Between the Sheets

It was early in the morning (or late at night, depending on how one looked at it), when the ghouls' bus got to the Canada/US border. Most of the ghouls were asleep in their bunks with the exception of Mountain and Cirrus, who were both snoozing on and off in the front lounge. The travel time between their last arena and the border crossing was just a little over an hour, so they didn't see any sense in going to bed too when they'd have to turn around and get back up again as soon as they were settled.

Cirrus had her head in Mountain's lap while Mountain sleepily ran his fingers through her hair. She purred gently as she drifted in and out of sleep. Mountain tried to tell her to go get some rest in her bunk, as they had told the rest of the pack, but she was adamant that she would stay up with Mountain. Mountain also drifted in and out of sleep, head slumping to the back of the lounge couch before he caught himself and went back to carding his hand through Cirrus' hair between her horns.

A few nods in and out of sleep later, Mountain felt the bus slow. Using the hand that wasn't on Cirrus' head, he pulled the window shade back just enough to peek out and saw the lights of the border control station. He let the shade fall back into place against the window and looked down at Cirrus, who had fully fallen asleep about twenty minutes prior. Despite her best efforts, she'd been unable to stay awake between the general exhaustion that came with the home stretch of a tour and the comforting feeling of resting in Mountain's lap. Looking at Cirrus' perfectly peaceful, sleeping face, the last thing Mountain wanted to do was wake her, but he knew from nearly ten years of experience that the ghouls were expected to be awake and ready to disembark as soon as it was their bus' turn for inspection.

Mountain moved his hand from between Cirrus' horns to her shoulder, rubbing it gently in an effort to wake her up.

She woke up with a gasp, bringing her hand up to rub her eyes as she blinked blearily at Mountain.

"Shit, I didn't mean to fall asleep! Sorry, Mount," Cirrus said, sitting up from Mountain's lap.

"'S okay, Cir. I told you you could go rest in your bunk." Mountain pulled the half-asleep Cirrus to him to press a kiss to her forehead. "Let's wake up our pack."

Mountain opened the door to bunk alley and went in first, heading for the second row of bunks. He didn't turn on the overhead lights, as that would be too jarring of a way to wake everyone. Instead, he navigated by the light filtering in through the open door to the front lounge. Reaching the back of bunk alley, he gently pulled the curtain of Dew's bunk and softly rubbed Dew's shoulder just as he'd rubbed Cirrus'.

"Firelily," Mountain said quietly, "we're at the border."

Mountain saw Dew's eyelids flutter and his tail flick against the blanket but he didn't open his eyes. Rather, he squeezed them tightly shut, growling softly at the Earth ghoul trying to wake him up.

"I know," Mountain said in response to Dew's performative growl, "but the quicker we let them finish the inspection, the quicker we can all go back to bed."

Dew nodded and finally opened his eyes before groaning,"'M fuckin' tired."

Mountain just hummed his agreement and stepped back to let Dew swing his legs out of the bunk to get up. Instead of hopping down from the bunk right away, Dew sat on the edge and held his hands out to Mountain, silently asking Mountain to lift him down. This was something everyone had gotten used to doing while Dew was in his boot during the last two runs, so Mountain didn't question it. The Earth ghoul grabbed Dew by the waist while Dew put his hands on Mountain's shoulders as Mountain gently placed the Fire ghoul on the ground.

"I'll get Rainy up," Dew said. Mountain nodded and turned to the front section of bunks where Cirrus had awoken Aurora and was helping her down. Phantom's curtain was also open. He'd been awake on his phone so he heard Mountain and Cirrus come in to start waking everyone.

Cirrus bent down to wake up Haze after Aurora was settled on the ground and had squeezed by to head for the front lounge, wanting to be out of the way.

Mountain stood at the foot of the back section of bunks while Dew bent down to wake Rain. Dew pulled Rain's curtain to reveal the Water ghoul, so sound asleep that the end of his finned tail had flopped off the side of the bunk. He was facing the bunk wall, curled — as much as he could be in the narrow bunk — around his stuffed shark plushie, mouth slightly open as he slept.

