Pickle for your thoughts? (Dungeon meshi x reader)

Sleep - the sweet escape from reality

Good night little one, don't let the bed bugs bite you.

(Warning: Heavy topics like panic attacks and all that shit. Be careful and read at your own risk)

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Your chest heaved in a rapid series of gasps as you turned and trashed into your sleeping bag. Your face was twisted into a grimace that almost looked like in pain, your eyebrows lowering towards your squeezed eyes as your lips were pressed together, occasionally letting out a quiet distress sound before being accompanied by the rustling of fabric caused by your trashing around.

It didn't take a genius to figure out that you weren't having a good night.

Rubbing his eyes Kabru rolled over on his sleeping bag before sitting up, your quiet distressed whines had woken him from his slumber. "_____?" he called out, crawling towards your body–still half asleep. His blue eyes fell on your form, his just-awoke mind processing now your expression of pain. "_____, what's going on?" he called out again, shaking your shoulder with his hand.

"They're having a nightmare"

With a jump and a soft gasp Kabru let go of your shoulder before turning his head towards the source of the second voice. He blinked a couple of times only now noticing the elf sitting against the wall like a doll. "Are you still awake captain Mithrun? You should get some sleep if you want to recover your energy" Kabru immediately said, forgetting about you for a moment. The threat of the Canaries hurting his party still fresh in mind.

Mithrun softly shook his head "I was sleeping but I woke up to their whimpers" he stared pointing at you with his finger. Kabru's eyes widened before he once again looked back at you, still trashing around like you were in pain. Sometimes you would grip the blankets with your hand so hard your knuckles would turn white or you would shot your hand foward like you were trying to reach something.

"They must have quite a few nightmares in their pillow, even you didn't squirm so much when you had them" Mithrun hummed approaching your figure and looking at you. Then he shot his hand out like he wanted to slap your cheek, Kabru however (bless his heart) quickly grabbed his wrist, stopping him "We shouldn't wake them so abruptly! We might accidentally give them severe mental damage" he said with a sigh, placing his free hand on your sweaty forehead. He slightly winced at the heat it emitted.

Mithrun blinked a couple of times before lowering his hand. “Really?” he asked blankly. At his words Kabru sweatdropped. “Excuse me for asking, captain, but how did you usually deal with nightmares in the past?”

"I would either slap or shake someone until the woke up"

"Uh. . ."

"But now that you have told me this maybe it was because of it that they would all act weird for a while"

". . .I wonder why"

Mithrun's black eye rested on your figure again and the elf crossed his arms. "What do we do then? At this rate they'll end up dying in their sleep and I'm no good with resurrection spells." Kabru thought for a few seconds, searching the depths of his mind for a solution to bring you back to the world of the awake. For a moment his mind projected a distinct image of Laios before Kabru shook his head quickly in an attempt to erase it.

"We-We need to enter in their dream" he nodded, finally remembering Holm's words "You put a pillow on the sleeping person's belly so that it forms a sort of link that you can then pass into their unconscious part and wake them up" Kabru explained taking his pillow and placing it on top of you "I will enter their dream and take them back–"