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The sun is rising, and gold light is starting to peek through the trees surrounding Valentine Manor. The light shines through the dirty windows, and Ardent can see motes of dust in the air.
“Did you even sleep?”
Ardent startles slightly, but the fog of sleep deprivation makes their short twitches sluggish and bleary. They’d been staring into space, heavy quilt around their shoulders, and hadn’t noticed Fost coming down the stairs. He’s leaning against the doorframe, now.
“I got between two and none hours, and when I woke up it wasn’t dark out anymore so I decided to give up.” Ardent raises the mug of Earl Grey in a mock salute, then takes a sip. It’s borderline cold, and they grimace.
Ardent’s hands are shaking rather violently, and Fost pretends not to notice.
“If you wanted to sleep in, the tea isn’t going to help, kid.”
Ardent shrugs. “You know how it is. Didn’t really realize I was making tea until I was at the table with the mug, and then I figured I shouldn’t waste good tea.”
Fost huffs humorlessly. “If that tea is above room temperature I’ll eat parchment.”
Ardent salutes again. They take another sip automatically, since the mug is in the air, and try not to flinch when they remember how cold it is. “Blech- I mean, mmmm it’s really good! Love to drink my fresh warm tea!”
They laugh. They laugh a little longer than that weak joke really deserved, Ardent’s brain long gone strange and sideways with the lack of sleep. This isn’t the first time they’ve been awake for sunrise, but the strange silence of this hour never gets less weird. They used to sleep in a lot, but Amastacias gave freshmen 8 am classes, and after they left Amastacias they haven’t slept very well on account of the-
Not thinking about that today. Bad.
Fost catches Ardent staring into space again. Sighing, they move from their place on the doorframe, summoning the energy of someone just starting their day. They take Ardent’s mug, to very little protest, and walk into the kitchen humming. Ardent hears the cold tea go down the drain behind her and only flinches a little. Ardent hears footsteps, then more water noises, then the flick of a flame, before Fost comes back to sit at the table.
The silence stretches out. They never talk about stuff like this— the stuff that keeps them up at night. The reasons they’re living in the middle of the woods. Ardent can feel those things pressing at them, like a leviathan passing close to the surface. They can see the shadows. Maybe this is the time—
“Y’know, when I was on the pirate ship, someone once bet me they could stay up for longer than I could.” There it is.
“What were you playing for?” They’ve both gotten good at this.
Fost shrugs, then looks away. Dramatic bastard. He leans back in: “Cool pocketknife.”
“Yeah? How cool?”
“Really cool. Had a sick scrimshaw handle and the blade was really sharp. Halfling made, I think. Halflings are good at that kind of thing. It was a really cool knife.”
“I assume you took the bet.”
“Of course I did. First two days were pretty normal, but I started hearing voices sometimes after that. Thirty-six hours in you start losing track.”
“Sounds kind of hellish. How’d the other guy do?”
“Well, we stopped shit-talking pretty soon in. Crew spared some coffee for our shenanigans that week, but the hype kind of died down after the first day when they realized we were both dead stubborn. I think I was still pretty green at the time, so I had a lot to prove”
“Yeah, I can see that happening. Did you win?”
“Well, I did. Other guy gave up and collapsed. The knife’s somewhere in my bag, probably? But I’m a very smart person with great self-preservation so I decided to keep going-”
“oh god”
“Yeah! Eventually the captain stopped me because I passed out in the rigging and almost fell from the top of the mast down to the gods-damned deck.”
Ardent makes an inarticulate noise.
“Right? Not sure ya boi would have survived that one. Anyways, it was a pretty cool time.”
“You said you had hallucinations-”
“Hey, the tea’s ready!”
Conveniently, the kettle in the kitchen has started whistling. Fost dips out and Ardent can hear sea shanties coming from the other room, echoing off the tiles.
“ Now we are ready to sail for the Horn
Weigh, hey, roll an’ go
Our boots and our clothes boys are all in the pawn
To be rollicking randy dandy-oh ”
By the time Fost comes back out, Ardent keeps almost drifting off and then jerking awake.
“Yeah, you look real awake right about now”
“Mmmmm.”
“Here, I’ll cut you a sick deal. If you drink this rather excellent chamomile tea (special Erembaur blend) and then go pass out upstairs, I’ll grab you some embroidery floss while I’m in town today so you can make cool shit.”
That’s right. It’s market day. “Isn’t it my week-”
“And! I’ll graciously and generously go shop for you.” They both know market day is a valuable resource to be savored more than it is a chore. Fost grins.
Ardent checks the mug with their hand and finds it hot enough to scald. They slam the entire thing, thanking their fire resistance for the ability to flex. “Deal, next two weeks are mine, though.”
When Fost calls out, “Only if you sleep properly for the next five days!” Ardent is already dragging themselves and their quilt back upstairs.
It does not escape either of them that Ardent’s hands were as steady as a wizard’s on that mug.
When Ardent is next awake, the sun is about an hour from setting, and freshly baked muffins have somehow materialized in the kitchen, along with an extremely respectable amount of embroidery floss (perfect for friendship bracelets, tassels, and other tiny, useless, handcrafts).