Tweetie

40

"...She's actually a kitten, I swear."

"...I just want to squish her cheeks."

"...Dude, don't be weird."

"...If we wake her, do you think it'll wake them too?"

"...I don't think we should risk it."

"...Yeah, but she has work today."

Hazel sighed, slowly blinking open her eyes as she came to meet the blurry faces of Joel, Oscar and Leo who all stood in front of her, inspecting her sleeping state as she curled up in a ball on the couch, tucked under Fox's arm who shifted in the night after she and Leo returned. She held her hands close to her body, curling them much like a cat would because of a habit of holding her duvet close to her until she let them fall, realising she was being stared at as she woke.

"Shhh," she hushed them despite the fact that they were no longer talking, "I'm still sleeping."

"Tweetie, it's half six. You start work at half seven."

She blanked, taking in Leo's softly spoken words as her eyes slowly adjusted.

"Fox is still asleep, I can't go. If I move, I'll wake him." She said jokingly, her words hushed in only a breath, "tell Stewart it was for the greater good of this world, he'll understand."

"...I'm awake..."

"Don't tell them that, Fox."

She lifted her gaze so she could look up at the sleepy taller boy who she leaned against, far too comfortable to move. He seemed to have the same struggle as she did, unable to move his arm out of fear of losing any warmth. Though, both knew they couldn't stay like that forever.

"Honestly, I think you're stuck," Leo stated, pointing his finger to her other shoulder which once she thought about it, had a lot of extra weight on it. Surely not enough to be just Fox's hand.

Slowly, she turned, realising that the weight could only be coming from one person, and sure enough, she found herself in the exact predicament she expected to be in.

"When did he get there?"

Ryan rested against her shoulder, his body preventing her from moving at all as she finally began to wake up properly.

"He switched spaces with me last night when we got back," Leo said, causing everyone to raise their eyebrows. But, they didn't get to say anything more as they moved on.

Really, Leo knew there was more to it. Leo was still awake when he saw him tossing and turning as he usually did. The beanbags weren't uncomfortable and Ryan rarely had an issue sleeping on them. But he did have an issue sleeping. There were nights when the anxieties got to be too much, those were the nights when he randomly called his friends at 2 am, either to feel bad for waking them or to explain that he needed something familiar to keep him from freaking out over nightmares. Leo figured he had the same anxieties, but managed to find something to keep him calm.

"Sorry Fox," she hummed, "we're stuck."

"Oh well." The boy shrugged in response, not really caring that he was stuck in an incredibly comfortable position.

...

"...Ah, heck."

"What's wrong, Tweetie?" Joel immediately asked, sitting in front of them on the floor.

"I don't have a change of clothes and need to work..." Hazel pouted, realising that she didn't have enough time to go home and change. "Should I be scared of waking Ryan?"

"Very."

"Excellent," she said before poking her cold finger to the boy's nose and watching as his eyes shifted under his eyelids.