Work Text:
It had been a couple days since Liko had last slept. You heard right. Liko was the one not sleeping, not Dot this time. Things have been really stressful for the Rising Volt Tacklers but especially on Liko. No only did she feel like she had the world on her shoulders, but she was really behind on a lot of her classes. The tera training was a part of her classwork but only half of it. She still had a ton of classes that she had been procrastinating and forgetting about. Not only was the school work stressful though, but getting clues and leads on where to find the rest of the six heroes was causing her major anxiety about the future. Friede had told her multiple times to leave the clues and leads to the adults but she couldn’t stop herself from wanting to help. She just felt so useless if she stood by and did nothing. Afterall, this whole adventure started because of her. She should be the one to do all the research.
As she was sitting at her desk, writing notes in one hand and scrolling through an article about Entei in the other, she heard a knock on the door. She was confused. Wasn’t it still late at night? She slowly got up from her seat and stumbled over, her legs just starting to wake back up, opening the door. Dot stood in front of her, a worried expression on her face.
“Dot? What are you doing here so late?” Liko asked. Wasn’t it like 3 am? That’s the last time she checked the clock on her phone
“Late? Liko…it’s 8:30 in the morning,” Dot said worriedly.
“Wait really?!” Liko looked at the small text at the top of her phone and saw the time. It really was 8 am. How long had she been researching and doing assignments?
“Yeah. I didn’t see you at breakfast, so I thought you were sleeping in and came to wake you up,” Dot explained.
“Y-yeah, sorry, I was sleeping.” Liko lied. She hadn’t slept in 3 days. The bags underneath her eyes proved it.
“I’m not dumb, Liko. You didn’t sleep at all last night, did you?” They asked. Liko sighed, getting a little annoyed.
“No I didn’t but that doesn’t matter, I’m a bit busy,” She went to shut the door but Dot stopped it with her foot.
“Excuse me? It does matter! You didn’t eat dinner last night because you were busy and now you aren’t gonna come eat breakfast because you’re busy too? That’s unhealthy Liko. and that’s coming from someone with the worst eating habits on this ship,” Dot scolded. Liko knew about her less than healthy eating habits that could be considered disordered eating, but to Liko, Dot’s eating problems were worse than hers and therefore made her problems invalid.
“Well, I’m not hungry! I’ll eat a snack in a little bit, just leave me alone, alright?!” Liko snapped. Immediately, she regretted it and wanted to take it back. She didn’t mean to yell at her girlfriend, it just kind of came out.
“Wait, I’m sorry for yelling, I’m just stressed about school right now,” She said. It wasn’t a total lie.
“It’s alright… I’ll let you work for a bit, but I’m bringing you breakfast in a couple minutes, alright?” Dot said, leaving no room for discussion. She gave Liko a quick kiss on the cheek before letting her sit back down to work.
Liko sighed as she slumped into her seat. She really needed a break and spending time with her girlfriend sounded nice. But any break she took caused more time to be wasted. That break time could be spent researching. So Liko opened her notebook back up and started on her research again.
It felt like only a couple minutes had passed before Dot was knocking on her door once again. Liko really didn’t feel like getting back up again when she was so engrossed and focused on her work.
“Come in!” She yelled instead.
Dot opened the door and walked in with a plate of fried egg over rice. Now that she got a full view of the room, her concern only skyrocketed. On Liko’s desk, there were empty cups of coffee and caffeinated tea stacked high, Floragato was sleeping in Liko’s messy unmade bed, and books were scattered across the room. This was an all too familiar sight for Dot.
“You can just put the plate there,” Liko pointed to her night stand, not looking up from her book. She didn’t want the food to be too distracting so she’d need to be as far away from her as possible. But instead of putting it there, Dot placed it in front of her and took the notebook from her hands.
“Hey!”
“You are taking a break, Liko. you’re burned out,” Dot stated. She took the notebook and put it inside the drawer of her nightstand before going around the room and picking up the scattered books and set them back on the bookshelf.
“I’m fine, Dot! I’m not even tired! I can’t be burned out,” Liko protested.
“That’s because of all the caffeine you’ve been consuming.” Dot rebutted, “You and I are gonna take a walk around the ship and then you’ll get a cup of sleepy time tea and then you are going to take a nap,” Dot declared.
“Dooottttt,” Liko whined.
“I’m being serious, Liko! It’s either this, or I’m telling Friede. You know how protective he can get. Not to mention he’ll probably take away your phone,” She explained. It’s true that Friede got protective when his kids were in danger
“Fine…” Liko grumbled.
“Good,” Dot leaned over and gave her a kiss on the forehead.
After helping Liko clean up her room a little, she took her hand and the two walked around the ship for a bit. Liko got to vent about all her stressors and anxieties to her and Dot listened. She held her hand and reassured Liko that everything was going to be alright and that the adults could handle all the research. That made Liko feel a bit better.
When they made it to the kitchen, Dot boiled some water and put a tea bag of Sleepytime tea in a cup for Liko. After the water was done, she poured it into the cup and handed it to her. Liko took it gratefully and sipped on it while they walked back to the bedroom.
Dot gave Liko a couple minutes to change into her pajamas before she sat her down at the desk and helped her eat, even though she didn’t need any help. It embarrassed Liko a little bit though.
“Doootttt, I can eat on my own,” She whined. Dot chuckled, finding her whining adorable. That made Liko blush though.
“I know you can, I just feel like helping out,” They said smiling. Liko rolled her eyes but Dot knew she secretly liked it.
After she was all done with her food, Dot made her bed before leading her to it. They climbed into bed with her and wrapped her arms around her, holding her. It was nice, being held by Dot. Liko felt her eyelids begin to droop and her brain start to turn itself off. She snuggled up against Dot’s chest and Dot pulled the blankets up to cover her and get her comfortable.
“Good night, love,” Dot kissed her forehead and massaged her scalp before Liko fell into a deep sleep for the next 16 hours.