wednesday's sleep that night was pleasantly quiet and undisturbed until she got woken up by thrashing sounds and the sound of something getting knocked off and hitting the floor. when she fully awoke and could hear better she picked up on some sort of whimpering. it sounded so pitiful like an animal's, but she knew exactly who they were coming from.

so she got up and made her way to tyler's room and immediately entered as the door was unlocked.

the sight she saw made her eyes widen slightly. the boy was thrashing around uncontrollably, clawing at anything he could, sometimes himself. he was whimpering and occasionally would utter some words like, "please stop" and "i'm sorry."

what caught the girl's attention most though were his utterances of her name. he sounded terrified and she couldn't imagine the emotional torture this had on him, especially since she assumed this happened more often than not.

they hadn't spoken of this yet but she wasn't surprised. of course going through something as terrible as he had would result in nightmares. she'd be more surprised if he didn't have any. it made her feel bad for him again.

she stood there for a moment, trying to decide what would be the best option to wake him up and get him out of his hell of a nightmare. this wasn't something she had dealt with before.

she decided that she would try to calm him down with her voice and if that worked, then approach him and touch him. she knew it was too risky to try that first while he was thrashing around. that would be asking for an elbow to the face.

"tyler," she started softly but loud enough for him to her. she had stepped further into the room.

that didn't change much so she spoke more, "tyler calm down, you're having a nightmare. it isn't real."

it took a couple minutes of her speaking but eventually he seemed to have heard her as he stopped moving around so much and became pretty calm, though still uttering scared pleas. he had curled into himself, his arms wrapped around his stomach as he laid on his side.

wednesday quietly approached the side of the bed he was nearest to and kneeled before she carefully brought a hand up towards his face. she hesitated for a moment before gently cupping it and speaking again, "tyler."

he said something back in response incoherently, half asleep.

"you're okay, i'm here," she replied as she started stroking his face slightly. it was a subconscious gesture, something she had seen her mother do to pugsley whenever he was anxious or scared.

he was quiet for a moment before he woke up with a jolt, accidentally hitting wednesday's arm as she quickly brought her hand back to her side. he sat up and almost immediately noticed her, straining his eyes, "wednesday?"

"yes."

"why are you here?" it was clear he didn't remember his dream. which she supposed was a good thing but she was sure this was also only one night out of many.

"you were having a nightmare," she replied as she stood up and looked around for what she had heard him knock off the nightstand earlier.

his eyes filled with realization and she figured it was coming back to him a little bit as he muttered a quiet, "oh."

"your thrashing around was disrupting my sleep," she explained, though of course that wasn't the only reason why she had come to wake him up. she found that he had knocked off a candlestick holder and picked it up, placing it back onto the nightstand before she looked back at him.

"sorry," he said back half heartedly. he seemed a little annoyed that that was her reason. he didn't know there was more to it and she quickly realized that.

"and i wanted to help. i can't imagine those sort of nightmares are good for your mental health," she explained more. she'd do her best to keep her personal feelings out of her words and reasons. for now.

he nodded as he ran a hand through his disheveled hair that was sticking to his forehead from the sweat he had worked up during all his movement.

she watched him carefully for a moment, trying to gage at how he was feeling when he said, "you can go back to sleep now."

she crossed her arms, "do you know if there's anything that helps with your nightmares?"

he shook his head, "no. doesn't really matter what i try they always come."

"would you like some sleep medicine? my mother makes some that helps pugsley as he has night terrors sometimes," she replied.

he shrugged, hesitating, "do you think it'll help?"

"possibly."

"i'll try it," he said and she nodded before leaving to go retrieve the medicine.

once she came back she poured him a small vial and handed it to him, "how often do you have them?"

"a lot," he quickly drank the medicine, making a disgusted face as he did, "this tastes awful."

"if it helps you shouldn't complain," she said, taking the empty vial from him and setting it on the nightstand next to the bottle of medicine.

he let out a sigh as he nodded.

"and if it does help you can take it as much as you need, mother can make more."

"thank you," he gave her a weak smile. he looked exhausted. she wondered to herself when the last time he had gotten a decent night's sleep was. probably a while unfortunately.

she nodded simply, looking up to direct her gaze towards the window, watching the shadows that cascaded onto the curtains from the moonlight and tree branches outside.

it was a comfortable silence until tyler spoke again, "your hair is down." it had been one of the first things he noticed when she had woken him but he didn't know how to say anything about it till then, when their other conversation was over.

she brought her gaze back to him as she pursed her lips slightly, "yes." this was his first time seeing her with her hair down. it made her feel slightly vulnerable in a way.

"nice to know it's not always in braids," he replied with a small laugh, his voice full of amusement. wednesday wanted to hate his amusement but she couldn't, not since it resulted in his cute laugh and sweet smile. if nothing before had been genuine she knew this was at least. and she wanted to see more of it.

despite this she made her gaze turn into a glare.

so he turned less joking and more genuine, "it looks nice."

"i've been told it makes me look 'soft,'" she replied with a soft huff. only by one person and that person being enid, but wednesday did not appreciate it. she never wanted to look "soft." that was not her style or the impression she ever wanted to give off.

he smiled again with amusement, "it kind of does."

she scoffed, "then i'll be sure to only keep it in braids."

"wednesday," he said her name softly but also like he was getting ready to scold her.

"what?" she stared hard into his eyes, curious what he had to say and what she had said wrong.

"you should have your hair down sometimes. there's nothing wrong with it, you look beautiful," she hated how genuine he sounded.

she decided to be snarky and kind of argue yet she had looked away from him at the compliment, "do i not with my braids?"

"no, you do, it's just nice to kind of see a different look on you." why was he such a romantic she wondered to herself.

"it's disgusting," she stated distastefully.

"why?"

"because it's making you swoon, it's turning you into a hopeless romantic," she replied like it was a bad thing. it absolutely was not.

"i'm not swooning. and you act as if i'm not already a hopeless romantic. but again it's just something different, a good different," he argued, getting a bit defensive.

"you're pathetic." she glanced at him and met his gaze for a second before she looked off to the side again.

"yet you still care," he shot back immediately.

"don't remind me."

"are you going to accept my compliment?" he then asked her, bringing a hand up to grab her chin gently and make her look at him.

"i know if i don't you'll be annoyingly persistent," she responded, wanting to pull away from his touch but also liking the warmth and closeness.

"so?" he smiled that stupid smile. that goddamn smile that had more affect on her than she wanted it to.

"i'll accept it," he was about to say good when she added, "this time."

he rolled his eyes and laughed a little bit, "we'll see."

"is that a challenge?" she gave him a curious expression.

"sure," he shrugged playfully as he let go of her chin.

she kept her gaze locked on his, "i'll win."

"are you sure?"

"i always win," she replied confidently.

he let out a small chuckle as he nodded, "again, we'll see."

she hummed in response as she then grabbed the vial and bottle of medicine, "do you need anything else before i return to my room?"

he shook his head as he smiled at her, his eyes full of appreciation and love, "no. just thank you again."

she nodded back at him, a slight smile tugging at her lips as she quickly left.

this boy was doing things to her again and this time it was all real. and that terrified her.

***

i don't know if y'all consider this an exciting chapter or not lol but i adore it since it's them getting closer again and showing how wednesday still cares, a lot more than she wants to admit. but it's definitely the longest chapter yet with 1612 words! also very random but the song despair by leo. fits them so well. give it a listen if you don't already know it :)