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Moving to a new apartment is scary, An thinks.
Everything is situated well, her and Mizuki’s family helped with the move so greatly, but now that it is night and she has to sleep… Homesickness punches her in the gut.
She tosses and turns, no position feeling right. She misses her old bed. She misses the glow in the dark stars she stuck to her ceiling. She misses the miscellaneous plushies littering her bed from Touya’s arcade visits. Her room is smaller now so she had to limit what she took over.
She turns over one more time, clicking her bedside lamp on and looking at the time: 12:30am. Great.
Her eyes travel to the door of her room. It feels like the bags under her eyes tug her out of bed because she can feel herself shuffling to sit up. And the next thing she knows, she’s standing in front of Mizuki’s door, already lined with cute frills and stickers.
Her hand hesitates, resting on the doorknob. A faint guilt rests in her stomach already. If she opens the door, she’d be interrupting Mizuki, right?
Maybe she should just turn around and—
A creek.
“Mmn, An…?” Mizuki grumbles from behind her door, now opened ever so slightly. An sees Mizuki’s facemask resting on her head. “What’re you doing up… need anythin’…?”
It sounds like she just woke up. Fuck, was she stepping too loud?
“Oh, uh, no,” An replies very eloquently.
Mizuki’s eyes drift down to her hands (she’s picking at them) and further to the floor where her feet rest (she’s bouncing back and forth with what foot she has her weight on).
Wordlessly, Mizuki takes An’s wrist in her hand, slightly tugging for her to follow. When An shoots her a confused glance, she simply says, “C’mon, you’re having trouble sleeping, right?” causing An to blush slightly and shift her gaze away. Knowing that someone else knows you is embarrassing.
An is still tugged along, feeling almost helpless against Mizuki’s gentle fingers grasping around her wrist so gently. She finds everywhere in Mizuki’s room to look besides the other girl, even though the walk to her bed is so short.
When Mizuki lets her wrist go, she can already find herself wishing that she kept her hold there, even if the lack of contact will only last for a few seconds. She can already hear Mizuki’s blankets shuffle around, and when she looks back to the other’s bed, Mizuki has the sheets lifted up, inviting her in so casually. An can feel her emotions grip her heart taught, pounding so loudly in her chest like the consistent bass felt in the walls of a live house; it’s so loud, she can hear it in her ears already.
Mizuki pats her bed, breaking An out of her trance. “I don’t have all night,” she jokes, but An knows of the hidden meaning behind the words, always unspoken between them. I want you to get as much sleep as you can so hurry up.
It’s a little harsh, sure, but An supposes that she needs that sometimes as she steps forward, knee sinking into the mattress. Soon, her full body is engulfed in the warmth of Mizuki’s bed.
She feels closer to home now.
“I have an extra sleeping mask in my drawer,” Mizuki comments, letting An know that it’s there if she wants one. An replies with a light hum but doesn’t move to take it.
“Don’t you want the light off?” An asks because she knows Mizuki sleeps better in the dark. She was already troubling her so much, anyways.
“I have my sleeping mask for a reason... Keep it on.” With every word An hears from the other girl, the more her voice starts drifting off sleepily, turning into almost incoherent mumbles.
She can feel how the bed dips right behind her, but Mizuki doesn’t make any effort to scoot closer. A twin sized bed doesn’t have much space. It urges her to roll over and drape herself further into Mizuki’s warmth.
The white light of the lamp behind her makes a gentle shadow rest over Mizuki’s figure. Their faces are so close; she can feel their breaths bat against each other’s skin, tickling her eyelashes and letting them flutter. Seeing Mizuki in a sleeping mask almost tugs a pout to her face.
An feels her heartbeat in her ears again.
Did Mizuki already fall asleep—?
“I said I don’t have all night, you know,” Mizuki echoes her previous words, causing An’s breath to hitch in her throat.
“…I know,” An mumbles back like a small child.
She feels Mizuki shift back in the bed, gingerly letting her fingers dance across the side of An’s arm as she pulls the blankets up again. She pushes her sleeping mask up on her face again.
“Here, come closer,” she says with a gentle, drowsy smile gracing her lips, all inviting and entrancing. An feels her heart stutter some more.
Even though Mizuki invited her to come closer, An still shuffles around like she’s trying to not be an annoyance, moving around at a snail-like pace. She soon finds herself settled with her back pressing flush against Mizuki’s chest: the taller’s arms rest comfortably around her waist, face so close to the back of her neck that she can feel her baby hairs dance with her every breath along with her smile pressing into her skin, and their legs shuffle around to find the perfect resting place tangled together like vines of ivy, rooting them in each other’s arms.
“Sorry.”
“There’s nothing you need to apologize for, An…”
She can feel Mizuki’s lips brush against her skin lethargically. They’re so close to each other; the heat rushes to her head, and for a second, she thinks she may pass out. But Mizuki’s body is cool against hers, keeping herself grounded and oh so awake.
The more time that passes, the more An’s insomnia feels like it’s getting to her.
The lamp on Mizuki’s side table burns bright into her eyes, humming in its wake as if taunting her. The faint sound of late night traffic seeps in through the window of the bedroom, along with a faint humidity that is ever too present with the AC not on. She can feel sweat starting to coat her clammy hands. And all of this is paired with Mizuki’s arm holding her and her soft breaths panning across her neck—still there, still grounding her.
Mizuki’s heartbeat is pressed against her back, and the consistent beat of it soothes her like a gentle lullaby.
