#hypnoneghoul

Dew nearly sobs openly when Swiss places a gentle hand on the fire ghoul’s cheek, swiping at the tears gathering on his lashes. The gesture is sweet and tender, and it’s exactly what Dew needs. “Just feel like… shit,” he admits. “Dunno why though.” He sniffles, lifting one of his own hands up from where he had been squeezing the pillow and covering Swiss’ hand with his own. The multi ghoul’s skin is warm. Comforting. “Probably a lotta things…”

Swiss strokes his thumb over Dew’s cheek gently. The action grounds the fire ghoul more than he’d like to admit. “That’s fine too, doll. If you’re upset, then you’re upset, yeah? You don’t always have to know why.”

Dew nods, unable to find words to reply with, but still wanting Swiss to know he appreciates his reassurance.

They stay like that for a while; Swiss’ fingers dragging softly over Dew’s cheeks as he sits up on the mattress, the fire ghoul holding onto the pillow and Swiss’ fingers as if they’re lifelines while he lies under the covers, both ghouls breathing the other in.

Swiss breaks the silence first. “D’you want me to go get Rainy? I know they’re better at the comforting you stuff than I am.” There’s no jealousy in Swiss’ tone, not bitterness. Just plain, simple honesty.

Dew considers for a moment before nodding. He wants to be able to curl up against the water ghoul and soak in their cool, comforting temperature. …But he also doesn’t want Swiss to leave, and the way the multi ghoul phrased his suggestion made it sound like he’s planning on doing just that. Then again, he’s been comforted by Rain without Swiss by their side more times than he can count, and he’s been fine, so maybe it won’t matter if the multi ghoul leaves for a while. “D’you mind?”

“No, baby, not at all. I’ll go get ‘em. They’ll be here soon, ‘kay?” The second Swiss pulls his hand away and stands up, Dew can’t help but whine involuntarily, already missing the multi ghoul’s touch.

“Wait. Please,” he mumbles quietly. “Will you… Stay? With me?”

Swiss’ face breaks into a delighted smile. “‘Course I’ll stay, Dewy. Might just take a little longer for Rain to find their way to us. That okay?”

Dew sniffles, but he feels himself smile a little at Swiss’ pleased grin. “Yeah,” he nods. “Yeah, that’s okay.” He gestures for the multi ghoul to climb into the bed with him and snuggles against his chest. He’s warm, and it’s lovely, Dew thinks. Even if he’s still not feeling great, at least he’s feeling better, and once Rain gets there, hopefully he’ll start feeling a bit more like himself again.

It’s not long before there’s a second knock on Dew’s door, but this time, it’s Swiss who calls for the knocker to come in. Before the door even opens, Dew knows it’s Rain; they have a specific knock pattern that Dew memorised long ago, and he’s sure Swiss has done the same. They open the door and peek their head around with a hand covering their eyes, smirking.

“Are you both decent?” They tease, probably knowing full well that their partners are doing nothing but cuddling innocently.

“Just come and cuddle us, viridis,” Dew mumbles quietly, his voice muffled in the hollow of Swiss’ chest, impatient to feel Rain’s comforting presence now that the water ghoul is almost within arm’s reach.

There must still be something in Dew’s voice that gives him away—or maybe they just simply know him too well—because Rain’s smirk falters and they drop their hand from their eyes, looking at the fire ghoul in concern. “Sundew, are you okay, my darling?”

Swiss beckons Rain over with his free hand, lifting the covers on Dew’s side of the bed. The water ghoul easily slips under the blanket and slots themselves into their mini, impromptu ghoul pile, their cool skin proving a perfect balance to Swiss and Dew’s combined warmth, just as the fire ghoul had hoped. Once Rain has settled themselves into the pile comfortably, Dew chooses to move his head out of Swiss’ chest to the pillow above so he can face Rain properly, and both other ghouls wrap their arms around him tightly. As Dew organises himself into a comfortable position, he feels Swiss shift, leaning over him to mutter something in Rain’s ear that he can’t quite make out—presumably something in answer to the question the water ghoul posed to Dew that the fire ghoul never quite got around to answering.

Once Swiss finishes speaking, Rain wraps their arms around Dew tighter and leans forward, pressing a gentle kiss to the fire ghoul’s forehead. “I’m sorry I didn’t come and find you earlier, sundew,” they whisper softly against his ear. They pull away from his ear, but not as far as Dew was expecting, only enough to pass their eyelashes softly over his cheek, making the fire ghoul huff out a laugh of surprise at the tickle of it.

