Work Text:
Late at night Rodger sat in his room by his desk, studying something as usual. He would often stay up neglecting his sleep for the sake of reaserching.
Ever since the whole twisted thing started he had been working practically non stop. He wasn’t as social as he used to be and he spent most of his time either in his room or underground, around the twisteds.
The lack of sleep was clearly affecting Rodger in negative ways, he couldn’t exacly concentrate on anything, he’d zone out often and sometimes he would just straight up fall asleep on his desk.
Rodger heard multiple times from multiple toons that he should fix his sleep schedule to which he’d always reply that he would but he never did. And he wasn’t planning to.
This reaserch was important. They have already lost Cosmo, Flutter and Glisten, he couldn’t let any more of his friends turn into those mindless beasts.
But this night was gonna be diffrent.
Rodger almost jumped as he suddenly heard someone knocking on his door. It was especially suprising considering the late hour.
He looked at the door as it slowly opened revealing the familar figure standing behind it. Astro.
“May i come in.?” Astro asked quietly to which Rodger hesitantly noded. He stepped inside and looked around before closing the door behind him.
“So… mind explaining why are you here at 3am?” Rodger asked and raised his brow. Most toons were usually asleep at this time.
Astro hesitated for a moment before finally confessing “I’ve heard from Toodles that you have sleeping problems. I see she was right.”
Rodger let out an slightly annoyed exhale and turned his head back to his desk “It’s nothing i can’t handle Astro, just go back to your room.”
“Are you kidding me? It’s 3am you should be dead asleep right now, not studying about these damn twisteds all the time.”
“Don’t you understand? This is important. More important than anything we faced before. I HAVE to do this.” Rodger stated firmly.
“Yes i agree, this IS important. But not more important than your phisical and mental health Rodger. You need to get a break and get some sleep.”
Rodger was about to protest but then Astro stepped closer and placed a hand on his shoulder, staring him directly in the eye. “Now”
Rodger blinked a couple times, not wanting to stop his work but he knew arguing with Astro was pointless so he just sighed and stepped away from the desk.
Rodger sat on the edge of the bed, swinging his legs before shifting to lay down, a bit akwardly knowing he was being watched by Astro who walked over to the bed aswell.
Then something unexpected happend, Astro sat down on the bed next to Rodger and placed a gentle hand on his head. “Sweet dreams stardust.”
Rodger just stared at him for a moment, having mixed feelings about the new nickname. “…Stardust..?” Astro chuckled.
“Just a dumb nickname…” Astro replied with a somewhat shy expression before relaxing again and creating some blue stars which made Rodger strangely drowsy.
“Now goodnight Rodger…” Astro whispered as he gently carrassed the side of Rodgers head which made him close his eye.
“Goodnight Astro…” Rodger replied as he felt the last bits of his conciousness slip away, falling into deep, peaceful sleep.