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When they pull into the parking lot outside Dasha’s apartment building, she can hardly keep her eyes open. It’s been a long, gruelling, frustrating day, and all she wants is her bed.
But it’s never that easy, is it?
The van stops, and she rolls back her shoulders as she straightens up, glancing over at Vang0 in the seat beside her. He’s got his shotgun in his lap, and a frown on his face. When she looks over, he catches her eye and lets out an exhale.
There’s a beat of silence, then Burger abruptly pushes the driver door open, with force.
Vang0’s frown deepens, and he rushes to do the same, albeit with less anger. Dasha scoots over to exit on his side as well, to cut down the time it would take to walk around the van – and good thing, too, because just as her feet touch the ground, Burger slams the driver door closed.
Vang0 actually flinches – an involuntary response, but it guts her anyway. He’s been much less jumpy overall, but these things are hard to shake, and while Burger is ridiculously strong and knows how to employ that strength, he doesn’t usually get violent for no reason.
Well. There is a reason, of course.
Dasha snaps into action. She pushes past Vang0 and right into Burger’s space, ignoring the unbidden twinge of apprehension at the back of her own mind – Burger is strong, but he wouldn’t hurt her, never in a million years, and it will help Vang0 to see it, too. Instead of backing away, she reaches out for his hand with both of her own, takes hold, and holds on.
Burger, who was already turning away, stops and looks down at their hands, and the unexpected contact snaps him out of whatever trajectory he’d been on. For a split-second, he makes to pull his hand away, angry comment seemingly rising to the tip of his tongue – and then Vang0 is there, on his other side, and threading their fingers together.
“Burg,” he says, when Burger looks at him, and it’s fucking heartbreaking, the confusion and frustration and conflict in his expression. He’s so angry and Dasha can feel it almost emanating off of him-
And then his shoulders sag, and the tension breaks.
He looks over at Dasha, tugs on her hand, and she goes, instantly, lets him pull her in and wraps her arms around him, reciprocates the one-armed hug he gives her. God, she’s so tired, every single one of her bones aches. She feels Vang0 tucked in beside her, Burger crushing them both in his arms, and allows herself a rather more shaky exhale.
At least they’re all okay.
“…fuck that,” Vang0 says, and yeah, honestly.
“…they got away,” Burger says, and god, it hurts to hear him so bitter .
“…we’ll find them again,” Dasha says.
“We shouldn’t have lost them.”
She pulls back, and it’s like a heavy weight settles back onto her shoulders. “…I know.”
She looks at them both, in turn, like she’s trying to find some kind of answers in their faces, something beyond the familiarity and protective instinct she seems to have cultivated for her two idiots.
“…you look like shit,” Vang0 says, ever the charmer.
They step apart, and Dasha looks up at the dark, looming high-rise she calls home. There’s a lot of stairs between her and some rest.
With a sigh, she goes to grab her bag from the seat, handing Vang0 his shotgun as she does so. Burger hovers by the door, clearly not done with whatever is on his mind, but he doesn’t say anything. He watches her climb back out, and locks the van once she’s done. He’s the last to step away, and takes a second to fall into step beside them. Before they enter the building, he turns and looks back at the van – but again, he doesn’t say a word. And once they’re inside, he takes the lead up the many, many flights of stairs necessitated by the perpetually broken elevator.
Their silence stretches in the echoey stairwell – and then, finally, Burger seems to snap.
“It’s not fair,” he says, rounding on the two of them, halfway up the third flight of stairs.
Dasha needs half of her focus just to make sure she doesn’t trip over her own feet, and Vang0 grabs her arm in a display of massively quick reflexes.
“I know,” he says, eyes firmly on Burger.
“They need to be stopped,” Burger says.
Vang0 nods once, decisive. “And we will stop them. But we don’t know where they’ve gone, so we need to regroup, and think about what our next move should be.”
“But what if they’re hurting people right now ,” Burger insists, “and we’re going to bed? Even though we could have found them? We should go back to where we lost them and keep looking!”
“Burger – Night City is huge. We have no idea where to even start.”
