☕️ | one-shot
genre. fluff
timeline. post-homecoming
notes. my submission for dani's 1k contest! i wanted to submit something ft. our best girls, and what better than a cute one-shot? thank you, liz for proof-reading and making sure it was content ready!

DRUIG !

SHE HAD BEEN SLEEPING LESS AND LESS FOR MONTHS NOW. The nightmares themselves had become less and less, but the sleep she managed to get was uneasy nonetheless. She would wake up in the middle of the night multiple times throughout the night, eyes staring blankly into the darkness around her. If she was lucky, she’d fall back asleep. 

As of late, her, Peter, and Juliet had rotated out patrols. Two of them would stay out late, patrolling New York from the rooftops, while the third person in their crime-fighting trio would go home and try to get some sleep. Keyword: try. She’d be lucky to get more than three hours of sleep a night. The rest of it would be spent locating her friends after suiting up, relieving whoever was more tired of their duty. None of them slept well, though, and more often it seemed that the three of them ended up patrolling together. Not that she minded. She seemed to be the most at ease those nights. 

Tonight, it seemed, would be her night to get some rest. At first, she had tried to push it off, insisting that she didn’t need it. She’d consumed more caffeine than was healthy, anyway, just so she could force herself to stay awake. But Juliet had given her the same look she always gave, and refused to hear it. When Juliet had threatened to nail Olivia’s window shut, or maybe tell Josh that his niece refused to sleep, Olivia conceded. Her best friend was just about as stubborn as she was, and they’d end up arguing about it all night long. Besides, even if she didn’t end up sleeping, she could at least work on the paper due for AP English in two weeks. She’d only just finished her outline of it. 

She had dozed off in front of her laptop at some point, it seemed. There were echoes of a time she had desperately wanted to forget. Needles poking and prodding at her, hands holding her against the table as she was treated like a lab experiment. She could hear her own screams in her dream, echoing around the closing walls. The smaller the space around her got, the harder she found breathing. Her fingers could graze the cold concrete walls, and she found herself hopelessly pressing against them. Olivia was gasping now, one hand scratching at her throat as it closed up. Her lungs burned, and tears pricked her eyes. 

A rough push to her shoulders, one that almost sent her out of her desk chair, jolted her from the nightmare. It had been weeks since her last one, and she had only just started to hope that they’d gone away for good. 

Her eyes were still wet with unshed tears, cheeks blotchy and red. She could breathe now, she noticed, and she wiped the remaining tears away. In her sleep-addled haze, it took her a few seconds to realize the figure in front of her was Juliet. She was still adorned in her black and gold Valor suit, though her mask now lay discarded somewhere in Olivia’s room. 

“Are you alright?” Worry covered Juliet’s features. Her hand was still on Olivia’s shoulder, though it was much more gentle. 

“Yeah.” The word was hard to form. It felt like cotton balls had been stuffed in Olivia’s mouth. “I’m okay.” 

“Another bad dream?” 

Olivia nodded. Juliet mirrored the action. 

“Pete and I finished patrolling,” she said softly. “We stopped a robbery at that new ice cream place that opened up. Other than that, it’s been quiet. I think I bruised a rib.” 

When Olivia didn’t say anything, Juliet let out a gentle sigh and stood from her crouched position in front of Olivia. “I just wanted to check on you before I made it back home.” Juliet gave Olivia a half-smile. “See if you could teleport me home since you’re closer.” 

“Can you-” Olivia paused, the words leaving her mouth before her brain could process them. She took a breath, not entirely sure she wanted to finish what she had begun to say. “Can you stay instead?” 

She realized she didn’t want to sleep alone tonight, and her bed was big enough to fit her and Juliet, even if Juliet tended to be a bed and blanket hog. “Please?” 

Juliet’s eyes softened, and she smiled. “Yeah, I’ll stay.” 

Spontaneous sleepovers were common between the two of them, so much so that they’ve left overnight bags at each other’s house. Olivia stood from her desk as Juliet dug around the closet for her bag. She let out a triumphant ‘aha!’ when she found it buried in the very back. 

“I’m going to take a quick shower,” Juliet said, digging through her bag. “Don’t move. I’ll make us some snacks and some cocoa when I get out.” 

In the forty-five minutes it took Juliet to shower, Olivia did not move from her spot on her bed. She had ended up watching a compilation of Cosmic, Spider-Man, and Valor’s best moments during battle. Each video in the compilation was shaky and blurry, and Olivia could barely tell it was them. The video was uploaded just a few minutes ago, and even featured Juliet and Peter stopping the robbery Juliet spoke about earlier. 

“Wow,” she whispered under her breath. “These compilation editors work hard.” 

She heard Juliet emerge from the shower and begin rifling through the kitchen. Olivia was tempted to get up and help her best friend, but she had pretty much melted into her bed. Not much longer after Olivia had that thought, did Juliet enter Olivia’s bedroom with a tray of steaming mugs and snacks. Juliet shuffled onto the bed on her knees, careful not to spill the tray all over Olivia’s freshly washed sheets. 

“Okay, I’ve got oreos and goldfish for you, since I wasn’t sure what you were in the mood for, and Reese's and Reese’s pieces for me. And then I made us hot chocolate.” 

Juliet sat the tray in front of the two of them, and she passed Olivia’s mug of cocoa to her. Olivia took it, and pressed the mug to her lips. Juliet may rarely ever prepare things herself, but one thing she had gotten good at was making a delicious, steaming mug of hot chocolate. 

“What are you in the mood for?” Juliet asked, already flipping through different streaming services. Olivia hadn’t even noticed she’d reached for the remote, and she suspected that Juliet used her powers to retrieve it instead. “Wait, don’t answer that.” 

Olivia watched, quietly sipping on her cocoa, as Juliet found the section with the early 90’s and 2000’s teen movies. She smiled around her mug when Juliet began playing 10 Things I Hate About You. As Juliet closed the distance between the two of them, their shoulders touching, Olivia wondered if Juliet needed this as much as she did. They both had a tendency to curl in on themselves, shutting away from the outside world and going silent. To be able to spend time like this, no talking, just enjoying each other’s presence, was nice. It was welcomed. 

As the movie continued playing, Olivia relished in the familiarity of it all. If Juliet wasn’t staying the night at Olivia’s place, Olivia was staying at hers. Since their friendship had formed they’d been practically attached at the hip, and it was moments like this that Olivia knew, deep within her, that she wanted Juliet in her life as long as they both lived.