Professor, Professor

Sleep Now, My Love

you know what I blame tumblr for this.

it's inspired by ezool. you can find the prompt/drabble thing here that I thought needed a bit of a thing. so here it is: http://ezool.tumblr.com/post/70178170895.

I also combined this headcanon thing I had found on tumblr as well, which you can find here: https://floptopus.tumblr.com/post/167985907958/professor-layton-teacoffee-headcanons

also, if you know me, I always have Potty's words in bold and Placid's in italics.

have fun!

—

Lucy trudged on to the Mystery Room with bags under her eyes and coffee breath. It was a bad idea to have chosen to stay up rewatching Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, but Netflix had brought it back to her attention. Nonetheless, she still had work and she was a fool for believing she could do the all-nighters like she had done when she was a teenager. Caffeine, however, did nothing for her today as she opened the door.

"Good grief, Lucy, are you alright?" The Prof is sitting on his desk chair, tapping on his chin with his favorite soft lead pencil. Coffee was brewed, so she knew immediately it was her Placid. However, she could see a cup of black tea as well, but partially finished so Potty had been awake as well. Yet, judging by his demeanor, it was Placid nonetheless. "You look though you haven't touched a bed in years."

"Just stayed up watching the telly. Nothing too much. Do we have another case today?" She asked, removing her scarf and putting it on a rack. Lucy walked over to the Prof, who seemed to have difficulties with a word.

"No, we don't, but when we do, I'll let you know." Placid murmured. At the sound of this, Lucy looked relieved, plopped onto the couch in the Mystery Room and closed her eyes. The Prof looked up and tried to sneak a glance. "What are you doing?"

"What does it look like, Prof? I'm sleepin' today." She muttered, tipping her hat down further so her eyes couldn't be seen.

"On the job?" He asked with a smirk. Lucy scoffed, her eyes still closed, but now she was turned away from the Prof.

"Says the one who is doing crossword puzzles on the side as well. You can wake me up when there's a case." Potty grumbled some sort of complaint as he continued back to the puzzle and Lucy smiled as she fell into her dreamy expanse.

—

It became lunchtime before the Prof could even compute. He had been stuck on a nine letter word for the longest period of time and nothing had seemed to come to him. Sometimes he would glance to Lucy, watching her chest come up and down, the soft snores that would come from her throat and the shifts and turns she would make. It made him smile, knowing that she felt safe enough to sleep here.

"Idiot. Of course she'd feel safe enough to sleep here. Also, you really had to drink coffee in the morning, didn't you?"

"We've had this discussion already. You can have the first half of the morning, but I'll take the second."

"Still, it's my bloody mouth too." Potty looked down to the newspaper puzzle and threw it onto the desk. "You know I hate puzzles."

"I got this far. But I still don't understand this nine letter word to... make something bad better. Another form of another word."

"What have you tried so far?"

"Improve, enhance, benefit, boost...they are all not nine letter words."

"What about Lucy Baker? That's nine letters."

"Are you admitting something?"

Potty scoffed, "No. I'm saying that it's nine letters."