Far away from the stench of the heavens

Dew stirred under the blankets still half-asleep, slightly roused from what sounded like a soft knock at his door. His sleep-heavy eyes blinked hard to adjust to the darkness of his chamber, his ears still perked as much as his hazy state would allow. He groaned, turning his head to better listen for any noise coming from the direction of his door. Sure enough, there was another knock, slightly louder this time. Dew sighed as he flopped onto his back, pushing the blankets off of his upper half with a huff, inviting the cold of the stone room to prickle at his skin giving him just enough to focus on to stay awake. “What?” Dew groaned out, his voice still gravelly from sleep. It proved loud enough though, as the door started to creak open, and a head poked in as soon as the doorway was wide enough to. “Hey, you up? It’s Aether.” Dew sighed again, the cold air keeping him just awake enough to handle this interaction. “Yeah. Yeah, I’m up.” Dew rubbed at his eyes, the slight edge of irritation from being suddenly woken up from a damn good sleep fading, turning more into curiosity and concern. “You okay?” He asked, assuming it had to have been well into the territory of the early AM hours. Aether took the question partly as an invitation and slipped into the room, closing the door behind him with a soft click. The Ghouls were not strangers to bunking together by any means, but more often than not it was a pre-arranged thing before they settled in for the night, so Aether couldn’t help but feel a little bit weird and intrusive barging in like this. “I’m okay, just– Ugh, damn thunderstorm keepin’ me awake. It’s a big one.” Aether mumbled, slowly moseying over to the side of the room that held Dew’s bed. He stopped when he heard Dew snort. “You came in here because you’re scared of thunder?” Dew quipped, the amused smile growing across his face evident in his still-sleepy voice. Aether huffed, shuffling his feet as he made the few final steps to reach Dew’s bed before he turned and plopped down onto it, bouncing a few times from the springiness. “I’m not scared. It’s just really loud, and bright. Not my fault I’m the one that got stuck with the huge gaudy stained glass window right behind my bed.” Aether said, shooting a feigned grumpy pout over his shoulder in Dew’s direction. Dew chuckled, shimmying over to the opposite side of the bed where Aether sat, giving him a bit more room to settle in. “Sure, tough guy. Come on, get in here. Let me protect you.” Dew said with an amused lilt in his voice. He let out a hissy chuckle as he felt the back of Aether’s hand playfully slap his leg before he shifted his weight, pulling his legs up and into the bed and wiggling himself under the covers as best as he could without completely throwing the whole bed into disarray. Aether sighed as he finally wiggled himself into place and turned his head towards Dewdrop. “You okay if I come closer?” He asked, making sure his already unplanned presence wouldn’t be too much of a bother. Even though Ghouls are very social pack creatures when below the surface and congregate no differently nor any more gracefully than a litter of few-week-old squirming puppies in a laundry basket when they settle down for the night, they’ve become a bit spoiled since they’ve been summoned and can be a bit moody if the sanctity of their sleep is disturbed. But tonight, Dew welcomed the company. He hummed softly in response, turning to face away from Aether but scooting himself back just a bit, his tail snaking its way to the other Ghoul’s back to coax him to close the gap. Aether turned onto his side and scooted himself to the middle of the bed, his hand finding the almost shockingly warm skin on the side of the Fire ghoul, sliding down to the front of his stomach, his arm giving a gentle hoist to nestle the smaller Ghoul perfectly against the front of his own body. Dew sighed as he settled into the warmth of the larger Ghoul encompassing the near-entirety of the back of him, the bit of his voice peeking through almost sounding like a satisfied purr. Aether