Her hands might feel sweaty, but she still decides to bring them closer, eventually intertwining them with Mizuki’s. She rubs her hand against the other’s knuckles. Mizuki always tends to her hands so carefully; it completely contrasts her calloused, bit at fingers. Mizuki’s hands feel very cold against her sweaty palms. They’re always like that.
Whether it's subconscious or not, An starts to feel Mizuki move her hands and fingers around in sync with hers, rubbing over every callus and patch of dead skin lining her fingernails.
The hum of the AC turns on. They both shiver.
“You’re still not asleep,” Mizuki whispers, voice flowing like a gentle river made just for her ears. She doubts anyone else would hear Mizuki’s voice so close like this.
“I know… sorry,” she apologies, “I’m probably keeping you up, aren’t I?”
“Stop apologizing.” Mizuki shifts her hold on An, holding her face up, right next to An’s ear. “If you apologize again, I’m revoking your cuddle card.”
“Hey, that’s not fair.” An pouts, shifting her head to the side. Their noses almost brush against each other’s.
“It’s working already~” Mizuki smiles, leaning forward to press their noses together for a second. An sighs, relenting to plant her head back down on the pillow like it was before.
“Though, seriously. You don’t need to apologize. I don’t mind if I stay up longer with you; I wouldn’t have let you in if I wasn’t okay with that,” Mizuki explains, voice falling back down to tickle An’s ear before she falls back down to her resting position as well. Her hands rest around her waist comfortably again, and An latches onto them with her own like they’re a lifeline.
“…It’s only the first night here, and I’m already feeling homesick,” An admits, going back to play with Mizuki’s hands and fingers, watching as the skin bends to her bones and her joints move up and down in tandem. “We aren’t even that far from home either,” An continues to whisper, finding Mizuki’s hands much more interesting than usual.
She pulls Mizuki’s hands apart, laying one to rest on the bed as she continues to move the girl’s nicely manicured fingers up and down, intently observing every fold in Mizuki’s skin that appear as she presses her fingers down. Mizuki’s fingernails start to make light indents in her palm. Their arches all look perfectly even—the only thing different between each nail are their widths.
“We may not be far from home, but that doesn’t mean you can’t feel homesick already,” Mizuki mumbles, slightly shifting her position again so she’s a little close to fitting her face in the crook of An’s neck. All of her movements are so lethargic and drawn out. And An is all too hyper aware of it.
“I mean… I know that…” An takes one of Mizuki’s thumbs between her fingers and gently rocks the top joint back and forth. “I don’t know… I guess I feel kinda stupid for it.”
Mizuki stops An from playing with her hand and moves so their fingers intertwine. An’s fingers still drum against the back of Mizuki’s palm. “Maybe you’d feel less stupid once you get some sleep…” Mizuki yawns. “It’s been a long day, An, and now, you’re in an unfamiliar apartment and bed.”
“I know I should sleep, but my brain’s being stupid and—”
“—No ‘buts’, just close your eyes. I know you haven’t yet.”
An’s ears start to burn up, and she can feel her heartbeat pick up in tempo. She doesn’t think there will ever be a time she won’t be embarrassed at how Mizuki knows her so well.
She wants to quip back and lament at how it isn’t that easy for her, but she holds back, knowing that Mizuki would likely reply with something along the lines of: “But it is that easy. It just takes more time for you, that’s all.”
She hates how Mizuki would be correct. She’s dealt with her insomnia in the past numerous times before, anyway.
An almost lets another apology escape for inconveniencing Mizuki like this so much but remembers her past remark and keeps quiet. She takes in a deep breath, squinting her eyes shut as well as she could. It wasn’t her fault that her eyes liked to flutter open so often…
The lamp on Mizuki’s bedside table continues to pound its light into An’s retinas, burning them open. She knows she won’t be able to sleep like this, but darkness was a childish fear she could never seem to get rid of.
“…Hey, Mizuki?” she asks cautiously.
Mizuki replies with a faint hum. An can feel her throat reverberate before she can hear the noise.
“Do you have a dimmer night light, maybe…”
“No… but maybe—” An feels Mizuki’s grip tighten around her waist before she’s being pulled atop Mizuki’s body, landing on the other side of the girl’s bed with the mattress creaking underneath the sudden shift of weight. An’s now only a few inches away from her face planting against the wall. Twin sized beds weren’t meant for these movements.
“M-Mizuki…?!”
“Yeah?” Mizuki replies with the same drowsiness from before lacing her tone. Did she even register what she just did?
“Why’d you do that?”
Mizuki shuffles back in the bed to give An some more space, tugging her along with her movements.
“Now you aren’t staring into my lamp,” Mizuki states, barely even answering her question.
An slightly grumbles, knowing Mizuki’s intentions but wishing she was given some warning to her doing whatever that was.
But any complaint she has turns into dust as Mizuki’s arms travel up the side of her torso, riding her shirt up, leaving her hands to rest right in front of An’s. Habitually, she finds her own hands already starting to fiddle around with Mizuki’s fingers.
With the lamp not burning her eyes anymore, her eyelids fall closed peacefully. She focuses on the comfort of Mizuki’s arms wrapped around her body, the consistency of their breaths syncing with each other, acting like a lullaby. She eventually settles her hand in Mizuki’s, drawing it closer to her chest, and Mizuki reciprocates through gently squeezing back.
She doesn’t know what time it is as she finally feels herself relax completely within Mizuki’s gentle hold, but they didn’t plan anything for the next day, so she supposes that she can sleep in later than usual, especially when they’re still intertwined in the morning.