outdistanced | turbo heaven 🌼 chrono

[ watches baby chrono be absorbed, completely uncomprehending. what the hell is happening! ]

What are you talking about? What just - what was that?

It's a nightmare, Laurence.

[ the longer they stand here, the more oppressive the blankness feels. like an inevitability, a crushing weight, a complete stop. nothing. silence without depth or end.

chrono does reach for him, gingerly, holding his upper arms. he can't be here. ]

Please, wake up.

[ he flinches, but doesn't pull away. ]

Shit. Okay. H-How do I...

[ how is he supposed to just wake up on command! fuck! he squeezes his eyes shut for a moment, thinking hard, and then just. reaches up to pinch his other arm. that's what they say to do, right? will that work? maybe? it does hurt.

when he opens his eyes again, it's to the familiar surroundings of his room. no sign of chrono or mirrors or sakura petals, just his chao and penny napping in a pile of spare blankets and pillows.

after just a moment to regain his bearings, laurence throws himself out of bed to head for the door. ]

Edited 2025-03-25 15:32 (UTC)

[ and he's gone. it's the only sense of relief chrono gets to have, knowing that it will take a little longer for this silence to bear down enough to wake him.

it feels much, much longer than the couple of minutes it actually is. he wakes with a gasp, shaking, curling in on himself for a second to calm down and not wake taair. back home, these nightmares had slowed to barely anything, but here they'd come back full force.

--shit. laurence. why had he- the fucking weekly effect. he'd seen dreams today. this had to be another aspect. okay. fuck. he's out of bed so quietly, stepping out the door so quietly, and-- well, they're only two doors down, so.

he stares at laurence in the half-dark of the hall, expression caught between shock and shame. ]

[ yeah, no, enough staring. laurence is marching right up to pull him into a hug. ]

I'm sorry.

[ for which part, he doesn't say. seeing something that private? being there in the middle of it, making chrono worry? or maybe just that he had a nightmare at all?

all of the above, maybe. ]

[ ah. he's tense with surprise for barely a moment before he melts into it, wrapping his arms around laurence's back and burying his face in his shoulder. ]

No, don't- all that stuff barely makes sense to in my own head, you shouldn't have had to see any of it.

[ he's still post-terror feverish, cold to touch but feeling like he's burning up. ]

Thanks. For- for trying, with him. With me.

I'm fine, Chrono.

[ but you clearly are not? the clammy skin, the fever... there isn't much he can think of to help but just hold him for a little bit, rubbing his back.

just a dream. it's still bad, but better than the alternative, which he absolutely does not want to think about.

still worried and a little dazed, he mumbles in reply. ] I'm always going to.

[ it helps. it really, really helps, having someone comfort him through the cooldown. his breathing evens out fairly quickly as he focuses on the feeling of being held, the hand on his back.

just a dream. specters of dark paths untrodden, that's all they were.

and, well. if that doesn't make his hands curl against laurence's back and press his face even more into his neck, what else would. ]

...you should get back to sleep.

I told you, I'm fine.

[ might be hard to get to sleep after that, anyway, which he is not going to say and give chrono something to feel worse about. he settles for shifting in three embrace, just enough to peek at the mess of red hair at his shoulder. ]

It looked pretty bad. [ softly. ] Are you going to be okay?

[ for a split second he thinks the little change in hold is finally pushing him away, but-- he knows better than that, now. so he clings a little more, selfishly, neck angling enough to meet laurence's eyes with a narrowed, drawn green one. ]

It... it was a pretty bad one.

[ often, those nightmares just picked one event of the past to focus on, brief reminders of mistakes and potential aftermaths that never happened. sometimes, of ones that did. full nightmares like the one they'd just experienced were rarer. ]

But they happen a lot. I'll be fine in a bit.

Seriously...?

[ sure, everyone gets nightmares now and then, but that often? and that bad? he breathes out a sigh. ]

Anything I can do to help?

Not usually that bad. Less. Weekend just got to me.

[ probably.

he falls quiet for a moment, just letting more of the static in his mind bleed out. he turns his face back to press into his shoulder, suddenly aware they're doing this in the hallway. ugh, stupid. it still takes him a second to actually make his request. ]

...could I sleep the rest of the night in your room? I don't wanna wake Taair if it happens again.

[ and staying close to you feels better. ]

I get it. It was way worse than usual, somehow.

