Home Is Where the Naps Are: A Thank You Drabble
(This drabble is for @juliacarter07 who purchased the Softbones plush from otomecrazy. I hope you enjoy it!)
When you smell as good and look as cute as a Softbones bitty, it can be hard to find enough alone time for the requisite 23.5 hours a day of sleep for their bitty type. Living in a bitty shop and waiting for adoption while under the scrutiny and handling of many eager customers each and every day didn’t help. The Softbones needed to find a place to sleep undisturbed to maintain his adorably drowsy appearance!
Being picked up and cuddled didn’t disturb the other Softbones as much as it did him. He didn’t dislike pets snuggles, quite the contrary. The problem was his appearance. All Softbones were cute, but he was the cutest Softbones in the bittybones shop where he lived, and it meant that customers crowded around all day every day. Being passed from hand to hand, rubbed against first one cheek then another, was not a conducive environment for napping!
In a spark of brilliant inspiration, the Softbones decided to dedicate a day to exploring the bitty shop in search of a more secluded spot to sleep the day away. Once he found his secret hiding place, he could go there when the admiration became overwhelming. With his plan in place and his SOUL full of determination, the little Softbones ventured out of his enclosure.
As the adventurous Softbones wandered the shop, he noticed that all of the other bitties in residence were… awake and… energetic. Just watching them hustle and bustle about sapped his energy and made him feel more tired than any Softbones ought to be. He kept walking until he found a counter and, behind that counter, an abundance of shelves! Clambering up onto the lowest shelf- the only one that a bitty of his size could reach- he discovered a tray full of bubble-wrap lined envelopes.
Reaching out with his tiny hands, the Softbones gave the envelopes an experimental squish and discovered that they made a perfectly bouncy bitty mattress. Nestling down in his newly claimed nest, the Softbones quickly drifted off to sleep, undisturbed, but also unnoticed by the postal worker who collected the outgoing packages that day.
There is no awakening quite so rude as being unceremoniously dumped out of your comfortable nest of padded envelopes into a mail satchel, then having that satchel tossed carelessly into the back of a post office truck. The noise of the engine and the constant rattle of uneven roadways prevented the Softbones from getting so much as a single additional wink of sleep.
Exhaustion fogged the Softbones’ mind. As soon as the satchel stopped moving, he peered out, looking for a safer haven for slumber. He found himself in a room full of mail satchels. He doubted that any of the other satchels could be quite as bad as the one he was currently in, so he darted out of the receiving room and into the adjacent delivery room in his search of a safer satchel to sleep in. He found one that was pretty clean and smelled really nice and tucked himself between two letters like thick paper blankets.
Closing his sockets, he fell asleep… only to be tossed into yet another mail truck for another bumpy, sleepless ride!
With an exasperated cry, the Softbones pulled more mail over himself to cushion his aching body and block out some of the noise. The mail truck stopped, and the Softbones nearly wept in relief until a giant hand grabbed the letters sandwiching him a little too tightly, squashing him between them and lifting him up into the air. He couldn’t even see where he was being taken, but the feeling of weightlessness made him cling to the letters for fear of being dropped from what seemed like a very great height.
The letters were placed somewhere dark and stuffy. Even after wiggling out from between the letters, the Softbones couldn’t see his surroundings. All he knew was that the metal floor beneath him made a terrible bed, and the letters were too thin on their own to help. He curled up, lost and alone, completely uncomfortable, and unable to snooze- a nightmare for a gentle Softbones like himself.
Unexpected sunlight blinded him briefly, and a new, more careful hand reached into his metal prison, which the Softbones now realized was a mailbox. The moment you saw him, your eyes widened in delighted wonder. How had a Softbones ended up in your mail? You worried that he might be injured or hungry, so you offered your hand to pick him up.
The Softbones crawled into your arms with a contented sigh. Finally, finally he had found the perfect resting place, promptly falling asleep in the warmth and security of your arms.