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March 7th wouldn't consider herself a light sleeper, nor an insomniac. Not to the levels of Dan Heng, at least. She appreciated it when she got a minimum of eight hours of sleep. But her dreams didn't always give her the room to do that.
Not that she suffered from nightmares as often as someone like Dan Heng, but when she did, she knew she had catalysts to help her fall back asleep. She knew that Dan Heng would often read in the middle of the night with a single light on inside of his archives.
March 7th would often look through the photos she was always snapping, using the good memories and feelings of recollection to make her feel more at ease to help her try and fall asleep, staring at the wall that she'd covered in photos from her bed to try and easily oust whatever nightmare had woken her up out of her mind.
But that wasn't going to help tonight. As it wasn't a nightmare that was keeping her up this particular night. And no matter how much she stared at her wall of photos, nothing was going to rid her ears of the sound that came outside of her room.
Tap, creak, tap, creak, tap, creak, tap creak .
The sound kept repeating. Faint enough to be considered quiet, but loud enough to keep her awake, sitting up in her bed and staring at the wall of photos across the room.
Tap, creak, tap, creak, tap, creak, tap, creak.
And what was just salt on the wound was the fact that March 7th knew who was making the sound. It trailed up and down the hall of the train cart, aboard the Astral Express, as if the source of the sound was moving back and forth through it.
And March knew that's precisely what Stelle was doing.
Tap, creak, tap, creak, tap, creak, tap, creak.
Everyone on the Astral Express had their own issues with sleeping that cropped up every now and then. March 7th stared at her photos to ease her mind, Dan Heng read from his archives, and… well, she didn't know if Himeko, Mr. Yang, and Pom-Pom ever had difficulties sleeping, but she was sure they had their methods.
But apparently…
Tap, creak, tap, creak, tap, creak, tap, creak.
…Pacing. Pacing was how Stelle, the newest Trailblazer, dealt with her sleeping issues.
March knew that Stelle was constantly plagued by nightmares, she had learned that much along Dan Heng during the time on Jarlio-IV. If she had to be honest, March had felt a little… guilty when she learned this fact. Stelle had nightmares and they had used it to their advantage, Stelle’s nightmares providing useful intel on the Supreme Guardian of the planet because of the Stellaron within her.
Never-ending nightmares led to restlessness. And restlessness led to insomnia. Which led to Stelle beginning to pace back and forth along the Astral Express' cart. Which led to March laying awake and being driven crazy . Seriously, she was at her wit's end! Digging through her trash in the middle of the night that one time had stressed March out enough!
But she was still hesitant to leave her room and tell Stelle to stop pacing. If she didn't know exactly why Stelle was doing it, she'd be a lot less hesitant.
But she knew that from Dan Heng that telling an insomniac to go to sleep wasn't always the best way to get them to sleep. Which is why she'd long-since given up on getting the Cold Dragon Young to fall asleep at a reasonable time.
Tap, creak, tap, creak, tap, creak, tap, creak.
March wondered why Dan Heng hadn't gotten Stelle to stop, but then figured that it was likely for the same reason as her. Neither of them wanted to chastise Stelle for something she had little to no control over. And the thought of a downtrodden Stelle was particularly painful in March’s mind.
Tap, creak, tap, creak, tap, creak, tap, creak.
Stelle was a person who could go from a stoic woman wielding a baseball bat to hammer foe's heads in with ruthless efficiency, to a girl acted like a newly-born being who dived through trash cans, licked lampposts, and waded through fountains, to a reserved and stoic wall of emotional baggage.
It's not like Dan Heng was particularly open with his emotions either. It was kind of frustrating how she'd ended up with the two most diminutively emotional people in quite possibly the entire universe.
Tap, creak, tap, creak, tap, creak, tap, creak.
With each tap of Stelle's feet and each creak of the floorboards that followed each one, March could feel her composure slowly vanishing. Eventually, a quick and quiet groan escaped March's lips as she rose from her bed and stood up.
Staring at her wall of photos wasn't going to help March 7th fall asleep this time. She approached her door as silently as she possibly could, which was quite the feat for her.
She reached her hand out and reached it out towards the door, but hesitated. If she opened this door, there'd be no going back. She'd have to tell Stelle to stop pacing the hall and potentially deal with a saddened Trailblazer.
March 7th took a deep breath and slowly opened the door, watching it slide open too fast for her liking, before taking a small step out of her room, glancing around the hall.
She eventually found who had been making those sounds. Sure enough, Stelle was pacing back and forth in the hall. When she got close enough to March for her to see her features, she could see the blank expression that adorned her face, her amber eyes only half opened and her gray hair unkempt and messy, probably as a result of dragging herself out of bed.
