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When Chloe had gone to bed that night, she had had expectations.
She had been home for two days so far. The first night, she had ended up falling asleep watching some movie with Chad. He had fallen asleep first, so naturally, when Chloe had gotten suitably warm where she had her head resting against his shoulder and his snores provided some manner of weird background noise to go to sleep to, they both ended up conked out on the couch like they had done when they were kids.
And naturally, their parents had left them there but not before snapping a picture of the two of them that they showed to them the very next morning.
It had been peaceful, and it was technically Chloe's first night in her bed.
She had expected normalcy. She had expected the way it had always been. Chloe sleeping all night in her own bed, curled in the ridiculously plushy and comfortable bed that she had had since she was ten years old with her mother getting her up in the morning with a kiss to her head and a soft voice.
But when she woke up that morning, she was nowhere remotely near her bed. She woke up out in the woods nearby her home, and she was now laying on the ground from where she had presumably fallen.
Chloe raised up, and she noted the pain in her side from the manner in which she had apparently fallen directly on it. She winced a little, and she shifted onto her knees as she looked around. Her face was stinging, and it felt like there was a scrape there on her face.
Honestly, she was not quite sure where exactly she was right now.
However, as she got to her feet, her nightgown dirty and partially ripped, she started to get her bearings. Chloe steadied herself, and she noted the definitive presence of leaves in her hair. Chloe furrowed her brow as she plucked one out of her hair.
It was all extremely disconcerting and confusing.
Despite that, she knew exactly what had happened here.
Unfortunately, she also knew exactly why it happened, too.
She had sleepwalked to try to get to Red.
Chloe rubbed the dirt that was left over on her hands, knocking the dust off on her nightgown. She let out a breath.
She had not bargained on this occurring. Not here. She had never done this back at home.
Of course, the sleepwalking had not really started until sometime this past semester, but even on Spring Break, she had not ended up sleepwalking.
She supposed it must have been a testament to just how insanely much that Red meant to her and how much she needed Red when she was in that unconscious state. Something about Red laying right next to her was nothing but the most comfort and safety.
Before Red, the last time that she had slept with someone in a bed was when she ended up in her parent's rooms when she was a kid or when she came to Chad's room to bother him about something and she and Chad accidentally fell asleep as they often did.
Their father always had joked about how they must have secretly been Aurora's children and they were switched at birth with Audrey.
Regardless, Chloe missed Red more than anything. She was very happy to see her family again and being able to aggravate Chad, spend quiet time with her mother, and fence with her father had been like how life was back when she was castleschooled before she even knew Red.
But the truth was that now that Red was in her life, not having her here was extremely difficult.
What made it worse was that it was like she could hear Red's sarcastic commentaries in her head. When she had seen Chad do something especially over the top the previous day, Chloe could mentally see Red making fun of it in her own exaggerated manner.
It was simultaneously a funny and sad thought.
Red had come to be so much to Chloe, and while it always had likely appeared to most like Red needed Chloe most, Chloe that she needed Red at least as much as Red needed her.
Knowing that they would be separated for most of the summer was enough to make Chloe feel that need acutely.
And that must have bene why she ended up out here.
Chloe had finally made her way up the hill, and before long, she found herself at the edge of the refined, mowed grass at the edge of the castle grounds.
However, as she reached the top of the hill, she heard her father calling out to her.
"Chloe?! Chloe?!!! Where are you?!!" he yelled, and Chloe could see him looking around frantically as he tried to find her.
His back was facing her, but nevertheless, Chloe raised her hands up as she yelled back to him.
"Dad!!! Over here!" Chloe yelled, and her dad instantly turned to face her.
As soon as he saw her, his face crumpled in relief, and he came running toward her. Chloe jogged over to him, trying not to move too much considering the soreness in her side.
"Honey, we've been looking all over for you! Where have you been?!" he demanded, panicked as he came over.
Chloe was just about to answer but as soon as he was within arm's reach, he grabbed her in his arms tightly, and she winced instantly, letting out a soft noise of pain. He quickly released her, looking at her with concern as he offered her a onceover.
"Wait, are you hurt?! Your face is scraped," he pointed out, touching her face gently nearby the place that she felt stinging.
Chloe really did not want to admit it to him. She really did not want to tell him what she had been doing and why, because it felt all too embarrassing. This was more of a thing that she would have discussed with her mother, but here her dad was, and she had to make do with what she could.
