Donnie Darko - bedtime routine
<<Cw: semi-involintary agere, crying>>
Key: Dr Thurman, Frank, Donnie
"Okay Donnie, when I clap twice, you will be in the mindset of a child. This will help you tell me the honest truth without having to think about big, scary things." Donnie rolls his eyes at Dr. Thurman but his angsty glare is cut off when he hears two sharp claps. His mind feels foggy and his eyes are too bright for a moment, he feels his bottom lip quiver before everything comes back into focus. "Donald? How old are you?" He hears his therapist ask. He takes a moment to process the question before opening his mouth to speak, but no words comes out... "hmph" is all he can let out, making him whine in annoyance. "Can you show me on your fingers?" Donnie sniffles a bit before counting 3 fingers and holding them up. Dr. Thurman tuts and taps her pen on her clipboard inaudibly mumbling to herself. "Right. That's too young... this isn't going to work." She clasps her hands together once but Donnie suddenly moves towards her and reaches for her hand to stop her clapping the second time. "Donald?" Donnie let's out a soft, high pitched whine before taking his hand away from hers and toddling over to the bookshelf where he recognises a soft toy dog. He hugs the dog tightly to his chest and sits on the floor, his therapist joining him not long after. "Peas don't turn me back..." Donnie manages to get out in a soft, childlike whisper, Thurman simply nods and moves the toy dog's head to make it look like it's licking Donnie's chin - getting a sharp squeal and a giggle from him - the therapist was satisfied that this regression seemed to be helping the usually stiff and argumentative boy, letting him be a child and not a diagnosis for once.
Eventually the session had to conclude but Dr. Thurman could tell Darko wasn't quite ready to go back to being the mopey older brother he was used to being. She sent him off with a shopping bag with a colouring book, some felt tips, a couple of story books, and the toy dog inside. She instructed his sister - who was collecting him - to clap twice when Donnie requested her to. Donnie was quiet the whole ride home, trying to seem normal but also so confused and overwhelmed from this new mindset he was in, he just wanted to have his bedtime. So when he got home, that's exactly what he did, he ran upstairs on his hands and feet in some sort of attempt to get up there faster and when he reached his room he dived into his covers. They had never usually felt soft but now they were the perfect plush nest for Don. He peeled himself off his bed begrudgingly and picked out some cute button up style pyjamas with red and blue stripes on them and pulled them on. He stumbled downstairs and attempted to sneakily take some of the pasta his sister had cooked (he was really very obvious but she didn't care enough to call him out). Contently, Donnie jogged back up the stairs with a freshly stolen bowl of cheesy spaghetti and ate it whilst watching an old vhs tape of 'noddy'. <<remember this is set in 1988>> Once the boy had finished his pasta, he left his room to brush his teeth before bed, he looked away from the mirror to spit in the basin and when he looked back in it - there was Frank!
Donnie jumped and let out a little yelp, he felt his bottom lip curl and his breath hitched as he sobbed softly. "I'm so sorry friend... I didn't mean to scare you..." Donnie kept sobbing, he felt so vulnerable and was so unused to feeling small he couldn't help but cry. Frank, not knowing how to help, began running a bath for Don, stirring in a sizeable amount of bubble mixture after hearing him whimper. Whilst waiting for the little one's bath to be ready, Frank unsurely held his friend and picked him up slowly, rocking him back and forth. "Frankie..." Donnie sleepily mumbled. Frank goes still for a few seconds before gently going back to rocking him and soothing him. He gently places him in the bath, propping his head up on a towel incase baby gets tired. Frank scoops up the water with his fluffy gloves and washes the water over Darko's knees, before starting to massage the soap into Donnie's skin, cleaning the dirt and dried blรธรธd off of his constantly scraped knees. After Frank could confidently say that his friend was clean, he moved on to washing Darko's dyed jett black hair, lapping the water up around his ears and coating the conditioner all through his hair, as he massaged it in - Donnie started to get sleepy and his eyes kept blinking open and closed to try to stop himself from falling asleep. The big rabbit hurried rinsing out the hair wash and picked Donnie up from underneath his arms, carrying him out of the bath before wrapping him in a plush, warm towel.
Frank brought Donnie back to his room, he layed the towel down on his bed pillow so his wet hair wouldn't soak it before gently putting his friend down on the bed. The rabbit slipped Darko's pyjamas back onto his now squeaky clean body, before gently pulling the duvet up and over him. Frank pulled a chair out to beside the bed to get ready to read Donnie one of the bedtime stories his therapist had packed for him, but Donnie shuffled about and whined softly before shyly reaching a hand out and grabbing one of the rabbits plastic ears like a curios baby. "Snuggles...?" He quietly requested, Frank went still again for a moment before double checking "You want cuddles from Frankie, little bunny?" Darko went tomato red before nodding enthusiastically *all whilst trying to hide his embarrassed blush* Frank quickly picked up his toy dog off of the floor and placed it in bed with his little one before hopping into bed with him as well. Not long after, baby Donnie had climbed onto the plush rabbit suit of his imaginary friend and was mumbling and snoring every now and then. Frank moved slowly to turn off the night light that was gently glowing and then clapped twice, not loud enough to wake up his little boy, but loud enough to end the hypnosis so that when Darko woke up he could be returned back to his normal state of mind. "Sleep easy, bun" and with that, Frank disappeared - not to bother Donnie that night.
<<I hope you enjoyed this! This was my first time writing a fic so it's scary to post but people voted for it so hopefully those people like it >>