“The road we lost them on, obviously! We know what their car looks like-”
Dasha sways, drawing Vang0’s attention. He turns to her in concern. “Whoa, you okay?”
“Mmh,” she says, though her head feels very light all of a sudden. Also there’s a clawing in her stomach, highly indicative of how long it’s been since she’s eaten anything at all.
Burger fidgets, clenching and unclenching his fists.
“…you guys should sleep,” he says. “I’m- I don’t think I can.”
Vang0 starts to open his mouth, but Burger cuts him off. “Look, I know you’re right. I know it. But I’m so mad . I can’t just go and rest now. I gotta try something. I gotta keep looking.”
“You can’t fight them on your own,” Vang0 points out. “There’s too many of them. You’ll get hurt. And you can’t go in without a plan, either.”
“What if I just find out where they are, and don’t attack them? That’d help, right? Then we know where they are, and we can go fuck them up tomorrow.”
Vang0 shoots Dasha a look, and she draws herself up, ready to tell Burger to stop, but she’s already out of momentum. “Burg-”
“Fine,” he says, “fine, I won’t look for them. But I won’t sleep. I don’t want to sit around.” He steps back down the stairs, down and past both Dasha and Vang0. “You’re exhausted, and you should rest.” He looks at Dasha as he says this, and the truth of his words must be visible on her face. “I’m going for a drive.”
He’s already halfway down to the next floor, and Vang0 stares after him in alarm. He turns to Dasha, clearly conflicted.
“Should we stop him?”
“…he’s coping,” Dasha says. “He’s a nomad, remember? Driving helps him.”
“But he shouldn’t be alone. I don’t think he’ll find them, but still…”
She agrees with this. Burger doesn’t do well alone, period, but especially not if he’s upset. And Vang0 has always gotten through to him.
“You should go with him,” Dasha says, “and make sure he calms down.”
Vang0 gives her a look, pointedly not moving. Yeah, she’s not left a great impression of stability and energy.
“You should sleep,” he says.
She turns, looking up at the stairs between her and her apartment, between her and what she’d wanted; a cup of tea with some whiskey and a fluffy blanket thrown over a tangle of legs, her head on Burger’s shoulder and Vang0’s in her lap, some dumb old movie on the TV-
Her bed will be too big and cold, and she’ll worry herself stupid over Burger anyway.
“I should,” she agrees, and turns her back on rest. Vang0 takes her hand.
“Let’s go, before we lose him.”
~
Burger is digging through the boot of the van as they approach, and looks up at the sound of the passenger door being opened. He doesn’t comment, though he must see Dasha climb up and take the middle seat, and Vang0 slide in beside her and pull the door closed.
When he opens the door on his side of the car, he pauses and takes them both in, jaw working and brow furrowed, and then he turns, leaving the door ajar, and returns to the back of the car. When he comes back, he’s holding a worn-looking blanket, which he wordlessly tosses to Dasha.
She catches it on instinct, then blinks down at the fabric. Warmth pools in her chest, unexpected and immediate. “…thank you,” she says, and is startled by how soft her voice sounds, even to her own ears. Burger says nothing, simply climbs into the seat and pulls the door shut. But then he seems to think better of it, because he doesn’t put the keys in the ignition, he just sits there, hands in his lap, clenching and unclenching.
“…you should go to bed,” he says finally, eyes fixed on the speedometer.
“Nah,” she says, and pointedly shakes out the blanket. It’s huge, larger than she’d expected, and she almost elbows Vang0 in the face as she drapes it over herself. She holds up a corner in question, and Vang0 breaks into a smile. So she pushes a bunch of it into his lap, leaving him to arrange it as he sees fit. “…wanna be where the action is.”
She doesn’t say the rest, but it’s not like she needs to.
Burger does look over, though, watches Vang0 fuss with his side of the blanket and then bump his shoulder into Dasha’s side to get comfortable, resting his head on her shoulder. She doesn’t even attempt to shake him off – he’s warm, and it’s more comfortable than it should be, really. Instead, she meets Burger’s gaze, not quite a challenge, but not entirely not one, either.
