The Runt of the Litter

Insomnia Buddies

Note: Hey, loves. I'm super tired and having a tough morning, but I wrote a one shot, and I figured I should share it, give you something to tide you all over until I can get back to writing the real stuff. Sorry to everybody who requested something ages ago and still has yet to see a whisper of what they wanted. I still plan to get to everything, I'm just struggling at the moment. But I haven't forgotten you <3 

I love you guys, and I've missed you a ton. Let me know how you're doing?

In this one, Anna is seventeen.

Insomnia Buddies

Anna adjusted the pillow behind her back, squirming against it to find some measure of comfort. But she'd spent the whole night with it propped between herself and the headrest of her bed, and the poor thing was beyond flat. You could make a paper airplane out of my pillow, she thought to herself. She scrambled with her phone to open Snapchat and send Kate her ingenious bit of 4am humor. But the joke was only funny for a second and only because she hadn't slept in over twenty four hours. And then she'd already forgotten it.

With her pillow so flat, Anna saw no choice but to fold the stupid thing in half. So she scooted lower in bed so she could prop her neck against her doubled up pillow. But now it was too firm a surface, and it was making her neck hurt and damn how had she not realized how hot it was under these blankets?

There were footsteps in the hallway. Anna poked her head up, her pillow unfolding dramatically behind her to lie flat once more. The sound paused, and she sighed, realizing her sleep-deprived brain was probably just imagining things. When she went to flop back down, her pillow didn't meet her quite as far up as expected, and instead she thwacked her head off the board of her bed.

"Fuck," she grouched, curling up until she was sitting with both her hands clutching the back of her head. The movement knocked aside her phone, which started to fall off the bed. She reached for the earbuds attached to it, but they unhelpfully decided to come right out of the headphone jack, so she lunged for the phone itself and barely caught it. The lower half of her body had barely managed to stay on the bed.

And of course Sam walked in while she was half on the floor, clutching her traitorous earbuds and phone in one hand and her head in the other.

"Put me out of my misery," she said pitifully.

Sam made a strange face at her, but at least he didn't seem annoyed that she was still awake at 4am. His chuckle stung a little, though, even if he did walk around and haul her back up onto her bed by the waist. "You know, I always think you can't get any weirder..."

"Hey," Anna grumbled. She waited for Sam to give her that patronizing smile and then followed up with a witty, "I one-up myself every chance I get, and you should know that."

Predictably, Sam smiled at her remark. But when his smile faded, his face kept moving down until it was in full frown mode. "You looked exhausted, Ladybug. Did you sleep at all?"

Anna shrugged, but she might just as well have shaken her head.

"Did you take your meds?"

"C'mon, Sam," she said in a tired drawl, twisting her head purposefully away from him. She hated when they checked up on her. It made her feel every bit the baby sister, and that could be so embarrassing. "I'm not ten. I took my meds."

"Alright," Sam conceded easily. "Just asking."

His voice remained gentle and calm, and Anna wasn't sure whether he was letting the subject drop because it was too early for him to deal with her shit or because he could see that it was too early for Anna to deal with her own shit. Either way she was relieved that he didn't start up with the usual questions about whether they should be upping her sleep meds and blah blah blah.