“‘S okay,” Dew murmurs back. It’s louder than he means to with Rain still fluttering their eyes across his cheek. “Swiss helped.” The multi ghoul gives a squeeze around Dew’s middle at the mention of his name. The corner of Dew’s mouth twitches up, and he leans gratefully into the multi ghoul’s hold.

Rain chases Dew’s face with their own after he leans away and ghosts their eyelashes over his lips. Dew has to resist the urge to stick his tongue out and lick them. Instead, he giggles in a way that is decidedly un-Dew-like—he resents (not really, but a ghoul’s got to keep up appearances) the implication that Swiss and Rain would probably say the opposite; that he always sounds like that when he laughs—and pulls back to ask Rain what in Hell’s name they’re doing.

“Kissing you,” they reply simply, as if that explains everything.

Even Swiss chuckles at that. “Baby…” He’s clearly very amused by this whole situation. “You kiss people with your lips. You know that.”

“These, my loves,” they start, and Dew will forever staunchly admit that the affection meant for both him and Swiss at the same time does nothing to give him the warm fuzzies, despite it absolutely doing just that, “are butterfly kisses.” Rain continues ghosting their lashes all over Dew’s face as they speak, making the fire ghoul squirm and laugh under their touch. “Mountain showed me. They’re supposed to feel like butterflies flitting across your face. Close your eyes, sundew. Can you feel it?”

Dew blinks at their words, doing his best to communicate his confusion, but closes his eyes without complaint, smiling as he indulges in his partner’s wishes. He’s surprised to find that, once his eyes are closed and he relaxes himself as well as he can, it really does feel like butterfly wings brushing up against his cheeks, lips and nose. It’s strangely calming, and almost grounding, in a way, despite the softness of the barely-there touch. Slowly, as their touch continues, Dew finds the horrible uncomfortable-ness from earlier melting away under the brush of Rain’s eyelashes and Swiss’ gentle hold.

It’s not a conscious action, but after some time passes, Dew realises he’s been purring. Swiss is massaging over Dew’s front and shoulders, tracing his fingers lightly over the faded scars adorning the fire ghoul’s chest from where his arms are wrapped around the fire ghoul, and one of Rain’s hands strokes at Dew’s cheek while the other cards through his hair. His partners’ touch is so tragically comforting that he can’t help but let his eyes slowly slip closed, allowing himself to drift in and out of consciousness, tangled in the warm-cool embrace of both his partners.

He thinks he trills out a sleepy “thank you, love you” and he thinks he hears two equally sleepy replies, but he’s so tired that he truly doesn’t know. All he knows is that, while he still doesn’t feel great, nor does he know the reason for his misery, he’s in Swiss and Rain’s arms, and for now, that means he’s safe, he’s warm, and he’s happy.

~

oh, and very quickly !

dew calls rain viridis which is a shortening of chromis viridis (blue-green damselfish), a species of fish that looks like this:

Dew notices that everytime the ghouls go to spend the day by the lake, Mountain never goes any further than waist deep. Everyone else floats out and lounges in and around the deeper depths, leaving the earth ghoul to mostly hang out by himself with occasional check-ins from the pack. 

Mountain never seems upset about this, content to lounge near the shore and let the cool water lick at his legs while he lounges back on the sand, but Dew figures that it has to get a little lonely sometimes.

Dew continues to swim around occasionally stopping to look at Mountain as various members of the pack slowly wade their way deeper and deeper towards the center of the lake. Eventually the earth ghoul is the last one left in the shallows and Dew notices the way his gaze follows the other members of the pack as they settle into their own routines. 

Dew lazily paddles his way over towards Mountain until he catches the earth ghouls eye, getting a warm smile that encourages him to pick up the pace. He is sitting along the bank, just deep enough in the water for it to come about an inch above the earth ghouls navel and looking surprisingly content. 

“Hey droplet, I’m surprised you aren’t out floating with everyone else” Mountain rumbles as Dew grows closer, shifting from swimming to walking through the shallow water and plopping down next to him. 

“Hmmm, I wanted to hang out with you. Do you mind?” Dew asks meekly, suddenly worried he might be ruining Mountain’s quiet. 

“Not at all, come here” Mountain lilts, shifting so open up a space in between his legs. “Come and sit with me for a bit, the company will be nice.”