He looks away first, but then he reaches out and adjusts the blanket on her shoulder. She smiles, not wanting to break the moment with words, even though what she’s feeling is overwhelmingly gratitude and affection, and Burger looks like he could use a generous supply of both of those things.
In response, he fires up the van.
~
They drive in silence, save for the occasional click of the indicator and the soft hum of the engine.
Burger hasn’t turned on the radio, or any of their car playlists, but Dasha doesn’t mind the silence. Her hunger has faded to a background nuisance, and her eyes keep slipping closed, but she doesn’t allow for more than five seconds before she forces them open again. The point was to not leave Burger on his own, and they’ll be little help if they fall asleep. Beside her, Vang0 has angled himself towards the window and is watching the streets flick by through a thin layer of drizzle. It’s not bad enough to need the wipers on constantly, but Burger flicks them on every now and again, their hum just another unobtrusive sound that blankets the van.
There seems to be no set direction – Burger gets them on the remains of the highway, then exits seemingly at random and drives through a neighborhood, only to circle back to the highway and repeat the same process. The familiar and unfamiliar streets blend together in Dasha’s mind as she half-watches them pass – her real focus is on Burger’s hands gripping the steering wheel, and on how, the longer they drive, they slowly, slowly start to unclench.
Eventually, when it’s probably been about an hour, he drops one hand down into his lap, back to the position he normally drives in, relaxed and comfortable. She gives it a moment or two, then breaches her blanket – in an unnecessarily large movement, as a courtesy warning – to reach over and take his hand.
He moves it onto the bench between them, and she pulls him a bit closer still, so she can retreat back under her blanket without letting go.
He watches her from the corner of his eye with a small smile, and she even gets a little huff of laughter when she exaggerates a wiggle (though it’s at the expense of Vang0’s comfort – he makes a small, confused sound, and she settles down, allowing his head to fall back onto her shoulder, mumbling, “sorry, Vee.”).
They settle back into comfortable silence, and Dasha feels anchored now, calmer, with contact established to Burger as well. He seems to feel the same way, because he fully turns his head at the next red light and looks over at her and Vang0.
Vang0 looks up, too, like he can feel Burger’s eyes (or maybe just Dasha’s reaction), and seems to wake from his trance a little. Instead of saying anything, though, he just yawns, toneless but massive, and it sets Dasha off yawning immediately as well.
“Jesus, Vee,” she says when she’s done, and both Burger and Vang0 let out small laughs.
There’s a beat of silence, then:
“Thank you, guys.”
It’s clear what Burger means by the tone, and both Dasha and Vang0 turn to face him.
“Shut up,” Dasha says.
“For real,” Vang0 says.
For good measure, Dasha tips to the side and smushes her face into Burger’s shoulder. “Idiot.”
The light has changed, but there’s no one behind them, no one else in the entire crossroads to complain when it goes back to red and the van hasn’t moved.
Careful not to jostle her, Burger reaches over with his other hand and turns on the radio. Vang0 watches him struggle for a second, then clicks his tongue and takes over, since his right hand is free and he doesn’t have to contort himself to reach the panel. Vang0 is responsible for most of the playlists, anyway. When the first song comes on, soft and mellow with the volume pretty low, Dasha feels at home.
Vang0, seemingly satisfied, settles back into her side, tugging the blanket back into place.
The light changes to green a second time, and the van lurches back into action.
Dasha, determined to stay awake, starts following a drop of water on its journey down the windshield.
“…I’m hungry,” Vang0 says into the silence.
There’s a beat, then Dasha groans. “I was just starting to forget about how hungry I am, damn it.”
“Well, sorry about that, I guess.”
“Oh my God, we should get pancakes,” Dasha says, and Vang0 actually sits up, blanket dropping into his lap.
“Oh my God, we should.”
Burger throws them both looks before focusing back on the road.
“…we’re going to sleep,” he says.
Both Dasha and Vang0 make a show of complaining about it, but Burger won’t budge, and when Dasha sees the next road sign, she realizes he must have changed direction a long time ago, because they’re already back in her part of the city.