“Hm? Oh. March. Could you not sleep either?” The newest Trailblazer asked as she stopped her pacing, momentarily putting an end to the noise that had been keeping her up, crossing her arms while standing in front of March.
March hesitated once more. It took all of her willpower to not snap at Stelle in annoyance. In the grand scheme of things, it wasn't really Stelle's fault that she had nightmares and needed a way to vent them.
“Uh… yeah, I guess so. What, um, what're you doing out here?” March asked as subtle as possible. Unfortunately, Stelle was a clever girl, her mouth near immediately curving to form a frown.
“...Did I wake you?” She asked quietly. March let out a small sigh, deciding to drop the act and just tell her
“Um… More like never let me sleep. Your pacing back and forth down the hall kinda… kept me up.” March responded sheepishly, scratching the back of her head. Stelle gave a small nod, a twinge of guilt entering her eyes. Before she could say anything, the soft sound of another door opening interrupted her.
“It kept me up as well.” The familiar voice of Dan Heng came out as the Cold Dragon Young emerged from his room. The door slid shut with mechanical whirring as Dan Heng turned his head towards the two girls with his arms crossed.
Although he wasn't really helping. The guilty look in Stelle's eyes only strengthened, her arms uncrossing and falling to her sides.
“...Sorry.”
“It's fine.” March and Dan Heng said in unison. It was followed by March's giggling and then a small sigh from Dan Heng. Stelle ended their bout of noises with a quiet, awkward chuckle.
“Nightmare?” Dan Heng asked in his usual deadpan expression. Stelle nodded slightly in response, her culpable expression still somewhat visible on her face, but having lessened.
“Same-old, same-old.” March commented after a brief moment of silence. She alternated her gaze between Stelle and Dan Heng. They were so different yet so similar. That was true for all three of them.
“I didn't want to fall asleep. And I didn't want to wake any of you. But I didn't know what else to do.” Stelle murmured under her breath. March bit her tongue and resisted the urge to make a sparky comment, thinking better of it and winning over her intrusive thoughts.
“I know how you feel. I quite often stay up after a nightmare through fear of experiencing another one. But there are better ways to do that than pacing the hallway. I usually end up reading to pass the time.” Dan Heng said with a stoic expression. March thought for a few moments before an idea sprung into her head, her face lighting up like the light bulb that went off in her head.
“I have an idea that'll help! Sleepover!” March whispered enthusiastically, raising her arms up excitedly. Dan Heng and Stelle just stared at her for several seconds.
“I hardly see how that will help–” Dan Heng started to say, only to be cut off by Stelle.
“Sounds great.” Stelle said with a small smirk across her face before turning towards Dan Heng and placing her hands on his waist, before casually hoisting up and over her shoulder with what appeared to be little to no effort.
“S-Stelle! Put me down! You're going to wake someone up!” Dan Heng whisper-yelled in objection. March 7th giggled as she followed Stelle into her own room.
“Does he even weigh anything to you?”
“No, not really.”
“This is the girl that smashes enemies on the daily with a baseball bat and usually takes them out with one blow. Do you expect her not to be freakishly strong?” Dan Heng asked, his voice contorting back to a barely mustered one, seemingly accepting his fate of resting on Stelle's shoulder.
“Ooh, ooh, can you lift me on your shoulder?” March 7th asked with child-like glee. Stelle chuckled quietly as she took a moment to balance Dan Heng on her shoulder with one arm, before using her newly freed one to easily lift March up onto her other shoulder, with some assistance from March herself, although in a bit of a different way.
“How come she gets to sit normally while I'm thrown over your shoulder regularly?”
“Because you would've escaped if I allowed you to sit on my shoulder.”
“Hey, I'm not complaining.” March said with a giggle. Dan Heng grumbled under his breath as Stelle walked further into March's room, before promptly letting March off of her shoulder.
Then she carefully took Dan Heng off of her shoulder and laid him on the bed, before laying down next to him and snuggling up to him, resting her chin on his shoulder.
“Hey, don't leave me out of this!” March protested as she quickly moved down next to them, laying her head on Dan Hexs's chest, getting comfy in a relatively short time.
Before Dan Heng even had time to process what was going on, both March 7th and Stelle were fast asleep on top of him. He didn't move. He didn't want to move. Instead, with a sigh, he snaked his arms around them to pull the two a bit closer to him, allowing his eyes to begin fluttering, eventually closing shut.
“Good night…” He whispered quietly. Despite his previous transgressions with this situation, he had to admit that it wasn't the worst thing in the world. He felt comfortable. He'd never admit it, but this was better than staying awake for who knows how many hours.
Eventually, Dan Heng joined March and Stelle, drifting off into unconsciousness.