Late night adventures
tagging: @septic-dr-schneep, @egopocalypse @rogue-of-light-analyzed @politescoutrussell
He hated late night visits to the bathroom. Marvin was barely conscious enough to make it, and the burst of light as he flicked the switch had him slapping a hand to his face in an attempt to block it out.
He never should have downed three glasses of water right before going to sleep. Honestly, if there was anything Marvin regretted most in his life, it was this. Luckily, it wouldn’t take him that long to complete his business. He could go right back to bed and stay asleep.
He was drying his hands when he heard a door creek open. Marvin’s first thought was that someone else had the same issue, but when he didn’t hear footsteps, or even a knock on the bathroom door, he frowned.
Marvin was starting to wake up a little more now, paranoia getting the best of him. Shutting off the light, he opened the door and peered out. At this point, his eyes were starting to adjust to the darkness, so he could see that Jackie’s door was open. Why?
“Jackie?” Marvin whispered, moving closer. “Are you okay?” It was probably nothing. It had to be nothing. Marvin was just being paranoid, right? His hand fell on the hand to push the door open even more when Jackie finally appeared in the door frame.
Jackie was wearing only a t-shirt and a pair of boxers, but he was slipping his mask on over his eyes while also trying to shove his way past Marvin, who stuck an arm out to block the superhero from going anywhere.
“Whoa, hey, where are you going?” Marvin asked, letting himself relax. “You’re not in your uniform.”
“Forget it,” Jackie mumbled. “I gotta.”
“....you gotta what?” Marvin asked. The relieved smile faded as he studied Jackie’s face. His eyes were open, but he wasn’t really looking at Marvin. He was looking off to the side....with glazed eyes.
Oh.
Ooohhh.
“I gotta go,” Jackie continued. “It’s important.” He again tried to shove his way past Marvin, but the magician just grabbed at the door frame to hold himself in place. “....please.” His voice took on a softer, more pathetic tone as he finally made eye contact with Marvin. “They won’t stop calling.”
“You need to go back to bed,” Marvin said firmly. His other hand cautiously came up, carefully taking the mask off Jackie’s face. “They’ll be okay without you.”
“No, they won’t!” Jackie gripped Marvin’s wrist. “It’s always something! This time it’s.....” he trailed off, blinking slowly as the lack of mask finally registered. “It’s....”
“It’s time for you to go back to bed.” Marvin pulled his hand away, glad that Jackie was still asleep and didn’t have much strength to him now. “Come on.” He grabbed Jackie’s shoulders and turned him around, guiding him back to his bed, then gently pushed him down. “There,” Marvin said, fighting back the urge to laugh. “This is all you need right now.”
“Mmm-hmmm,” Jackie mumbled, curling up in a ball. Marvin sighed as he pulled the blanket up over Jackie, trusting that he’d actually stay put this time. When Jackie didn’t move or speak anymore, having fallen back to deep, slow breathing, Marvin left to go back to his own room.
He had never seen Jackie sleepwalk before, and Marvin wasn’t even sure if it would happen again. Still, he knew he was going to hang this over Jackie’s head for a long, long time.