WHO: Jeb Hopkins and Chesa Navarro WHEN: Morning of December 13 WHERE: Jeb's home SUMMARY: Chesa stays the night at Jeb's and... wakes up with him? WARNINGS: š BINGO PROMPT: Grandma's Recipe Ā
Later on, Chesa would look back on the night and realize that nothing too out of the ordinary had occurred. She had forgone the diner for once, instead meeting Jeb at his house so she could make dinner for him, this time her grandmother's recipes for lumpia and pancit. She had never been able to make the spring rolls quite as well as her Lola had and she always felt like her pancit was missing something, but her uncle always raved and she figured that was reason enough to share that part of herself with Jeb. Food was something they seemed to always be willing to share with one another and she especially enjoyed it when it gave them glimpses of the other's heritage.
And maybe, just maybe, that was the start of there being the potential for something out of the ordinary to happen, even if Chesa didn't realize it at the time.
Eventually, they had found themselves in bed, the hour late and the darkness outside quite complete. In the time that Chesa had started to stay the occasional night at Jeb's, she'd created for herself something of a routine. She would always stay in bed with him, cuddled in close as he slowly drifted into the sleep that she hadn't been able to enjoy for so many months. Eventually, despite how comfortable she might have been in the moment, she would extricate herself and leave him to his slumber. Sometimes she would watch a few movies or binge a new show on Netflix. Other times she would just read. She had even worked on her jewelry before, waiting for the rest of Dunhaven, and her boyfriend especially, to greet the day.
Her plan tonight was to start a new book she'd taken out at the library. It was waiting for her in the living room, tucked into her purse. But as Jeb's breathing started to slow in that even way she'd come to memorize, she found herself unwilling to move just yet. She stayed in close, her head resting against him with her arm draped over him to keep him near. Eventually, she felt her mind start to grow hazy. Her breathing slowed, matching his in that even, sleeping cadence.
And then a loud sound made Chesa jolt.
She wasn't in quite the same position as she had been only moments before, but she was still tucked in close to Jeb's side, her body warm and comforted by his close proximity. She nuzzled her face in against Jeb, understanding of what she was hearing dawning on her. When she spoke, her words felt heavy in her mouth. "Is that your alarm?"
Since defining his relationship with Chesa Navarro, Jeb had found a balance that his life had been lacking for the last several years. When heād been raising Cerys, heād delegated tasks more out of necessity, ensuring that her schedule was maintained. Once sheād begun to drive, and when she moved out, Jeb had let himself focus more on work until it was nearly all that he focused on. Heād never really let himself build overtly serious relationships before, knowing that he couldnāt bring any more heartache down on his goddaughterās head.
Heād almost forgotten what it was like not to let work consume most of his waking hours over the last few years. Heād remembered quickly with Chesa. Heād stopped working the early shift when he was the last one in the diner. He took nights off early sometimes to take Chesa out on dates, or even just curl up at home with her to watch a movie. He built time into his life and his schedule to make sure that he got to see her because she was...important.
That night, heād left the diner in time to have a dinner date with Chesa. She had cooked, and while he had mostly watched, heād stepped in to help with the small things, if she asked him to. He enjoyed those little moments with her more than he had imagined possible before. The greatest happiness, he had found, was often in those simple things...like trying the recipe for her Lolaās spring rolls, and pulling her close for a slow dance around the kitchen while they cleaned up after dinner.
Though he had grown used to the knowledge that Chesaās dreams had made it impossible for her to sleep, he unfortunately still did need rest in the traditional sense. Thankfully, she understood and never seemed to mind when he drifted off mid conversation about whatever trivial topic theyād chosen to discuss while curled up in bed. He knew that it was unlikely sheād stay there for the whole night, but in the morning she would tell him about her late-night activities and whatever book or movie sheād indulged in. Sometimes sheād have fixed breakfast, and at the very least, she would make sure that there would be coffee in the kitchen when he wandered there, a note tucked under his favorite mug.
