౨ৎ.   i can't sleep
real life.

NICK DECIDED TO PUT ON THE FIRST ice age movie. it was more like valerie suggested it, then he forgot the movie existed for a second, and then immediately looked it up. but they couldn't just stop at the first one, so they ended up watching the first three movies in the franchise. though, valerie almost fell asleep multiple times on the last one. she wondered how she was going to get home in this state of drowsiness. she could ask them if they had some kind of energy drinks?

"shit! when the fuck did it become one in the morning?!" nick sat up, being completely woken up by the alertness.

"i don't even know." valerie could barely lift her head from the pillow.

"i hope you were planning on staying the night."

"i wasn't. but i might have to. i don't feel like driving however long it takes to get home." she pulled her hands across her face over the inconvenience. she didn't have a single change of clothes, a toothbrush, or anything else she would have needed.

he stood up, looking at valerie, getting ready to tell her, "you can sleep in my room? or i can make you a bed on the couch? whichever is most comfortable." he shrugged, waiting for her answer.

"your bed will probably be a lot more comfortable."

considering valerie has been tossing and turning the entirety of the ice age movies, she figured it wouldn't be best to try and sleep on it. but to be honest, if the couch was any more comfortable, she probably would have been passed out by now.

"we can go then. you look like you're so ready to sleep."

"oh i am." she laughed softly with what she could muster up.

she followed nick to his room, it was pretty empty for the most part but it still had a few elements of nick, which she loved that about it.

"you can pick a side, i don't really care. i have extra pillows and i'll get you a blanket, one sec."
he went off into his closet to pull out a soft looking blanket, making valerie much more tired by the second.

she sat down on the right side of the bed, the closest side to her, and he threw the blanket to her. she was able to catch it, but it unfolded mid air, so really it just fell on her. she didn't care though, it was less work for her to do.

"do you fall asleep to the tv?" nick asked as he slid under his covers, grabbing his tv remote from the nightstand.

"yeah, what's your sleep show? or movie? i don't know." she wanted to know what his answer was, knowing hers was the cartoon scooby doo. it was just the perfect type of show to play while you shut your eyes to go to sleep.

"oh no, not movies or shows," his words made valerie's eyebrows furrow in confusion, she had no idea where he was going. "i sleep to fan sounds."

"why don't you just use an actual fan? so that you can also put on a show." valerie suggested, making nick look at her like she was being idiotic for even thinking to say something.

"the tv gives the comfort of a fan without freezing my toes off in the middle of the night."

"true, true." she pretended to agree as she tried to understand where he was coming from. yes, she's had the freezing room problem, but she would just get a better blanket. it wasn't ever really that big of a problem to her.

"so is that a yes to fan sounds?"

"yeah, why not?"

what valerie didn't know was that she actually couldn't sleep when there was the sound of a fan but no air. it disrupted her brain, and didn't allow her to fall asleep. she laid there for almost an hour hoping the tv would turn off by itself soon, but it never did. nick was already asleep so it wasn't like she could ask him to turn it off, and she sure as hell wasn't about to get up and do it herself.

she stayed there for another twenty minutes before she suddenly had to really use the bathroom. she didn't realize that she had been trying to hold it in for the past five minutes.

swiftly, she slid out of the bed, trying not to wake up the sleeping nick next to her. it was dark and extremely creaky on her way to the bathroom in the hallway, so she had to pull out her phone to turn on the flashlight to see where she was going. when she did so, she felt her heart abruptly stop for a few seconds when there was a face in the light.

"what the actual fuck?!" it was a whisper yell, and she couldn't exactly tell if it was matt or chris. she hoped it would be matt. but whoever it was, they immediately covered the flashlight and valerie pulled it from their hands, putting it back up to find out who it was. the only problem was that his hair was a mess and his face was covered covered by his hands.

"can you fucking stop?" they said a little louder than before, clearly getting pissed about the random flashes of light. she was now leaning a lot more towards chris than matt. and she hated that.

"i'm sorry, i have to use the bathroom." she half apologized, for the maybe twenty percent chance that it was matt. then walked right past him.

"you already passed it, genius." he grabbed her shoulder to turn her back around before she could get any further. the move made her want to just shove her fist into his face. but then again, what does he not do to make her feel that way?

"can you show me where it is?" she sounded impatient as if she had been waiting for him to tell her that information for a while now.

"yeah, after i go." he rushed infront of her to get to the frame of the door belonging to the bathroom.

"what?! but i was out here first!"

"first, how do you know that? and second, it's my house."

"whatever." she didn't feel like arguing, even though she felt like she was on the verge of pissing herself.

chris walked past her to the door that was a little ways back the way she came, and she lit it up with her phone flashlight.

"can you put that damn thing away?"

"i can't see anything, asshole." she fought back, knowing without this light, she probably would have smacked right into him earlier. and that was the last thing she wanted to happen.

"get glasses?"

"not that kind of— UGH!" the frustration was impossible for her to ignore because he knew she was talking about the darkness of the hallway, but made her pissed by not even acknowledging that aspect of it.

