When DC had made his comment about the fact Utah looked happy, he didn't expect it to be noticed. Hardly anything he said in a meeting stuck, so why that of all things would stick in the states' minds beats him. Regardless, one of them had remembered, and here he was in the silent walls of his office.
The first thing he noticed when he woke up at his desk (he didn't even remember falling asleep? Maybe he passed out again) was that all of his work had been taken. Where to, he didn't know, but it made him antsy to not have something to work on. The second was a note where his laptop once was, with the following message:
Hey DC!
You seemed off yesterday. Take today off for me. I managed to get some of the states out today, I just told them to run their errands or sent them on a goose chase. Or offered them drinks.
There's leftovers in the fridge, New York also ordered pizza last night. If he doesn't know you took it he won't hurt you.
The handwriting was too nice to be Florida's, so that was out of the question. It didn't eliminate his involvement, but he at least didn't write the note. Regardless, all this meant was that if DC wanted to work today, he'd have to track down his laptop. And if living in a house with 50 other people teaches you anything, it's how to hide things.
He spent the first few minutes being awake pondering the note. It'd be easy to figure out who it was had the meeting been with other people, but mostly everyone in that room had decent handwriting aside from Florida.
Once he felt the daze of barely being awake pass, he rose from his chair, grunting with the pops of his joints. He figured he could figure out who was still home before he decided what to do with his day.
It'd been a few months living with the other states, and consequently DC got good at figuring out how to tell who was home. Some states kept their doors open (Maryland specifically, who said he never minded a state coming to chat), whilst others always had some sort of noise coming from their room (California always had some kind of music on. For some reason though, DC never recognized it). States like New York never had to be told twice to leave the house, and it was more surprising to see him in his room than to see his door firmly locked and a "friendly" reminder to keep out scrawled across the entrance.
By the time DC had made it to the kitchen, he came to the conclusion that most of the South had left (save for Georgia, who he saw sleeping on the couch, and Maryland who was in his room), half of the Midwest was gone whilst the other half distracted themselves with mindless activities (some were watching sports next to the still very asleep Georgia), most of the Northeast was out (though nothing was unusual about that — they didn't like the others), and the West was mostly home but stayed in their rooms.
Alaska was.. well, Alaska.
It really only occurred to DC while he was grabbing food — the house was quiet. Not dead silent, like how it'd be at 4 am when everyone was asleep, but there wasn't any arguing happening at the moment. Sure, the Midwest states in the living room piped up occasionally when something interesting happened, but there wasn't any unnecessary arguments going on.
DC smiled to himself and pulled out the previously mentioned pizza, putting a slice into the microwave to heat up while he peeked at the game happening in the living room. Football, it looked like.
He continued to ponder how he'd spend his day as he turned back to the microwave to retrieve his "breakfast," pulling out the plate and taking off down the hallway towards his room. As he passed the doors of several states, he could hear soft music, the sound of some kind of podcast being played, and.. was that smoke he smelled? Jesus. (He couldn't be mad, technically — it was legal.)
Soon he passed by the wide open door of Maryland, who waved at him and reminded him about rent being due as he passed by and disappeared into the door next to the other state's.
.. God, how long had it been since he'd actually taken a moment to sit in here? The state of the room certainly showed it — everything seemed untouched and was collecting dust, aside from his closet and laundry.
He figured that'd be an issue for after breakfast, as he sat down on the bed with a loud creak and began to chew into the pizza he'd taken (not before removing the pineapple on it, though — seriously, he wouldn't be surprised if New York only put that on there as a way to keep the rest of the states off his pizza).
The white noise of the state house filled DC's ears as he tiredly enjoyed his food, the exhaustion of overworking himself for the last few months starting to seep into his bones. He could hear the front door open at some point, followed by heavy footsteps (definitely a Northeastern state — the only time someone is angry enough to stomp around the house is if they lose a football game, and it hadn't been long enough time for the one in the living room to be finished) coming down the hall and stopping in the room beside his. Sounded like Maryland had company.
The muffled conversation through the wall only added to the dull noise in DC's ears as he set the plate onto the nightstand beside his bed. He really, really hated leaving dishes in his room, but would it matter all that much if he left it there until he caught up on the sleep his body so desperately seemed to want from him?
The conclusion he came to was no, it wouldn't. He quietly pulled off the covers of his bed to crawl under, quickly relaxing in the warmth of his blanket and comfort of his mattress. It'd been a while since he'd slept.
And yeah, maybe he woke up 13 hours later to Florida trying to find cover from what sounded like a very pissed off California and Texas, but the calm wouldn't be comfortable if it lasted long. And he slept regardless, so, did he really have something to complain about in that day?
He should take breaks more often.
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i started writing this, got halfway through, and then got lost in the ranboo and fnaf dimension
anyways, Bitchyass_tacos
enjoy
