#and I have more schoolwork due tomorrow but I'm sure as hell not going to do it

[remarkablebookbean]

At least this will be the low point of my week

-me yesterday

[acefaun]

The gods helping a reader-chan who is struggling with their work/schoolwork 💜 (gn reader pls)

Don't Get Overwhelmed

Synopsis: Gods from the Department of Wishes realize you're struggling with your work and are triggered by how unhappy you are. They're determined to fix this and make sure you're taking care of yourself.

✨Masterlist✨

Gender-neutral Goldfish!

A/N: I'm struggling with my college art right now and this deeply resonated with my soul. 🥺 This is a little bit about them helping with school work, but it's really about taking care of yourself. I chose the Wishes gods for this because I feel like they would be more likely to receive even your most depressing wishes and be triggered by your lack of happiness. Punishments Dept version can be found HERE!

--Word Count: 2815--

"I wish I could disappear?" ... "I wish I didn't exist?!" *BAM* The door slammed open and Leon stormed in, his gaze settling on his vice-minister and subordinates. "What the hell is wrong with our goldfish? One of you had better tell me what's going on."

Karno tried to diffuse Leon's anger by explaining, "We don't know yet. We're deciding on who's going to go see them. The last thing we want to do is overwhelm them."

Leon growled before turning away. Nothing they were saying interested him in the least bit and he had important business to attend to. "I'm going down to Earth."

"Leo, wait!" Karno's calling did nothing to stop him.

Teorus watched on nervously. "He looks angry... Maybe we should go down to Earth with him and make sure he doesn't do anything to scare Goldie."

Huedhaut sighed, but with the way Leon was acting they didn't have many options. "Alright. Let's hurry then."

*****

I was too sad for life if I was being honest. The work before me wasn't that hard but it was due tomorrow and there was no way I could finish it on time, not to mention I had no idea what I was even doing. We had the assignment for a few days now and I tried my best to work on it, but I always ended up back at square one and just as clueless as when I started. Now I was panicking over the due date and was too overwhelmed to work on any of my other classwork.

I let out a pathetic groan- though it only came out sounding like an animal that just got hit by a truck. I pulled my hood further over my head. I was so distraught that not even my cries of despair came out right!

"Goldfish!" Another pathetic noise of fright left my vocal cords, making me hiccup in my crying. I was upset, the last thing I needed was someone yelling at me! I peeked up at who it was and found Leon glaring down at me, making me hide further into my hoodie. "What the hell kind of wish is that? I'll be damned if I'm going to let you get away with thinking you can stop existing whenever you feel like it. You're not disappearing and leaving me in this worthless world." My eyes widened as I felt myself being lifted off of my sofa and pressed against Leon's chest. His arms were so tightly wrapped around me that for a moment my tears had stopped falling. "I don't know what's going on with you. But I'm not going to sit in the Heavens while you're making stupid wishes like that."

It was really bold of me to assume I could stew in my own negative feelings without the intervention of a god. But... I didn't expect this from Leon. He was so angry and then he was suddenly hugging me like it was the end of the world- which, that's what it felt like before he pulled me back to Earth by having such a secure hold on me. I leaned my head on his shoulder trying not to shake from everything I was trying to hold in.

But I still flinched again when my door swung open, alerting me to the presence of five other gods. Still, Leon didn't bother to loosen his grip enough for me to look. I could only guess that it was the rest of the wishes gods. If Leon heard my self-destructive wishes then surely they did and rushed to the scene as well. I buried my red, tear-stricken face into Leon's shoulder. I was so hung up on not being able to do my work that I stopped them from being able to do their own.

"Huh..." Teorus hummed, quietly commenting to the other gods, "I guess he's not as angry as we thought."

"But that's not the reason we all came here." Huedhaut stepped forward until he was right beside me and he lifted my hood just enough to see my face as I hid my crying in Leon's shoulder. "What has you so upset, love?" Seeing that I wasn't ready to really explain why I was making such depressing wishes, Huedhaut nodded his head in understanding. "Of course. You don't have to speak until you're ready. Let's focus on getting you better first." He placed his hand on my head in a calming motion.

