TELL ME IT'S OKAY
Jeff was a wreck that barely slept properly, that much was known already. So, it truly was a once in a lifetime occasion to stumble across the slasher passed out somewhat peacefully, whether that be on a bed or couch or whatever other soft surface sleep would finally decide to overtake him on.
So there he was, perched on his own bed, mind running a million miles a second. He tried to read something, but it both bored him and words were currently too hard for him to make out at the moment. He tried to continue playing his game, but he was going to rip out all of his hair if he kept missing jumps in this godforsaken circus and leading to the character he was escorting to be killed. After deciding that the meat circus was causing him too much grief right now, he put that down as well and continued to have his mind run wild with excess energy and no sign of sleep any time soon. His interest was piqued and his attention was pulled as he heard some movement towards his room, spotting a familiar shape in the doorway.
Jack was a more crespecular creature, most active at the twilight hours of the day and spending good amounts of the rest resting. He would frequently stumble across moments, such as this, of Jeff during the midst of a burst of frenzied energy, trying to distract his mind enough to lure himself to sleep in whatever way he could. Black eyes raked over the scrawny pale man, taking in the effects of his problematic sleep habits. He stared at his icy eyes, lined in heavy yet smudged eyeliner and accented by dark circles. Jeff could feel his face grow warmer under the other's gaze; he knew that Jack's eyesight wasn't the best and frequently he had to move in incredibly close just to be able to pick out the details in whatever it was he was trying to look at. Locks of dyed black hair draped over his features, helping to conceal some of his insecurities along with the heavy makeup.
The creature rose back upright slowly, humming quietly. "I constantly forget that you're awfully pretty for a human," he murmured in his gentle voice, just above a whisper. This lit Jeff's face ablaze; he absolutely was not used to compliments, much less on his appearance.
"Oh, you're just saying that because you can't even fucking see me that well. I'm a pretty fucking sore sight on the eyes. If you knew other humans as well as you know me, you'd definitely change your tune for sure," he chuckled weakly, doing his best to deflect the casual comment. Jack narrowed his eyes, "I know plenty of other humans, like Tim or Brian, hell even Toby." "Oh, they hardly count! They work for my dad so they've got some level of preternatural persuasion clouding their minds!" he quipped, waving his hands around wildly and filling as much space as he possibly could. "There's your brother as well," Jack cooed, making a small huff in amusement, "And there's Jane, Nina, I could go on about the humans that I know besides you, Jeff." Jeff groaned and raked his hands across his face, desperately trying his best to hide how embarrassingly red his face actually was at this point. "Fine! You made your point," he grumbled, pulling on his hoodie strings.
Jeff had a reputation that he wanted to maintain, even if it was just him and Jack in the room, he still hated the idea of the monster perceiving him as weak . He suddenly stilled as he heard a gentle sound rumbling from Jack's direction. Was Jack purring ? He stared at him, making direct eye contact as a hand was moved to the other's chest, allowing him to feel the rumbling. Jeff swallowed thickly as his heart hammered away, thumping loudly against his eardrums as he tried to get a grip of himself. The creature leaned in towards him, resting his head upon his shoulder and slowly pulled him in closer. He stopped in his tracks, skin so warm he could cook on it and heart pounding away.
"As pretty as you are, I can tell that you don't get enough sleep," Jack commented, wrapping elongated limbs around the human, "Jeff, I know you try not to think about or acknowledge it, but unlike most of the rest of us, you're still a human. Not getting enough sleep is going to kill you if you're not careful." The fact that Jack was genuinely concerned tied Jeff's stomach into knots and caused those metaphorical moths and butterflies to crawl up and flit around his throat.
He smirked as he tried to hide just how flustered Jack's concern was making him, "Oh so you're worried about me? Aren't you supposed to be this calculating beast, Jack? Kinda defeats the purpose if you get all hung up over a human, which is generally what you eat, let me remind you!" The monster simply grunted, pulling Jeff in closer.
His skin somehow ran even hotter as Jack's breath ghosted over the pale flesh that peeked from beneath his shirt collar. He silently wished that he was wearing his old, worn out hoodie; it would really help to keep his mind from unraveling in this moment solely from just how much subtle contact he was experiencing. He was not used to it and while it wasn't bad, it was making him lose his nerve and the edge he was hiding under. Damn Jack for getting him like this.
Beneath the insistent thumping from his heart that overwhelmed his senses, Jeff could make out a low chuckle emitting from the beast that currently had him in his grasp. "You know," Jack purred and Jeff could hear the smug smirk in his voice as he spoke, "For someone whose whole little catchphrase is 'go to sleep', you ironically don't get a whole lot of sleep yourself."
Jeff immediately groaned at the snide remark, but otherwise remained uncharacteristically silent. This immediately sparked more concern in Jack, there was almost never a moment where Jeff didn't retort with his own snarky commentary to anything someone says to him. Something had to be wrong.
The air was sickeningly heavy as the silence remained for another beat before Jeff finally broke it, sighing. "It's…hard. To 'go to sleep' I mean," he hesitantly murmured, "I can't stop thinking about stuff, like from back then mostly. Whenever I go to sleep, I have dreams about that night." Jack remained silent as he listened to Jeff, knowing it would be best to just lend the man an ear. He was finally uncovering one of the many causes behind Jeff's sleeping problems after all. "I dunno, I guess I still feel guilty about it because like, I almost killed Liu . I normally don't feel this guilty about killing people but," he said, voice breaking as he bit back tears, "But, Liu's different. I'm such a shitty big brother, Jack. We used to be so close, I don't know how he doesn't hate me. He probably actually does, he's always been too polite to actually tell people when he hated them."
That's what broke him. Jeff was quickly overwhelmed with a flood of emotions, body shaking violently as he sobbed into Jack's shoulder. He awkwardly rubbed the killer's back as sobs wracked his whole body, watching closely as he slowly stilled.
"Sorry," Jeff whispered as he adjusted himself to make eye contact with him, "I probably ruined your cloak with my tears and snot." Jack snorted as he fondly ran his spindly fingers through Jeff's tangled hair, "It's fine, I don't care about that too much. Is that stuff really what's been keeping you up at night all this time?" He nodded slowly, burying his face back into the soft fabric. "I dream of it almost every night," he mumbled, "It's awful, I hate it."
The tall creature cooed softly as he played with a lock of Jeff's hair, working out a knot from the mess. "You know," he hummed, "I could always sleep in here with you, if it helps. That way if you have a nightmare, you won't be alone because I'm here." Jeff snorted and just smiled, glancing up at Jack, "Sure, okay, we can try that." The monster immediately purred and held him closer as he nestled his face into the crook of his neck, "Excellent, now you really could use some sleep, I'm sure you used up a lot of energy already."
Right on cue, Jeff had a yawn rip out of him. "Guess you're right," he hummed, pulling Jack closer and into his bed in the process. "Come on, you're gonna join me in this beauty rest now that you offered," he snickered, petting the downy fur that ran across Jack's arms. "Yeah okay," Jack chuckled as he shrugged off his cloak, tossing it on the floor before curling around Jeff and pulling him close to his chest. A loud purr rumbled from deep in his chest as he adjusted himself, getting more comfortable.
Jeff yawned just once more as he slowly drifted off into a finally peaceful slumber, free from any nightmares.