"I fell down a hill over there," Chloe told him, gesturing in its general direction.
"You fell down a hill?!"
"Yes, but I'm fine. My side's just a little sore," Chloe reassured him.
Before he could ask anything else, Chloe spotted her mother running over to them with Chad at her heels.
"Chloe!"
"Hey, Mom," she greeted, and Ella wrapped her arms around Chloe as she hugged her. Her father put his hand on Ella's arm, stopping her from hugging Chloe full-force.
"She hurt her side," he warned, and Ella raised her eyebrows before homing in on the girl's side and trying to see what happened.
"What did you do?" Chad asked her, and Chloe sighed as she looked at her brother.
"I fell down a hill," Chloe told him simply. Ella's hand on Chloe's arm tightened a bit as she looked at her quickly.
"You fell?!" her mother echoed, and Chloe nodded.
"Yes. I'm fine, though, Mom... Don't worry," Chloe tried to reassure her, and Chad placed his hands on his hips.
"See, that's why Chloe should've stayed castleschooled. She didn't do this kind of thing before she went to Auradon Prep. And got a roommate," Chad emphasized that word especially, and Chloe knew that it was a not-so-subtle jab at Red.
Chloe ground her teeth just a little, irritated at how Chad always seemed to find something negative to say about Red every time that the girl even remotely came up in conversation or could have had the opportunity to come up.
For her part, Ella largely chose to ignore Chad's comment as she wrapped her arms around Chloe gently. She placed a hand at the back of Chloe's head as she drew her in, and Chloe's father wrapped his arms around the both of them.
"Baby, you scared us so much," Ella told her softly, kissing her forehead, and Chloe leaned a little harder into her family's embrace.
Chad came up around Ella to hug Chloe from the side. Chloe took in a deep breath, enjoying the feeling of her whole family wrapped around her in a bubble of protection.
"I know... I'm sorry," Chloe whispered.
"We're just glad you're alright," her father answered, and Chad sighed and nodded in agreement.
"How did you end up outside?" Ella questioned gently, and Chloe swallowed as she was faced with having to reveal the exact thing that she had not been overly enthused to reveal.
Now that Chad was here, her hesitancy was even stronger.
"I must have sleepwalked and ended up out here," Chloe confessed to her.
"When did you start sleepwalking?" Ella asked her, her brow furrowed as she pulled back enough to look at her. Charming's hand was still on her back, but he also withdrew along with Chad.
Chloe understood her mother's confusion. Chloe had never sleepwalked before.
"Probably because of something at Auradon Prep messing up her sleep schedule," Chad muttered, thinly veiling his attempt to make another comment about Red.
Chloe narrowed her eyes at him, setting her jaw just a little as she glared at him.
Ella shot him a disapproving look, and he raised his hands quickly in a placating gesture.
"It started this semester," Chloe answered, purposefully not revealing too much.
Her mother looked like she wanted to ask more, but when Chloe glanced in her brother's direction, Ella thankfully seemed to realize that now was not the best time.
She took in a deep breath, shaking her head as she shifted to wrap one arm around Ella instead as she guided her toward the castle. Chad and Charming took their cues to follow along, and Ella sighed.
"Thank goodness you're okay."
Chloe looked back in the direction she fell as if Red would come popping up and smirking with some attempt at being overly chill while looking at Chloe with the most unchill, affectionate expression ever.
But there was no Red.
Chloe let out a small breath before returning her attention ahead.
"Yeah..."
.....................................................................................................................
It was only after she had said goodnight and "I love you" to her whole family, kissed her parents' cheeks, tugged on Chad's earlobe despite his loud whining, and got into the safety of her room with the door shut and almost all the lights turned off that Chloe finally let herself put her plan into action.
She had come up with this earlier in the day when she had been wracking her brain for ways to stop the sleepwalking problem. She had actually accidentally came up with it when she and Red had texted briefly in-between what Chloe understood to be nearly constant bonding activities between Red and her mother.
Chloe had tried her best to reassure Red about it, but before they could get too far in the conversation, Bridget had apparently come in and whisked Red away from the phone.
Which she and Red both were not pleased with in the least.
She worked quickly and quietly with frequent glances at the door. She knew how weird this was going to look, and the last thing that she wanted was to have to explain this to Chad if he decided to come in. She was already going to have to explain to her mother in the morning since she had never gotten around to telling her that day and had instead stayed busy at the stables.
