Sleeping Hazards

Time: Shortly after Beside a Black Tarn
Location: Aboard the Brimstone, in transit

Most nights, Heckle loved sleeping with Mac. Sleeping alone for imps wasn't natural. They grew up in communal nests and slept in imp piles even after reaching full growth. Sleeping with Mac was better than any overcrowded imp pile, though. The ship's engineer tended to sleep on his back with Heckle draped over him like an extra blanket, most often with a hand on Heckle somewhere and Heckle's tail wrapped protectively around that wrist.

Most nights? It was perfect. The heat, the closeness, the steady drum of Mac's heart under Heckle's ear. Except on those few nights when Mac had nightmares.

The previous night, Heckle had snapped awake to the sickening feeling of falling just before he landed with a thud on the floor. Thrashing and flailing, Mac had become a hazard and had unknowingly tossed Heckle out of bed. With a sigh, Heckle had crawled into Mac's footlocker and slept on the clothes and extra blankets there, which was fine. It just wasn't Mac.

He gave up on sleep in the early hours of the ship's day cycle and wandered to the galley for breakfast without waking Mac. His poor nephilim had spent a terrible night with his dreams and was finally sleeping quietly. Oddly, Corny and Verin were already there having breakfast, which probably meant they hadn't been to bed yet. Ship hours for a pilot could get weird sometimes, especially when the ship had to drop out of Copernicus space at off hours.

"Hey, Heck." Corny glanced up from his oatmeal. "All right there? You look a mite put out."

"I'm all right." Heckle climbed onto the opposite bench. "Ms. Ivana? Could I have a sausage, please? And some chilies?"

"Of course, sweetie. Be just a second." The AI chirped from the galley speaker. "You do look down in the dumps, sugar."

"I guess a little. I don't know what to do about Mac's nightmares."

Verin growled into his coffee before he set the mug down with a thump. "Everybody has nightmares, short stuff. You can't stop the fucking things."

Heckle nodded. "Right. Of course. It's just...I get dumped out of bed or kinda seasick when he has them."

"So wake him up," Corny said with a raised eyebrow.

Heckle shifted uncomfortably on the bench. "I, um, can't. I've tried. I shake his arm when it's safe to. I call to him. Nothing wakes him up when he's having a bad dream."

"So bite him." Verin waved a spoon at him. "You've got sharp teeth. Use the damn things."

"But…" Heckled stared at him. "I can't do that."

"You chomp on me to get me woke and you'll pull back a few less teeth, Hammer." Corny gave his demon lover a playful shove.

"Big talk, cowboy. Besides, you don't sleep through a fucking pin dropping."

"True enough." Corny shrugged. "Old habits. You reckon you know why he's got such bad dreams, Heck?"

"I don't know. He won't talk about it. I'd guess it's mostly stuff from when he was a kid."

A throat cleared from the doorway. Julian, far too awake and perfectly put together. Didn't he ever sleep? Didn't he need to? Heckle still wasn't sure how he felt about Julian. He was a killer, fine, but Heckle didn't hold that against him. It was his job. He was polite, quite, neat, could be kind, but there was something always…watchful about him as if he didn't trust any person or any given situation for more than a few moments.

Heckle didn't dislike him? He just wasn't comfortable to be around.

"I have a suggestion, Mr. Quartermaster, if you don't mind coming with me," Julian said with a soft smile.

Startled, Heckle shot a glance Verin's way.

"Go on, mini-minion," Verin grumbled with a jerk of his head toward Julian. "Parallax is an asshole but he won't hurt you."

Julian's laugh was somehow both bright and brittle as he took Heckle's hand and led him back toward the cabins. "I have a device that helps me sometimes."

"You have nightmares?" Heckle cringed as his voice squeaked.

"The nightmare having nightmares, right?" Julian gave him a conspiratorial grin before he sobered abruptly. "Oh, yes. I have them. About mistakes. About failure."

Heckle stayed outside Julian's cabin, shifting from hoof to hoof as the assassin retrieved something. When Julian reemerged, he put a curious object in Heckle's palm, a twisted shape of metal and electronics that reminded Heckle of a dragon.

"What is it?" Heckle blinked first at the device, then at Julian. "And don't you need it?"

"It's called an Ear Wyrm, my dear." Julian closed Heckle's fingers around it. "I can get another one. It goes around the outside of the ear like a cuff or a mini-comm. Certain repeated frequencies keep the nightmares at bay. It does have, ah, certain side effects, but nothing harmful."

"Oh. All right."

"Just have him try it. If he doesn't want it, just bring it back to me. I won't be offended."

"Thank you." Heckle stared at for a bit more, gathering his courage. "But the side effects?"

"It varies according to the individual." Julian crossed his heart in the ancient gesture of promise. "Nothing that will hurt him, I swear."

Heckle thanked him again and trotted off to the cabin he shared with Mac to see if his giant lover was awake yet.

The next sleep cycle, Mac fitted the golden ear wyrm around his right ear, took Heckle in his arms, and had one of the quietest nights of sleep he'd experienced in years, so he said. Heckle smiled as he trotted about his day. It had worked, they were both rested, and Heckle didn't have any butt bruises from smacking into the floor.
​
The only strange thing? Mac kept singing, Daisy, Daisy, give me an answer do, all day long. Over and over and over…