“But I’m not tired anymore,” Vang0 says, “just the thought of pancakes has revitalised me-”
“I’ll get you pancakes,” Burger says. “Tomorrow.”
Vang0 blinks. “…wait, for real?”
Burger shrugs. “Sure.”
“Incredible,” Dasha says, and really, it’s directed at both of them. Vang0 sticks his tongue out at her, but follows it up with a grin. To Burger, she says: “We should all go together.”
“I can get them,” Burger says, “I don’t mind. You don’t have to get up.”
“…you’re literally the nicest person I know,” Vang0 says. “But you know what? It’ll be more fun if we go together. Dasha’s right.”
Burger hums in response, and there’s that warmth again, pooling in her chest and stomach. She exhales and sinks back into Burger’s side, and after a moment, Vang0 follows. Burger lifts his right hand from the steering wheel and rests it over the bench instead, so their antics don’t affect his driving, and it’s there, sandwiched between the two of them and filled to the brim with what Dasha has to assume is the power of friendship or some such fluff, that she lets herself close her eyes and drift.
The rest of the drive and arrival are a blur of sleepy moments. She notes when the van goes still, and when Vang0’s weight moves from her shoulder - and then she feels herself being lifted out of the seat.
For a moment, she thinks she must be dreaming - it’s been decades since she’s been small enough to be picked up, and even longer since anyone has wanted to, so she writes it off – but then there’s the unmistakable chill of the night air, and her foot bumps against the door of the van, and Burger is carrying her.
He must feel her tense up, because he stops walking.
“…want me to put you down?”
It’s a credit to how absolutely dead tired she is that she briefly considers the benefits of being carried up endless flights of stairs – but then she nods, and allows herself to be deposited back onto her own feet and forcing her eyes open again.
“Thanks, Burg,” she says, stifling another yawn, and hopes that it’s clear she also means the offer of carrying her up to her apartment. He nods, and it feels like enough.
Vang0 materializes on her other side, and there’s a beat where the three of them just look over at the building, and she knows they’re all thinking about the damn stairs. Vang0 makes a face.
“Petition to move you to the basement.”
She blows a raspberry, which, to her immense gratification, actually makes Vang0 jump. Burger, too, shoots her an incredulous look – and then they all let out a collective huff of laughter, and it feels like the world rights itself in that moment, like something sliding back into place.
“You love the view as much as I do,” she points out, relieved that her sappy thoughts have not caused her throat to close up. “And eventually, they’ll fix the fucking elevator.”
“It’s like… from the 30s,” Vang0 says, with sufficient disdain. “A pile of junk.”
A chill passes over them, and they instinctively huddle closer together. No use in lingering out here.
“Well.” She links her arm with Vang0’s, and then turns to grab Burger by the elbow as well. “One last hike, boys?”
“Ugh, fine.”
Vang0 makes a show of leaning heavily on Dasha’s arm for the first couple steps, and she kicks at his shin as they walk over to the door.
“You’re welcome to sleep in the van instead.”
She buzzes them in at the keypad, relinking their arms when she’s done, and they file awkwardly through the door without letting go.
“S’nothing wrong with sleeping in the van,” Burger points out, leading the way into the stairwell.
“…bit cramped with the three of us, though,” Dasha says.
The stairs are not wide enough, either, so they disengage, filing up one after the other.
The climb is monotonous and gruelling at the same time, around and around identical levels until they reach Dasha’s floor. By the end, even though she’s been up and down these stairs many times in the last week since the elevator broke, her thighs are screaming, and all she wants to do is lie down.
Both Burger and Vang0 make for the couch as soon as she unlocks the door for them, barely stopping to peel off their jackets and shoes. Dasha hangs back, makes sure the door is locked, and decides in the doorway that the instant gratification of sleep right now is not worth the discomfort of not having brushed her teeth.
When she emerges from the bathroom, she half expects them to already be asleep - but instead, Burger is retrieving blankets from the closet in the hallway, and Vang0 is waiting by the door, ready to take his turn. He lightly bumps hips with Dasha as he walks past, startling a laugh out of her.
