Chapter Text
New York didn’t like most people.
This was common knowledge.
What was less common knowledge was that New York did, in fact, have feelings, and that when the lights all turned out and he couldn’t sleep, he felt incredibly lonely.
Insomnia was a bitch.
Of course York was proud of his biggest city, but ever since the lights went up in that beautiful, bright, overwhelming place, he’d had more and more trouble sleeping. The city that never sleeps, people called it, and it was true. The only problem with that was it kept the state awake.
Luckily, there were two other states with the same problem.
Nevada had his issues with Vegas, what with the casinos and drinking that lasted all night. Nevada had started this little tradition of theirs, as it had originated with late-night drinking games and gambling.
California had started joining them just a few decades ago, though Cal had had insomnia probably as long as either of them. This was due to two factors – New York's insistence that he didn’t want to interact with anyone he didn’t have to, and California’s belief that everybody hated Cal all the time and there was no use in trying to make friends.
It worked out well. California talked about twice as much as York or Nevada, but that was okay because Cal also seemed to just… retain ridiculous amounts of information. Cal just knew things, weird shit that York had no idea where or why Cal learned it.
Which meant Cal was fucking excellent for collecting gossip.
So anytime one of them couldn’t sleep (which was always) and was lonely (which was often), they would call the others and they’d get together in one of their rooms and play games and gossip. And sometimes cuddle, depending on how lonely and how tired they were feeling.
They never talked about it the next day, and they fought much as they always did once the sun came up. But they always knew they’d have each other to lean on when the moon was out.
It was one of those nights. It was commonplace at this point, the three of them gathered around the table in Nevada’s room. The night had started as it usually did, with Nevada’s card games, Cal’s stories, and York breaking into the liquor cabinet.
They were all properly tipsy by now, and York and Cal were both losing badly to Nevada.
“No, you don’t – you don’t get it, rat boy,” Cal said, grinning as Cal folded, again. York suspected that Cal was seriously distracted and wasn’t totally invested in the game anymore. Not that it mattered – he and Cal were destined to lose anyway, it was just a matter of degree.
“I am not a rat boy,” York grumbled, raising the bet by another piece of candy. They’d found and raided Gov’s stash, which had been set aside for Hallowe’en a few weeks away. He could just buy more. “What don’t I get?”
“Rat king,” Cal amended. “You don’t get the story.”
“Yes!” Nevada crowed, laughing as he took nearly all of York’s snickers. “You are both so bad at this.”
“Maybe that’s because we don’t have a gambling addiction,” Cal replied brightly. York snorted. Cal was always pretty blunt, but never more so than when there was booze flowing in the veins. “Anyway, the point is this means Gov’s probably still up right now.”
That made York pause. He must have lost track of the story somewhere, the whiskey not helping with that, but now he was really interested. “Ya think?”
Cal nodded. “He’ll be in his office. Last time he passed out on his desk around four am, which is in… half an hour.”
York really must have missed something, but he didn’t care. “So… say, if someone was still up, and they broke into Gov’s office…”
Cal’s eyes lit up. Nevada raised an eyebrow, looking nervously between Cal and York.
“I forget you were friends with Florida,” Nevada admitted, looking at Cal.
“Babe, I am still friends with Florida,” Cal pointed out. “I don’t agree with him, like… ever, but he doesn’t hate me, so it’s fine. He’s funny.”
York winced at that. Cal had incredibly low standards, both when it came to friends and partners. Cal drove people away. Cal didn’t mean to, not like York did. York was alone by choice. Cal, though, was lonely.
York couldn’t help remembering when Nevada had asked them over in the middle of the night and Cal had shown up with a black eye, apologising profusely because “it’s distracting”.
Kicking Cal’s boyfriend out of their apartment had been incredibly satisfying.
That was around when York started to actually consider Cal and Nevada to be his friends. It was strange, admitting that he had friends and that he was okay with that. He was glad for it now, though.
He snapped out of his reverie at Cal’s laugh, grinning at the other two states, having missed the joke but just happy to be around them.
It still felt odd, being happy to be with other people. He was supposed to be happiest alone. He still was, really – Nevada and Cal were the only two people he could stand, and even then he still needed that alone time.
But seeing Cal’s grin and Nevada’s triumphant fist pump as he took even more of Cal’s candy was just…
York liked having friends.