Cheshire Naib x reader || fluff

"Hello dear, how might you be this fine evening?" A familiar voice greeted you from everywhere around you. You couldn't see him, but you've been through enough similar interactions to know exactly what was going on.

"It's the middle of the night." You correct, squinting your eyes at the branch of a nearby tree in a futile attempt to spot the elusive cat. You decide not to answer his question until he shows himself. The trees whirl around you as you turn yourself to set your eyes on a new target. Surrounding your ears, a dark chuckle fills the dark forest you find yourself in. You whip around as a hand touches your shoulder.

"Behind you." Your eyes meet his, your eyebrows raised in a tired glower, already fed up with his tricks. He continued, "alright, I'll stop. You look tired." His comment only made your glare darken. As much as you loved your cat, his antics were getting on your nerves.

"That's your fault. If you don't wake me up every night, maybe I wouldn't be such an asshole every day." You reached to flick his nose, but he jumped back before you reached him, prepared for your attacks. You turn and lung at him, determined to inflict your less than harsh punishment on him. He grins at you as he seems to disappear into thin air and appear a few feet behind you, inciting a short game of chase. Every time you managed to get close to him, he would vanish and reappear behind you. It wasn't long until you caught on to his pattern. You lunged at him again, and, after he disappeared, turned and threw yourself in the opposite direction. Misjudging both the distance and the force of your projectile attack, you toppled into him when he returned to visibility. His back hit the ground with an audible thud as you flicked his nose and laughed in victory. With your eyes closed, nose scrunched, and arms raised, you didn't notice his staring at you. Only when your laughter died down did you notice where you were sitting, right where he wanted you. He was laying flat on the ground, propped up by his elbows, his eyes didn't leave your face as you reveled in your victory. Your arms dropped to your sides, which brushed against Naib's from their lazy swinging. His previously half-closed eyelids shot open as your fingers found their way to the sides of his stomach.

"Don't you dare." His voice wavered. The tables were turned now. A cheshire grin found its way to your face as he wore a look of pure terror. To put it frankly, you were too tired to engage in all out tickle war with the boy below you, so instead of subjecting him to relentless tourture, you rolled off of him, laying beside him and deciding to get him when you were more energized. Unconsciously, you closed your eyes, placing your hands behind your head. You shared a moment of silence with your favorite cat before he spoke up.

"I'm sorry, uh sorry for not letting you sleep." You turned to face him, propping your head up with your elbow. You sighed, letting your eyes meet his as you smiled again, albeit it drowsily. You brought your free hand to his cheek, papping it lightly.

"You don't have to apologize. Besides I'd rather spend my time with you anyways." You could see the gears turning in his head. Of course he was used to being the flirty one; you were too tired to be embarrassed by your words, besides, you figured it was time to do something about your constant back and forth banter between the two of you. Before another word left your mouth, you woke up.

Groaning, you rolled out of bed. Shivers travelled up and down your spine as your feet hit the floor, devoid of warmth and hope. You didn't feel like taking your pajamas off before you went to the kitchen, so, wrapping yourself in a blanket, you made your way to the kitchen to get a bowl of cereal, or whatever you could find. The creaks in the floorboard annouce your arrival to the only other person in the kitchen, one of your roommates.

"Wow, you look," the brunet male sitting in front of you started. You sat in the chair across from him with a sigh, rubbing your eyes before letting your hand drop to the table as he finished his sentence. "You look really tired, oh, here Fiona made breakfast." Fiona, your other roommate, was weird, but still nice. Your living situation was what you would consider ideal. Though you could get fed up with the mess Luca brought to the house, and Fiona's habit of being a doormat, you enjoyed living with the people you could consider your best friends. You weren't going to tell them about your dreams though; that was a personal secret that, even though it affected those around you, you weren't ready to come clean about. Though, this was the third week in a row that you were barely able to function because of your nightly visitor. You snapped out of your thoughts when Luca slid a plate of pancakes in your direction and went back to tinkering with whatever project he was currently working on.