Aigonorus snapped his fingers, a multitude of pillows and stuffed animals appearing on the sofa where he settled himself with a blanket. Leon was hesitant to release me, but I wasn't out of his arms for long. Aigonorus wrapped a warm blanket around my shoulders before pulling me with him in the nest of softness. He tilted his head as he studied me with a sad gaze. "You look tired. You should really take a nap."

"Not just yet," Huedhaut waved Aigonorus to release me as he held out a glass of water to me. "All that crying took a lot out of you. You could dehydrate if you don't drink any water."

"And when's the last time you ate?" Karno added on, his motherly side coming out. "You don't look like you've been taking care of yourself well enough." I was speechless as he placed a box full of cookies beside me on the sofa. "You don't look too enthused about my snacks. I promise I didn't add any spices to them- the other gods would kill me. These cookies are your favorite. But I made sure they would give you back your energy."

"And I made sure they were super sweet for you," Teorus chirped with a smile. "They'll taste delicious!"

Tauxoulouve offered a supportive smile along with the other gods. "Once you're feeling better, we'll help you get rid of whatever's making you so uncharacteristically sad."

I was very overwhelmed with life before they showed up, but now that I was faced with all of the concern and care of the wishes gods I was feeling overwhelmed by all of their love. But I found myself unable to cry. They were being so nice. They made sure I ate and drank. They cleaned up my tear-stained face with a damp towel. They put me in clothes that were twice as comfortable as before. They fixed my messy bed-head. I felt pretty guilty that I was letting them do all of this for me but they didn't even realize that I didn't deserve such pampering.

Leon's face was twisted into a frown as he pressed, "What's that face for? Do you realize if you want something you can just ask? We'll grant any wish you have. You don't need that face."

They really wanted to know what was bothering me and I needed to tell them exactly what I was thinking- that was easier said than done. "You're just being so nice and... I don't deserve this. I'm such a mess. You shouldn't-"

"Hold on, love," Tauxoulouve stopped me right there, placing a gentle finger against my lips to shush me. "It's precisely because you're a mess that we're here to help you right now. But don't tell us you don't deserve this after everything you've done for us. We're willing to do anything for you because we love you."

My helpless look told them that they weren't getting through to me, so Karno finally asked the question everyone was waiting for, "You're upset right now and we all want to see you smiling again. Won't you let us help you and tell us what's wrong?"

I looked down focusing on the blanket that was wrapped around me before nodding my head. All they wanted to do was be helpful boyfriends. I wasn't being very nice in trying to keep my problems to myself. "Well... I had this assignment I was working on and it's due tomorrow but I don't know how to do it since I had to miss class the day it was started. So I've been trying my best on it, but I keep starting over and I'm just as lost as when I first started it. And then I still need to work on other classes because I don't want to get behind on everything. I need help but... I don't know how to ask. The teacher will be mad. What if they think I can't handle their class? What if they're so mad they yell at me? Or worse... What if they have that disappointed look on their face and they start talking down to me for being such a horrible student and waiting until the last minute to ask for help? No matter what, how am I going to have this project finished for tomorrow even if the teacher does help me?"

"Woah..." Teorus interrupted my rant with the single phrase. I glanced back up at them and they all seemed like they were trying to think of their own solutions to my problem. But Teorus commented, "I guess we don't really have that sort of problem as gods. If we run into problems with our work we just go to Karno or Leo. But... you don't sound that close to this teacher of yours. So... hm... Maybe we can help somehow."

"Let's start by sending a message to that teacher that decided to let you do this assignment on your own without a proper explanation first," Leon grumbled as he snapped his fingers and began to type on my computer.

Before I could leap off of the sofa to stop him, my attention was pulled away by Aigonorus who caught my arm and calmed me, "He's just asking your teacher what your assignment is really about. Don't worry. Why don't you show us what you have so far?"

Awkwardly, I obeyed and moved to pull out the papers I was scribbling on and the booklet that I had folded up. "It's... a mess. Just like me. We'll never get through this."

Huedhaut scanned over my papers while Leon was waiting for the response of the teacher. After a few silent minutes, Karno suggested, "While waiting why don't you show me what you're doing in your other classes? We can work on that instead of overwhelming yourself with something you don't understand."

