Author's Note: This is my first "Wreck-It Ralph" oneshot, so I hope you like it! :) Let me know what bits, if any, are good and what bits, if any, need work – I enjoy getting feedback and learning from it.
Her Husband, His Nightmare
Tamora woke up not with a bang but with a whimper. Eyes fluttering open, she checked the clock beside the bed. Two o'clock exactly – still another seven hours before the arcade opened.
This puzzled her. Normally she never woke up in the middle of the night, with two exceptions: after a nightmare, or before something bad happened in real life. And since she had been having a pleasant dream, in which she ate a picnic with her husband by a shining lake under the falling autumn leaves, she expected the worst.
The person beside her groaned.
Tamora turned her head. Felix lay with his back to her, curled up in a ball. An odd squeaky noise left his mouth. His hands trembled.
Tamora knew all too well what a nightmare could feel like. She shook his shoulder, but it made his leg kick out backwards and only just miss hers. "No," she thought he wailed.
She didn't know what else to do. Should she try to wake him up again? Should she let him sleep and hope for an improvement? Or would the whole apartment complex be disturbed by the noise?
As she considered her options, Felix fell silent.
Then his finger twitched. It was only a small movement. But it made him scream, spin over – and whack his arms into Tamora's face.
"Ow!"
At the sound, Felix was jerked back into reality. "Tammy!" he yelped. "Are you all right?"
"You mean besides getting hit in the face?" She rubbed her cheek. "Yeah."
"I'm so sorry. Do you need-?" He reached over her, trying to get his magic hammer, but she pushed him back into bed.
"It's fine, honestly," she insisted. "It's not even stinging anymore."
The way Felix looked at her was like that of a puppy caught shredding the couch cushions. "Oh, Tammy," he gasped. "I thought you were-" He swallowed. "I thought I had to-" He couldn't finish his sentences.
"Relax, pint-size. It was only a blow to the head. I've had worse."
"Not that. I meant-" Felix turned over, away from Tamora. He mumbled something.
"What?"
"I said I don't want you to see me cry!" he snapped, his voice cracking on the last word.
Tamora lay on her back and squeezed her eyes shut. Sleep didn't return; it was impossible while her husband was like this. It pained her to know that he was so upset. She had learned to shrug off the bad dreams a long time ago, but Felix seemed like the kind of guy who had probably never experienced such night-time horrors before now. He clearly didn't know how to cope. Every sob cut through her like a knife. Whatever he had seen, it must have been pretty horrific.
The trouble was, she had no idea how she was supposed to help. Still, she had to try something. They were in the same bed. She was there.
Felix was always going out of his way just to be there for her.
Now it was her turn to be there for him.
"Hey." She stretched a hand out. "Come here."
Felix turned back with red eyes, considering the offer. He shuffled into her side of the bed. The sergeant and handyman wrapped their arms around each other. Felix buried his face into his wife's warm chest.
"Tell me what happened," Tamora whispered.
"I don't want to."
"Come on, you know what they say. A problem shared is a problem halved."
Felix took a deep breath. "It was our wedding, and . . . a Cy-Bug crashed through the window." He paused.
"Go on."
"It ate you."
The short sentence took Tamora by surprise. "Okay," she said slowly. "Then what?"
"All these other Cy-Bugs came in and trashed the church and chased the guests out. The soldiers were killing them and – I don't know how it got there, but there was a machine gun in my hand. Then the first Cy-Bug sort of . . . turned into you." Felix started talking more to Tamora's chest than to her face. "You started yelling, 'You have to shoot me, I'm a danger to the arcade.' But I couldn't move. And then you were really mad and screaming, 'Shoot me! For Code's sake, shoot me!'"
"And . . . did you?" She wasn't sure why she needed to ask that question, but she did.
Felix spoke quietly between sniffs. "I didn't want to . . . but I pulled the trigger . . . all these bullets came out . . . too fast . . . you collapsed . . . you were going . . . your face . . . it was awful." He hugged Tamora tighter. "And then I woke up."
Tamora said nothing at first, letting the explanation sink in. Her eventual reply was, "You're ridiculous."
"Huh?"
"Crying over something like that. It's stupid! The wedding was fine, remember?"
Felix smiled at the memory. Her tough-love tactic was working.
"Besides," she continued, "it's highly unlikely that I'm gonna get eaten by a Cy-Bug. I can take care of myself just fine."
"I know," Felix agreed. His smile faded. "It's just that the dream felt so realistic." He wiped his eyes with the back of his hand. "And it got me thinking . . . if it did happen in real life, what should I do?"
Gazing into his desperate eyes, Tamora thought. "Do you want an honest answer?"
Felix nodded.
"I'd rather die a human than live a Cy-Bug," she told him. "Cy-Bugs are monsters. I'm not."
"That makes sense, I guess," Felix admitted. He shifted in her arms. "Look, I don't want to talk about it anymore. Do you mind if we just stay like this for a little longer?"
There were pins and needles in her right hand, but Tamora ignored them. "Not at all."
And so the night went on. The couple stayed awake and were fine with it; video game characters didn't have a need to sleep anyway. Felix held on to his wife, comforting himself by breathing in her murky-sweet scent. Tamora stroked his hair rhythmically, enjoying its softness.
The nightmare was slowly forgotten.
THE END. So, what do you think?