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Phantom could feel everything, his shirt was stuck in a weird position on his body, his tail was being crushed in a odd way due to how he was sitting. He could hear Dew’s chewing despite the fire ghoul being in the other room. This was his normal, he could always feel everything. It usually didn’t get to him, but some days were worse than others. Today happened to be one of those days. His collar of his shirt kept hitting his hair and snagging as he read the same paragraph of his book over and over as he just couldn’t get it to make sense of the words. He let out an sigh and tried one last time to read the paragraph he was focused on.
“I’m sorry am I annoying you?” Dew said looking at phantom. Phantom didn’t look up, he couldn’t meet the fire ghouls gaze if he wanted to. Dews breathing quickened and phantom could feel he was inching close to an edge he was unaware he was on.
“no.” Phantom said quickly to break the silence, Dew let out a breath and moved to sit next to Phantom. The sound of Dews shoes on the floor was deafening to Phantom, the movement of the couch as Dew sat down felt like an earthquake. Phantom could hear his own breath quickening, the hand holding his book tightening its grip.
“Little bat, is everything okay?” Dew said gently noticing the younger ghouls breathing. Phantom bit his lip, savoring the brief pain. Anything to pull him away from the sounds and contact from his clothes, the couch, and his book. Phantom stared down at the page he had given up on reading, he could feel his grip starting to slip from how tightly he was holding the book. He let out a small breath, unintentionally squeezing the book harder causing the cover to crinkle and slip from his hand. The book hitting the ground was too much, phantom recoiled from the quiet thud.
“hey hey, phantom, talk to me” Dew said watching the ghouls reaction. He slowly reached out to touch the quint ghoul on the shoulder. As soon as Dew touched the fabric of Phantoms t-shirt he was met with a hard slap on his hand.
“Don’t!” phantom snapped pulling away from Dew. Dew cocked his head slightly, more confused than hurt from the slap on his hand.
“Baby… phantom tell me what’s going on” Dew said. Each words felt like an excruciating scream in Phantoms ears.
“Shut up! Please for the love of Lucifer! Shut up!” Phantom yelled, the pressure building in his chest. Dew was taken aback by the out burst of the quintessential ghoul. He nodded and got up and walked away without another word.
“…help…” Phantom said in a quiet voice once Dew was gone.
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Dew walked into Rains room annoyed. He shut the door and dropped himself on to the water ghouls bed.
“What’s up dew?” Rain said sensing the annoyance in the fire ghouls body language.
“Phantom just yelled at me,” Dew sighed.
“Why? Did you do something?” Rain asked figuring the fire ghoul had done something to piss the quintessential ghoul off.
“He was reading and he was breathing weird so I reached out to touch his shoulder and he slapped my hand. then I asked him what was wrong and he yelled at me to shut up” Dew explained, his eyes lighting up with annoyance.
“That’s really weird,” Rain said now concerned about the younger ghoul.
“I was just worried about him” Dew said now feeling bad about how he left.
“Maybe we should go check on him?” Rain suggested.
“Yeah that might be the best idea, somethings not right” Dew responded.
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Phantom had pulled off his tshirt and put on a loose fitting sweatshirt, all of the lights were off in his room. He curled up in the back of his closet, his knuckle in his mouth, biting it with his fangs. He rested his head on his knees until the fabric of his sweatpants became too much. He could feel the tears starting to fall down his face. He bit down harder on his knuckle to stop the tears but they just flowed more. Phantom heard his door up and two sets of foot steps enter his room. He recognized Dews squeaky left boot and Rains slightly longer right step as he walked.
“Baby bat? you in here?” Dew asked softly. Phantom shifted causing his closet door to squeak. Phantom hissed at the noise and tried to curl in on himself tighter.
Rain slowly pushed the closet door the rest of the way open.
“Phantom?” Rain said softly, getting down on a knee to be closer to the quint ghoul.