He had fallen asleep easily, and though he had the sense that heād dreamed a little, he couldnāt really remember what any of them were about. Especially not with the incessant and very annoying buzzing from his alarm clock. He was aware instantly that Chesa was still there, tucked into his side. He had a fleeting, groggy wondering of when sheād returned, as it was a rarity for her to still be by his side when his alarm sounded.
He made a soft grumbling noise when she inquired after the noise, and reached over to sleepily smack the snooze button on the clock, which would grant them approximately five minutes of a reprieve before it sounded again. He yawned, and settled even more into the pillows and covers and her, tightening the arm that was around her a little more, āIāll get up in a minuteā¦or five. I swear.ā
Part of Chesa knew that something was off. Her routine had been thrown off kilter and her mind was trying to remind her of that, to tell her that she should be paying attention because something happened. But just as all it took was a smack from Jeb to the snooze button to quiet the alarm, it was just as easy for Chesa to quiet the moving part of her head as he tightened his arm around her and she could so simply sink into him. He was all warmth and comfort and she wasn't sure she ever wanted to move from this very spot again.
Except... she had never been very good at quieting her mind entirely. A few moments passed before she thought of the alarm again and had to rest on the strangeness of the alarm. "Jeb," she murmured, tipping her head so her face was no longer quite so pressed against him or obscured by blankets. "Why do you have your alarm set for, like, 1 in the morning?"
He was reveling in the subtle differences of this early-morning moment of being wrapped up in one another. He was accustomed to those moments before he fell asleep, with the knowledge that he would wake up to cooler bedsheets. He was content to settle back into sleep for a moment or two, but she shifted a little against him. Her query wasnāt one that he had expected, and he glanced at the clock as though to check that the morning sun hadnāt revolted its duties to stay below the horizon.
He yawned, chuckling softly, and closed his eyes again. He simply assumed she must have lost track of time. He didnāt know if that was easy or difficult to do once the rest of the world was asleep. They talked about it sometimes, though it was hard for him to imagine that endless passage of time without any moment of reprieve that was brought by shutting off your mind for a night, āThatās a seven, Ches.ā
It took a moment for Jeb's words to pierce through the haze that was surrounding her brain. Once it did, though, she was awake, her eyes flying open for the first time since she heard that alarm. Chesa pushed herself up, one hand resting on his chest while her other elbow supported most of her weight as she looked over him and to the alarm clock. Sure enough. That was a seven.
And then, she realized as her gaze lifted, that was winter morning sunlight peeking through the curtains. Her heart leapt in her chest. It had been nearly 300 days since she had gotten even a few minutes of sleep. Her body had shown no wear, no effects that the lack of rest had taken on her. She had started to get used to the fact that she would never sleep again, coming up with routines and finding new hobbies to occupy the additional 7-9 hours that she had with every day. But as she felt the remaining tendrils of grogginess start to dissipate, she understood.
"It's morning." Her words were quiet, but full of shock and even a little wonder as she looked back to the numbers on the alarm clock. "I fell asleep."
Though he was still in a groggy state, when Chesa sat up so suddenly, Jeb felt a little stab of concern grow in his chest, close to where her hand rested. Her hair seemed to be in some messy fall around her shoulders, and she looked as though sheād been...comfortable for quite some time. It was, in fact, morning, though he didnāt know what the surprise of that was until she said those next words.
She had fallen asleep. He knew that she hadnāt slept in months, as a side-effect of her dreaming self. Sheād been pretty open about it with him, even before theyād officially begun dating. Their late night conversations at Grandmaās had made a lot more sense then, and heād never made her leave when the rest of the diner closed...not until he had to lock up at the end of his own time there.
āWait, really?ā he sat up a little, but still rested back against his pillows, surprise evident in his tone. He was...admittedly relieved that theyād both woken up together, because if heād woken to find her still sleeping, heād have likely panicked. As it was, he still asked, āI mean, thatās...good, isnāt it? You donāt feel bad?ā He didnāt know what might have made the difference, but he hoped it wasnāt something wrong.
