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Jay stared up at the ceiling, her hands clasped over her stomach as she listened to the sounds of the waves lapping against the side of the ship. The sleeping quarters were dark and quiet and Jay, for some reason, was still awake.
She hadn’t been able to fall asleep. Not just nightmares waking her up but the fact that something was keeping her awake. She had been staring at the ceiling for hours, comfortable in her bed but wide awake.
These nights were almost worse than the night terrors.
She should just go up, take her shift at watch, and actually do something with this sleeplessness. But she didn’t.
In the darkness, she faintly heard the sound of one of the cots creaking. It was a small sound that she only noticed because she’d been listening to only the waves for the past few hours.
There was silence. Then another creak. Chip was mumbling something in his sleep.
He talked in his sleep a lot, Jay had noticed. Whenever he was having a dream, he would mumble things along with it. Usually, Jay didn’t mind if she wasn’t stuck awake in the middle of the night with that being the only sound to listen to.
Gillion talked in his sleep too sometimes. But that was hard to notice and hear since he slept in a barrel most of the time. But when he wasn’t, sometimes Jay could hear him muttering unintelligible things. None of it was in common, nothing that she could understand.
She wondered what Gillion dreamt about.
She wondered if she talked in her sleep when she dreamed. Jay figured if she asked Chip he would lie anyway and say she did every night loudly that kept him awake. Which she’d know is a lie since she doesn’t sleep every night.
Jay realized that Chip had gone quiet again, his cot creaked even more. She missed when he slept in his hammock because then she didn’t have to hear his cot creaking whenever he moved. And he moved a lot. Which was why he moved back to the cot to sleep in at night. He kept falling out of the hammock.
As she stared at the ceiling, Jay heard the sound of footsteps in the room. The light patter of dry bare feet against the wooden floor that quietly approached the curtain separating Jay’s cot from the rest of the room.
“Jay,” Chip hissed, his voice slightly hoarse from lack of use. Jay turned her head and could see the faint shadow of Chip’s figure on the other side.
“Jay, are you awake?” Chip asked when Jay didn’t respond to his first inquiry.
“What?” Jay mumbled, she scrubbed at her face and sighed.
“Are you decent?”
Jay blinked at his figure behind the curtain. She sighed again.
“Yeah. What do you need?”
Chip pulled aside the curtain and stepped in. His hair was disheveled and sticking up in magical places. He was wearing a shirt for once which hung baggy on his form, hanging off his shoulders like a blanket. He swayed slightly from where he stood and blinked tiredly at Jay. He had obviously just woken up.
“Have you slept at all?” He sat down on the edge of the bed. Jay had a slight idea of where this was going but she wasn’t going to say anything.
“No.”
She didn’t see a point in lying. It’s not like Chip could change the hours she’d spent staring at the ceiling. He just frowned sadly and Jay decided she liked that expression a lot less.
“Why are you up?” Jay tilted her head to the side, moving her hands off her stomach, “what’s woken you up?”
Chip looked away from her gaze. His frown deepened.
“Oh you know, the usual,” he muttered, rubbing at the back of his neck. Jay just nodded in understanding.
The usual.
Nightmares.
There were a few minutes of silence. Jay watched Chip, the way his shoulders rose and fell in an awkward rhythm or the way that he fidgeted with his hands. He coughed into his fist to clear the silence.
“So… uh…” he swallowed thickly, “can I sleep here tonight?”
“You need someone to tuck you in?” Jay asked, a hint of tired playfulness to her voice.
“No, I need someone to hold!” Chip exclaimed, embarrassment creeping up his face. Jay chuckled tiredly.
“Yeah okay,” she scooted to the side and patted the mattress, “lay down.”
Chip did as Jay said, shimmying under the blankets and resting his head on the pillow next to Jay. He took her hand shyly, intertwining their fingers as he stared at their conjoined hands.
“Do you wanna talk about it?” Jay asked, “the usual?”
“No,” Chip shook his head, “what about you?”
“Just can’t sleep,” Jay said.
Chip sighed and nodded. He squeezed her hand.
Jay waited for a few minutes, content at holding Chip’s hand. It was something else to focus on besides her exhaustion and boredom. But after a while of just him holding her hand, she remembered what else Chip had said.
“I thought you wanted someone to hold?”
“I’m being modest,” Chip turned his head to the side, rubbing his finger along the side of Jay’s hand, “y‘know? Being polite and all that.”
“I appreciate your modesty,” Jay sat up slightly, wedging her elbow underneath herself to prop herself up, she squeezed his hand back, “but I gave you permission.”
