Sweet Dreams are made of This?

After going to one of the larger kinds of parties that were out there, Dakota walked along the street not too far from his apartment. He was lucky that he didn’t have to go that far. Usually not one to drink, he found himself consuming more than he would due to wanting to relax and not counting his drinks. It wasn’t like he couldn’t handle himself with this drunk predicament. A little woozy. Yes. It wouldn’t be any kind of trouble so long as he stumbled over the threshold of his home.

That was what he thought a short handful of minutes ago when he started his journey and now he was regretting not taking the help of the nice bun he met at the party. He seemed familiar but Dakota was too blitzed to know the exact place. Maybe later he could figure it out and bring forth some kind of detective moment. A real “I got it” situation or perhaps a look of embarrassment should it be someone he fancied.

“Th-this walk should only take a-a few minutes… L-Like… Twenty or something…? Ehe…~ I should have found someone to help me home… Hhhhh… Now I h-have to stumble through the streets to meet my old friends, my sheets… A-At least it can’t get any worse…” Dakota then ceremoniously tripped and landed flat on his face. “Ow… I stand corrected.”

He then heard a rushed sound coming towards him after the thing running towards him had gasped. He didn’t have the energy to confront the bun or creature coming over, so he was saying his final goodbyes in his head when he heard a familiar voice find its way into his ears.

“Are you okay? That was quite the spill. Here let me help you up at least.” The mystery bun moved a bit to help up this mushy little pancake once called Dakota. “You’re lucky I was locking up to go home… It looks like your face is fine. Just a bit of pebbles and dust.” The bun has now been revealed to be… Hutch!

Where Dakota couldn’t see the face of the other before, he was DEFINITELY close enough this time to see Hutch and their lovely glasses settled upon their nose. This made Dakota’s face turn redder than a pickled beet and he immediately closed his mouth as he realized he was gawking a bit.

‘Why did it have to be Hutch?! Any other bun would have been fine… Well... Except the priest but that’s besides the point! I’m gonna look like a fool!’ He thought as he just stared some more at the imp caretaker.

“Do you live around here? Need me to help you get there? It seems you hit up some of the partying scene a bit TOO hard there. We all have our moments with that, though." Hutch explained as their arm hoisted Dakota up more for a shoulder-lean situation.

“I-I do… Not far from here actually… I-In the apartments over the hill and n-next to the… the… Uhhh… Stone garden gazebo thing…” He couldn’t speak too well with the booze and shyness taking over for him.

Hutch nodded and then began helping this lost lump of a bun back home where he belonged. This was quite a find they hadn’t thought they would find while heading home, but it wasn’t too bad seeing as helping imps was something they do for a living. Helping a bun or two out every now and then couldn’t hurt.

That was until a drunken hand grabbed the leash attached to them, causing them to nearly fall along with the one they decided to help.

“H-Hey…! C-Careful…! That’s a bit of a… danger. You could accidentally make us fall over or something.” They explained as they wore a soft blush on their cheeks while keeping their cool.

“S-Sorry. My hand just kinda saw it danglin’ and said ‘why not’ to grabbin’ it… It makes a nice jingling sound too when it moves so that’s neat…~ Heh heh…~” Dakota mumbled as he slowly let go of the leash a bit and focused more on his hooves to walk somewhat better, he hoped.

The two of them chatted along the way and had a bit of drunken banter from the peanut gallery known as Dakota and mutterings about imps from the professional himself.

“S-So then there I was… Thimble in one hand and Proteus in the other… Trying to keep them from taking off at each other and the last bit of food…~ L-Little did they know I had more, but I was trying to show them, y’know? They just wouldn’t listen until I put my hoof down…~ After they found out they had the rest of their food, Thimble relaxed from his worried state and Proteus just gave him an evil glare…~ Heh…~” The sloth bun rambled on his story as he moved his hands about.

“That’s quite the story! I hope I get to see your imps again someday. I remember when River moved in from the impup adoptions. He must have learned so much already.” Spoke the prideful bun as they helped the drunk and sleepy one up the stairs and to the door of the apartment.

“You can see ‘em right now if you wanna~ They’ll probably be waiting at the door…~ They always do that when I’m gone for too long~” Dakota shuffled in his pocket and pulled out his keys to unlock the door.

Just as he had said, all his imps came spilling out of the slightly opened door. Not one of them was missing the chance to greet the other bun in the doorway and sniff them up to see who they were. Once they were satisfied with learning of Hutch’s existence once again, they all moved back inside to wait patiently. A happy little family they made for Dakota that’s for sure.

Hutch helped Dakota over to the couch and then smiled before greeting all the little imp friends, petting one over here and pulling a treat from their pocket for another.

That was when Thimble flew over to see what might be going on. He had been at the door but missed the greeting, so he was a little nervous even if happy to see the new bun. After a moment he held out his little bimble hands and held onto Hutch’s fingertip as a hello.

After a short while playing with the little friends and Dakota from time to time, Hutch decided it was time they took their leave with how late it was.

“Th-Thank you again for helping me home, Hutch… It means a lot and I’ll make it up to you later… Promise~” Dakota mentioned before yawning softly at the door with a smile.

“It was no trouble! I live nearby as well so it was just something small to help a bun out. I wish you a wonderful rest and take it easy tomorrow. You might end up with a headache.” They said as they returned the smile and turned to leave.

Dakota said his goodbyes and waited until they made it to the stairs before closing the door and tiredly stretching. He made his way to his bed and without even changing or anything else, belly-flopped onto it and buried the side of his face into his pillow. Within moments of doing so, soft snoring and sounds of sleep could be heard coming from the poor bun.

Another successful party, leaving him tired and thoroughly embarrassed due to his drunken run-in with Hutch. It was sure to be a night to remember for the rest of his days. For now, though, he would sleep and deal with whatever problems arose tonight later when he woke up. That was not a Dakota in the now problem.