Chesa considered his question, doing a bit of a mental tally of just how she did feel before answering. The grogginess that she'd been filled with when first waking up was still working its way out of her mind, though her shock had definitely escalated how fast it seemed to be leaving and allowing her to be able to focus. She knew that in a few minutes it would be gone entirely and she'd feel as normal as she ever did. When Jeb had started to drift off the night before, she had been as aware and awake as ever, too. Though she had been dealing with insomnia since she was a child, she hadn't even felt like she used to before this extreme insomnia seemed to have kicked in.
"No, I feel fine," Chesa responded, a confused wrinkle forming on her forehead as she looked away from the time and instead at Jeb. "And I suppose it's good. I don't know what changed, though. If it was a fluke, maybe? I guess I'll find out tonight."
It wasn't an easy thought to dismiss, though. For as much as she hadn't liked that she never slept, she had gotten used to it and she had to admit that it increased her productivity a lot. But still, there were times that she missed it, like when she had been grappling with the consequences of her dreams or her relationship with her sister and she had no means to escape the thoughts cycling through her mind, even for just a few hours. She had also missed it every night she left Jeb asleep, unable to know what it was like to wake up to the comfort of his sleeping form or being that comfort for him. Now, she supposed, she knew. Despite everything else, that thought warmed her heart.
He could breathe just a little easier once Chesa assured him that she really did feel fine. He hadnāt been able to tell that anything was off from his perspective. He did go ahead and reach over to fully turn off the alarm, the snooze function now entirely unnecessary, so that he could turn his full attention to her knowing that they wouldnāt be unnecessarily interrupted.
āMaybe. Itās just really unexpected,ā he reached up to gently tuck a strand of hair behind her ear, his touch lingering there at her jawline, āThere wasnāt anything different about last night, right? Nothing that might have attributed to it?ā He didnāt know if there was anything that they could try to replicate, but if she wanted to see if she could restore at least some of her sleeping hours, Jeb would try to help.
Even while Chesa's head tipped to press into the touch of Jeb's fingers at her jaw, her expression went thoughtful. It wasn't at all difficult to pull up the memories of the night before, not just because they had only been hours before, but because they had been, quite undoubtedly, wonderful. That was no different than any other night spent with Jeb, she thought -- or was it?
She thought about how he had been so willing to let her cook for him and how his hands had looked after she had given him the task of rolling up the lumpia so she could fry them in the oil. She thought about how easy the conversation always flowed with them, but especially that night as she had recounted memories of her Lola cooking in the kitchen of the farmhouse she now called home and he had listened to each story with the same close attention. She thought about how it felt when he'd caught her hand and pulled her in for a slow dance that had started a bit silly, but had ended with her cheek pressed to his chest and their arms around the other. Just the memory itself was enough to make her heart swell and warm, especially when she was laying so close to him even now.
But Chesa knew that it wasn't as simple as Jeb being a good boyfriend that cared about her stories and who she was beyond the superficial. She had known that for a long time. Last night, though, she had felt a shift within her, specifically in her heart. Being held by Jeb as he faded into sleep had always been nice, but last night it had been more. For the first time since she was six-years-old, her mind had seemed to rest in a way she hadn't thought possible. Her own memories and the ones that belonged to Nova that were entirely too similar to her own were silenced. She felt comfortable and safe and he was the reason she felt that way, because, she realized in some sort of epiphany, she loved him.
Chesa lifted her hand from his chest, letting her fingers push through his hair in a vague attempt to tame his own bedhead. "There might have been something different." She smiled, her fingers tracing his jawline. "I think it might be your fault."
He watched as her expression went thoughtful and for a long few moments she seemed to be lost in the memory of the previous evening. It had been like many of the nights that they shared together. Even if they werenāt going out on a date, staying in was just as nice...sometimes even better, really. They didnāt have to worry about other people or traffic or getting anywhere just on time. They could just take the time to really listen to one another, share some good food, and have a few silly moments here or there.
Her fingers sank into his hair, and Jeb grinned, though taming his hair was a somewhat monumental task that was going to require a comb and a prayer. Raising a brow, he tipped his head a little when she gave him the credit - or the blame, āMe?ā He chuckled lowly and asked, āWhat did I do to manage turning your sleepless nights into a venture to dream land?ā He caught her fingers in his and pressed a gentle kiss to her fingertips, but he really wanted to know.
