Night Terrors

Being the light sleeper that he was, Nom Nom was quickly roused from his slumber the moment the thunder rattled the cave. He cracked both eyes open for a moment, and then closed them again, still able to see the lightening flashes behind his eyelids. He opened his eyes again and stared at the wall on the other side of the room, sighing quietly as he heard the rain begin to fall heavily outside.

Sliding a paw across the sheets, he grabbed for his phone and turned it over, wincing as the bright light of the screen illuminated his face. He checked the time and sighed again in frustration. Had it been five or six o’ clock, he probably would have just given up on going back to sleep and gotten up to start his morning, but it was only one thirty. A quick look at the weather app on his phone revealed that the storm probably wouldn’t last long, much to his relief.

Nom Nom stilled and placed his phone face down again when he heard a quiet whimper beside him, followed by the sound of shifting bedsheets.

“No…No…” a voice mumbled.

Nom Nom heard a loud gasp and suddenly the shifting ceased, indicating that the individual had abruptly woken up. The koala remained still and quiet as he listened to the other’s heavy breathing. The bed creaked as he felt the person shifting, and suddenly he felt a paw slide over him and pull him towards the other’s chest, which he had been expecting.

“You had the dream again, didn’t you?” he asked softly, resting his much smaller paws on a the one clutching him.

“Y-Yeah…I think…I don’t know,” Grizz whimpered. He tightened his grip on the koala, to which Nom Nom did not resist. He was used to it by now. He had found out months ago that Grizz didn’t respond well to thunderstorms, at least not when he was asleep. During the day, he handled them just fine and didn’t seem at all bothered by them, but he could never sleep through a storm. They always managed to trigger horrible nightmares, which always resulted in the bear waking up in a cold sweat and reaching out in the dark in search of the koala. Sometimes he would sob quietly, and sometimes not. It just depended on how vivid the dream was. Nom Nom had tried getting answers as to why he had these dreams, but Grizz didn’t really know himself.

“I’m pretty sure it has something to do with something that happened when I was really young,” he had said. Nom Nom had left it alone after that.

Grizz lifted his paw as he felt Nom Nom begin to shift, resettling it against his back once he had repositioned himself. Now that they were facing each other, Grizz immediately felt compelled to lean in and press his forehead against Nom Nom’s. “I didn’t wake you up, did I?

"No…I was already awake. I can never sleep during a storm.”

“Sorry.”

“For what? I told you, I was already awake.”

“No, I mean…for just getting upset and letting it bother me so much.”

Nom Nom shrugged. “It’s kinda beyond your control, Grizz. It’s not something you should apologize for.”

“Sorry.”

The koala snickered. “Now you’re going to apologize for apologizing?”

“Sor-” Grizz clamped his mouth shut, prompting Nom Nom to laugh again. Grizz smiled softly as he pulled the other closer, pressing his nose into his fur.

“Thanks…for making it easier.”

Nom Nom said nothing to that. His only response was to push closer to the larger animal. They both laid awake for another twenty minutes or so as the storm slowly began to weaken.