Nightmare and Volt drabble!!!! This was technically made for a friend in discord and then I never actully posted it outside of the server, so here it is!
Tw: its nightmare, biting, restricted movement, mouths (a lot), my poor boys.
Its like a 12+ sorta rating no actual spice just nightmare being nightmare
The bar is dark, finally silent.
Itβsbeen 6 hours since the breaker box closed for the night, 1 of those hours was spent on general cleaning tasks. 3 of those hours were Volt attempting to get his lover to stop with maintenance and get some sleep, and the past two have been Volt slowly coaxing Eddie to sleep, to finally let chronically tense muscles relax, to remind his lover that he's here, ready to bear the strain so that he can finally, finally rest.
Eddie's breath calms. There's still tension in his shoulders, there always is, but Volt sits in bed, awake, the ever vigilant guard dog. Ready to protect his lover, his Eddie, his other half.
And yet in the shadows he sees an eye blink open, then another, and another.
Nightmare.
Not tonight, Volt thinks in rage, Not tonight, after his love has finally wound down, not tonight.
He stalks away from the bed towards them, eyes slowly gliding over to look at him. A snake, eyes piercing, knowing, a lion, eyes raging, violent, and a unicorn, eyes pitying, staring down at Volt.
"I thought I told you to never come back, not for him at least," Volt bites at Nightmare. is hair is surging with electricity but the light barely leaves, instead smothered in the shadows around them.
"Darling, you know there's no getting rid of me once I form. A price is a price, a summonβs a summon, I cannot leave until a nightmare is given.β
Volt hates that voice. Like a twisted alteration of his own. All sweetness, silk, silver, and song everything he uses on stage thrown back at him, but all wrong.
"Then give it to someone else, anyone else!" His voice quivers, rage built up, but unable to release lest he wake Eddie.
"Are you offering, my dear?"
Volt stops. Heβd never been given the option. He tries to decide if it's a trap, but one final conclusion is met. It doesn't matter. Even if it's a trap, even if it's everything he's ever feared. He would do it for his lover.
"Is that allowed?" Volt tries to add his usual lilt to his voice, to try and cover up the swell of emotions in him.
"Hmm, not for most." She walks closer, the footfalls heard more in Volt's mind than by his ears.
"But you, Voltage, are different. You, in a sense, are him; made from him, in a way separate from anything I've ever seen. For you, the rules can be bentβ but not without cost..."
"The cost doesn't matter" Volt's poise is gone. He can protect Eddie, that's all that matters.
Nightmare smiles, all teeth, as Volt is plunged into darkness, the floor swallowing him whole. He can't breathe, can't see. A spotlight flashes on him, the light fiercely hot, contrasting how his blood runs cold. The room is empty. He goes to speak, but his mouth won't open, shadows piling behind him slink around him to hold his arms in place.
"On stage, always on, always performing," the voice isn't just behind him. It's in him, shaking his bones and cauterizing his nerves.
"It's such a rare treat to visit you, but each time you have so many walls up, Candlelight. Each time I left, not quite satisfied with my work.β
The shadows are traveling up him, snaking around legs, torso, neck.
"Let's remove those masks, shall we?"
Volt feels like his mind is being ripped off of a shelf, burnt out nerves flare to life, and his head whips back. A scream unable to be let out, a face unable to mask anything, he's left raw, burning, vulnerable. His legs go limp, but the shadows refuse to let him collapse. A snake hisses in one ear, a lion purrs in the other, a breath at the back of his neck wrecks him. He convulses at the sensation and she chuckles.
"Choose, little Candlelight." Nightmare says behind him.
"Meeee?" A sharp slithery voice to his right.
"Or Me.β A sandpaper voice to his left.
He tries to speak, but is still unable to. He thrashes before Nightmare, who leans in closer, all of their heads speaking into his ears and into his neck.
"You never really got to choose, did you, my dear?"
The stage is gone, replaced by his bedroom, but it's wrong. Something is wrong. The shadows pull tighter, and Nightmare's voice is somehow barely a whisper while echoing like thunder through him.
"Your lover, Eddison Watts; have you ever wondered what scares him most?"
Volt can't moveβ can't nod, canβt shake his head, but she goes on regardless.
"You."
"You scare him far more than that faulty wire. He grips you so tightly in passion, doesn't he." Nightmareβs hands grip Volt's wrists in almost the same fashion. A sick imitation.
"He's so scared he'll lose you. So scared you'll fizzle out and⦠pop" the mouths on her wrist bite in time to the last word.
Volt realizes he can finally speak only as a cry erupts from his lips. He silences it as fast as he can. He cannot wake Eddie.
"Oh dear, even when you're finally able to speak, you can't? I wonder, have you ever been truly free?" Nightmare cocks their heads, fascinated by what they see in Volt. The line didn't quite strike trueβ the fear lay elsewhere. No matter, Volt was far harder to break than many. It just meant he needed it even more. To experience a release not attainable in the waking world.
"Worried about waking Edison, darling?"
The strength of the hands biting his wrists increase and he feels his legs wobble with the effort of not crying out. There it was. The fear Nightmare looked for each night.
He was terrified for Eddison, his lover, his half. He was terrified in the same way Eddison was terrified for him. Such lovely souls these boys had. They really needed to talk soon. Before one of their nightmares came to life, at least any more than they already were.
A massive tongue licked up Volt's spine, his legs crumbling again with the effort to not cry out. The shadows held him still, unevenly boosting his current in one area, smothering it in another, flashes of hot and cold, pain and pleasure. It threw his mind around until he could barely function.
"One. Last. Push." was Nightmare's final words as every mouth bit ear, neck, back, and wrists.
"Eddie!" A cry ripped from raw vocal cords, as he crumpled to the ground.
He opened his eyes to the sounds of Eddie getting up. He shouldn't be awake yetβ the sun was...up?
His lover ran to him embracing him tightly, his strength felt a lot better than yesterday, did he manage to sleep after all?
That was all that mattered. Eddie was all that mattered. He'd gladly walk through 100 more nights while nightmare was on buisness then let his lover, his Eddie, be hurt.