Just as Mountain had done for him, Dew pressed his hand to Rain's shoulder, shaking him gently.

"Rainy. Rainy, we've got to get up for the border inspection," Dew told the Water ghoul quietly.

Rain didn't respond at first, still too sound asleep to register what the Fire ghoul was saying but his tail twitched slightly.

Dew shook Rain a little more insistently.

"Rainy, baby, come on. You've got to get up."

Rain's tail gave a bigger flick, the whole end fin of his tail moving now instead of just the tip, and he turned over slowly, the plushie still locked in his arms. Dew pressed his hand to Rain's shoulder again and this time Rain opened his eyes, sitting up slightly and letting out a surprised little "d'egg" at seeing Dew leaning over him.

"Border inspection, Rainy," Dew said by way of explanation.

Rain flopped back down onto his pillow and brought his plushie up to cover his face, responding to Dew's explanation with a "mmnghphp" of dissatisfaction.

"I agree, but we've gotta do it," Dew said.

Rain put his shark plushie against the wall of his bunk and then rolled over, intending to get up. However, he misjudged how far he was from the actual edge of the bunk.

"Rainy! Shit!" Dew saw it in slow motion as Rain looked up at him, both realizing that Rain was falling the short way between his bottom bunk and the bus floor.

As Rain fell, he reached out to Dew and let out a pitiful little "geeeehg!" as Dew helplessly tried to catch the falling Water ghoul before self-preservation kicked in and Dew moved so Rain wouldn't fall against his feet and legs. Despite being medically cleared for a while now, Dew couldn't risk getting himself back in the boot.

The resounding thump of the still half-asleep Rain against the bus floor startled everyone. Mountain whipped around from where he was about to wake up Storm at the same time they heard another, more muffled thump, followed by a yip from Storm as he presumably hit his head on the top of his bunk from being startled awake by Rain falling. Cirrus stood up from where she'd been crouched at the level of Haze's bottom bunk with a gasp, hand flying to her chest in surprise. Phantom also peeked out of his bunk, though careful not to make himself yet another casualty. Aurora stuck her head back into bunk alley, asking "who fell?"

The answer to Aurora's question was quick as Dew, Mountain, Cirrus, and Phantom all turned to her and said "Rain." This not being an unusual occurrence, Aurora simply nodded and asked her next question.

"Want me to put the coffee and kettle on?"

"Probably not, but thanks, Rory. We just want to clear inspection and go back to bed," Mountain said.

Cirrus had gotten Haze up, so they moved to the front lounge to make room to Storm and Phantom to get out of their bunks on the opposite side. Dewdrop and Rain opened the door to the back lounge, where they all kept their overnight bags to collect their documents.

They had a bag that was typically the responsibility of either Mountain or Cirrus that contained their human documents such as their passports and any other paperwork the Ministry needed to make the ghouls appear human on paper.

"Mounty, passports, right?" Dew called to the Earth ghoul.

"Yeah, passports, Dewy. Thank you!" Mountain called back to the Fire ghoul.

The ghouls all donned sweatpants, sweatshirts, and hats, all of which fit them to varying degrees, as most items did not originally belong to the ghoul who currently wore them. When it was their bus' turn for inspection, all of the ghouls filed off, fully glamoured but still hiding themselves as much as they could in their lounge clothes. Each passed through the security check before they all gathered on the other side, taking advantage of having access to an actual bathroom while they waited for the bus inspection to be finished.

Once the inspection was finished and they got the all clear from their tour manager, they piled back onto the bus. Some ghouls, like Rain, changed back into their pajamas but some, like Phantom and Dew, simply collapsed back into their bunk as soon as they could.

Mountain and Cirrus headcounted everyone, not wanting to risk leaving anyone at the border control checkpoint, before okaying the driver to roll out and getting themselves into their bunks.