Chapter Text
Soul stared down at his desk, clicking his pen absently, eyes skimming over the lyric attempts scrawled along the page, eyelids ready to slip shut at a moment's notice…
He switched between clicking the pen and fiddling with it in his fingers, twirling and smacking it in monotonous repetitions against the table, listening to the noises distantly in his ears, acting as a dull sense of white noise, giving his hand something to do whilst not writing meaningless prose.
It felt like routine by this point. Wake up in the middle of the night, fail to go back to sleep, get up and write to kill time, and either one of three outcomes—
A, resign to going back to bed.
B, stay up until morning.
Or C, falling asleep at the desk and waking up with the world's worst crick in his neck.
His brow creased, scribbling out another line and rewriting it for what felt like the hundredth time.
His head began tipping slightly, attempting to nod off but he fought it back, keeping focus on the papers and lines, wordlessly summoning an energy drink, sparkles of stars leaving his hand as a can made its way to his lips, at the least to stop himself from falling asleep there at the table, lest he allowed option C to claim him.
It sat the drink down, a yawn slowly breaking away from its throat, hand held over its mouth as it did. It sighed, hand running up through its hair, looking back down to the papers and blinking a few times, eyes still tired as it brought its hand back down, thoughtlessly starting to scribble, simply doodling to take a break from the words.
It hummed softly under its breath, tired eyes still fighting back sleep like it was a war, as it relished the quiet, the calm atmosphere encasing the Night—
“…Soul…?”
Its ears flicked at the distant voice, eyes widening as it turned around in its chair.
“Heart? What’r you doing awa—?”
…The room was still, the Host remained alone, air empty, no emotional side to be found.
Soul quirked a brow.
… They… swore they’d heard—?
“…Soul? …Hello?”
Oh, they definitely heard it that time— they now registered the sound coming from their right.
They stood up, pushing back the chair, blinking in confusion as they made their way to their window, nerves suddenly jittery, unease pooling in their stomach, the silence sounding deafening in their ears.
“…Heart?” They muttered, more to themself than to him. What the hell was he doing outside?
They slowly opened the window, pushing it up.
“Is- ‘s that you?” They heard his voice echo out again, far clearer now that the glass wasn’t obstructing him, confirming the window was his location.
They looked out into the darkness of the void, snowflakes fluttered in the air, “Yeah, yeah…! It’s me, what…” they didn’t finish the sentence, voice trailing as they tried to make out what they were seeing, eyes squinting violently, trying to pinpoint him amidst the pitch black. “What… what happened!? Why’r you even— where—” they stumbled over their words amidst the confusion, not before Heart cut them off, voice rasping as it rose in volume.
“At’!? Please- please let me in— it- it’s cold and- and— I mean, I don’t— I- I didn’t—“ he started mumbling, cutting himself off, like he couldn’t figure out what to say, like multiple thoughts were going through his head at once. He just resorted to quiet sniffles, which then slowly turned to hics, then to sobs, loud and pounding in their ears. “…It hu-rts—” they barely heard him mumble out through his teeth amidst the cries.
Soul felt nausea pool into their stomach like it was drowning, the sounds and words so painfully familiar, visions of The Pit unwantedly filled their head.
“Oh God—! O- okay, okay, just—! Just stay there, alright!? I’ll— uh-” their eyes darted, still staring out into the blackness, still not even able to see him. They let their energy take hold of the window, red light engulfed it as they envisioned it getting bigger, heat spreading through their palms as they did, “You’ll- you'll be fine, alright? I'll fix it, jus’ hang tight, I’m going t—!”
“Soul?”
They froze.
The voice came from behind. They felt the warmth dissipate from their hands.
…What…?
That- …that …sounded like—?
Soul turned behind themself to the source of the new sound, the once held focus on the magic now stalled in favor of looking to see—
…Heart.
Their once black wall was now opened to show his room, he stood in front of it, rubbing at his eyes as he stood in his pajamas, similar to themself at the moment. His brows were furrowed, clearly annoyed.
“The fucks with the yelling? …’m trying t’ sleep .”
…Soul didn’t have any words, doing a double take, head swiveling back to the open window, nothing but ink met his gaze, the sound of the snow hummed in his ears.
“…Oi, Earth to Atlas?” Heart drawled.
Souls mouth opened and closed a few times, brain still struggling to fully connect the pieces.
“You gonna answer me? Hellooo?”
The host could only stare out at the silent darkness outside.
There was a beat of silence, considering, perhaps, “…Soul…?” He mumbled, tone shifting.
“Huh- yeah?” Their head finally snapped to him.
“Are… you okay? …What was that about?”
They blinked slowly, “…I…” Soul paused, unsure, chewing his lip.
…Yeah. What was that about? …Were they going crazy or something? …Or…
They glanced back to the desk, before catching sight of— and then glaring at— the earlier summoned energy drink.
Ah, that must have been the culprit.
“…Heh…” they huffed out the noise, shaking their head at themself comically, before waving a hand dismissively, “Sorry, sorry, I… think I was half asleep or somethin’… must finally be my karma for staying up so late, heheh…”
“Hm.” Heart hummed skeptically, but let it slide, “Alright, but I’m crashing in here so you actually sleep.” He grinned impishly, not before motioning over to its bed and flopping down, wings spreading out comfortably.
Soul merely shook its head, ah, of course, the sleepover trick.
“Fine, fine.” It hummed, twisting around to the desk and turning out its light, not before giving a sour look to the window, glaring out at the void for just a bit too long, burning holes into the silence, not before bringing its hands up and shutting the latch tightly.
It made its way to the bed, wordlessly resting on Heart's open wing, sinking into the softness, Heart in a similarly wordless fashion, lifted moons head to allow it to stretch out its arms, both being rather used to the sleeping position.
It opted to stare at the ceiling, head resting on its pillow as Heart curled up to its side, fetal-like, as moons arms tangled around its torso. It stared up at its ceiling stars, the glow in the dark lights soft in its still tired eyes, its stomach still swam slightly.
It tilted its head, looking at the cold sparkles still falling calmly outside.
“…Artie?” It whispered.
“…Hm? Yeah?” Moon hummed back.
“Have you been, um, …feeling good?” It felt awkward wording it that way, but it was unsure of how else to go about such an out of the blue topic switch.
Moons nose scrunched, “What…? Yeah? Why…?”
“Nothing, ‘s just…” it paused, looking back outside for a slightly too long moment, clicking its tongue, “…It's snowing, it uh, it only does that when you’re feeling crummy.” it recalled the usual weather of the void, the way it altered for each— snow for Heart, rain for Mind, and hail for itself. Excluding the wind that usually encompassed their vessel, that was. “Just wanna… check.”
“…Huh. Well I’m… not? …Could it not just be regular snow? Maybe we get normal weather now, you know, cause it’s been peaceful n’ stuff…”
“Hm… yeah, yeah, maybe…” it mumbled, looking back down to moon, “But you… would tell me if something was up, right?”
“Yeah.” Moon said curtly, as if obvious, “Can we like. Go to sleep now. Cause I’m not letting you drag me into your shitty sleep schedule.” moon gave a toothy grin, scooting up closer, wings draping across Souls chest like a blanket, smacking it in the face.
Atlas sputtered out a laugh, “Ack-! Alright, fuckin- fine! Ugh- y’ got a feather in m’ mouf—!” Artemis chuckled as Soul pawed at its face, spitting the feather from its mouth.
…It felt its lip curl up into a smile, as it huffed, allowing itself to relax, sinking into the warmth of their wings, head falling back onto its pillow softly…
…Though, amidst the Night, the snow continued to blow silently outside…