Regina takes up 2/3 of the bed but it works for them because Cady sleeps curled up in a little ball. Regina hates having to sleep without Cady because sometimes she has nightmares and she always feels guilty about calling Cady in the middle of the night.
Now, please do this 😔🙏, or if you could, elaborate more. I'm currently in the midst of brainrot.
#grad school universe / Angie's fic
Regina wakes up just as the bus is about to hit her, breathing hard.
For a moment, she's completely disoriented, before she realizes she's in her bed, her apartment dark and silent.
Regina presses a hand to her forehead and finds it tacky with sweat, and her throat is a bit tender. She wonders if she had been screaming in her sleep. That's happened before—and completely scared the shit out of Cady the first time.
Cady.
Instinctively, Regina reaches to Cady's side of the bed, and finds it cold and empty. Right. Cady is at her apartment in New Haven. Regina is still getting used to spending more nights apart than together. She'd never tell Cady, but she thinks the nightmares have become more frequent as a result.
Regina wants to call Cady. She needs to hear her voice. It's the only thing that slows her heart, which is still pounding inside her chest with panic. But it's the middle of the night, and Cady has class in the morning.
Regina rolls over and tries to ignore it, to will herself back to sleep—or at least into a calmer state. But every time she closes her eyes, all she sees is Cady staring at her with horror as the bus plows into her body. Sometimes, in the dreams, the bus hits Cady instead. Those are the worst ones.
After a couple of minutes of trying to relax by sheer force of will, Regina tries deep breathing. She tries listening to some calming music. She even tries a free meditation video on YouTube, even though she thinks it's stupid. But she doesn't feel even a little bit better.
Before she can overthink it, she taps on Cady's contact and holds her breath as the phone rings.
Just as Regina thinks the call is going to time out, Cady picks up. The screen is dark, but Regina can make out part of Cady's face on the screen.
"Regina?" Cady mumbles sleepily. She squints against the light of her phone. "You okay?"
"Hi, baby," Regina whispers. She feels guilt flare in her stomach at Cady's sleepy face, but she already feels less like she's having a heart attack.
Cady runs a hand down her face. "Did you have a bad dream?" she asks.
Regina cringes a little at the wording—it makes it sound like she's four years old—but now is not the time.
"Yeah," Regina says. "I just needed to see you."
Cady makes a vague gesture that might be a wave. "Here I am."
"And so beautiful, as always," Regina says. She's always found it quite unfair how Cady looks gorgeous all the time, even in the middle of the night.
"I love you," Cady says, with so much affection that Regina physically aches to be with her. "I'm glad you're alive."
"Me, too," Regina says. "Most of the time."
Cady makes a displeased noise, and Regina knows if it weren't the middle of the night and they weren't in separate states Cady would insist on having A Conversation about the most of the time part.
For a few moments, Regina just looks at Cady's face. Well, more like half of her face. At a weird angle. But her breathing has returned almost to normal, and she isn't trembling anymore.
"I'm gonna fall asleep," Cady admits, eyelids drooping, "but I'll leave my phone on."
"Good night," Regina says. "I love you."
Cady kisses the tips of her fingers and taps them against the screen as her eyes close.
It'll have to do, for now.
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