Chesa hesitated a few moments before giving him an answer, taking her time to put one together as a smile bloomed across her lips. She let her fingers trace along his lower lip just once before she said, "Oh, you know..."
And then she let out a soft laugh, because that was definitely not an answer at all.
She tried again, perhaps a bit less bashfully this time. "Normally when you fall asleep, I stay in bed until I get antsy or you roll over and pull away or something. Whichever comes first, you know? I like laying in here with you, but I can't do it for eight hours, no matter how comfortable you are. But there's been something growing, you know? Between us, every time we hang out or spend time together. And I think last night I just sort of realized it, without really realizing it? So when you fell asleep, I felt comfortable and... safe. Connected, maybe, more than before."
Chesa blew out a breath, her brow furrowing as her gaze dropped and she realized that none of those words were the ones that she wanted to say. They were the truth, but only part of it. She looked at Jeb again, expression a bit sheepish. "I guess what I'm saying is that I've fallen in love with you, Jeb. And -- and you don't have to say it back, you know? It's okay if you're not there. But that's where I am."
Her coy and beginning that lacked any explanation still made him grin, though he was grateful that she did decide to continue on. He was quiet as she explained whatever had shifted last night between what had become normal for them over the last little while, and what had changed.
Her expression turned a little bashful, though he almost knew those words before she said them. She had fallen in love with him, just as quickly as he had fallen in love with her. It was a new sort of revelation for him, too, and not one that heād let himself linger on thinking of a lot. He hadnāt wanted to just blurt the words out to her if she wasnāt ready to hear them, and there had been a part of him that wasnāt fully ready to say it either, whether out of fear of those feelings not being returned or a need to process them first, he wasnāt quite sure. Maybe it was a little of both.
āIām there,ā he promised her, without so much as a moment of hesitation, a small, easy grin coming to his lips. He took a breath, and reached up to brush a little of her hair over her shoulder, that casual and easy touch having grown familiar as of late, āI...kept myself busy for a long time before you. I focused on Cerys when she was in my custody to the point of not ever bringing anyone into our lives for long, uncertain of their permanency. When she was grown and moved out, I just...Iād focused on that part of my life for so long that I didnāt really know how to let people in anymore. And then...you became a fixture in my diner, and in my life, and itās been easy, you know? Easier than I thought it would be...and for the first time in a long time, I really feel like Iām living my life again.ā
āI donāt really know when it happened, but somewhere between apple pie and spring rolls and very late conversations at night...I love you, too.ā
Words didn't exist that could adequately describe how hearing those words made Chesa feel. Her heart felt full in a way she hadn't felt in a very long time -- but wasn't that on theme with everything related to Jeb? She hadn't been expecting him or even looking for him and yet she had found him and welcomed him into her life in a way she didn't let most people in. But it had been easy, just as he'd said. She'd never felt that hesitation with him, nor had she ever wondered if she was making a mistake when she opened up to him, even that first time at some silly hour of the night when the diner had been long since closed. Chesa had never felt a worry that she would be too much for Jeb or that she might scare him off. On the contrary, she only found herself wanting to reveal more to him, just as she wanted to know everything about him.
What more, she could hardly imagine a future without him. Chesa didn't know when that had happened, when their lives had become so entwined and connected that she wanted nothing more than to be by his side for as long as he would let her. But it had happened and she loved him for it, among so many other reasons. And he loved her, too.
Unable to help herself -- and unwilling to even try to stop -- Chesa leaned up and gave Jeb a gentle, lingering kiss. She was hesitant to break away, but she managed to find the willpower, letting her nose brush over his as her lips formed a smile. "I'm very glad that it was your diner that I decided to spend all my time in."
