Chapter Text
Dax leaned back in his chair, rubbing his temples to try and avoid the headache he already knew was imminent. Late nights on the computer never ended well.
He glanced back up at the screen.
At the moment, Dax was trying to design his house—-but an hour or so of thought hadn’t got them any further than the upstairs bedroom.
Yeah, he and Peter weren’t very clever. It being a school night didn’t help.
A message flashed on his screen.
Xx360PeterGamingxX: maybe you could add some trees outside, its not like were gonna be able to finish the inside tonight lol
Dax sighed through his nose, tapping away at the keyboard.
DaxBoggs: I don’t think we’ll finish anything tonight
Xx360PeterGamingxX: true
His eyelids drooped, and he took a look around his room. Startlingly dark. Sometimes he didn’t realize it was nighttime until it had settled around him.
DaxBoggs: Dude I gotta go to sleep it’s like, it’s late
DaxBoggs: Almost midnight actually
Xx360PeterGamingxX: same here ngl im gonna go too see you
DaxBoggs: Bye
Dax slowly slid out of his chair to sit on the ground before slowly pulling himself up using his desk. Now time to shower… brush his teeth… get changed… fix his bed… too many things to do.
Ever since getting to college, everything was just too much. All he wanted to do most of the time was sleep. Sure, it was nice to have so much free time, but the classes seemed really hard. Lectures were so boring, and extracurriculars too exhausting. It didn’t help that Peter was still at the high school, several hours away. Dax made sure to set up where he was going so they could stay in the same timezone, but he was still sorely homesick. Mostly for Peter.
Maybe a bath would help. Just to soak in, he thought. Even though the idea still wasn’t too appealing, he trudged to the bathroom and started his nightly routine.
-
Back in his room, he hugged his arms close, still feeling the chill from getting out of the warm bath. He wanted the heat on, but it seemed like the apartment his parents rented out had a bit of a faulty furnace.
So fucking annoying. Can’t they just hire someone?
Stepping carefully over dirty clothing piles (which he couldn’t motivate himself to sort, much less wash), he stood over his bed and yanked off the blankets to rearrange them.
Time moved sluggishly. Underwater, molasses, honey, mud. It felt like he could be folding blankets forever, and he would be none the wiser. Or had he been? Why was he everywhere at once now? Past, future, present. Interpolation of his mind into every version of his body. One blinks. One died five years ago. One is a prodigy musician. He could do anything—-and he was… folding blankets.
Dax shook his head. Blankets done, sheet pulled up properly. Now he just had to lay the blankets over it, and he could finally lay down.
He bent down for a quilt, and his head instantly began smarting. Of course the headache had to come back right before he went to bed. Maybe some ibuprofen… no, that would require him to leave his bedroom, and that simply couldn’t happen.
Smoothing out the topmost blanket, he hauled himself onto the bed and crawled toward the headboard, wiggling under the covers. Sweet rest.
Except…
Air conditioning kicking on. Cars honking. Headache. Footsteps in the apartment hall. Crickets. Too hot. Weird smell. Remembering dirty laundry. Peter. Roblox studio. Goddamn Entity.
Dax kicked off the top blanket, the heaviest one, but he was already sweating, and now he felt disgusting. Not unusual for his current life, given how messy his place was. Sometimes he felt like a permanent paste of grime had been rubbed into his skin. He wanted to get up and take a shower again, but his limbs felt like rocks tied to his torso, so he just closed his eyes again and tried to sleep.
He’d talk to Peter again tomorrow. It’d be okay.