There it was.
In the middle of the darkened hallway, unmoving and minding its own business. 'Disgusting' Shulk thought, safely seated towards the stairs and as far away from the creature he could get without letting it out of his sight.
All the boy wanted to do was go to back to bed. He had spent the evening in the library, but as the hours passed he had ended up falling asleep in the middle of his book. Awakening only a few moments ago, Shulk would have gotten his wish of wanting to sleep in his own bed if it weren't for the caterpillar lying in the hallway. At first, its black, spiky little body was difficult for him to see as he navigated through halls without their lights on. However, moonlight streamed through the window, illuminating the menace with its silvery glow.
The boy wanted to scream when he had looked down and saw it sitting so close to his feet, but sheer terror and panic had turned it into more of a squeak as he scrambled back to his current position.
When he thought about it, Shulk was capable of plucking up enough courage to simply step around the thing, to leave it alone for the night and let someone else find it in the morning. After all, the caterpillar wasn't even moving at the moment. What was the worst thing that could happen? For starters, just because the thing wasn't moving, doesn't mean it couldn't. There was no guarantee that the little monster would stay stationary the whole night. If he retreated to his room now and lost sight of it, who knows where it could crawl off to while he was unconscious, only to pop up unexpectedly the next morning and scare the living daylights out of him a second time.
Shulk shuddered as he thought of it entering his room and crawling on his face while he was asleep. Yes, that was highly improbable, yet it could still happen! Not if he stopped it now, though. Besides, he highly doubted he would be able to rest easy unless he knew for sure the caterpillar was taken care of.
Doing another look up and down the hallway, he sighed. It was the middle of the night, of course he wouldn't be lucky enough to find someone still awake who could help him out.
Suddenly, he heard the muffled sound of a door shutting coming from downstairs. Maybe he was in luck after all! Taking one last glance at the motionless caterpillar, Shulk carefully made his way down the stairs, going left and following the soft light radiating from the kitchen. He opened the door, blinked a few times to adjust to the brightness of the room, and made eye contact with Dark Pit. The angel was dressed in his pajamas, half asleep and holding an apple to his mouth. He merely shrugged off Shulk's entrance, and proceeded to take a bite of his midnight snack.
Well, Dark Pit probably wasn't the best person to ask a favor from, especially one as embarrassing as this, but on the bright side, there were worse people in the mansion he could have run into in this hour of need.
"Sorry to bother you, but I need a bit of help." Shulk broke the silence.
"You're asking the wrong person." The angel muttered around a mouth of apple.
"I know, but no one else is awake and I don't think this can wait until morning. Just hear me out, okay?" If it meant he wouldn't have to deal with the caterpillar alone, Shulk figured he could stand to be embarrassed in front of the angel for the few minutes it would take to get rid of the danger. Moments passed, Dark Pit taking the time to finish his fruit before giving the boy an answer. To him, it seemed like an excruciatingly long time. What if it crawled off while they were down here in the kitchen?
Finally, the angel spoke up. "Fine. What's your problem?" He stated, dumping his apple core in the trash. Shulk wasted no time in motioning towards the hall, then making his way up the stairs as Dark Pit followed behind. Arriving back at the top of the stairs, Shulk was relieved to find the caterpillar still hadn't moved. He pointed to it.
"Over there. I don't know how, but it got inside and I…" he mumbled the last part, "don't want to get rid of it by myself."
"You've gotta be kidding me," Dark Pit grumbled, padding down the hallway and kneeling right in front of the spiky creature. "It's not even doing anything, just go to bed."
"No way! What if it crawls away? I'm not going to be able to sleep knowing it could pop out of nowhere the next morning! And look at that thing. Just sitting there, staring at you. It's really creepy." Shulk hissed, unmoving from his position on the top of the stairs.
Dark Pit scoffed at the paranoid boy down the hall. "How can it stare at you if it doesn't even have eyes?"
The boy by the stairs blushed in embarrassment. The angel had a point there. "Whatever, can you just throw it out the window or something? Please?"
"No way I'm touching that thing, it could be poisonous." Dark Pit sighed. "This is stupid. I'm going back to bed." Before Shulk could protest, the other had already stood up and disappeared into the darkness of the hallway.
"Oh, great," he grumbled to himself. Figuring it wasn't the best idea to go try and wake up someone else, he now had to deal with the problem alone. Staring at the caterpillar for a few more minutes, he tried to think of the best way to get it back outside. Perhaps he could throw something heavy on it and just squish the darn thing. But not only would that require him getting somewhat close to the animal, it also meant there would be a body he'd have to pick up. Even if he had gloves or paper towels to avoid direct contact, there was no way in hell Shulk was going to touch that thing.
Maybe it would be better if he got a really long broom and tried to sweep it out? There weren't many downsides Shulk could think of to that plan. He wouldn't have to come close to it and the creature could return to its life in the wild, where it wouldn't bother him anymore. Striding downstairs and opening one of the closets of cleaning supplies, Shulk returned a few moments later with a long broom in hand. He crept into the hallway, until he was just far enough that if he stretched the broom out, he could poke the caterpillar.
It took him a few moments to do so, however. He watched the thing patiently, trying to muster up the courage every so often before chickening out at the last second. Finally, the boy edged the broom close to the caterpillar, yellow bristles brushing against the creature's own black ones.
The thing started squirming at the sudden contact, Shulk jerking the broom back in surprise. Too late, the animal was already wiggling down the hallway, attempting to get away from whatever had touched it but the path leading it right towards Shulk. It was crawling faster than he expected it to, and the boy quietly shrieked in response as he scrambled down the hall and away from the caterpillar as fast as he could. Eventually, the little one stopped moving, coming to a halt at the foot of the stairs. He released the breath he was holding, and then took a few more to calm himself.
The deed was almost finished. All he had to do now was push the thing down the stairs, then out the front door, and he could finally get some rest. Shulk slowly made his way back to poking distance, yet his face was twisted in slight irritation now. He'd spent all this time hunting down a caterpillar when he could have been sleeping! 'How did it even get here?' he thought. 'This is like, the second floor!'
After a few more minutes of mentally preparing himself, Shulk raised the broom once more, prepared to ruthlessly shove the offender down the stairs. He froze mid-push to see the darkened outline of a body standing down the hallway. The boy swallowed thickly, a lump of fear slowly gathering in the pit of his stomach. 'Holy shit, who the heck is that, I'm so not in the mood for this please just go awa-' The newcomer slowly made its way towards him, coming into the light.
Oh, it was just the Villager. For the second time that night, Shulk released the breath he was holding. This must have been quite the scene for the shorter boy to walk in on, with the blond crouched on the ground, wielding a broom against a little caterpillar and staring at him like a deer in the headlights. He wasn't really sure why someone like the Villager would be up at this time of night, but as he was learning, in this place it wasn't too uncommon for one to have a night in which they stay awake for one reason or another.
The brunette shuffled towards Shulk, looking between him and the animal and thankfully understanding the situation. The boy simply picked up the black creature and placed it in his pocket. Shulk paused in shock, unsure if it was such a good idea for the kid to pick up something potentially poisonous and just put it away like one would pocket spare change. Regardless, he was glad to finally have the animal taken care of. He stood back up with the broom in hand. "Ah, thank you."
The Villager, too short to reach anywhere higher than his leg, patted the blond on the knee and then continued his way down the hallway. Shulk took another trip down the stairs to return the broom before finally retiring to his room for what was left of the night. There were only a couple of hours left until sunrise, but Shulk could sleep for the remainder of them in peace.
Loosely based on a true story.