Chip frowned, he scooted closer to Jay and Jay wrapped her arm around him. She pulled him close until his head was resting on her chest. Keeping one arm wrapped around his torso, she laid back down, their two hands still intertwined. Chip’s other hand rested on her stomach, curled close to his own chest.
She could feel him fidgeting with the fabric of her shirt, a nervousness thrumming against his skin. She moved her hand to his head, twirling the strands of hair at the nape of his neck around her fingers.
“How come you don’t sleep?” Chip asked, his voice quiet. He shivered from underneath the blanket.
“I don’t know,” Jay muttered, she stared back up at the ceiling, “It’s annoying, sometimes I just can’t fall asleep.”
Chip sighed, he nodded and squeezed her hand. He relaxed, lying halfway on top of Jay like a dog. Jay ran her fingers through his hair, her nails lightly scratching against his scalp. He was practically boneless with the way that Jay scratched at his head and she smiled faintly.
“Go to sleep,” she said, knowing that he was still awake.
“You first,” Chip mumbled. He lifted his head enough to glare at Jay through tired eyes. She laughed and patted his face.
Jay was about to argue back when the sound of water splashing against wood caused both of them to quiet. Chip froze, his hand tightening around Jay’s hand.
“It’s just Gill,” Jay said, a bit unsure of herself.
“Is he awake?” Chip asked like Jay would know the answer.
“He’s probably moving around—”
“Shh.”
There was another splash and the sound of the barrel lid being moved as it scraped against the side of the barrel. Chip sat up, his hair even more mussed from where Jay was playing with it.
A thud. Another splash. Water sloshing back and forth as Gillion must have gotten out of his barrel. Chip moved out of Jay’s arms, tripping as he stood up. Jay sat up as well, furrowing her eyebrows as she could hear water dripping from Gillion’s form.
“Gill?” Chip asked quietly, he pulled the curtain back and stepped outside the white square.
“Oh, Chip,” his voice was not quiet, even right after he woke up, “what are you doing?”
“I was trying to sleep,” Chip responded. Jay winced, and even though she couldn’t see Gillion she could practically imagine the worried look on his face and could easily predict what he was about to say.
“Have I woken you up?” Gillion asked, worry filling his tone, “if so I apologize.”
“No, we’re already up,” Chip nudged the curtain, “why are you awake?”
“I was…” Gillion fumbled, “I was getting ready for my shift at watch…”
It didn’t sound like a lie—Gillion never lied—but it didn’t sound like the entire truth either. If the way he was stumbling said anything about it. Chip clicked his tongue.
“It’s not time for your watch yet, Gil,” Chip said, confident that he actually knew the time, “we’d wake you up when it is.”
“I was… taking a precaution…” Gillion muttered, he made a noise in the back of his throat, one that sounded akin to a cough or a choke.
“Well, since it’s not needed,” Chip’s tone was firm, leaving no room for arguments, Gillion made a noise of protest, “because you’re supposed to be sleeping still. Why don’t you come join in the cuddle pile?”
“The what?”
Chip pulled back the curtain, dragging Gillion into the square by the hand. Gillion looked nervous, his eyebrows furrowed and his face contorted into a slight grimace. His eyes darted back and forth and Jay could practically see him shivering from where he stood. His skin shone with the usual dampness, but the benefit of being from the undersea is that most other water slid off him right away. Jay yawned and rubbed her eyes.
“I—” Gillion pulled his hand away from Chip, his ears drooped, pinning back against his head, “I wouldn’t want to intrude on what is going on here. This is not at all involving me.”
He clenched his hands into fists and took a step back, looking around like he was searching for the nearest exit.
“Hey,” Chip put a hand on his arm, Gillion relaxed some, his expression still furrowed, “Anything that we do involves you, you’re part of our crew.”
“We’re not going to make you do anything you don’t want to,” Jay swung her legs over the side of the cot, “we just figured that you’d want to join.”
“I’m not sure… I know what’s going on,” Gillion didn’t move.
“Cuddling,” Jay said, “well, we were.”
Gillion furrowed his eyebrows, if it was possible for a man to look even more confused and frightened at the same time, he pulled it off pretty well.
“You know what that is, right?” Chip asked, he tilted his head to the side.
Gillion moved his arm away from Chip’s grasp, he rubbed at his arm, his claws digging into his skin. He looked around nervously.
“I sense by the expressions you both wear that I am supposed to know what is going on, is this an oversea thing?”
Chip sighed, “I don’t know what they teach you in the undersea but they really skimmed out on the important stuff.”
