Work Text:
Morning Productivity
Pearl groans when her alarm goes off. She doesn't want to get up. She knows she needs to—there's a concert in three days they have to prepare for. Rina's got their stuff handled, but she's gotta help Damp Socks through it, they look up to her and they're too much for Rina sometimes. There's also that appointment with the beakist for her twice-yearly cleaning this afternoon, and that shit with her parents insisting she take over managing some aspects of their business because they want it to stay in the family. As if she hasn't been helping with that shit for years.
But more than the busy, boring day, it is very hard to get up with tentacles draped over her shoulders, holding her as Marina's big spoon.
But the alarm behind her will not shut up, so after the twentieth or so beep Pearl starts trying to disentangle herself.
The tentacles tighten, pressing her harder against Marina's back.
Pearl sighs. “Rina...” She can move her arms, so she traces one finger from the top of one tentacle down to the tip, making it squirm and loosen. “Your tentacles...”
“Mrph.”
“Come on, I've gotta start the day.”
“No you don't.”
Pearl tickles the other tentacle, getting it to loosen, too. “I do,” she says, rolling over and smacking the alarm. A tiny crunch makes her wince. And she needs to get a new alarm. Again. “You can stay, though... I think your shit's covered.”
“Pearlie,” Rina whines, and a tentacle creeps around her waist. “What time is it?”
“Eight.”
“Eight?” Rina yawns, and Pearl can't help but glance over her shoulder, because Rina looks so cute like that, still scrunched under the covers but looking back at Pearl over her shoulder. “Since when do you get up at eight?”
“Since I gotta be responsible and shit,” Pearl says.
“Mmmph...” Rina yawns. “There's nothing that needs doing before noon. You can stay.”
Pearl removes Rina's tentacle. “Not this time. I'm turning over a new leaf!” She pushes herself off the bed and yelps. “ Cold floor, cold floor!”
“You wouldn't have to deal with it if you stayed with me,” Rina says. The bed creaks, and Pearl crosses to the closet, stubborn as shell but she catches sight of Rina in the wardrobe's mirror, eyes half-closed and short tentacle stuck at an odd angle and one cute little ear visible. She loves seeing Rina's ears. “You could be comfy.”
“Rina...”
“You could turn on the heaters for the floors,” Rina says, “and just climb back in with me until the floors warm up. Then you can get up, right?”
Pearl bites her lip. That does sound good.
“And then I won't be lonely,” Rina says. She smiles at Pearl, a Judd expression that has Pearl turning to look at her properly, not just in the mirror. “And maybe, as I fall back asleep, so comfy and loved in your arms, you can get up again without waking me.”
That...
Okay, Rina's good at this.
Pearl has to jump to reach the top of the wardrobe, where she left the remote for the floor heaters, and turns it on. “Okay,” she says, turning and climbing back into bed. “But only until the floor heats up, okay? Ten, maybe twenty minutes.”
“Uh-huh,” Rina says, opening her arms; Pearl slots herself back in them and feels the comforting weight of tentacles over her shoulders again. “Whatever you say, Pearlie.”