"UGH," chris mimicked her, over-dramatizing it, of course.

"shut up and go piss."

"will do," his hand flew up to his head to make a quick salute with two of his fingers.

about six minutes later both her and chris were done using the bathroom. valerie was on her way out of the room, turning the flashlight from her phone back on before turning off the lights to the bathroom.

her heart stopped again when there was a figure standing right out side of the door. and of course, upon further investigation and her intuition, she was easily able to decipher who it was. her only concern was why he decided to wait for her outside of the bathroom, it was weird as hell. but just to make sure it really was him, she shined the light in his direction. probably a big mistake on her part.

"stop fucking flashing that in my eye!" he pushed her hand that was holding the phone away from his face, wishing he could throw it across the hall.

she ignored his outburst, deciding to comment on the fact that he was just sitting outside of the bathroom for her to be done. "you're an actual creep. you know that right?"

"i was just making sure you know which way to turn so that you don't accidentally walk into one of our rooms."

valerie moved her flashlight slightly so she could see his face a bit more before saying, "chris, when the day comes that i walk into your room, you better pinch yourself because that's never happening."

"yeah, right." instead of turning back around to go to where his room was, he started to walk in valerie's direction. she was quick to recognize that he was going the way she was supposed to be.

"why aren't you going back to your room?"

"i can't sleep." the slight vulnerability from him caught her off guard. why was he telling her this?

"why? does my presence insult you that much from the opposite side of the house?" she made sure that he got the message of how stupid that sounded. if he couldn't sleep because he knew valerie was in the room all the way down the hall, he was the one who needed help, not her.

"no, just sometimes i can't sleep til two—three o'clock in the morning."

there was still a sense of vulnerability in his voice, but all she could do was shut him down like she always did. "can't you solve that issue in your bedroom?"

"maybe? i don't know. i was just going to watch a movie downstairs."

"do movies magically make you fall asleep?" her head tilted to the side in disbelief, there was no way he also had to watch a movie in order to fall asleep, just like her.

"yeah, actually." the answer still surprised her even though she was expecting it. they really had the same sleeping technique?

instead of trying to argue with him like she usually did, she decided it may not have been the worst idea to try and make conversation on the fact that they both shared something for once. she asked, "what's your favorite sleep movie?"

"don't make fun of me, okay?"

"is it that bad?"

chris watched as regret filled her face, he immediately shut down any weird ideas by saying, "no, it's let it shine."

"never heard of it."

his jaw dropped in response, "are you kidding?! you have to watch it." his voice raised in volume at the sudden news, because how could she not know what that movie is?

valerie shushed him, placing her finger on her lip.

"don't shush me." chris immediately pulled her hand down from her face, shaking his head in disbelief.

"you're going to wake up nick and matt."

"i'm not." he stated matter-of-factly. making sure to visibly roll his eyes so valerie could see.

valerie crossed her arms, furrowing her brows in question, "how do you know?"

the thing was, chris didn't actually know. but he wasn't about to let her know that. he came up with a fake explanation, "because they're passed out, but seriously, you should watch it." he also attempted to switch the subject.

"why?"

"because i want you to?" he shrugged his shoulders, not sounding sure if that was the best answer he could have given.

"that just makes me not want to." valerie was confused on what his goal was. was he trying to get her to watch the movie, or was he trying to gaslight her into not wanting to watch it? she couldn't tell.

"okay, then go back to bed with nick and his fans sounds." he smiled, knowing he got her, and brushed past to make his way to the stairs. he smelt freshly of shampoo like he had just taken a shower before going to bed. it was funny because the fragrance almost made valerie forget that she was supposed to hate him.

after a few beats of silence, valerie decided to follow him, "fine... i'll watch it." she slightly jogged to catch up to him so she wasn't walking in the dimly lit hallway all by herself.

once they got down there, chris got the remote from where nick had set it down earlier on the coffee table, as well as two blankets from their blanket basket. he then chose to lay on the longer side of the couch, getting comfortable and turning on the tv for both of them.

valerie was a lot shorter so it'd make sense for her to lay on the L shaped part of the couch. while she waited for him to put on the movie, she tried to make herself comfortable. surprisingly, she was smuch more tired than she was earlier so she didn't even care how uncomfortable the couch felt, she was going to fall asleep soon either way.

it only took ten minutes of the movie to start playing for valerie to pass out. chris on the other hand, had to watch almost until the end to even be able to close his eyes. he kept looking over at valerie's peaceful face with what he thought was jealousy. the fact that she was able to go to bed right then and there, but he only just gotten tired was enough to piss him off.

"goodnight, val." he looked back at her one last time before rolling over and shutting his eyes. he knew she couldn't hear him, but that was the whole point. it gave him the perfect opportunity to use his nickname, "val" because she couldn't say anything about it.

౨ৎ
nat's notes !

ik this is cliche but at least i didn't make them cuddle already, i js needed them to bond a bit 😩

i wrote the first part of this chapter at two am so i was REALLY feeling valerie here 😭