Sleep well, my dear
Pairing: Caine x reader Summary: Caine wants to spend some time with you, but you're too tired Tags: sfw, gn reader, just fluff WC: 1,5K
You went out of the portal with the other cast members and none of you had any desire to move for the next couple of hours. The adventure was exhausting to say the least. Surprisingly no one got traumatised this time, but you were still drained, mostly physically.
“Welcome back, my dazzling mountain macaroons!!!” Caine greeted you upon your arrival.
Most of the crew ignored him, Ragatha smiled awkwardly and you gave him a tired wave.
“Don’t know about y’all, but I’m going right to sleep after that s#@t” Zooble seemed to be the most annoyed, but didn’t have enough strength or willpower to complain to the ringmaster directly at that moment. You all collectively agreed to get straight to your rooms. Everyone headed to the headquarters, when Caine flew lower to your eye level.
“Was the adventure too much? I thought I added just enough extravagance to it,” his tone sounded softer than before. Maybe because he was a little anxious about the possible response. You were the only one that stopped on their way to reply.
“It sure…was something,” you tried to find the right words, but your mind was starting to shut down. “Guess, we just didn’t expect so much physical activity is all.”
“I’ll take note of that,” he concluded. “Do you have anything else to say about the adventure?” He asked, waiting for compliments.
“I would really like to chat, but let’s do it later, ok, Caine?” you stopped him before he went into his hyper-talkative mode. “I’m gonna collapse if I don’t lie down like right now.”
“Oh! W-why of course!! Here.”
With a snap of his fingers you two teleported to the headquarters just before the others arrived and were standing in front of your room’s door. “Now that’s convenient,” you mumbled.
“Sweet dreams, my superstars!” Wishing you all good rest Caine disappeared. You all wished each other a good night (if there can be one at the circus) as well and went into your rooms.
Barely making it to your bed, you fell onto it and sighed loudly. “This is the best moment of my life,” you muttered. You got under the blanket, shifted a little bit to find a good position, closed your eyes and immediately fell asleep.
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You had no idea how long you had been sleeping, when you woke up from the sense of someone staring at you. You slowly opened one eye only to see Caine levitating just above your bed. Surprised, you lifted your head up from the pillow.
“…Caine?” You turned on your nightstand light to see the ringmaster.
“Why hello, my sleepy red velvet cake!” He exclaimed a little quieter than usual, but still in his announcer voice. “How are you doing at this amazing digital hour?”
“Well, I WAS sleeping,” the surprise wore off and you went back to your sleepy state.
“I could see that, yes”
“…And now I’m not sleeping. Why are you here anyway?” You rubbed your eye in slight annoyance.
Caine seemingly got a little stunned by that question. He looked away for like two seconds before his gaze came back to you. Only then you realised he was holding his small notebook.
“I…wanted to ask for your opinion on this design I made! Yes, exactly that and nothing more!” He declared.
“My…opinion?”
Caine not only never shared his work-in-progress, he also rarely asked for your guys’ opinion before the adventure. Additionally, he’s asking for feedback while you are supposed to be asleep. Couldn't it wait till you woke up? And since when he’s not confident about his own designs? Before you could ask anything about his strange behaviour, the AI handed you the notebook.
“Yes! I wanna make sure the next adventure meets the criteria of aesthetically pleasing, and I trust your taste in things!”
Flattery sure does wonders. He respected your opinion and trusted you enough to keep the secret about the next adventure's possible theme. The privileges of being the ringleader’s favourite, I guess. The best thing is that the feeling was mutual. You both liked spending time with each other. He liked your kindness and appreciation towards him, something he almost never received from others. And you liked Caine for…well…him. His excitement was contagious and you couldn’t help but smile every time he appeared next to you. Even when he was about to announce your new traumatic experience of the day.
You were quite charmed by the subtle compliment, so you decided to take a look at the sketch without questioning him. It was a forest princess of some sort? She had the body type of princess Loolilalu from Candy Canyon Kingdom adventure, her dress was made from different kinds of giant green and orange leaves, hair made of long vines, arms were sticks and her face was drawn over another light yellow leaf. She looked kinda silly, but still cute. You wondered what her personality and story are gonna be.
“You have a pencil on you?” You asked after a few seconds of examining the design.
Caine snapped his fingers and a pencil materialised in your hand.
“I would add a crown to her. Maybe one made of leaves like her dress.” You started sketching a crown on the princess’s head. “But all in all I really like how she turned out. She looks nice. I especially like the dress. You did a great job on character design, as always”. You turned to Caine to give him the notebook and saw his dilated pupils and starry eyes. Only then you aknowleged how close he was to you. Not that you weren’t used to this, but you were still flustered by the close proximity.
“Thank you for your feedback, my creative cupcake! I knew I could count on your support and constructive criticism!”
“Sure, Caine, any time”. You started getting comfortable in bed again, expecting him to teleport away to continue working, but he was just silently floating in the same spot just looking at you.
“Do you…do you need anything else? Or I can go back to sleep?”
“Oh! I…Well…Uhh” He stuttered. Apparently he wanted to ask you something else, but got too shy.
“Caine, if you want to ask for something, go ahead. I don't bite.”
Your reassurance did something, because now he looked even more embarrassed, because you caught him being embarrassed. So he got double embarrassed! You could swear you saw a cartoonish blush appear on his teeth.
“I…” Caine started fidgeting with his hands. “Would you mind if I slept with you tonight?”
…
Now that’s new.
You weren’t opposed to physical contact with him, quite the opposite. Caine often put his hands on your shoulders, patted your head or straight up leaned on it or just held your hands, because he craved it and you were the only human who didn't seem to mind. But you never really hugged. There was one time you hugged him from behind, he glitched out from surprise. You didn’t try anything after that. That’s why his attempt at initiating prolonged contact now caused you to blush.
“What?”
“I-I-I just thought it would be a valuable learning experience for me! Human sleep, am I right?” He chuckled nervously. “I also wanted to spend some time with you, even if you're gonna be unconscious for a few hours,” he finished quietly.
You stared at Caine in pure shock. Your lack of response made him even more anxious. Then you started moving away from the side of the bed he was levitating at. His shoulders dropped in defeat.
“But if you don’t want to, it’s ok, I won’t push you,” he mastered as he slowly floated to the door of your room. “A-actually forget I even said anything. Thanks again for the feedback”. He turned away and put his hand up to snap his fingers.
“Caine.”
He turned his head to look at you. You were still lying in bed, holding the edge of the blanket up, opening space right next to you.
“Come here.”
You didn’t have to say that twice. Caine quickly flew over to the bed, immediately forgetting the emotional rollercoaster you just put him through, and carefully lay down by your side. As soon as his body touched the soft surface, you pulled him down so his head was just below yours and put your hand down, capturing him in a tight hug under the blanket. You placed your chin on top of his upper jaw and chuckled as the AI tensed up from surprise with a short "Ah". To ease him up you pecked his gums.
“Sweet dreams, Caine.”
The sound of a blue screen error was the only response you received. You couldn’t help but smile. He’s so easily flustered, it’s adorable.
When the glitching sound stopped, you felt his arm wrapping around you, pulling you even closer into a hug.
“Sleep well, my dear.”
sheesh, I haven't written anything in ages. I have no idea if it's good or not. also english isn't my first language if you haven't guessed it already
deviders by @uzmacchiato