[ easy enough to let him use that excuse, and not question it more. maybe later, when it's not as raw, and they're not in the middle of the hall were anyone could see or hear.

still. the request and accompanying makes his cheeks turn a little pink but he resolutely ignores that. ]

Y-Yeah. 'Course you can. You guys let me crash with you before, so it wouldn't be fair if I didn't let you, too. I've still got a bunch of extra blankets and stuff, too.

[ he just makes a noise of acknowledgement, not wanting to go down that spiral of overthinking the events of the weekend. confusing! bad!

maybe one day he'll stop being surprised by his requests being acquiesced to, but today is not that day. with a sigh, he draws back, running both hands through his hair as if to make sure his head's still on straight. he's too frazzled to even catch the embarrassment. ]

Thanks. Know it's kind of askin' a bit after that, but...

[ it's fine he doesn't have to pick up on that part! in fact, please don't! ]

Chrono... [ god. he sighs and lets his arms fall back to his sides. ] Whatever that nightmare was supposed to be, I'd sleep better knowing you're feeling better, anyway. So shut up and just come with me already.

[ he says, patiently waiting for chrono. ]

[ ah. well then.

he glances to the side, a grateful smile mixed in with the hesitation, but does as instructed. shuts up and follows.]

[ well. good. luckily they are just two doors away, so it's not like it's a long trek. the door is already ajar, with penny poking her fingers out to check on him, so he just scoops her up on the way in to deposit her on yves' bed.

what does their room even look like now most of the collectibles were from yves... there are still a lot of blankets and pillows, for some reason, currently in a large pile on the floor where his chao's been snoozing. his gun is here, leaning against a wall with a few of polaroid pictures strung up for display. there are still a few flowers left over from last week scattered around the room, and way more fish food than anyone would ever need for a two month time span set aside for puffy. he really needs to mail that stuff to yves. ]

Make yourself at home.

[ penny, bless her heart(?), gets a little wave as he makes his way in. he's seen the room before, but much more packed than this - it does seem a little lonely, without all of yves's affects scattered around. the sight of the gun does make his mouth twist with concern, but at this point the sight was less of a surprise.

he's fully prepared to just pile up a blanket nest on the floor and bury himself in it, but the sight of the chao snoozing gives him pause. ]

Can I... move this guy, or...?

[ penny waves back! she's always happy to see chrono even if she is a little confused by him being here at this hour. ]

Yeah, you can just move him over by Penny. Guarantee he'll fall back asleep in, like, three seconds.

[ that said. he is pulling out a red blanket from his own bed to offer. ]

This is the warmest one. Charlie sent it last week.

[ with a nod, he'll gently scoop the dozing chao up with the topmost blanket, popping over on yves's bed. penny gets a little tap on the hand of thanks as well.

when he turns back to see laurence taking one of his own blankets off his bed, the sound of protest he makes dies quickly in his throat. there's no point arguing this, really - he just takes it with a nod and drapes it over his shoulders right away. trust charlie to be on top of things. ]

Thanks. You'll be alright without it?

[ he leans down to pull the blanket pile into a less-chao more-human-appropriate arrangement, taking a seat against some propped-up pillows for now. it'll take a bit before he can actually sleep again, but this is. better. ]

One night won't kill me.

[ he's actually just going to sit on the floor, too, for a bit, leaning back against his bed. ]

This week's going to be as hard as when we could feel what everyone else did, isn't it.

...seems like it. It's intrusive, that's for sure.

[ he just kind of. stares into the mess of blankets for a few moments. dreams and nightmares... a lot could go wrong with those.

eventually he looks up and, well. if we're both on the floor anyway. chrono lifts a blanketed arm and gives him a quizzical, but slightly nervous, look. c'mere? ]

[ ...alright, sure. laurence scoots over to sit next to him. ]

So maybe we try to find somewhere quiet again this week.

[ ...there's a sense he might be pushing his luck, here, so he just throws the blanket over laurence's shoulder and pulls his arm back. he doesn't lean aside from where they're touching just by proximity. ]

Probably be best. Just a few people. [ ... ] Are you okay? You can go back to sleep, really.

As long as we're not in the tavern we'll probably be fine. [ everyone's been gathering there lately

well, even if chrono doesn't, laurence will lean against his side, just a little. ]

I told you I'm fine. I'm just worried about you.

[ you looked so scared. ]

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