#i made a fix up anyway so be jappy

[calxia]

Its another bus night for the band. Everyone was exhausted by a string of back-to-back rituals with very little downtime to collect themselves and recentre in-between and were all ready to crash as soon as the bus set in motion. They had formed a ghoul pile in the back lounge again as they were prone to do when exhausted.  They were a tangle of limbs and tails and messy hair all sprawled out on the larger mattress. Every ghoul was included, except Phantom.

Phantom was instead scrunched up in his too small bunk trying to surpass the loneliness enough to catch a few hours of restless sleep. Hed never been invited to the Pack cuddle sessions and was too nervous to even think about if he would be allowed. It was much easier to stay away, even if it made him feel lost and unwanted inside.

The ghoul pile wasn’t as relaxed as usual either. Harsh whispers being passed between Cirrus and Dew were causing an uncomfortable tension to brew in the pile. They were taking about Phantom and his exclusion from the pack piles. It was a topic that many of the recent piles had been ruined by when dew inevitably decides to start an argument with whoever proposes to let the newest ghoul join.

“Dew this is starting to get ridiculous,” Cirrus said, “we can all smell his distress from here and you know that it’s unfair to cast him out like this.”

An unhappy frown had been growing across her face the whole time she’d been arguing with the fire ghoul and she looked positively stormy now.

“Cir why would we want the replacement here?” He spat out in reply, his skin visibly beginning to heat up in his anger.

“he’s part of the pack now whether you like it or not, so you need to suck it up and stop being a dick because he’s very obviously hurting now.” Cirrus replies.

This sends dew into a huffy strop and he turns away from the other ghouls with a growl.

“Whether you like it or not he’s going to join us tonight, Dew.” Cirrus says as she begins to untangle herself from the other ghouls and stand up.

It takes her a few minutes to untangle herself and then she moves towards the bunk space, ignoring the low growl coming from dew. She passes Copia’s bunk first and pauses to check that he’s sleeping fine. A loud snoring noise can be held from behind the curtain so she continues to walk down the aisle until she gets to one of the last bunks. The curtain is drawn but a soft sniffling can be heard through it which only exemplifies how much he should be with his pack instead of suffering alone. Aether would never be able to forgive them if they found out how much they’d abandoned the younger quintessence ghoul.

“Phantom, I’m going to pull back the curtain now because I know that you are sad and I want to help you.” She softly whispers to him before pulling the curtain back. The sight that greets her is pitiful.

The lanky ghoul is curled up as tiny as a newborn kit and has his thin sheet covered completely around him and his head. Cirrus grabs a corner of it and pulls it back to reveal his tear-streaked face.

“Oh no bug.” She sighs out as she reaches forwards to hold his hand and pull him out the cramped bunk. He tries to put up some resistance but the air ghoulette is having none of it. He’s soon pulled to his feet and into the back lounge.

All the ghouls except Dew are still a tangle of limbs, while dew sits in the corner pouting and furious about cirrus ignoring him. She bares him no mind and instead shoves the quintessence ghoul forwards onto the centre of the pile. The rest of the pack immediately move to cover him and cirrus rejoins them all. He looks shellshocked and unbelieving. It makes Cirrus sad. How could they have failed this new ghoul who was hardly even old enough to not be a kit so much.

(Dew continues to rage the rest of the night at the edge of the pile while everyone else falls into a blissful sleep)