Life's cocoa and pillow forts

Chapter 2 - Dan

"Hey, Dan, I've wanted to ask. What's your full name?" Nolan wondered out loud.

"I- Uh- It's- Daniel?" came the reply from the kitchen.

"Are you asking me or telling me?" Nolan continued sarcastically.

"Telling you," Dan quickly chirped, waiting for the popcorn to go off. Nella came to break the silence with a loud meow, hoping that the one person in the kitchen be reasonable and offer her some food. Dan just squatted down to pet the gray feline.

"Are you sure? You sounded very hesitant," Nolan kept pushing gently. Dan ignored them and tapped his foot on the floor lightly, waiting for the popcorn to be done popping. When finally done, he opened the small packet and poured the hot flavoured corn to a big bowl. Dan joined Sev on the couch again, handing over the bowl. "Alright, play the movie." Sev started the movie and the trio settled down to watch it in silence.

More than an hour passed as they watched the movie, Dan and Nolan both forgetting about their squabble earlier as Nella joined Sev on the couch begging for more pats. Sevanna was glad to provide some.

By the ending third part of the movie, Sevanna had to go to the toilet quickly. Dan, being the good friend he was, paused the movie until she came back. Nolan took the window of opportunity. "Hey, what's your full name?"

"Danby Evans, but you can call me Dan," Dan replied sluggishly. Nolan continued to snicker for a while, wanting to see how long it would take Danby to realize what he'd just revealed to the writer. "Danby is such a funny name, no wonder he hides it!" Nolan figured. Sev came back a minute later and they continued with the movie.

"Sevanna, wake up," Dan said once the movie was over, lightly nudging the dozed off artist. "I have to go now."

"Don' go ye'. We hav'n built a fort ye'!" Sev replied with a yawn, moving her hand blindly to hold onto the boy's wrist. Nolan gave a small sigh and moved to detach the girl from the exhpharated boy. "I'll get her to bed. Have a nice night," they concluded with a nod to Dan. Dan smiled and thanked them before retreating through the door, throwing a reminder in the air to lock the door before he closed it, leaving the room to silence. Sevanna had already drifted to sleep again, forcing Nolan to make a choice. They'd either have to wake her up, leave them on the couch or try to carry her to her bed. Nolan exhaled with a light groan before slipping their hands under Sevanna's knees and neck. "Off you go, sleeping beauty!" they muttered to nobody in particular, doing their best to not drop their roommate before reaching her bedroom. The mission overall was successful if not counting Nolan's aching back. The writer retreated to their own cave to get the last couple hundred words down before falling asleep.

★

Sevanna woke in her bed. She didn't remember walking there and neither was she wearing her pajamas, so she concluded that Nolan or Dan had carried her to her room when she passed out last night.

"Aww, that's so nice."

She decided to kick the day off with some breakfast. Cup noodles sounded good enough. Quietly sneaking to the living area, she turned on the kettle and pulled a black packet of noodles out if the cabinet as well as some chopsticks from the drawer. The room was well lit from sunshine entering through the big windows next to the couch, but it was relatively chilly. The air conditioner was turned off. Sevanna decided to get a hoodie on before sitting down to eat. She had a quick trip back to her room, almost tripping over Nella when the cat decided to hop in front of her to gain attention. Sev snatched her favourite galaxy-patterened hoodie off the back of her office chair and slipped it on quickly. Just as she was about to exit the room again, she caught sight of her messy hair and shuffled to find a haircomb to fix it up. By this point, the water had stopped boiling as the electronic kettle had beeped twice before shutting off. Sev returmed to the kitchen with Nella in tow and made a split second decision to also make some noodles for Nolan. The writer didn't usually sleep in, on the contrary! They were usually up hours before Sev! Well, with their frequent sleeping problems, Sevanna couldn't blame them when they sometimes managed to pull off no more than four hours and spent their time on the internet instead. The times that Nolan got proper sleep, Sev stayed extra quiet so she wouldn't wake them. The kettle they had was fortunately silent. She suspected Nolan had gotten it for exactly that reason, subtly buying more sleep time in the morning.

She covered one of the noodle cups in foil to keep it warm and took the other for herself, settling on one of the four chairs by the small dining table they had between the entrance and the couch. Sev scrolled on YouTube as she ate, looking for a good video to pass her time on this quiet Thursday morning.

She was pretty surprised when Nolan exited their room not long after. The two nodded in acknowledgement and greeting. Sev pointed out the foil-covered noodle cup on the kitchen counter and the insomaniac writer sent her a thankful glance. They settled down opposite of the artist with a small sigh.

"Sleep well?" she queried.

"Better than yesterday," Nolan replied with a shrug. Sevanna nodded along. "That's good. Did I wake you up?"

"Nah, I woke on my own. What time is it?"

Sevanna glanced at the clock on the top of her phone screen. "Almost ten. When did I fall asleep yesterday?"

"'bout midnight. I carried you to bed when Danby had to leave."

"Danby?" Sev queried, leaning forward lightly. "You got his name? When? How? He didn't tell you before."

"I asked him what his name was when you were in the bathroom. He was pretty sleepy back then as well so he didn't even realize when he told me."

"Brilliant." A couple seconds of silence passed, both taking a bite of their noodles. It was a nice morning.