ben & vax
Freaky Friday, Night 3 | their room | low
⚠ nightmares, nothing much else
If Ben had thought the beds were bad for him - a rather large over six feet tall man - he really hadn't experienced anything at all. Baymax's form was far wider than the bed really allowed for, but at least, he supposed, he was well padded. It wasn't as if it bothered him to be pushed up against the wall in this form. But that still didn't mean it was an easy fit and it did mean that he might actually be a little less grumpy about next week if he was back in his own body.
He hoped he would be back in his own body.
From everything he could figure out from the network, this seemed likely. So it was just a matter of waiting out a few days and then things would be normal again. New normal. Which wasn't very normal at all.
The strange thing too about this body was that he didn't really need to sleep. This meant he was spending nights laying awake more often than not. But that wasn't even all that bad either, because things were different and because, truthfully, Ben needed the opportunity to think over the changes.
Vax knew that, all things considered, he’d ended up pretty lucky this week. Comparatively. He and Ciri were coping as best they could, and in the grand scheme of things having a telepathic link with a near stranger was a lot less jarring than being swapped into an entirely different body for a second week in a row. Ben’s current predicament was making things a little more cramped in the room, sure, but Vax didn’t need a lot of space to sleep. He’d been more uncomfortable before.
On the bright side, falling out of bed would hurt a lot less with a human - well, not so human, but Vax wasn’t sure what Baymax really was - bumper on the way down. Normally that wouldn’t be a concern, but while he and Ciri were doing well handling things while awake, the situation was much different at night.
He was used to his own nightmares; those usually managed to grip him tightly enough that he didn’t wake up until they were done with him. These new ones, however; Ciri’s dreams sometimes had him waking up in a cold sweat, heart pounding, with echoes of a scream and crumbling ground ringing in his ears. If he was lucky.
Not so lucky tonight. The dream lingered longer than normal until finally Vax thrashed in his sleep, throwing an arm back like he was trying to stave off an attacker. “No, don’t!” The act of shouting out loud seemed to be enough to finally wake him with a gasp, legs working to kick the blankets off. Or shove himself back from the dream assailant.
The noise would have awoken Ben possibly regardless, but as he was awake, it was impossible for him to not notice. There was for a moment, that awkward uncertainty of how to deal with other people's emotions, followed by a quick double blink, which provided him with a total scan of Vax' physical condition.
Ben should have been used to this before, he had actually done it purposefully multiple times, but he still wasn't entirely used to the way he just knew - elevated heart rate, slightly elevated blood pressure, and a sheen of perspiration.
All of which were, if Ben were being completely honest, physical side effects of nightmares that he actually did know. He sat up, activating a warm yellow light in his hand. He might know what the problem was to diagnose it but doing so was something different. And unlike Baymax, who was likely far more certain of his purpose on the planet, Ben wasn't. So he just offered a single question: "Nightmare?"
It took that one spoken word to make Vax fully realize where he was. Who he was, really; in that fleeting moment between sleeping and being aware and awake, there was a strange feeling of being trapped between Ciri’s consciousness and his own. He squeezed his eyes closed and brought the heel of one hand up to his forehead to give himself a couple of not-so-gentle knocks, hoping that would drive the last of the nightmare out of his mind. The results were… questionable at best, but at the very least Ben was awake and talking had a better chance at grounding Vax in reality.
“Sorry.” It wasn’t exactly an answer to Ben’s question, but Vax wasn’t sure Ben needed confirmation for something that was embarrassingly obvious. He pulled in a breath and held it long enough that he started to feel a little more calm, then exhaled on a long sigh as he reached out to blindly feel for the leather cord draped over the headboard of his bed.
“I didn’t mean to wake you, this whole sharing thoughts thing is just - “ Vax cut himself off abruptly before he could finish the complaint, studying Ben in this new form of his during the hesitation before he ducked his head and started sweeping back hair stuck to his cheeks with sweat. Once he had his hair tied back messily with the cord, he looked up again and gave Ben a sheepish smile and a shrug. “Wasn’t mine. I’m still getting used to that. I can, uh… “ He jerked a thumb in the direction of the door, already shifting toward the foot of his bed. “So you can actually get some rest in case it happens again.”
“I wasn’t asleep,” Ben told him, with an attempt at a shrug although it didn’t really come out as one. It was difficult to shrug with two giant pillows for arms and probably looked more comical than he really intended for it to. “Don’t worry about it. This body doesn’t require sleep, exactly…” he trailed off. It was weird. That was the point, which Vax obviously got.
“My, uhm. My programming suggests that sometimes a hug helps?” He would have probably been blushing if he’d been in his regular form. Ben Solo didn’t offer to hug people, generally speaking. And perhaps in his defense he hadn’t been in a place where he could have hugged anyone for years now. But he wasn’t in his usual form and this form was a bit like a giant stuffed animal. It reminded him of if he’d been turned into the giant stuffed bear that had sat in the corner of his boyhood room, and the comments his dad had made every time he’d seen it - “Practically thought it was a damn Wookie when I walked in there - where did he get that Leia?”- but Ben had always loved it. And he hadn’t thought about it in years.
“It also suggests talking about it can help, but since it isn’t your dream maybe a hug would be the best…” he trailed off.
Vax had just about crawled to the foot of his bed when Ben’s suggestion truly registers with him. It’s surprising enough that he stops and turns his head very slowly, part of him now suspecting that he’s still dreaming. It’d be a very odd turn of events considering the abrupt shift in dream subject matter, but stranger things had happened. And just because everything seemed normal now didn’t mean it wouldn’t take another dip into horrifying. So he stopped and watched for probably longer than was polite. But if Ben’s skin - vinyl, whatever - was about to melt off of whatever was holding him together at the moment, Vax didn’t want to be mid-hug when it happened.
