Room 43// An Inanimate Insanity College AU

11- Roadtrip Shenanigans; Part 2

"You should go to sleep," Lightbulb said with a subtle yawn as her words trailed off. Paintbrush was sitting in the passenger seat as she drove, the time showing in green LED's. It was well past midnight, Test Tube and Fan already asleep, their respective air mattresses in the back of the campervan filled.

"I could say the same to you," Paintbrush countered, resting their head on the window and watching Lightbulb drive, the blanket Paintbrush had lain on her still hanging off her shoulders. She shrugged, her eyes droopy and held up by bags underneath them, yet still extremely, unfairly blue in the way they shone vibrantly in the moonlight.

"I guess," she muttered, her eyes still on the road. "But I gotta drive us to our destination."

"Where are we even going, anyway?" Paintbrush asked.

"This is a sort of secret road to my hometown. Nobody really takes it anymore, but my parents drove me over here," Lightbulb said, her eyes finally diverting from the road to Paintbrush, although only briefly.

"Huh. So we're headed to your hometown?" Paintbrush wondered how they could go anywhere from here; this road, as strange as the thought was, felt like it would go on forever. There was really no sign of anything.

"Yeah." Lightbulb yawned into her hand, keeping her other hand firm on the steering wheel. "I didn't see that diner when we drove over. I don't know how I missed it; maybe they drove past it while I was sleeping."

Sleep- right, Paintbrush needed to convince Lightbulb to go to sleep. She really wasn't herself, more muted overall. It was weird, really, seeing someone so usually energetic zapped of their energy.

"You should sleep now," Paintbrush said, trying to keep any concern out their tone. "It's late."

Lightbulb made a conflicted noise, shrugging. "Maybe. You can go to sleep without me, though. I'll be fine."

Paintbrush honestly wasn't too sure of that, the concerned furrow in their brow and the downturn of their lips giving that away entirely. "Well, it can't be that fun to drive without company," they said lightly instead of the opposing response developing the back of their mind.

Lightbulb sighed, then hummed in agreement. Paintbrush can't imagine driving being fun even with company, especially with such a bleak road ahead.

"You won't get very far driving if you're tired," Paintbrush carefully pointed out. "You might crash, or go off-course, or something. It's safer to sleep and wake up tomorrow morning and keep going then keep going right now. We've got time."

"...Yeah. Yeah, let me just-" Lightbulb stopped the car on the side of the road, turning the key in the ignition and causing the ever-going engine to stop where it was. Paintbrush smiled to themself, wrapping their blanket around them tighter.

The girl beside them yawned, holding their hand shakily to their mouth. "Maybe go to one of the air mattresses before you fall asleep in your chair," Paintbrush joked weakly.

Wordlessly, Lightbulb wrapped her blanket around her shoulders tightly, looking completely swaddled in it, and climbed over to the back of the campervan and flopped onto one of the blue air mattresses, a squeak escaping the mattress with the force that Lightbulb fell into it.

Paintbrush lingered only until her breath evened and her face relaxed, moving over to the last vacant bed and lying in it, rolling over to face the door.

...They couldn't sleep. Even though their eyes were heavy and their limbs felt like lead, they couldn't sleep. They were tired, and they could close their eyes, but their mind was running like a tap and keeping them awake.