I nodded my head and took my binder out of my bag to go through my other classwork with Karno there to help me out. Things went by much more smoothly with their help. But it was already dark outside by the time we finished all of my other assignments and there was still the assignment due tomorrow. Anxiously, I asked, "What if the teacher doesn't say anything? This won't look good at all. Zyglavis is going to be mad if I'm not doing well in my classes."

Leon scoffed at the mention of the punishment's chief minister. "Don't worry about that anal-retentive kitchen scale. Even someone like him who's a stickler for the rules should understand this isn't your fault. If they wanted you to succeed they would have guided you better. Isn't that what their purpose is?"

"Well... I guess. When you put it like that..."

"So there's no need for you to feel bad about something out of your control," Tauxoulouve tilted my head up toward him, trying to get me to stop looking down. "You're learning and you have a long life ahead of you. We'll be here for every part of it. We'll teach you and help you learn too, so don't think of us as useless boyfriends."

"I never- I didn't think of you as useless! I think I'd be so lost if you weren't there..."

"Pfft," Huedhaut ruffled my hair with that amused smile he always gets when I'm being oblivious. "He was just teasing you. But... if you're so worried, you could always make a wish to your personal wishing gods."

"Like... for the teacher to explain it now? Are you sure that's okay?" They nodded their heads and I immediately sat forward in preparation. "Okay... so... I wish the teacher would explain the assignment to me."

Leon smirked and snapped his fingers. "It certainly took you a long enough time to figure out you could do that."

"Well..." I shyly looked down trying to explain myself, "You know I try to do everything on my own. That's why I was in so much distress earlier. But... you're here and you did let me do things on my own, but you all helped in a different way. You didn't just snap your fingers and make the problem go away. You helped me through it. So, sometimes I just sort of forget that I'm allowed to rely on your powers. I just... don't want you to feel like I'm using you just to have it easy."

Teorus actually laughed at hearing what I was so worried about. I didn't think it was all that funny, but apparently, Teorus had different thoughts that he cared to share with me, "We never think that. We know you work hard. But we wouldn't mind if you did rely on us more. We like spoiling you, Goldie."

The laptop dinged and Leon smirked at the long message we got in reply that explained the project. "This should help."

Huedhaut peered at the screen and read through the instructions. "Is this how you've been approaching the assignment?"

I shook my head slowly, understanding everything I was doing wrong the past few days. "I think I get it now. I picked how I wanted to handle the assignment but I was missing what was personal to me. I took the me out of the assignment and got it all wrong!"

Karno tilted his head and decided to encourage me with a question, "And you know what you're doing now?"

"I do!" I enthusiastically got to my feet and pulled out more paper. Before I got to writing, I paused and turned back toward the curious wishes gods. "I need your help... because you're all important to me. If I'm going to do it right and make this assignment personal then I need you guys to be here."

Tauxoulouve joined me at my table, hovering over my shoulder as he watched me prepare. "Wonderful. I love little projects."

The assignment was something that should have lasted a few days, but I was determined to get it done in a few hours. With the gods at my side, that wasn't entirely out of the question. We may have stayed up ungodly hours of the night but they encouraged me the whole way through- Karno even offered me drinks to feed my energy without killing me.

But by the end of it all, it was almost four in the morning and I was dead on my feet. "Mng.... I'm going to fall asleep until next year..." I leaned my head tiredly on Aigonorus' shoulder.

I was surprised he stayed up as long as the rest of us. But it seemed like he was waiting for this moment the entire night and he finally smiled. Happily, he asked, "Can we sleep now? You're really tired and you never got to take that nap. You don't even need an alarm in the morning. We'll sleep all day if you need to."

I smiled tiredly back at Aigonorus. "Okay. We can sleep now and not wake up." He was so cute when he was happy. He snapped his fingers and had me wrapped in a burrito in no time.

Lifting me over his shoulder, he glanced at the other gods and mumbled something along the lines of bringing me back tomorrow before stealing me away to tuck me into bed. Of course, he wasn't about to leave and elected to envelope himself around me as soon as I was knocked out from exhaustion.

The gods loved me a lot and sometimes I really didn't understand how far that love went until they were breathing down my neck to make sure I was taking care of myself. I was just a human, after all, so they had to keep a closer eye on me. My life wasn't always perfect... but they made it so much better and easier to deal with. I was grateful to them, happy they came into my life as obnoxiously as they did. They were my obnoxiously loving gods.