She walks over to Burger and grabs the two extra pillows she keeps for these occasions, and then turns to face the room.
Usually, when Burger and Vang0 stay over, they end up watching some show or movie and then passing out in a big pile on the couch. It’s worked okay so far, her couch is big and comfortable enough, though she does usually end up with some kind of crick in her neck from these sleepovers.
Burger is already putting the blankets down on the couch and unfolding them, but Dasha hesitates.
“…Burg,” she says eventually, and he looks up, frowning when he sees she hasn’t moved.
“What’s wrong?”
He follows her gaze, sweeping over the couch.
“Let’s not sleep here,” she says.
He blinks at her, clearly confused, and she nods, more to herself than him. “C’mon.”
She nudges the door to her bedroom open with her hip, and hits the light switch with her elbow. Dasha isn’t particularly self-conscious about the space, but it does strike her, as Burger follows her inside, that it must look kind of bare – a wardrobe, a small dresser, and a queen-sized bed with a single bed-side table, home to a reading lamp, and a book. There’s a small wooden box, a mirror and a single framed photograph on the dresser, which Burger stops in front of – it’s a candid of Vang0, Burger and Dasha in the van, sneakily taken by Vang0 mid-conversation. She wonders, for a moment, if that’s a weird thing to have – but before she can even open her mouth to justify or explain it, Burger says: “Oh!” and leans down to take a closer look, before turning back to her with a delighted smile. “I remember this! That was a really good day.”
She can’t help but smile back – but then again, Burger is just like that. “Yeah, it was.”
He straightens up and surveys the rest of the room. “…you sure you’re okay with us sleeping in here…?”
Now that she’s standing here, she wonders about the size of the bed – but they’ve made the couch work, and that’s definitely narrower. It should be okay, probably-
“…guys?”
Vang0’s voice interrupts her train of thought, and she steps briefly back through the doorway. “Over here!”
“Oh!” he says, confusion replaced by surprise as he enters the room and sees the pillows and blankets in Dasha’s and Burger’s arms.
“…s’better than the couch,” Dasha says with a half-shrug. “If you guys don’t mind that it’s maybe a bit… cramped.”
Vang0 eyes the bed, then gives her a shrug in return. “We’ll make it work.”
Burger hasn’t said anything, but Dasha can tell from the way he’s looking at the carpet that he’s considering a different solution, already poised to give up his own comfort for the sake of his friends.
“…we don’t have to,” she adds, “I mean, I just thought…” She hesitates, but there really is no reason not to be honest with them. “I just wanted all of us to be able to sleep together, without having to, like, sleep half sitting up. If the bed’s too small, we can also just go back to the couch and figure something else out, I just-”
Vang0, mercifully, ignores her rambling in favor of lifting the pillows out of her arms, and honest-to-god rolls his eyes at her.
“We’ll make it work,” he says again, dropping them on the bed. “Bathroom’s all yours, Burg.”
Burger nods, deposits the blankets, and taps his fingers onto Dasha’s shoulder when he walks past, leaving her and Vang0 alone.
Dasha finds herself sagging a little, the weight of the day and just pure, heavy exhaustion settling back over her.
Beside her, Vang0 lets out a sigh that speaks volumes on equal measures of tiredness.
"...think he's okay…?" he asks quietly, stepping closer and lacing their fingers together. She notes, somewhere in her exhausted brain, that he's been seeking out contact more and more often - and there's a twinge of sympathy for the struggle he's left behind, and a large surge of relief and gratitude for his trust in her.
"I think so," she says, trying to stomp out her own uncertainty on the matter of Burger. "I think… driving helped."
Vang0 nods slowly. "I think you helped, too."
She squeezes his hand in response, and hopes it's enough to convey her gratitude - Vang0 is like a pillar sometimes, steadies her just by being there in the same way that Burger does, and she hopes that he knows the space he's carved out in her heart, knows how she's come to rely on him too.
He must see something in her expression, because he rolls his eyes and says: "...not to get too sappy, obviously."