“too much” was all phantom could say, he continued to bite his knuckle until he was hit with a coppery taste in his mouth. He quickly pulled his finger away seeing the small cut on his finger from his own fangs.
“what’s too much baby?” Rain said finally starting to understand what was going on with the ghoul.
“…everything…” he squeaked out, finally turning to face the water ghoul. Tears were streaming down his face uncontrollably. Rain held back a gasp at the quintessential ghouls demeanor. Since Phantom had been summoned, he had been strong and hard headed, fiery and excitable. That demeanor was gone.
“is it okay if I touch you?” Rain asked, moving slightly closer to the ghoul. Phantom just nodded. Rain gently took Phantoms other hand away from the strand of hair it was tangled in. Phantom hadn’t even noticed the pain that he was causing to his head.
“Dew wanted to apologize and check on you love,” Rain said softly, still holding Phantoms hand. The quintessential ghoul looked at the fire ghoul watching from behind Rain. Dew sat on the ground, crossing his legs.
“You don’t have to explain, but if you’re okay just nod. If you’re not, shake your head” Rain said letting the ghouls hand go. Phantom shook his head, losing the last grip he had on preventing a full meltdown. He let out a small pained breath and crawled into Rains arms. Rain squeezed the younger ghoul tightly, keeping his breathing steady. Phantom pressed his face into the water ghouls neck, crying into him.
“Rain? What’s going on” Dew asked his voice quiet. “Meltdown… just give us a second” rain said as quiet as he could as to not further upset the ghoul in his arms. Dew nodded and sat quietly watching the two.
“want…” Phantoms voice was barely a whisper as he reached for Dew. Rain shifted to where the Quint ghoul could move into Dews grasp. Phantom moved to Dews arms, melting into his warmth. Dew could feel the sobs coming from the younger ghouls body, but heard nothing. Dew held Phantom close to him, gently rubbing his thumb over the quintessential ghouls shoulder.
After a couple of minutes of silence, Phantoms breathing finally started to even out. His hands unclenching, his shoulders finally relaxing. Dew loosened his grip a little looking down at the ghoul in his arms.
“Baby bat do you need water or a snack?” Rain said gently.
“snack, in the top drawer” Phantom said pointing to his nightstand. Rain got up and opened the drawer to find an obscene amount of fruit snacks in the drawer. He grabbed a pack and brought them over to the two ghouls on the floor. Rain handed the pack to Phantom, the quint ghoul opened them and dug until he found an orange gummy before eating it. He looked at Rain and Dew, his eyes still wet from the tears.
“thank you,” he said once he finished chewing.
“Baby bat… you don’t need to thank us. thank you for being okay with us helping,” Rain said sitting back down. Phantom pushed his face back into Dews neck, exhaling softly.
“Baby, I’m sorry for earlier, didn’t realize. Still not fully sure what’s happening but I’m here to help” Dew said rubbing the ghouls back gently.
“Just get overwhelmed sometimes, it wasn’t your fault.” Phantom explained. He slowly sat up, and looked Dew in the eyes. Dew leaned forward to kiss the ghouls forehead.
“I can explain if you want baby bat” Rain said. Phantom nodded before curling back into Dews arms.
“It was a melt down dew, the short version is that he got so overwhelmed from whatever was going on that he couldn’t process all of the stimuli and just…” Rain trailed off
“was me touching you what caused it?” Dew said feeling even worse.
“no. dropping my book did” Phantom said softly. He finished the last of the orange gummies in the pack, moving on to the red colored gummies.
“do they happen often?” Rain asked watching the quint ghouls methodical way of eating the fruit gummies in his hand.
“no, first one i’ve had since i was summoned” Phantom said between gummies.
“Thank you for trusting us” Rain said looking at the two ghouls cuddling together.
“thank you for not being weird about it…” Phantom said quietly.
“You’re our baby, we’re gonna take care of you” Dew purred nuzzling the younger ghouls hair.