Work Text:
He could feel the thin layer of dust imprint his face when his head fell onto the desk. His mind begged for sleep, forcing his focus to naught but the calming whirr of his laptop and the pleasant darkness every time his eyelids shut.
It was like a timer, when his eyes closed. A timer of half asleep visions and weightlessness, and one he constantly tried to stop from starting by burning the blue light of his screen into his retina until his eyes watered. To where he was trying more to keep himself upright than finish the task he had put upon himself first.
Ellernate moved the mouse in his hand back and forth on the desk, keeping both himself and the screen awake. The trackpad of the laptop had long since deteriorated itself, much like the rest of the disintegrating device.
It was true, he was so, so close. So close to figuring out another crack, something he could take advantage of in encoded script lines. Many of their tricks had been… fixed. Loops in the system got sealed constantly, that much was nothing new.
But being lower profile due to some… past mistakes, meant these things had to be done with precision, with well thought out plans.
And as the system became more secure, they had to find better ways to steal from it and break it to support themselves. In the short moments he could actually think straight, those crucial, game-changing ideas seemed just out of reach, like they were teasing him. But he swore they were just a few more minutes of work away.
… Admittedly, Ellernate had claimed that empty promise of fated success last night, when he inevitably failed to put thought to content and passed out in his office chair. He got shook awake last morning, and was promptly laughed at by two people for the amount of drool on his face. The same again, just a few days before. But facing the disappointment of having to willingly ‘call it quits’ and put it off any longer sounded infinitely worse than the pounding headache he gave himself with each hour of zero progress.
He didn’t know when to give up. Well. He did know, but simply refused to, out of both his pure spite towards simple biology, and the two people he lived with.
–
A frustrated sigh. “Again?? You know you need to sleep to live, right Ellernate? Right? I’m not going crazy?”
–
“Yeah… see, I think you just try too hard. Honestly. I mean I really like coding too, but you’re just being an absolute nerd at this point.”
“You said that last time, and then went all goo-goo-ga-ga over the ability I discovered to replace someone’s limiteds.”
“Pfft. That’s just cuz’ it was funny, okay. I didn’t think you could be that funny. Your ideas of revenge are always kinda stupid. Nerd.”
“At least I don't have a cringey ass hacker laptop background.”
–
When the flash drive clutched in his left hand fell out and the plastic quietly bumped against wood, his consciousness jolted up for a few seconds like a shake-powered flashlight. Just for his mind to float off again.
That pitiful stubbornness wasn't truly helping him. He couldn’t even remember what he had been trying to finish.
Something was blinking on the screen. Something along the lines of… being along lines. Something like that.
. . .
He had initially thought it was just the typical noises of the apartment settling, but it had been gradually harder to convince himself of that. With the one arm he actually had free, he rubbed his eyes.
He first noticed how he could hardly breathe, which he quickly realized was because of iTrapped laying directly on top of him.
…Strange, because… normally it was Ellernate chosen (who for some reason willingly accepted, he’d never get it) as the victim of that particular sleeping habit.
Hence his second realization, there was a person missing. The same somebody who said ‘Yeah, I’ll join you guys, just need to do something quick first’ as a response to being asked to come to bed.
Maybe Ellernate had just woken up earlier than them? Caleb felt around the space to the side of him for his phone. Their ‘bed’ was just a king-sized foam topper covered by enough blankets and pillows to smother a man, so it took him a bit of effort to find the thing through the layers.
Once that glaring blue light shone into his eyes— 02:14— he found that his original thesis, the one he’d hoped, was not true.
‘Just need to do something quick first’ my ass.
“mmmghhh…” Great.
“ ‘Trapped..”
He didn’t wake easily. Talk about a heavy sleeper. So he spoke at a normal volume, firmly rubbing down the other’s back. “sapphire, you’re crushing me.”
That got him to stir. “..mm. what?”
“My. Lungs.”
iTrapped seemed to gain more awareness, pushing himself off Caleb. “Oohh.” No ‘sorry’, as traditional.
“…wait, where’s Ells?”
Caleb sighed with enough emotion to give a complete message.
iTrapped whined. “please, not again.”
. . .
“Nate, what the fuck are you doing.” Just about as tired and fed-up as someone’s voice can be.
And quite alerting. His head instantly lifted, and Ellernate swiveled his chair to look at him. Suddenly everything was dark and dull again, the sensory addition of dreams gone and the code he’d been working on shining into his eyes once more. “Hhuh-? Oh, hhey...” He smiled, softly. The conversation woke him up a bit. Which he was grateful for.
At first, that is. Caleb was pissed. “Don’t ‘hEYy’ me, it is two A.M.”
It was like watching a computer from the nineteen hundreds take an input, process it, and then spit it back out. Maybe a little less functional, though. “...sso?” Ellernate tilted his head like a confused bird. He knew ‘so’.
“...So go to bed? The hell?” Caleb didn’t even comment on the stupidity. It was already dumb enough that he had to remove iTrapped from himself, get up, and walk over to this room because the sound of intermittent mouse clicks refused to stop. Because he was genuinely tired of telling himself Ellernate was going to have the self-agency of a normal person.
