Wake Up (Rewritten)

Prologue

The AU explanation will just be a direct copy paste from the story description, so feel free to skip the first paragraph

In a separate universe, where soulmates are a major part of life, there are many things attaching every soulmate. Both soulmates have to be asleep at the same time, and one can't sleep without the other, no matter the time zone, and when one soulmate wakes up, the other is forced to also get up. Furthermore, whenever one soulmate writes on their arm, it appears on the other soulmate, in the exact same place.

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Zak was tired. He's been tired for as long as he could recall. Trying to figure out why and what made his soulmate avoid sleep so much wsa something he had long given up on and had just accepted that he had basically no power over when the two slept. If he felt that his soulmate had finally decided to sleep, he either had to take it or leave it. And he was in no position to leave it.

But now with more than double the subscribers he did six months ago, he also felt more than double the pressure to keep continually pushing out more and more content. With so much more content to record and edit, the constant late nights and all nighters that were becoming all too common were beginning to become more than just a nuisance. 

While before he could deal with the lethargy and grogginess as a general inconvenience, Zak couldn't help but feel more and more frustrated with how incapacitating the sleep loss was. He was sure that he could probably edit so much more if only he didn't have to deal with the headaches, his mind begging for sleep, and the ever growing reliance on caffeine as his only solace.

He didn't even like caffeine. The thought of all the saccharine energy drinks made him gag, and coffee tasted like what he'd imagine licking someone's shoe would. And his low tolerance meant that even a half cup of coffee would cause him to shake and jitter, then crash within four or five hours. But his only other choice was to waste all the time, and he'd rather produce mediocre and lackluster content than waste time.

By this point, Zak could feel himself burning out. His friends, his family, his editors, anyone that he regularly interacted with also noticed. But he couldn't let himself waste his sudden popularity spike, especially considering how long it took him to get to where he was before he blew up. He could rest later. Right now, he needed to be smart and keep his new fans. He just wished that he could have some sleep during the little rest he allowed himself. 

Word count: 455