However, she knew that Ella would understand.
When she finally finished, she stepped back from her bed.
Chloe looked down at her handiwork as she placed her hands on her hips. She took in a deep breath as she eyed it, and she tried diligently not to think just how ridiculous that this entire thing looked.
She currently had several pillows arranged on her bed in a way that vaguely resembled a person. She had placed a heating pad on the middle one, and over the heating pad, she had put the pièce de résistance.
Red's hoodie.
When she had been packing to go home for the summer, she had accidentally grabbed one of Red's hoodies in the midst of her own clothes. They had both been running behind on packing and they had to throw some last-minute things in their suitcases the very morning of their departure.
Chloe had grabbed a clump of clothes and had just stuffed them into one of her bags. When she had come home and unpacked, that was when she found Red's hoodie in the midst of them.
She was embarrassed to admit just how long that she had hugged it and how hard she had to fight tears afterward.
But now she had something that was some vague shadow of Red resting there in the bed, and it would hopefully keep her from sleepwalking again.
Chloe sighed, and she crawled into bed, turning off her lamp as she settled into the bed. She then proceeded to scoot closer to the lump of pillows, hoodie, and heating pad, and she looked at it somewhat awkwardly, not quite touching it just yet.
She stared at it, and she felt a sharp stab of humiliation overcoming her at this entire thing.
"This is so dumb," Chloe muttered to herself as she looked at the pillow, barely able to discern it in the darkness of the night.
However, she knew that if she was going to avoid sleepwalking, she was going to have to commit to this more fully. This monstrosity that Chloe had built was going to have to be Red.
Chloe let out a breath before coming closer. She then proceeded to nestle more directly into it, her leg coming over one of the lower pillows as she put her arm around the one with the hoodie.
For a moment, Chloe did not move, just breathing as she kept getting little whiffs of that cinnamon smell that Red carried as a result of the shampoo that she used.
"Red would be making fun of me so much right now," Chloe whispered, mustering a laugh. She was shocked at how much it sounded like a predecessor to tears.
She sniffed somewhat sharply as she pressed her face into the hoodie. She was surrounded by that cinnamon, but she also could catch the faintest smell of cheese puffs.
She nearly sobbed.
Chloe could not tell the difference between cheese puffs despite how Red insisted that there was a difference and that the vending machine near the Biology classroom had the best cheese puffs, but something in her just knew that this was the smell of Biology cheese puffs. Even though Chloe could not tell a Biology cheese puff from a cheese puff that came just down the hall from their room.
Chloe buried her face in the hoodie, feeling the heat of the heating pad emanating against her stomach. However, the heating pad was nothing like the real living heat from Red. Red was not one to radiate heat, but there was a definitive difference between the heat from something electronic and something alive.
By now, Red would have had an arm draped over and around Chloe, and she would probably had her chin on top of Chloe's head.
She probably would have been making some dramatic complaint about Chloe's hair being in her nose-holes and grumbling about how she had not been able to breathe right since the hair incident of February twenty-sixth when she was convinced that she had gotten a Chloe hairball in her lungs.
And while they both knew that never happened, it was just part of the goofy games that Red liked to play. It was a way to hide her own vulnerability and try to act like she was enjoying the cuddles way less than she really was.
Chloe missed those games so badly.
"I wish you were here right now," Chloe confessed.
She had scarcely managed to get the words out before she felt the tears building in her eyes with an insurmountable pressure. Chloe pushed her face further into the pillow, swallowing hard.
She fisted the material, and she tried to pretend that it was Red right there.
And since it was supposed to be Red but especially because it so clearly was not, Chloe allowed herself to say the words that she had long wanted to say to the real Red but had never brought herself to.
Chloe nudged her nose lightly against the hoodie.
"I love you, Red. Goodnight," Chloe spoke quietly.
At this point, she felt the tears wetting her cheeks and Red's hoodie.
There was no reason in holding back anymore.
So Chloe let herself just cry all of the tears that she had been holding back since having to leave Red when they went their separate ways at the school.
And when Chloe woke up the next morning in her bed, unceremoniously steamrolling the mass of pillows and hoodie and heating pad, she cried all over again.
Because she had stayed in a bed for the first time in a long time without Red physically being there with her.
It felt wrong.