled, taking a quick step backwards, but you slipped on the wet grass and fell to your back with a startled noise. Everything went pitch black again as you dropped your phone somewhere among the grass. Your elbows dug into the quilt as you fell backwards onto it, raising your head to see the dark outline of Ash looming over you, his eyelights narrowed and teeth bared threateningly.

“Ash!”

………….

He blinked.

His eyelights cleared more and more each time his sockets opened, becoming more bright and focused.
His expression visibly began to shift into tired confusion.

“Wh-“ he murmured, bringing his clawed hands up to his face, trying to clear his skull.

“You were sleepwalking-“ you said quietly, still a little breathless from having fallen onto your back and getting the wind knocked out of you.

He stilled, bringing his hands down to look at you with worry. “D-did I hurt you?” he blurted, glowing eyelights darting over your form as he cautiously kneeled in the grass beside you.
“I’m so sorry, this hasn’t happened in years and I thought… I thought maybe they were gone but- but if I hurt you I’m so, so sorry, “ his words tumbled out of his mouth in a flurried panic as he tried to explain himself.
Even in the dark, you could see small pools of magic quickly gathering in the corners of his sockets, and his cheeks began to dimly flush with the same two colors as he continued to ramble.

“I-I used to have these when I was younger but I thought I grew out of them, and my brother’s always been there to help me through them and it’s gone really bad before and-” his voice stuttered to a halt when he felt you reach out and gently brush his cheek with the warmth of your palm.

“ Ash, you didn’t hurt me… I promise you didn’t hurt me-“ you said softly, trying to calm him.
“It’s okay…”

He stared at you wide-eyed in silence, and you could feel him trembling beneath your hand.
Your touch seemed to help ground him, and his sockets closed for a moment as he blinked away his tears. You felt him somewhat relax into your hand, leaning his face into your palm as he slouched in the grass. You could hear the slight sound of his ribcage rattling beneath his clothes as he tried to get his breathing back under control.

He took in a shaky breath, his voice breaking as he spoke.
“I’m… I’m sorry-“ he said, so softly you barely heard him.

You stared at his form for a moment in silence, before slowly, gently, leaning forward, and hugging him.
He was absolutely freezing, you noticed, and his clothes were smudged with dark stains of grass and soil. You had no idea how long he’d been out here before you’d heard him from inside the house, but it must’ve been for a while-

“It’s okay Ash… we’re both okay… it’s okay-” you repeated softly as you comforted him.

Just when you were about to pull away from him after a few seconds, you felt Ash shakily return your hug, wrapping his arms around you and pulling you close. He gently nuzzled his face into the crook of your neck, taking in another deep breath as the two of you held each other in the dark.

You didn’t know how long you sat there with him, just… holding him and helping him calm down with your words.

Eventually though, you felt him loosen his hold on you, and you pulled away from him.
You met his eyes, and he looked better. Still rather flushed, but much more calm.

Cute, even.

…………

You felt your own cheeks heat up, and you hoped that he couldn’t see your blush in this darkness. You blinked; your cheeks darkening as you broke eye-contact.

“Thanks…” Ash said, reaching up to rub the back of his skull. “I’m uh…I’m sorry if I freaked you out.”
You shrugged it off and scooted further up onto the blanket, moving out of the wet grass and picking up your phone in the process. “No big deal. I know you didn’t mean to. Besides… I’m glad I was able to help you snap out of… whatever that was.”
“Yeah…” he said, his voice sounding a bit strained. “Like I said, it happened sometimes when I was a baby-bones. My bro usually helped me out of it, but-” his voice drifted off once more, and his gaze moved to the grass. He gave a light shake of his skull, clearing his thoughts. “Thanks, anyways,” he said softly, meeting your eyes again and giving a gentle smile, his one fang-tooth barely showing.

A soft wind blew overhead, rustling the leaves of the tree above the two of you. You immediately hugged your torso as a wave of goosebumps and chills coated your skin, and you tried your best to return a smile to him despite the fact you were freezing without the quilt draped around you anymore.
Ash blinked, noticing your expression. “ You, uh… cold?” he asked, his eyelights wandering over you as you curled in on yourself.
You nodded stiffly, wishing for the love of god that this wind would die down before you froze. “A little b-bit,” you said, rubbing your hands up and down the length of your bare arms to try and generate some warmth. “The quilt helped when I came out here but, there’s n-no way I’m putting that b-back on while it’s wet.”

Ash hummed in thought. “Hold on-” he said, standing from the grass and shrugging off his hoodie, leaving him in his shirt and blue overalls. He took a step forward onto the quilt, handing it to you.
You looked from the hoodie, back to him. “ Aren’t you already f-freezing?”

He shrugged, stuffing his free hand into one of his pockets. “Don’t feel the cold,” he said simply.
Deciding not to question it, you shakily stood and accepted his hoodie, draping it over yourself. You sighed gratefully as you immediately felt warmth flood back around you.

“Thanks,” you said, giving him a soft smile.
You saw his cheeks glow with a new wave of blush as he sheepishly rubbed his arm and avoided your eyes.

“Yeah… uh… don’t mention it.”

You took a moment to step off of the damp blanket and gather it into your hands, looking back towards the house.
“You ready to head back inside?” you said, turning to him.

He nodded silently; his face still dusted with his two signature colors as he followed you across the lawn and into the house.

…………

After slipping off your shoes and setting your phone down on the kitchen counter, you carefully draped the quilt over a nearby chair to help it dry out.
You sighed, pulling off Ash’s hoodie as you sat down on the couch; goosebumps racing up your arm again as you felt it’s warmth disappear.
The skeleton eyed you as he made his way over to one of the side cushions, standing beside it.

“You’re not gonna have a blanket-” Ash pointed out, knowing that searching for one this time of night in the upstairs cabinets would likely wake up some of the others.
He did not want the two of you dealing with an angry sleep-deprived Boss, or angel-forbid, Nox right now.

He rubbed his shoulder as an idea came to mind.

“You… uh-” he swallowed.
“D’you want one of mine?”

You met his gaze, clasping your hands in your lap. “You sure?”
He shrugged again, his blush refusing to leave his face. “Yeah… like I said, I don’t really feel the cold, so… it’s yours if you wanna use it tonight.”

You nodded silently, giving him a grateful look.

…………

Stars above, he felt stupid.
His clawed bare feet clicked quietly on the wooden floor as he made his way towards his room, tracking some dirt along the way as he quietly closed the door behind him and hoped he hadn’t woken any of his doubles in the process. He crawled into his bed (now a blanket short), and planted his face into his pillow, wishing his magic would fade from his cheeks so he could sleep.

His face had felt so hot when he’d handed you his blanket

The thought of you wrapped up in one of his sheets downstairs, sleeping soundly after everything that had just happened-

After hugging you so close like that, making a fool of himself by messing up his sleep schedule and triggering one of his sleep-walking episodes after all these years.
Seeing how much you cared about him. How you had seemed so much more concerned for his feelings than your own.

How nice it had felt when your hand had touched his face-

Not to mention the way he’d felt seeing you all cozied up in his hoodie…

It made his face heat up like a fire elemental, and he groaned quietly into his pillow.

Crushes were something Ash had very little experience with. He knew that he liked you, he’d just… never seen you in that kind of way before.
And now that he had, he was finding it very difficult to get you off of his mind.

Ash rolled over onto his side, clutching his pillow close to his chest, and closed his eyes.
He sighed in frustration, willing sleep to wash over him so he could deal with these feelings in the morning.

…………