Dew climbs over the earth ghoul’s leg, letting himself get comfy as he leans his head against the taller ghouls chest. Mountain wraps his arms around him pulling him closer, and Dew can feel the happiness radiating out of him as the earth ghouls deep rumbly purr encourages a purr of his own to make a rare appearance. 

Mountain’s grounding presence surrounding him in a tight embrace in combination with the presence of his element leaves Dew more relaxed than he can ever remember being. He lets himself melt back into the comforting touch and next thing he knows he is on a big towel on the shore. 

The water ghoul lets out a content yet confused chirp as he lifts his head up off of Mountain’s chest, stretching and looking up at the earth ghoul. 

“Wha’ happ’nd” he yawns out.

“You fell asleep in my arms. It was kind of adorable, but I carried you here so we could both lay down.” Mountain returns with a comfortable grin. 

“”M not adorable” Dew counters with another distorted squeaky yawn that even he grumpily has to admit does sound a bit adorable.

“Sure thing little lotus. I’m sure you're off to go back to floating around now?” 

Dew sees the tiny glimmer of hope in Mountain’s eye and snuggles back down into the earth ghouls chest, flipping over to give the other side of him a chance to get some sun. 

The return of Mountain’s deep purr and his large hands smoothing over his skin as he thoughtfully rubs sunscreen into Dew’s already sun-warmed skin feels heavenly. He could swim and mess around in the lake anytime, moments like this with Mountain are priceless. 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Mountain originally thought Dew’s offer to braid his hair for him was a joke, but here he was sitting on the floor between the water ghouls legs while he slowly worked out various knots and tangles in his hair. He had been lamenting about how tangled his hair gets after working in the greenhouse and Dew casually offered to braid it, stating that Mist showed him how after she got tired of how often the water ghoul let his hair get tangled while swimming.

Even after it seems like all the tangles are out, Dew continues to run his fingers through Mountain’s hair, lightly scratching his scalp with each pass. He lets himself relax back into the couch, allowing Dew to play with his hair however he wants. 

Eventually he feels Dew start to section off small pieces and make his way along the right side of his head as we weaves them together. Mountain had only asked for a simple braid but already Dew was getting involved and intricate with it. 

“Lean your head against my thigh so I can better access the other side near your ear. I wanna work some tiny braids into a bigger one.” He mumbles, adjusting Mountain to rest comfortably. 

Dew pulls as much hair free from being trapped against his leg then goes back to playing with it, making long purposefully strokes of his claws along Mountain’s scalp and continuing until the hair slips through his fingers. The feeling is so nice Mountain quickly settles into a quiet purr, content to let Dew do whatever he pleases for now. 

After an unknown amount of time, Mountain feels Dew shifting around him as he attempts to lay a blanket across him with one arm, the other draped across his chest rubbing small soothing circles.

Mountain looks up at the ghoul and realizes the rest of his hair is mostly braided into a large intricate interconnecting braid and that Dew is now watching some cooking show. 

“Oh good, you're awake again. Now I can finish up” Dew mutters nonchalantly, taking his arms back to put the last touches into the braids. 

“How long was I out?” Mountain mumbled out wearily.

“Not that long really. I only finished braiding maybe 5-10 minutes ago”

“Why didn’t you wake me up?”

“I dunno” Dew shrugs out like the thought never even crossed his mind. “When you fell asleep in my arms, well between my legs really, it was kinda adorable. Guess I didn't wanna bother you”

Dew weaves the final piece of hair into place and then curls up on the couch, leaving a spot for Mountain to occupy next to him. 

“Also you never let any of us pamper you like this really and I thought it might be nice” Dew tacks on as Mountain settles down next to him. 

“It kinda was nice actually” he concedes. 

The two finish up the last of the show Dew was watching, Dew letting one hand rub along the nape of Mountain's neck while the other rubs his chest as he curls around the earth ghoul. Already Mountain can feel the edges of sleep attempting to pull at his mind once again as he watches the finishing touches get placed on whatever Mediterranean dish the program was trying to promote. 

“You know, we can move to your room and continue this if ya want” Dew mutters out quickly as he shuts off the TV in the living room. 

“Continue this, huh? Are you propositioning me? ” Mountain teases, doing his best to look shocked. 

A deep blush overtakes the water ghouls face as Mountain feels their cool skin begin to heat up. “Just kidding, I know what you meant. A nap sounds lovely poppy”