Something about the gesture hits home, and holding his gaze suddenly feels immensely difficult. Instead, she tugs on his arm, pulling him into an unexpected hug.
"...can't stand to look at you anymore," she says - in explanation, for levity, or something - and he laughs, even as he pulls her close.
"Of course."
"Got sick of your stupid face."
"M-hm."
"...shut up."
He gives her a squeeze and she huffs out a laugh before gently disentangling herself. It's a strange mix of feeling relieved that they can move past this, and sorry that it's over. Can’t get too sappy, just like he said.
But Vang0 can’t seem to let it go - instead, he hones in on it. Shoots to kill.
"Hey," he says, hanging on to her hand even as she pulls away.
"Hm?"
He waits until their eyes meet.
"...thank you."
She squirms a little, shakes her head, because really, she can't take more of this.
Vang0 isn't having it this time.
"I mean it. I know you were ready to pass out, like, two hours ago. And I'm sorry that we kept you up for so long. But I'm also glad you were there, and I know Burger is, too."
She really needs to work on accepting compliments. Her skin feels too hot, and at the same time, a deep sense of gratification settles into her stomach, and her head feels light.
She squeezes Vang0's hand again for lack of a better response, and he looks from her hand to her face before breaking into the most gleeful grin she’s ever seen.
"Oh, sorry, did that embarrass you? Being appreciated? Did that make you uncomfortable?"
Burger chooses this moment to re-enter the room, and he stops in the doorway, clearly confused.
He looks from Vang0, stupid grin and all, to Dasha, blushing and ready to deck him in the face.
"...what's going on…?"
"M’telling Dasha I love her," Vang0 says easily, and Dasha wants the ground to open up and swallow her whole .
Several emotions flit across Burger's face in quick succession - confusion, shock, something like hurt - before he seems to shut them down, expression going scarily blank. It sets off all of Dasha’s alarm bells - any combination of “Burger” and “guarded” makes her want to rush to his side immediately, and also cause pain to whatever is causing him to close off. Of course this is not that simple, but the thought of him misunderstanding, the thought of Burger feeling excluded cuts her to the core quicker and more viciously than she could have imagined, bypassing even her embarrassment.
Vang0 seems to be on the exact same page, and he intervenes, smoothing over the moment of shock with surprising ease, pulling them back into more familiar territory, like saying I love you is a normal occurrence for them.
"...she's terrible with compliments, Burg. I mean, we knew that, but it’s way worse than I thought."
"I'm not-" Dasha protests weakly, as attention returns to her, but Vang0 cuts her off.
"You're fantastic, you know that, right? Burger and I, we'd be lost without you."
Dasha wills herself to not be affected by this, but Burger raises his eyebrows, catches on to the tone and breaks into a grin of his own, and she's tired and she loves him, loves them both so fiercely and fully she thinks she might explode.
Burger tries to catch her eye, and she looks over (half just to avoid looking at Vang0's face) but that’s no use either, because when she meets his gaze, she can tell Burger sees right through whatever flimsy response or excuse she might have provided, sees right through to the bare heart exposed at her core.
"It's true," he says, then, clearly jumping on the train. "You're always there, even before I realize I need you."
Dasha shakes her head, even as her chest swells, and she just knows she’s going to fucking cry - but Burger isn't finished.
"…like tonight. I don't know what I would’ve done- I wanted you to go to sleep, ‘cause you looked more tired than I'd ever seen, but I don't know what I'd've done if you hadn't been there, in the van with me’n Vang0. You… you've saved me so many times, Dasha."
She lets out a terrible, embarrassing half-sob of a sound before she clamps her lips shut, but it's too late.
"Dasha-" Vang0 says, somewhere between alarmed and fond, and she's squeezing his hand so hard it must hurt, absolutely incapable of looking at him anymore, or at Burger for that matter.
"It's not fair," she says, and then stops, horrified at the sound of her own voice, but the words keep tumbling out of her mouth, "you- you don't get to just- don’t bully me-"
“Bully you…?” Vang0 echoes, bemused - but then his voice changes, goes soft and patient in a way that makes her heart ache, “Dasha, we’re not- I’m sorry for teasing you, really. But I meant everything I said - I didn’t just say it to see how you’d react. I think you’re amazing, and I absolutely love you.”
