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Croissant had been working relentlessly for days, and her ignorance to her own well being had finally begun to catch up to her. Her gloves were dirty from all the tinkering, her eyes felt heavy and her back hurt like hell. “Finally, now it’ll quit making that noise” she gave a final light whack to the side of the timecraft. She stood there for a moment, just lost in thought for longer than she liked, though almost at perfect timing she felt a hand gently caress her shoulder. “Ah- I didn’t hear you, what’s up?” She turned her head to look them in their eyes, well, eye. Timekeeper narrowed their eye whilst continuing her soft caressing of Croissant’s shoulder, “It’s late, I’d suggest you go to your sleeping quarters to rest.” Timekeeper returned their hand to themself, staring intently at Croissant. “Now that you say it… yeesh, I took longer than I expected.” Croissant stretched her arms out before getting ready to return to her apartment room.
Timekeeper followed along, not taking her eyes off of Croissant. “Is something wrong?” Croissant gave a puzzled look to Timekeeper who hummed a little before answering. “I’m following you to ensure that you sleep well.” Timekeeper looked away, their expression unreadable as usual. “How come?” She didn’t understand why, she wasn’t planning on staying up all night either way so what could be the reason for this. Croissant frowned, but Timekeeper noticed the change of expression and chuckled. “We are the same person, remember? I know you haven’t been doing well.” Timekeeper and Croissant now stood in front of the door to her apartment room. “I… I wouldn’t say that I’ve been doing that bad” Croissant placed a hand at the back of her neck sheepishly. “A tiring week, yes but nothing extreme.” She smiled, trying to ignore the fact Timekeeper’s stare was practically burning into the side of her head.
“You downplay your emotions as if they aren’t allowed.” Timekeeper said as a matter of fact. Croissant groaned “are you gonna just scold me or something? I’ll go to sleep, don't worry!” She waved her hand dismissively.
Then there was just a pause, completely silent.
“So…”
“I’m not leaving.” Timekeeper said plainly as Croissant now looked even more confused than before.
“Wha!—Why?? You followed me to my apartment, you’ve made sure I’m going to sleep, what's the problem?” Croissant scrunched her nose while Timekeeper just smiled. “I did not say anything about only following you just to make sure you didn’t do anything else like another all nighter.” Timekeeper opened the door for Croissant, waiting for her to go in first. Croissant pouted at them but also felt weirdly extremely nervous. “That explains nothing…” She narrowed her eyes as she walked into her room, Timekeeper following shortly after whilst closing the door. “I am going to help you fall asleep.” Timekeeper placed their arms behind their back, their smile seemed almost genuine at the moment. “Wh, I- what I- UHM, what? I uh I-” the words frantically sputtered out, how? Why? what? She couldn’t get the words out of her throat. “You haven’t been sleeping well and I was reminded of how you enjoy my company, so putting that into consideration I thought of the solution of helping you fall asleep without stressing yourself out!” Timekeeper clasped their hands together, Croissant just seemed flustered at the idea. She and Timekeeper weren’t extremely affectionate but even so they cared deeply about one another. They knew eachother so well, yet Croissant still felt like she knew the least in this strange relationship they had.
“You do not mind, correct?” Timekeeper tilted their head with curiosity, they probably already knew the answer yet asked anyway. “Mhm…” she nodded, flopping onto her bed with a huff. Timekeeper sat down slowly on the side of the bed, looking down at Croissant with almost gentle care in their eye. Truly, Timekeeper was beautiful, and Croissant couldn’t help but look back at them. I love you, is what Croissant wants to say, and she knows that Timekeeper loves her too. So for now, she sticks to just thinking about it. Eventually, Timekeeper lays down beside Croissant and they for a while just stare into each other's eyes. Timekeeper reaches out for Croissant, pulling her close together, Croissant laying her head in the crook of Timekeeper’s neck. “Comfortable?” Timekeeper asked, unfazed by the very apparent flushed look on Croissant’s face. She didn’t know if she was allowed to hug them back, thus she buried her face closer to Timekeeper to muffle the sounds of her awkwardly muttering. “Yeah.” Timekeeper purred with satisfaction at that reply, and took it as their cue that they could carry on with whatever she had in mind. “How are you feeling? No lying.” They asked gingerly before delicately rubbing circles onto Croissant’s back with one hand. She took her time with answering their question, crafting her sentence intricately.
“Tired…” She was grateful her face was hidden from view, she didn’t want them to see the dejected look she had on her face. “And confused…. I feel exhausted, but I don’t know for what reason. I feel sad too, even though nothing has really upset me.” She couldn’t help but hug Timekeeper back, she needed something, someone, to hold on to. “It’s okay to not know what has been bothering you.” Timekeeper adjusted themself temporarily to have easy access to plant a small kiss onto Croissant’s forehead before returning to their previous position. “Do you know?...” She tried to hold back the trembling in her voice. “While we are the same, you still have experiences that are not an exact replica of mine. They are similar though, so the best I can do is help you process things better with what I know now.” She didn’t know what to say, deep down the idea of understanding her own feelings were scary, and overwhelming the more she thought about it. “It will get better.” Timekeeper reassured, it gave her a bit of relief hearing that from Timekeeper themself. “Thank you…” Croissant let out a heavy sigh, her heart still felt forlorn in a way she couldn’t put into words, but it felt nice to know she was understood. She pulled away from Timekeeper, much to their confusion at the action but didn’t say anything yet. Croissant gradually cupped Timekeeper’s face, staring at their face attentively. Their lips looked soft, compared to hers the difference was strangely amusing but she didn’t mind, not at all. She was more focused on how nice their face looked, how nice it felt to hold it too.
Timekeeper placed their hand against hers, looking into Croissant’s eyes with anticipation. She drew closer to Timekeeper’s face, they were pretty up close. Can I?, she wants to say but the words don’t come out.
“You can.” Timekeeper mouthed.
With that said, she carefully placed her lips against theirs, it sent a shiver down her spine despite that she felt an inexplicable exhilaration as Timekeeper returned her kiss, their other hand drifting over to hold onto Croissant’s neck which she couldn’t help but curl her lips into a smile, and Timekeeper acknowledged this by letting out a content hum before finally separating their lips from eachother to catch their breath. Neither of them even said anything before going back for another kiss, this one was shorter but just as sweet as the first, was it selfish to love a version of oneself? She could wonder about that another time, a time she hopes she’ll never truly see. When they leaned back from one another they didn’t release their hold, they just looked into each other's eyes however Croissant couldn’t stop the yawn that pried its way out of her mouth. “Finally tired, dear Mechanic?” They teased before hiding their mouth with their hand and copied the sound of Croissant’s yawn. She rolled her eyes at Timekeeper, regardless she really did enjoy the company of Timekeeper. “Aren’t you tired too?” Croissant tried to stop her eyes from closing, unfortunately, she had gotten too comfortable hugging Timekeeper, they were just so soft, and smelled nice too. Timekeeper giggled, amused by how tired Croissant was after having kissed, how silly. “Nope, I do not need to sleep! It is boring to me anyway.”
There was a long pause of silence, Timekeeper took that as Croissant had finally fallen asleep. “Looks like someone's fallen asleep, hmmm, good.” They gave one final kiss on top of Croissant’s forehead. “Dream well, my love.” They whispered, steadily removing themself from her grasp, disappearing without a sound.
Croissant dreamed of Timekeeper that night.