“Come here,” Jay patted the edge of the bed, “we’ll show you, if you’re uncomfortable, you can leave.”
“I am unsure what is going on…” Chip flopped down on Jay’s cot again, his face pressing against the pillow. Jay nudged him aside so he wasn’t taking up the entire space. She patted the mattress again.
“That’s okay.”
Gillion took a step closer, his footsteps were loud and Jay reached out to take his hand when he was in arms reach. He didn’t try to pull away, but he did tense up at the sudden contact. She squeezed his hand, rubbing her thumb across his knuckles.
Jay moved so that Gillion was in the middle (Chip would have to deal with it for now). Jay had to practically push his shoulders to get him to lay down. His breathing hitched and he looked like he wanted to be anywhere but here.
There was a moment where neither of them knew what to do from there. They were laying next to each other, but Jay was wracking her brain and trying to figure out how to now accommodate three people. One of which has apparently never cuddled anyone before and couldn’t seem to decide whether he was enjoying himself or not.
“Gill, lift your arm,” Chip muttered. Jay looked across at him, Gillion furrowed his eyebrows and did as Chip said. Chip wriggled his way underneath Gillion’s arm, he squinted and leaned his head on Gillion’s chest. Gillion lowered his arm confusedly, and Jay scooted up more so that she could wrap her arms around him. Chip hummed under his breath, he threw his legs over Gillion and Jay’s.
“You can relax a bit,” Jay said, “it’s supposed to be relaxing.”
Gillion didn’t say anything, nor did he seem to react to what Jay said at all. Gillion’s skin was cold when she wrapped an arm around him, managing to bury her hand in Chip’s hair, the younger man let out a breath.
There was a slight sheen of moisture that always clung to Gillion’s skin that didn’t get Jay wet, but it was enough to cause a slight shiver to roll down her spine at the sudden jolt of cold.
He took a deep breath, his ears twitching. Jay could feel his fins against her arm and it was a weird feeling. She didn’t usually touch his fins and they were surprisingly smooth. He scooted a bit closer to Jay, tensing up when Jay shifted to accommodate him.
“You have a very comfortable chest,” Chip muttered, and let out a sigh.
“Thank you…?” Gillion swallowed thickly, Jay saw his eyes dart towards her.
Jay chuckled. With her free hand she reached up, she moved Gillion’s hair out of his face, twisting the blue curls around one of her fingers. Gillion furrowed his eyebrows and seemed more confused than anything else as Jay ran her fingers through his hair. He opened his mouth to say something, then stopped, closing his mouth again.
His hair was always pretty frizzy when it was dry, it especially didn’t help with the static that coursed through his body whenever he was going to smite. Right now there was still some water that clung to the strands that caused them to curl up more than anything. Jay smiled softly, watching them bounce when she smoothed his hair back, her nails scraping lightly against his scalp.
She felt more than saw Gillion shudder. He relaxed against Jay, a sigh escaping his lips as he practically deflated, and Jay’s smile only widened. His hand, which had been fidgeting with Chip’s shirt, stilled and Jay was glad that he had finally settled.
Jay was pretty sure that Chip had fallen asleep a few minutes ago, content to lay on pretty much anyone that would let him. Gillion didn’t seem to be asleep yet, but he was definitely a lot more relaxed than before. He shifted, pulling Chip a bit closer to his chest.
Even Jay herself was starting to feel sleepy. A feeling that had avoided her for the past few hours. Gillion hummed softly as she tucked a strand of his hair behind his ear.
The waves lapping against the ship rocked the cots in the sleeping quarters with a comfortable rhythm. And Jay found that with her crewmates beside her, it was a lot easier for the tiredness to cause her eyelids to droop.
With her hands still tangled in both Gillion and Chip’s hair. She found herself drifting off with the rocking of the boat.
The next morning, when she woke up, Gillion’s back was pressed against her chest. His head was tucked underneath his chin, the coral on the top of his head poking her in the neck. She had one arm wrapped around his stomach, the other hand near his chest. Chip was pressed flush to Gillion’s chest, his face buried in Gillion’s shirt. Their legs were tangled together and Chip had an arm thrown over Gillion, his fingers wrapped around Jay’s pajama shirt.
She was slightly falling off the bed and her arm was falling asleep but she didn’t think she’d want it any other way.
Gillion and Chip were still fast asleep, Chip’s snoring was muffled by Gillion’s chest and Gillion was completely silent. His ears twitched but besides that, he didn’t stir.
Jay took a deep breath and smelled nothing but the scent of salt that always seemed to come from Gillion. She smiled softly and let her eyes slip back closed.