⚠️Smut
It's 1:30am by the time Toni gets home. She's completely exhausted, but she knows how important the work she's doing is. It's crucial, and the faster she finds an answer to this whole situation, the better. It may take a little more of her time, time she'd usually spend with Cheryl but they both don't really have a choice. This is the way it has to be; for now at least.
These past couple nights, Cheryl has been asleep by the time Toni gets home. So tonight, Toni makes sure to be extra quiet when she comes in. She steps quietly into the apartment and takes her shoes off by the door. The apartment is completely silent, indicating her girlfriend is asleep upstairs.
Toni checks the time on her phone as she tiptoes up the stairs. Shit. She could've swore it was way earlier than this, but it explains partly why she's so tired.
She slowly opens the door to her and Cheryl's bedroom, intending on finding her curled up, fast asleep. Instead, Cheryl is sat cross legged on the bed, with her laptop in front of her, with Netflix playing.
"Oh hey," Toni goes to greet Cheryl, "you're still awake, I thought you would've been asleep by now."
"I was waiting for you," Cheryl replies, pausing the Netflix screen. "I didn't expect to be waiting this long though."
Cheryl was wearing an expression on her face that Toni couldn't quite place.
"Yeah, this case is really taking it out of me. There's so much to look over, it's taking longer than expected." Toni sighs, collapsing on the bed next to Cheryl.
Cheryl only hums in response as she fixes her eyes back to her laptop. Her jaw tightening does not go unnoticed by Toni. And Toni's known Cheryl long enough to know that she only does that when she's mad about something.
Toni has no idea what Cheryl could be mad about. Did she forget to do something? Did she say something?
At a complete loss, Toni decides to take a gentle approach towards her girlfriend.
"Baby, let's go to bed yeah?" Toni speaks softly.
Cheryl does that thing with her jaw again and then moves her eyes back to Toni.
And only then does Toni recognise the exact expression on Cheryl's face.
Anger.
"Sure," Cheryl says sharply, "let's go to bed after I waited hours for you to come home. Let's go to bed and have you fall asleep in five minutes so that it's just me again. Yeah that sounds perfect." Her voice drips with sarcasm. Toni hates that.
Toni tries to rationalise with herself in her own head. Why was Cheryl so mad? It's not like Toni was out partying and having fun, she was working.
"I didn't ask you to wait up for me Cher," Toni says, attempting to keep her voice as calm as possible, she definitely did not want to argue right now. "You should've just gone to bed if you were tired."
"Does it ever cross your mind that I want to wait up for you because I miss you? Toni, I hardly ever see you anymore. I know it's your job and I get that, but it's getting really hard to go to bed without you and wake up without you. I know you have a lot to do, but do you seriously have to come home this late every night?" Cheryl snaps at Toni, raising her hands up in the air in frustration.
"It hasn't been every night Cheryl, it's literally just been..." Toni begins before cutting herself off as she comes to a realisation. It has been every night. It's been every night for the past few weeks. "Shit. I didn't notice, I've been so caught up with everything and I didn't even take the time to stop and think about how you're feeling"
