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They’ve spent the entire day in surgery, one ridiculously long procedure in which the extent of the scrubbing in was Cristina and Meredith holding things in place until her hands cramped, and for once she’s glad to be sitting in the break area, apple in one hand and pen in the other as she works on one last chart, waiting to go home.
“Tomorrow’s our day off, right? I think we should just sleep. All day,” she yawns to Meredith.
“Or all night tonight and then we won’t have to.” Meredith’s head sags with exhaustion. Most of her hair has strayed from her ponytail and is sticking up a little.
“Maybe if we had a normal sleep schedule. Oh my God, Mer, your hair is a total mess. Here.” She turns and uses one hand to hold Meredith’s head in place while taking out her ponytail with the other. Then she runs her hand through Meredith’s hair a few times to fix it, but she stops when she realizes that, at some point, Meredith has rested her cheek on the first hand and is sighing quietly. “You are literally so out of it right now. You should see yourself.”
“I’m not out of it. I just like you,” mumbles Meredith, movement impeded by the weight of her cheek on Cristina’s hand. “What if I just–” she yawns “Sleep here?”
“Okay, no. I’ve had enough holding things in place today.” She drops both of her arms to her side, which makes Meredith lose her balance with an indignant little squeak.
“You’re so mean!”
“I thought you liked me.”
“Hhmph.”
She drives Meredith back home, even though it’s Meredith’s car and she hasn’t driven in a few years, because Meredith is basically asleep already. Even though Cristina technically has her own apartment, she’s been staying over at Meredith’s more and more. They sleep in the same bed, and when they come out in the morning Izzie always frowns at them over her baking as though trying to figure out how, exactly, that works.
“Don’t you worry about dating?” she asks Cristina once while she’s kneading some dough. It’s hard to take her seriously when one half of her face is smeared with flour and she doesn’t seem to realize it.
“What about dating?”
“Well, you know. If you ever decide to get serious with someone you’re going to have to stop sleeping in the same bed as her.”
Cristina picks up a stray chocolate chip from the counter and eats it. She’s leaning with her elbow against the kitchen island, kind of mesmerized by watching the dough.
“I just won’t get serious with somebody who doesn’t like it.”
“And doesn’t that strike you as…inconvenient? I mean, most people aren’t going to tolerate that. Isn’t it more trouble than it’s worth?”
“I’m not going to stop doing something just because it makes you uncomfortable you can’t put it in a box,” Cristina scoffs. She gives up trying to find the strays and just grabs the whole bag of chocolate chips. Izzie doesn’t even protest when she reaches a whole fist in. “More trouble than it’s worth. Please. Your life must be so sad.”
They do, more or less, end up following Cristina’s suggested course of action for their day off of sleeping all day. When Cristina wakes up the next morning, it’s already noon and Meredith is still fast asleep next to her. She’s fallen asleep clutching a pillow to her chest, and she’s kind of drooling on the pillow, too. It takes up an annoying amount of space on the bed, but at least over time Cristina’s gotten her to stop hogging the blankets.
She sits up, considers, then reaches down and yanks the pillow out of Meredith’s arms. She wakes up instantly, eyes distraught as she grabs around for it. The look of confusion turns to betrayal when Cristina holds it above her head, and she sits up to grab it too. Cristina holds it just out of reach, baking in on Meredith’s groggy confusion.
“Why’d you do this to me?” she asks.
“Because it’s noon and you were still asleep and I like being annoying.”
Meredith leans further out to try to get the pillow, and she ends up pressing up against Cristina as she grabs for it. There–Cristina drops the pillow to the floor on the other side of the bed and uses the position to reach around Meredith and grab her. Then she pulls them both down onto the bed.
“Now you don’t need it, see?”
“Oh.” She nestles her cheek against the side of Cristina’s neck. “Okay. Love you.”
“What? You don’t mean that.”
“Yes I do. And that’s a completely normal thing to say so don’t make it weird.”
Meredith promptly falls back asleep after that and Cristina doesn’t dare to move again.