Bain practically dragged himself into his new room in the base and flopped onto his bed with a sigh, and it creaked in complaint at his weight. After the tiring conversation with Amber, he'd gone back to find Toxic and Counterstrike still waiting in the room. Once he'd finished feeling guilty, he'd made his decision and took on both of them, and he still didn't even know how well their powers worked.

Now it was late at night and Bain hadn't had two minutes to himself since then. Taking care of a territory was far more work than he'd anticipated, from shedding management to construction approval to giving the okay to a hundred and one other projects that he'd forgotten the contents of.

Easing into the incredibly soft mattress, Bain groaned in well-earned pleasure, sinking into its comfy depths with a faint grin. He could get used to this. No pressure, no requests, no orders to follow. Just a bed to lie in and a night to sleep-

"Bain?"

Opening his eyes, Bain blearily rolled over and stared at the abnormally tiny shedding looking at him. It couldn't have been longer than a foot, and its eyes were oddly large. Clicking its mandibles hesitantly, the shedding repeated, "Bain? Are you awake?"

Taking a deep breath, Bain sat up. "Yeah, I'm awake. What is it?"

Tapping its minuscule front claws together, the shedding stared at the ground. "It is normal to have dreams, yes?"

Bain squinted at him. "...I think so. I don't know if you guys can get dreams, though."

Backing away immediately, the shedding answered hastily, "That is fine. Do not worry about it. In fact, please forget about this conversation entirely. I am sorry that I interrupted your-"

Before the shedding could leave, Bain eased off of the bed and leaned down, getting his face as close as he could to the startled shedding. "Okay, what is it? And don't say something if it isn't true."

The shedding froze, clearly unable to refuse the direct request while equally clearly wanting to not talk about it. "...Are there ever dreams that are unpleasant?"

A flash of realization hit Bain, and he rubbed at where the bridge of his nose should be. After a moment, he went back to the bed and patted the space next to it. Uncertainly, the shedding crawled up the bedspread, scrabbling for purchase on the fabric and coiling up on the spot Bain had indicated. Gently scratching at the shedding's head, Bain told him, "Those are called nightmares. If you can have dreams, you can have nightmares. They're not very fun, are they?"

The shedding drooped miserably. "No, they are not. I dreamt that the world wound backward. I dreamt that you were grievously injured. I dreamt Nahma never found you. And I dreamt that the rats amassing beneath Centropolis broke their yoke and flooded upwards."

Bain shivered in spite of himself. "That sounds like a pretty terrible nightmare."

Tapping Bain's thigh with a short antenna, the shedding agreed, "It was indeed terrible. It felt as though I slid between spaces and spaces and spaces and further beyond, and came back again. It is something I fear greatly."

If he was honest, Bain neither knew what that meant nor wanted to figure it out. "Well, at least it wasn't. That's the thing about nightmares - they don't last forever."

Snuggling up against Bain's side, the shedding quietly asked, "What do you do if you are afraid?"

Bain laid down on the bed, staring at the ceiling. "When I get scared? I don't know. I guess I always had Nahma and you guys if I was scared. Not much to be afraid of when you're surrounded by friends, right?"

Love this story? Find the genuine version on the author's preferred platform and support their work!

After a short moment, moonlight beaming in through the window, the shedding replied, "There are not many friends up here."

Staring at the wall, Bain sighed. "Yeah, it kind of feels like that sometimes." Looking down at the shedding, he asked, "Do you have a name?"

The shedding blinked. "...No. I was not deemed important enough to receive one - I can only use adaptability and sliding. For whatever reason, I am incapable of gaining any further powers from Nahma. I have hit my limit at the very bottom of the ladder."

Bain winced and then thought for a second. "Do you want one?"

Wriggling excitedly, the shedding brought itself under control and replied in a measured voice, "If you think so."

Bain chuckled, then squinted at the tiny centipede. It was hard to make out any special details in the relative darkness. He didn't turn the lamp on at night - it made him feel like he was back in the tunnels. Despite his near-obsession with heroism, there was something about the long passages and echoey sounds that made him feel at home. Up here, the closest he could get to that was darkness.

Considering his options, Bain absently asked, "Do you have a name in mind?"

The shedding instantly chirped, "Taeko!" and then promptly backtracked the moment it saw Bain's expression. "Or whatever you like. In the end, it does not matter all that much."

Nodding thoughtfully, Bain told him, "Okay, I've got a name for you."

Nearly bouncing in place, the shedding excitedly asked, "Yes? What is it? I wish to know!"

Bain grinned. "I think your name should be John."

The shedding's face collapsed into a mess of confusion, expectation, and crushing disappointment. Bain couldn't help but laugh at the expression and immediately felt bad about laughing. Patting the shedding on the head, he told it, "I'm kidding. Of course you can be Taeko. It's a great name - I bet there'll be sheddings talking about Taeko the Great way after I'm gone."

Taeko frowned at him. "That is not possible. Why would you leave?"

Bain paused, trying to think of a tactful way to breach the subject to this rather young shedding and failing miserably. Finally, he leaned back on the bed and said simply, "I wouldn't leave on purpose. I just... might disappear one day."

Latching onto one of his fingers, Taeko rested its - her? - head on his wrist. "We would find you. We would look in all of the corners of everywhere for you."

Bain chuckled softly, his eyes closing. "That'd be pretty nice of you. I'd look for you if you were missing, too."

He dozed off into sleep with Taeko curled partially around his arm.

It was the first good night of sleep he'd had in a while.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

Slowly, calmly, with the sound of humming cars and the mutter of walking crowds seeping into the room, Bain woke up.

Blinking in the soft yellow light streaming in through the sole window of his room, Bain sat up and froze. Glancing down, he saw Taeko with all of her legs wrapped around his wrist, eyes closed and wheezing slightly. Snoring, maybe? He didn't know sheddings could do that. Carefully lifting his arm so as not to wake the sleeping shedding, he silently crept across the room and opened the door.

Just outside his door was a small army of different-colored sheddings in every size Bain had seen, including a twenty-footer sprawled across the hallway floor. All of them were breathing deeply, resulting in a sound that wouldn't be out of place inside an air conditioner. Bain barely avoided laughing at the sight, and then realized he had a bit of a problem. The sheddings, all of which were indeed fast asleep, completely covered the floor and most of the walls. It was impossible to make his way over without disturbing any of them.

Wincing internally, Bain quietly said, "Guys?"

Every single shedding in the hallway snapped to alertness, and a cascade of blinking eyes flicked in Bain's direction. A few seconds later, they began to hiss greetings and good-mornings, sliding out of his way and dipping their heads respectfully. The twenty-footer had to wriggle all the way over, and ended up slumped over at least a dozen other sheddings along the edge of the wall.

Cautiously making his way through the crowd and being extremely careful to not step on anyone's legs or antennae, Bain finally got to the elevator. He pressed the correct button with a relieved sigh, and then heard a sleepy, "Bain? Is it morning?"

Raising his wrist, Bain saw Taeko looking around tiredly, eyes squinted in the electric lights mounted to the top of the elevator. Gently patting her head, Bain told her, "Yep. How'd you sleep?"

The shedding yawned, revealing a maw of tiny needle-like teeth. "I slept well, and had no nightmares. Did you sleep well also?"

Giving her a nod, Bain raised his hand to his head, and Taeko scuttled onto it, coiling up like a small hat on the peak of his forehead. With Taeko ready, Bain set out to begin the next day, feeling a lot better about managing the territory.