That kiss was more than welcome, sweet and lingering until his heartbeat quickened just a little. He smiled, a laugh passing his lips when she voiced her happiness that she hadnāt gone to some other late night establishment to pass her nights. It was rather lucky for the both of them that she had ended up at Grandmaās, but he jokingly added, āThank God. Could you imagine if youād decided to go to Salās instead? Thereās not even any pie. Just cobbler pizzas and cinnamon sticks.ā
He didnāt really know what would have happened had Chesa gone anywhere else, and he didnāt really like thinking about it because he could no longer fathom those events unfolding any other way. The future that he could see ahead of them now was all that he wanted. He shook his head a little and added, āI like to think that even if you had gone somewhere else...weād have somehow, someway ended up here. Even if it took a little more time. Youāre worth the wait.ā
"I like to think that, too." Chesa could almost imagine it. Maybe she would have gotten sick of pizza and wandered into Grandma's. Maybe she would have gone in at the suggestion of the pie he had mentioned. Whatever alternate universe that existed where they might have taken different steps, she had to believe that they would have ended up together in the end. It felt too right with him to be any different, which was a feeling that Chesa wasn't used to. She hoped she'd get to keep feeling it for a good, long time.
"You'd be worth the wait, too," she added, hand raising to smooth through his mussed hair once more. Chesa glanced over at the alarm clock, taking in the handful of minutes that had passed since it had woken them both up, then back to Jeb. She raised an eyebrow. "So, did that alarm go off at 7 because you had somewhere to be or things to do?"
When she inquired after the reason for his alarm, Jebās cheeks flushed just slightly, though it might have been difficult to tell in the dim lighting of the room. He shook his head softly and admitted, āNothing in particular. Sometimes I set it a little extra early so Iām more likely to catch you still here for breakfast...or just to have a little more time in general.ā Sometimes sheād gone altogether, which was always fine, and he would often just go back to sleep for a little longer, but heād often figured as long as heād gotten enough sleep, his time was better spent with her than snoozing away the morning.
A warmth blossomed from somewhere in Chesa's heart at the thought that he made such an effort, just to try to ensure that they were able to spend even just moments more time together. Though she didn't know if sleep would suddenly become more easy for her going forward, she did know that she was going to make a solid effort to always be here when he woke up when she stayed the night. It was an easy promise to make to herself; she very much liked seeing him in the morning, sleep still clinging to him as he poured himself a cup of the coffee she prepared for him. It was a touch of domesticity that had been lacking in her life until him and she wanted to do anything she could to keep it.
"Well," Chesa murmured, tracing her fingers along his jawline as a loving smile grew on her lips, "that makes me really happy." Leaning in, she stole a gentle kiss before adding, "You make me really happy."
He made a small, happy hum and claimed a few more brief kisses, āIs it corny of me to say ditto?ā Jeb really did have much more happiness in his life now that Chesa was in it. He had so many more reasons to smile. She had given him a new perspective when heād been otherwise stuck.
āThe next decision to make is a very difficult one,ā Jeb told her with mock seriousness, though there was still a grin clinging to his lips, āDo we defy the alarm and laze around in bed for a while longer, or do we go try to find breakfast?ā He didnāt think that either of them would be able to go back to sleep at this point, but as they didnāt have anywhere to be, their options were open.
"Hmm," Chesa started, meeting Jeb with the same mock seriousness. She rolled over slightly from her side position, leaning against him and allowing herself a closer vantage point. "As much as I love breakfast, I am finding that I really love this whole waking up in bed with you thing, so... I vote that we milk it for as long as we can, before we have to be functioning members of society." In truth, she thought that she knew exactly why she had fallen asleep with him like she had, but she also didn't know if there would be a repeat performance the next time she stayed the night; she had no doubt that her feelings wouldn't change, but how was she supposed to know how superpowers granted by weird dreams worked? She wanted to take advantage of this for as long as she could.
Chesa reached out for one of Jeb's hands, her fingers lacing with his as she smiled up to him. "And later we can find pancakes. Good plan?"
He squeezed their linked hands, looking down at her with warmth blooming in his heart, āThat sounds like the best plan. Pancakes are better as a brunch food anyway, in my opinion.ā He would take the luxury of staying here in bed with her, just relaxing and softly talking for as long as they could manage. It was still something of a novelty, really, and Jeb wanted to soak in as much of that as possible. Everything else could wait.