Chapter Text
“Dani.”
A stern voice rang in her ears, and her consciousness returned as her eyes adjusted to the bright lights around her. When did they have such bright lights in the living room?
“Are you okay?”
As her vision slowly came in. She realized she was half slumped over in her chair in the meeting room. The voice, which had been Lara's, was beside her, a warm hand placed on her shoulder, comforting.
Wait- when did they get into the meeting room?
Dani blinked slowly, finally adjusting to her surroundings. She looked up and met Lara in the eyes, who had a sympathetic look on her face.
“The meeting ended like, 5 minutes if you were wondering, you looked halfway dead during it.”
Lara said.
“Oh shit.. I didn't even realize we were in a meeting, to be honest, I don’t even remember getting here.” Dani joked, but it was true. When the hell did they get into the meeting room? Is she that tired?
Dani huffed as she got out of her chair slowly. She felt heavy, like her legs could barely carry her anymore. With a grunt, she picked up her bag and started heading with Lara towards the exit.
“Don’t ignore my question. Are you okay, Dani?”
Lara asked, her tone layered with concern.
Dani offered a smile and blinked lazily.
“Yeah, Lara, I’m- I’m just tired, that's all.”
And that was the plain truth- she was tired, all of them were tired, back-to-back dance rehearsals, behind the scenes, livestreams, etc. But something has been happening to Dani recently. She's been restless, tossing and turning, doom scrolling until dawn. She ends her night with up to 3 hours of sleep at most. It’s been gruesome; her fiery persona is slowly dimming out into a cold, tired one. Manon even offered to sleep next to her, Oxytocin or something like that, but it didn’t work.
Lara grabbed Dan's hand, leading her towards the van.
Before the Latina could enter, Lara whispered into her ear.
“Sophia worried, you know, with your poor sleeping schedule right now, you're aware you like, passed out in the middle of the meeting, right?”
Lara asked, concerned.
Dani gave her a reassuring smile, “I’m fine, Lara.”
Before Lara could say something else, a voice sliced through their conversation.
“Guys, come on! I wanna get home and go live for a little!” Manon- who still had some energy left from today. Dani rolled her eyes, and Lara stifled a giggle.
Lara and Dani got in, Lara taking a seat next to Megan and Yoonchae, with Dani finding herself in the back with Sophia, who had been staring at her since she came out of the building.
Dani met her eyes, which allowed Sophia to get a good look at her eye bags, which were halfway covered with concealer.
“Dani… Is there something bothering you at night?”
“What? No. I- I’m just… stressed? I guess.”
Dani doesn’t even know herself what's causing her issues.
Sophia offers a sympathetic look, moving herself closer, and offers her shoulder.
“Just try to sleep, okay? For the next 15 minutes. I’ll wake you up when we get home.”
Dani knew she couldn’t say no. She sighed, resting her head on the Filipina's shoulder. Immediately, her body relaxed, and before she knew it, she was out cold.
Lara turned around, Mouthing, “Is she asleep?”
Sophia nodded before resting her head on the Latina's.
—-----------
Girl, idk where I'm going w/ this.
The van pulled into the girl's driveway, and the door opened. One by one, they all stepped out, lastly Dani, who was still adjusting to everything.
Sophia came up behind her- snaking an arm around hers.
“Come on, sleepyhead.” Dani allowed herself to be pulled into the house, where she kicked off her shoes and immediately flopped onto the couch.
Just a couple of minutes, Dani thinks, and then I’ll get up.
Her peace was ruined when someone tapped on her shoulder, lightly.
“Dani, are you seriously going to sleep here?” Sophia asked.
The Latina sighed grumpily, “No,” she whined out, “Just- Just a couple of minutes and I’ll get up.” Her sentence faded out towards the end; she could barely keep her mouth moving.
Sophia smiled, running her hands through Dani’s curls. The Latina relaxed, resting into the touch.
“Dani, c'mon, I'm not gonna let you sleep out on the couch, not when there's a nice bed up there waiting for you.”
Dani whined, barely moving a muscle. Sophia realized how hard this would be.
“Dani, I doubt you’ll get any more sleep than you're already getting out here.” Sophia pointed out.
With that, Dani groaned, sitting up, eyes still halfway lidded.
Sophia grabbed the Latina's arm, pulling her up again. And dragged her up the stairs. As they headed towards Dani's room, Dani stopped abruptly.
“Dani? What’s-”
“I can’t sleep in there,” The Latina whispered.
“What?”
“Manon is live, and- and I just wanna sleep, Soph, I just wanna sleep so fucking bad but I can’t because she’s live! I mean, who even goes live at this time? What time even is it? 11 pm!?” Dani said grumpily. Everyone knew how grumpy Dani got when she didn’t get enough sleep, but it rarely happened. She almost had a full crash-out when they first debuted because she couldn’t sleep due to Manon's coughing.
Sophia almost laughed at the sight. Dani looked like a defeated toddler.
“Dani, it’s okay.. Just sleep with me. I mean- If that's okay with you.”
The Latina nodded, lazily, and grabbed onto Sophia's arm, ready for her to lead the way.
Sophia walked them to her room. Yoonchae was downstairs with Lara, but she wouldn’t mind if Dani slept over in their shared room for the night.
“I’m gonna change, okay? Borrow anything you’d like from my closet.” And with that, Sophia disappeared into the bathroom.
Dani settled on a simple black baggy t-shirt, with grey sweats. She flopped onto the bed dramatically and started to close her eyes.
Sophia exited the bathroom and giggled at the sight of the Latina. She walked on over, getting in bed as well, and covered them with the duvet.
A minute of silence goes by before-
“Soph?”
“Hm?”
“Can you- can you like…” Dani trailed off.
“Can I what, Dani?”
“Can you, like, can you hold me..?”
Sophia immediately started moving closer, “Of course, Dani.” She wrapped her arms around the Latina's figure, Dani's head slotted in the junction of her neck, and she sighed contentedly.
Sophia then started running her fingertips along Dani's back, up and down, slowly.
Dani relaxed instantly, closing her eyes.
“I like that,” Dani said
Soph then swore she would always do this from then on.
“I’ll do it more often then.”
Dani started to drift off to sleep, dreams taking over her thoughts.
“By the way, it's only 9:30, sleepyhead.”
A faint ghost of a smirk took place on Dani's' face, before she fell asleep.