You debated telling your friends about your nighttime situation on multiple occasions, but every time you thought about it, there was something stopping you. It's not like anyone needs to know about the cheshire cat-like boy that visits you in your dreams, or that you may have taken a romantic liking to him. That stayed between you and yourself. Sighing, you pushed yourself away from the table and rinsed your syrup soaked plate. When you put the plate away, you caught a glimpse at the clock on the wall, and it was almost time for you to leave. When Naib first started appearing in your dreams, you signed up for- no- paid for a psychology class, and even though you weren't particularly interested in psychology, you weren't letting that money go to waste. So, with little care or pattern, you threw yourself together, brushing your hair on the way out of the door, and headed to your only class of the day.

It was apparent to anyone who looked at you that you were bored. The boredom of the subject you were going over today as well as your prolonged fatigue made the perfect conditions for a nap. So, that is exactly what you did. As inconspicuous as possible, your chin made its way down to the center of the paper in front of you, and you closed your eyes.

As you stared at the sky, bright blue with clouds seemingly tinted with grey, you realized that this was the first time you had ever been to Naib's world when it was daytime. The trees blocked most of the light from the sky, but there seemed to be a sort of light source coming from nowhere that allowed you to see perfectly in the dense forest.

"Already back for more?" The usual disembodied voice perked up. You sighed, ignored him, and found a comfortable place to sit. When you closed your eyes, you felt him next to you, staring at you curiously.

"I am taking a nap. I'm determined to get some sleep." You grumbled, not bothering to open your eyes again, or even look in his direction. He didn't respond, nodding in understanding, and pulled you closer to him, letting your head fall onto his shoulder as his fluffy, blue-striped tail wrapped around you. You drifted off into your first real dream weeks.

You almost mistook the dream to being sent back to the Wonderland that your Cheshire Cat was from, but you soon remembered where you fell asleep, and took note of the lack of Naib around. You took the chance to explore further than you had before. Walking past the clearing you were used to, you made your way through the forest, weaving through the large tree trunks until you reached what seemed to be the edge of the forest. You laid your eyes across a wide, empty field. There, Naib was waiting for you. It was a dream, so you might as well indulge yourself, right? That was your very poorly thought out reasoning for crawling close to the cat and engulfing him in a hug. Dream Naib must have had the same thoughts as you as he cradled your head to his chest, stroking your hair. You woke up in the same position.

Slowly, your eyes opened. You could no longer feel the continuous motion on the top of your head, but the pressure remained. You tried to push yourself up, but a pair of arms contained you in your comfortable prison. You knew you had to wake up soon, so you shook the cat below you awake.

"Naib, wake up." Though you were right next to his ear, your whispers did nothing to stir him. You lifted his paws off of you, and, when that didn't wake him up, you pushed him over. Softly. He let out a startled yelp as his paw collided with the ground to keep him from falling. From a few feet away, you snickered at his wild flailing. He calmed down and rubbed his eyes, shooting you a glare akin to one of your own. "I have to go soon, Naib." You sat down in front of him, the edges of your lips turned up in a soft smile as he smoothed his messy hair. You knew it was time for you to get back to reality, as your class was about to end. You leisurely made your way closer to him, which still didn't take long from your already close proximity, and sidled next to him, your shoulders touching. You faced him, bringing your hand to his cheek to make him look at you.

"I'll see you tonight, kitty cat." You pressed a kiss to the tip of his nose. You smiled wider at his shocked expression as you woke up at the end of your psychology class.

A/N: I was planning more to this, so I might add more to this later, it's kinda late rn. Anyways! We got snow! Like it was so unexpected, normally when it's supposed to snow, I'm watching the weather religiously. But, for the first time in like four years, it snowed a lot! It made my power go out, so that was fun! Anyways, I hope you all have a lovely day!