Puss dealing with anxiety post-TLW: Insomnia
As someone with GAD, anxiety is the worst at night. Falling asleep and/or staying asleep can be an absolute nightmare (no pun intended). That being said, how would our favorite fearless hero handle such a situation?
In the daytime, when Puss begins to feel that familiar tightness in his chest, distractions are everywhere. Perrito rambling on about god knows what, Kitty offering to spar with him, etc. But in the dark stillness of the night, when everyone else is asleep, there are fewer things the cat can comfort himself with. If he can’t fall asleep, he gets frustrated, which then starts the domino effect as the minutes turn to hours and he still can’t sleep.
With every minute he spends practically forcing himself to go to sleep, his nerves shoot more and more. Suddenly, he’s shaking almost violently, his body feeling cold yet no blanket is enough to warm him. His mind screams at him that something’s wrong, that he needs to get up, but he’s so, so tired and his body just doesn’t have the strength. He just wants to sleep.
One night it becomes too much to bear, and without thinking, Puss throws himself out of bed and steps out onto the main deck of their ship, desperately hoping to get some air. His body wracks with tremors and his eyes are wide but so heavy, but the idea of going back to his bed makes him want to throw up.
He’s not sure how long he’s out there, mindlessly pacing and wringing his paws, when he hears a soft, “Puss?”
His head whips around to see Kitty, rubbing the sleep from her eyes as she walks over, “¿Qué te pasa?”
Puss wants to lie, the impulse familiar to him, but he’s just too exhausted to think of a fib right now, and instead holds himself pathetically as he shakes like a leaf, “…can’t sleep,”
There’s a moment of quiet, and then Kitty takes his paws into her own, stilling them to the best of her ability. When Puss meets her face, there’s warmth in her expression, and even more so: understanding.
Kitty takes him back into the cabin, and the next thing he knows, he’s lying with her in her bed. He almost protests, telling her he already tried that, it did nothing, until she presses her chest against his back and wraps her arms around him, purring softly.
And Puss is left to assume that the woman is some kind of enchantress, because the way her warmth envelops his body, chasing away the tremors until he finally stops shaking, is nothing short of magical.
Perrito hops up to join them, spinning around a few times before lying down with a deep sigh, his chin resting on Puss’s thigh.
And now, with his heartbeat finally slowing down — with Kitty’s purrs and murmured whispers of comfort and Perrito’s gentle weight on his leg, his tiny body moving up and down with every breath he takes — Puss’ mind begins to pleasantly cloud over, any and all worries that he may have had already long forgotten. He’s only lying down for five minutes before he finally slips into sleep.
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