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Tiredness tends to catch you by surprise.
Sometimes it’s obvious, a slow, creeping heaviness that oozes its way steadily in over several hours, sinking deep into the marrow of your bones. It weighs you down little by little, eventually dragging your worn body to thunk unceremoniously down onto the nearest horizontal plane. Thankfully, you can usually manage to get yourself back to your little lair before that happens.
But that’s only when you can tell. More often than not, you’ll get caught up in a whole mess of shenanigans- usually friendship-related, sometimes not- that you’ll forget about the need to sleep right up until it slams into you with the force of a ten-ton gavel. (Which almost happened once, actually. You were walking around the book hive and accidentally wandered into a study room full of teals in the middle of exam season. You’re lucky you escaped unscathed.) When that happens, you normally need at least half a day’s worth of sleep and eating foraged vending machine snacks to get your energy back.
Which brings you to the here and now, lying half-buried in a mound of blankets on the floor of your makeshift home, attempting to blink away an absolute monster of a headache while also trying to figure out why the fuck you’re even awake. The answer presents itself soon in the form of a low blaring noise somewhere above your left ear. You spend a mildly embarrassing amount of time trying to find your palmhusk amidst the blankets. Eventually, you find it and bring it towards your face, squinting at the time on the screen.
5:00 PM. Why would you have an alarm set for 5:00 PM…?
Without really thinking about it, you silence the alarm and immediately pass out.
Only to be awoken again what feels like five minutes later by a high-pitched ringing. Auugghh. Without opening your eyes, you stick a hand in the vague direction of the noise and flop it around until it comes in contact with the side of the palmhusk. The caller ID lists the number as one you don’t recognize.
Hhello…?
For a moment you hear nothing, and assume it must be some accident. Then, a familiar voice.
“um * hey *|”
Oh, hey yourself. (You stifle a yawn.) What’ssssup?
There’s a pause. “no * nothing * it’s nothing * are you * … * okay? *|”
That’s…kind of a weird thing to ask, out of nowhere. Weird enough that it gets you to sit up and hold the phone to your ear properly.
No, nothing, I’m fine. What’s going on?
“no, no *|” Polypa’s voice is oddly strained in a way that floods you with concern and fear. You’ve only heard her sound like this a few times before. “it’s fine * honestly * i'm just fine *|”
Polypa. Hey. Did something happen? Do you need me to come pick you up? I think the scuttlebuggy’s got enough gas, but I might have to check. I’m pretty sure I refilled it last night to go to the—
Oh. OH.
Oh, shit, the movie. You totally forgot about the movie. Holy fucking shit.
This is the movie that Polypa’s been telling you about for months, rambling about all the little things she loved about the novels as a kid, the character designs, the stuff the movie clearly got wrong just based on the trailer but hey, might as well check it out anyways, right? “if it’s bad it might be worth a laugh * at least *|” she’d grumbled, but that shining spark in her ganderbulbs had betrayed her glee. You were so ready, you’d refilled the gas tank, you’d washed your best dress, you’d set an alarm— ah, fuck.
You check your husk and feel your heart plummet at the sight of the numbers 7:46PM. FUCK.
“are you still there? *|” you hear Polypa say, and in a millisecond you have the husk to your ear. It takes everything not to immediately start crying and begging for forgiveness. That won’t fix anything.
I’m sorry, you say, hoping she can hear your heart in it. I overslept.
There’s another pause, thankfully much shorter this time. “it’s fine * don’t worry about it * shit happens *|” she says, and she sounds so genuine and sincere it makes you want to sob. “better luck next time * right? *|
Right, you agree, trying to push some light-heartedness into your voice, despite the fact that your face still feels too hot and you can still feel your heart hammering a guilty pulse in your neck. How was the movie? you add.
“um * well *|” You hear a shuffling noise, and then a sheepish little chuckle. “i didn’t actually end up seeing it *|”
Aw, snap. Was the theater closed down because of acid rain leakage again?
“no * i just *” you hear her clear her throat awkwardly, “just didn’t end up going * i guess *|”
You waited for me?
The words fumble out of your mouth without thinking, and immediately you wish you could bite your tongue and take them back. Of all the stupid, arrogant things to say…! But, if she’s been waiting for this adaptation for years, why would she…?
“yeah *|”
The word is so soft you almost miss it. At this point you’re positive your face is bright red, your heart painfully thump-thump-thumping against your chest, all because you love this girl so, so much that you think you might fucking explode right here and now. She waited. She waited for you, even though she could have just gone on without you; she wanted you to be there with her and holy shit you feel so much better and so much worse all at the same time. You have got to make this up to her.
An idea occurs to you, then. You ask her if she has any “jobs” planned for that day.
“uh * no * i had my schedule all cleared for today *|” There’s an air of fake-casualness to her tone that you detect immediately. For all her assassination expertise, Polypa really can’t play it cool to save her life. (Granted, neither can you.)
Do you still want to watch the movie?
You arrive at her hive less than an hour later.
With you is a bag full of leftover snacks- pretty meager, just a few bags of chips and some bars, but at least it’s something- and a freshly-acquired bootleg copy of A Promise of Moonlit Memory. You don’t have any knowledge on how to pirate films, but you do know a pirate, and Remele was glad to do you a favor.
You pull off the best bit of parallel parking you’ve ever done in your life, probably, and fidget anxiously on Polypa’s doorstep for a good minute before hitting the doorbell. She opens the door before the sound of the first ring has even faded. “nice dress *|” she blurts out, then goes olive. You laugh for the first time that night and nudge past her into the living block.
The bootleg is in stunning HD, which you honestly shouldn’t have been surprised by, considering its source. The movie itself is…well, it’s a whole lot. It pretty much flings you straight in with nary a line of narration, going from battle to conversation to battle to montage before you’ve even figured out the characters’ names or what quadrants make up the central love triangle-- which keeps vacillating, OF COURSE.
“honestly * no respect for dramatic pausing *|” Polypa mutters. The two of you are squashed in next to each other on the tiny couch, close enough that your legs brush whenever she shifts to grab a chip. “adaptation-wise it’s impressive * but like * trying to fit a tetralogy into a single movie was just asking for trouble *|” Despite that, you can tell she’s pleased from how she practically hums with excitement each time the scene changes, or a new character walks onscreen. At one point, when a character is preparing for a duel, she grips your arm tightly, quickly loosening her grip before her claws can cut you. You reach out and hold her arm, feeling the tension and excitement vibrating through her skin.
By the time the duel scene is over, you’re both holding onto each other and sniffling to hold back tears. You stay like that for the remainder of the movie, comfortably nestled against one another. You feel that you saying anything would somehow break the spell, and so you don’t.
Despite your best efforts to stay awake, you find yourself being tugged back into slumber, lulled by the soft rise and fall of Polypa’s breathing where your cheek rests against her side. Your eyelids drift open and shut as you stare dreamily at the figures on the screen, right up until they stop moving. It takes you a few seconds to realize the movie’s been paused.
“are you falling asleep ? * do you need me to put you in slime * or * …? *|” you hear her whisper.
S’fine, you mumble, I’mn aleen… gonna be fine…
Her laughter thrums against your side. “k * get some rest * we’ll finish the movie when you wake up *|”
You give a faint nod and then feel yourself being lifted to lie more fully on the couch. You automatically curl up to snuggle against your friend, and after a moment, you feel one of her arms settle over you and tug you closer.
You fall asleep to the sound of a dear friend’s heartbeat and the comfort of her company, and your dreams are some of the sweetest you’ve ever known.