A slightly smaller figure appeared behind, leaning on Caleb with all the gentleness of someone who’d been begrudgingly woken up two minutes prior. “Yo. Elle. S’ your deal, dude? Can’t you just.. Do this.. Tomorrow? Or something?”
They didn’t understand how long he’d been at this. Actually, scratch that, even he didn’t know. But he couldn’t give up right now. “Uh-not… not really? I.. c’mon, I can just finish this up–”
“... tomorrowwww.” iTrapped repeats himself in a drowsy, annoying drawl, putting an excessive amount of bodyweight onto Caleb’s shoulder. Just too loud for the room; the other two made faces. Caleb muttered something along the lines of ‘insufferable’ and ‘not being a babysitter’.
An awkward silence followed, the one that came from when three people who normally solved issues by yelling until someone gave up found out they couldn’t just yell until someone gave up.
Ellernate tried to compromise. “.. I swear I’ll.. thirty minutes. Thirty more, ‘kay?”
Caleb let out a long, suffering sigh, like he had been considering it until he remembered that ‘thirty more minutes’ wasn’t anywhere close to the truth. “No. Not this time.”
“But-”
Another groan. “Nate, you’re exhausted. Please.”
“I’m not- but I feel more awake now, though.” He did. Although he’d be lying to say he didn’t also recognize the obvious. He’d probably conk out again given they left the room for a bit.
“Nate.” A sharper warning, clear as the day that would be coming in four or so hours.
“Ten. Ten minutes.”
Caleb crossed his arms, holding the soft white fabric of his sleeves between his fingers. “... I’m not playing this with you. Turn it off.”
Ellernate didn’t move. Not an inch. But his eyes did narrow at the two's faces, solely lit by the artificial screen light they were all bathed in.
It wasn't that he didn't want to listen, but evidently ‘letting things go’ wasn't one of his strong suits. So: “No.”
And thus began a silent staring contest between two tired and irritated individuals.
iTrapped already knows this fact: these two will glare at each other until the goddamn sun rises. Or until it blows up, for fucks sake. And Caleb will not let anything happen until Ellernate gives up, so he won’t get to go back to bed either.
He was smart enough to know the fallout that would come from closing the laptop without saving whatever the madman had been working on, so he trudged over and reached for the computer mouse. Ellernate promptly tucked it away to the far corner of the desk, stretching the frayed usb cord straight.
“Excuse me, I said no.”
iTrapped didn’t quite have the energy, nor did he really feel like wrestling at two A.M in the morning for a laptop peripheral. Nobody in the room did, but he’d digress. Beauty sleep was calling for him. “Oh my- Come on, Ells. Please. You know how it’s–” He glanced back at Caleb, who still had his arms crossed and his expression the definition of cross. So he returned back to Ellernate with that stupid look in his eyes. “–how it’s out of the pure, goodness of our hearts, and… uh, how much we love you–”
In a tone that doesn’t get much faker: “Oh, how touching…” Ellernate rested his chin in his palm, but his entire face almost sank into it with the weight of exhaustion.
“Fuck, he didn’t fall for it.” iTrapped eyed the mouse before slowly retreating back. He shrugged to Caleb, and then pulled another chair from the room right up next to Ellernate’s. “Welp, I tried. Your turn.”
“You know what’s gonna happen, Nate? You’re not gonna be able to get up until one in the afternoon tomorrow, you’re gonna complain about a splitting headache, and then guess what? I’m not gonna care, you’re just gonna have to deal with it.”
“Two truths and a lie.” iTrapped commented, picking at a wooden splinter where the table laminate was coming off.
“Shut the fuck up.” Caleb hissed.
“Aww.” iTrapped slumped in the crappy wooden chair he had pulled up, and let his cheek fall against the wood surface like a petulant child. Everything was moving so slowly. They were already inefficient at coming up with compromises when they were fully awake, how would they make one now? Should’ve brought a blanket, or something. The crowned hacker never had either of their patiences– that gift skipped over him more than Ellernate skipped basic necessities. He liked it more when things happened, and he especially disliked not knowing how long something would take.
“... look, this is becoming a problem.” Caleb stated, finally unclenching his hands from his sleepwear. “If it was any less than a problem, I wouldn’t have put in the effort to get up and tell you.”
“plus its kiiinda no-life behavior.” iTrapped muttered, nudging Ellernate.
“For the love of– let me work! He’s not going to listen if you keep whining at him!”
“fine.”
“Work?” Ellernate asked, a sardonic undertone in his drained voice. Now they were making this out to be some job they had to do?
“Yes, ‘work’. You’re making this a chore, you stubborn dipshit. I shouldn’t need to educate you like some fuckass health class, you know this is bad.”
“ ‘Not being good for me’ doesn’t change the fact I still have shit to do.” Ellernate retorted, dully.
“That's what we have the day fo- Y’know what, I'm done trying to convince you. I gave you, like, five warnings.”