When nothing changed, Vax flopped back cross-legged on his bed with a furrow to his brow and not very subtly pinched the inside of his forearm. And it hurt, which was… oh. Good, until it dawned on him how he’d just been staring in disbelief. “Are you - “ Serious, but Vax decided he didn’t want to finish the question.
Because the truth was that yeah. Vax wanted a hug. Not just because of the nightmare, but because he’d probably needed one the whole time he’d been here trying to cope.
“...all right, yeah. I don’t fully know what I’m dreaming about to talk about it, so if you’re - I mean. If you’re offering.” Inwardly cursing himself for making it even more awkward than it needed to be, he shuffled himself closer to the edge of his bed and put on the best grin he could muster to lighten the mood as he opened his arms wide. “Bring it in, then.”
If it were possible for Ben to blush, he probably would be, and he didn't even really know why. But he wasn't given to hugs or affection as a general rule, and he probably wouldn't have offered it now except that Baymax's health programming suggested it as a possible useful thing. Which, alright, Ben couldn't completely deny did work. He remembered his mother's hugs - long ago though they had been. And they had been one of the few things that did help, at least until he could sense her worry for what it was, lingering underneath them. But that hadn't been very long before he'd been sent to train with Luke, and that had been the end of the hugs.
He did remember how though, well, sort of. Even if in this particular form he was just a giant pillow moving forward to bounce against Vax. But it did make it easy to give him a hug, with giant pillow arms wrapped around.
"Mom used to make me hot chocolate sometimes," he added. Now that he was thinking about his mom and his childhood nightmares. "But that isn't in Baymax's health knowledge it doesn't seem. Nor do I have any hot chocolate."
Vax had to remind himself more than once in the very short span of time between accepting the offer of a hug and it actually happening that stranger things had happened. Recently, in fact. Stranger and much less pleasant than a hug. So when Ben was finally close enough for Vax to close the wide spread of his arms into a slightly less wide hug around Ben’s currently Baymax-sized middle, there wasn’t as much hesitation to it as he’d initially thought he’d have. And while Vax was admittedly a little stiff in the early moments, he had to admit that it was every bit as comforting as Ben’s programming suggested. Within seconds he was slumped against Ben with a long sigh he didn’t much bother to stifle.
“Okay, this is a lot nicer than I thought it’d be,” he admitted, the words a little run together and muffled thanks to his cheek pressing just deep enough into the surprisingly soft material of Ben’s chest that he had to speak out of the corner of his mouth. “Uh. No offense.” It occurred to him maybe a little too late that it might not be in Ben’s programming to be the one to end a hug, and once the thought entered his mind Vax knew he couldn’t keep looking weird. So after one quick squeeze as some sort of thank you, he settled back while clearing his throat quietly and rolled his shoulders. “Thanks. I really kinda needed that.”
He pushed back to sit cross-legged on his bed again, but stayed facing Ben’s direction. After bending at the waist to rest one elbow on his knee and his cheek on that hand, he smiled - a little awkwardly, given the whole situation, but genuinely. “And it’s nice to know that hot chocolate is a thing in more than one place. I think the cafeteria’s got some, but it’s powder so I have no idea if that’s good or not. We should - “ Again he cut himself off with an internal reminder of Ben’s current state. “ - you… probably don’t drink things like this, do you? And hot things seem sort of dangerous, given… “ He waved his free hand in Ben’s general direction, chuckling. “When you’re all the way you again. We’ll figure out some hot chocolate. If you want.”
Ben smiled. Well, it wasn't really a smile so much as just an internal sort of warmth. Like, it was nice to a) know what to do and then b) do it and it… helped? That was also really nice. He would have never offered on his own, but he didn't know why. Sure, maybe it had been a little awkward to offer, but Vax felt better now, right.
"Anytime," he said aloud, and then he sort of settled back into his bed, his gaze on Vax. He could see better in the dark with the programming, but he hadn't let the light in his hand fade either. "I think I should probably not drink things in this form. That isn't how Baymax gets his energy and I think it would probably mess him up. But…" He tilted his head, since the grin wasn't going to work easily. "Raincheck on the hot chocolate for after?"
Vax couldn’t help but look amused at the ‘anytime’ offer. Ben was a good roommate, as far as he knew - he couldn’t say they were particularly close yet, not with him being gone to the ruins for a good part of the last week, but he didn’t have any complaints. The idea of Ben offering a hug in the middle of the night in his normal body, though? A little impossible to picture, though Vax definitely appreciated the sentiment. “Hey, likewise. I mean, it doesn’t always have to be… “ He gestured between them to vaguely indicate the hug without having to say it out loud, then shrugged. “But kick me awake if you want to get something out of your head so you can sleep again. People have gotten me up for less, trust me.”
Feeling infinitely more calm now than he had when he first jolted awake, he flopped back onto his bed and burrowed his way back under his blankets before rolling onto his side still facing Ben. “Definitely the raincheck, and I expect you to cash in on it sometime. Seriously.” He grinned as he punched his pillow into a more firm shape under his head, then dragged the blankets up so basically only his nose and eyes were showing. “Are you good? ‘Cause I definitely think I could fall asleep again now. So see you in the morning, yeah?”
Ben tilted his head, a smile on his face, or well, a pleasant expression. Baymax being not quite as many different facial expressions as Ben might typically enjoy. He hadn't had nightmares for a while - not since he'd arrived at Delerth anyway - but it was a nice offer nonetheless. "I'm good," he nodded. "I will see you in the morning, Vax."