Her breath hitches again, and she knows, she knows she's never going to live this down. She reaches for Burger with her other hand, needing the anchor, needing something tangible to hold her in place - and he offers his hand just as willingly as she'd stepped into his arms back at the van, what feels like a lifetime ago. In fact, he does more than just offer; he steps closer, and guides her hand to his chest, fingers clasped between his own.
"Vang0’s right,” he says. He pauses, watching her, and then he looks down at their hands before he adds: “...I love you, too.”
And if that isn’t the last fucking straw. Dasha lets out a laugh in an attempt to delay the inevitable, but her eyes are already swimming with tears, and as she clenches them shut, they start to fall.
Both Burger and Vang0 squeeze back against her iron grip, and she takes several deep breaths before she manages another nervous laugh.
“...shit,” she says, mostly to herself, but she can hear Vang0 smile in response. And Burger, biggest bleeding heart on the planet, pulls her into a one-armed hug for the second time that day, and for the second time, she lets him, and feels Vang0 squeezed in beside her.
When she finally does open her eyes, pulling back to awkwardly wipe her face on her own shoulder, she sees that Burger’s eyes aren’t exactly dry, either, and Vang0 looks equally misty.
“...just look at us,” she says, and the two of them both laugh at her attempt at a grimace.
“You really do need to sleep,” Vang0 says, like it was his idea all along. “You’re terribly sappy when you’re tired.”
“Watch it,” she says, completely without threat. “Next time we’ll gang up on you. I’m sure we can make you cry with minimal effort.”
“Joke’s on you,” Vang0 says, “I cry every day.”
Dasha snorts, but Burger looks less amused. Vang0 offers up an apologetic smile. “Well, maybe not every day.”
“...I’d hope not,” Burger says. Dasha thinks dimly that he has the right attitude about these kinds of jokes, and she knows Vang0 knows this, too. He lingers a little longer in Burger’s space, tucked neatly into his arm, and rests his head against Burger’s chest. She can see Burger squeeze him in response, and it warms her stupid, sentimental heart even more.
“...bed,” she says, finding she’s all out of coherent sentences. But the other two just nod, and they follow her when she steps over to it. She glances at them, brow slightly furrowed, then nods to herself.
“...Burg - middle?”
Burger tilts his head a little, assessing, and then he nods. “Sure.”
Vang0 goes and shuts the door, and hits the light switch on his way back.
As expected, it takes a bit of figuring out, a bit of elbowing and shifting among pillows and blankets, but when Vang0 has settled into Burger’s side, and Burger extends his free arm to Dasha, she goes gladly (yet again) and fits herself against him, pulls her blanket up, and exhales. It’s like the last of the day’s weight lifts off her shoulders and instead settles over her in comfortable exhaustion - exhaustion it feels like falling asleep like this will cure.
Burger is warm, and when she drapes her arm over his chest, Vang0's hand finds hers, fingers slotting together like they’ve been doing this for centuries - and maybe they have been very touchy recently, and maybe they have been “accidentally” fitting into each others spaces like puzzle pieces - what’s new is it being outwardly intentional, no excuses, just comfort. Heat rises to Dasha’s face from even thinking of admitting how much she’s come to crave it.
But then she thinks of driving around town in Burger’s van, music blaring and the windows down, of piling into a tiny booth at a diner and laughing until her sides ache, of ruffling Vang0’s hair while he’s streaming and making him shriek, of falling asleep against Burger’s side in the afternoon sun on a lazy day - of how they’ll wake up tomorrow and pile back into the van for pancakes, Vang0 yawning and Burger teasing him about it, how she and Burger will dump their blueberries on Vang0’s plate because he loves them so much, how they’ll no doubt fall into strategizing on how to catch the fuckers that evaded them before their plates are empty. All of it already feels familiar and warm - and maybe that’s the whole point.
Maybe she doesn’t need to admit it. Maybe they already know.