Ellernate’s three-something-second reaction time only allowed him to watch as he shut and took the laptop from the table. The mouse, dragged off the edge by the cord, took a small sum of half-crumpled sticky notes and papers onto the floor with it. “You- DUDE!”
“Oh, save it.” Caleb quickly held the laptop above his head as Ellernate jumped for it. He had no idea where that energy came from. “Mm. You must really want me to drop this.”
“If you drop my laptop I’ll kill you.” He jumped again, somehow managing to get ahold of it, pulling the device down a bit. Although something told him it wouldn't be a good idea to play tug-o-war with something so pricey. Especially since it was near impossible to see properly now that the screen was shut.
The only visibility now came from the crappy shades that didn’t completely block out the clouded moonlight. So he didn’t notice the slow motion in his peripheral vision until his shoulder was grabbed.
“you're really gonna throw a temper tantrum over bedtime. Really. You can’t tell me you don’t see how stupid this is.”
Ellernate didn’t give iTrapped an answer, because he knew it was true. There wasn’t a reasonable point to this anymore, he wouldn’t be able to get back to what he was doing. At this point, he just hated the idea of admitting he overreached himself.
“Right. Okay. Yeah, I think I see the problem now.” iTrapped ran a hand through the length of his own hair, a bit more exasperated.
Caleb was struggling a surprising amount. “Mother of- You were almost dead asleep less than eight minutes ago! Why is your grip so fucking strong–? Let go!”
A snicker. “Thought you’d be one to appreciate grip strength.”
Through gritted teeth, “ ‘Trapped I swear.”
“Okay, okay, ‘m helping. Jeez.”
Pale blue sleeves wrapped around Ellernate’s middle, pulling back with just enough force to get him off balance. “Let go, Ells.”
“Fuck off.” His voice was strained. Quiet, despite the tone and words.
“ooOo, scary.” iTrapped pressed his face into Ellernate’s shoulder, rubbing gentle circles just above where the other’s hip was. “c’mon. It's seriously not that hard.”
Ellernate shivered, trying to shake him off. “stOp!”
Like a damn dog trying to evade a bath. iTrapped wasn’t deterred in the slightest. “uh-uh. aren’t you tired yet?”
There was a bit of adrenaline going through him, but he could feel it in the shake of his arms. Honest to all, he should’ve just listened to them earlier. Now giving up meant losing.
“no??”
“sounds like you’re asking me, Ells.”
… No response.
“... right. If I didn’t know any better, I’d think you like being forced, ruby.” iTrapped tased Ellernate’s side. Honestly, that was the fastest way he could think of ‘convincing’ Ellernate to let go, because while he liked testing Caleb’s patience, he didn’t really like testing him.
And as expected, that battle ended faster than it started. “fucking–! stoP stOP StOhOP.” Ellernate dropped his arms to his middle and forcefully pried iTrapped’s hands off him.
“Finally.” Caleb breathed, relievedly collecting himself and the laptop-mouse jumble after nearly folding to someone running on four long blinks and a prayer.
After recovering from what he’d only describe as ‘coercion’, Ellernate just glared at his peripheral for a good twenty seconds, not bothering to wriggle out of iTrapped’s cold… balming hold. “... I hate you, ‘Trap.”
“yeah yeah. All is fair in love n’ whatever the fuck. you’re the one who’s still weak to that after high school, not me.”
He wanted to keep responding, but it was becoming explainably difficult; fatigue was crashing over him like a NDS wave. Once he dropped his arms and stood still for a few seconds, all that adrenaline near-instantly wore off. The same weighted exhaustion from before they came in hit him like a freight train.
His mind changed faster than he was ready for, but he knew he was ‘ready’ to collapse. Right there on the floor if possible, actually.
And the other two watched him melt back like a flickering candle in real time.
“theeere it is.” iTrapped teased, silently putting a little more effort into keeping the person against him upright. “See Caleb, don’t we make a great team?”
“Kill yourself.” Came the response. Caleb stretched to put the laptop on a high shelf, just higher than the other two could reach.
“Only if you do it first.” iTrapped turned Ellernate around towards him, taking and giving no shame as the other quite literally sank into him. “I’m not carrying you, by the way. Just sayin.”
“m’ not a two year old, I can walk.”
“You were acting like one.”
Headshake.
“Oh so now you wanna play the ‘too tired to respond’ card. Real fucking convenient.” iTrapped flicked his dark hair, watching as Caleb haphazardly kicked the fallen papers underneath the desk, stowing the mess of cheat-sheets and old intel away for tomorrow.
“i’m going back to sleep.” And then the white-clad hacker was gone.
“...Think you made him RQ.”
“now ’m starting to feel bad.”
“Oh, you should. For me, too. He woke me up for you, you know– I expect an apology.” iTrapped exhaled through his nose, air lightly blowing over the top of Ellernate’s hair.
“.. tomorrow. Err, today, I guess. c’mon.”
Sure, he might’ve lost some progress. His mouse USB cord may or may not have cut its own life force off. But Ellernate was glad to be inhaling them now, and not the metallic smell of toasted laptop thermal paste.