Chapter Text
Finn delicately placed a tray of snacks on the table, admiring how organized he made it look, when a light knock came at the door.
“Come in!” He cheerfully called, turning to look as Lance and Dot entered dorm room 302.
Mash got up from his seat, creampuff in hand, to go stand next to Finn.
“Hey, Finn, Mash!” Dot grinned, waving at the duo with Lance only a bit behind, giving a small wave himself.
Lance nearly closed the door behind him, when a voice yelled from down the hallway not to. He took a step back, leaving the doorway open as Lemon quickly ran into view of the group.
“Hey!! I’m here!” She smiled, panting.
“Lemon!” Finn smiled back, “Are you okay?”
“Yeah,” She closed the door behind her, placing the bag she brought on the nearest table, and trying to regain her composure. “I was doing my homework and didn’t realize what time it was…”
“You- You didn’t have to run…” Dot chuckled, “I think we’ll survive waiting an extra handful of minutes for you to get over here.”
“Well sure, but I didn’t wanna leave my darling Mash wondering where I was!” She jumped into Mash, hugging him.
“Uh-“ Mash paused, “I don’t…”
“Lemon, don’t you have a girlfriend?” Lance raised an eyebrow.
She let go and shot a glare at Lance, “So? Can’t a girl be a little insane about someone platonically?” She crossed her arms.
“Yeah, Lance, you have no room to talk here.” Dot poked Lance’s necklace, to which he protectively grabbed it to bring out of Dot’s reach.
“That’s different.” Lance stated. “I never had a crush on Anna.”
“Eh, you basically did.” Dot shrugged.
“Excuse you?!” Lance snapped his head to look at Dot, “I most certainly did not!”
“Did too.”
“Did not!” Lance grabbed Dot by the collar.
“GUYS!” Finn yelled, “It has been less than three minutes since you got here. Do not start fighting!” He pointed a crutch at them.
Both Lance and Dot stopped moving, then sheepishly let go of each other and took a step back.
“Thank you.” Finn contentedly smiled. “Now, go eat the snacks I put together so nicely. I worked too hard for you all to ignore them and scream at each other all night.” He crossed his arms.
The others began their way towards the table, looking over the array of chips, cookies, fruits, candies, and, of course, creampuffs that were all arranged into color-organized sections.
“Wow, you guys made this? It’s so pretty looking!” Lemon exclaimed.
“Actually, it was just Finn.” Mash replied. “He didn’t let me help.”
Finn sheepishly smiled, “I wanted it done a very specific way… He helped me move stuff around though, I didn’t do all of it on my own!”
“Well, you did a great job of it!” Dot spoke between bites of a sugar cookie.
“Yes, but did you really need to put this much out?” Lance reached for a cracker. “There’s only five of us.”
“I’ll admit, I did go a bit overboard.” He rubbed the back of his neck, smiling, “But we can always save the rest for later!”
“If we have too much left, I can give some to Love as well!” Lemon chipped in.
“That too!”
“Who cares about that stuff anyways? I’m tryna have fun here!” Dot took a second cookie, falling into a criss-cross position on the floor. “We’re here to celebrate, aren’t we?”
“I’d hardly call it a celebration,” Lance followed suit. “All we did was pass our first major exams as second years.”
“Not everyone is as naturally smart as you, Lance.” Lemon sat down. “Mash studied really hard for those!”
“My brain felt like mush afterwards.” Mash lightly frowned, helping Finn comfortably get on the floor while he himself also sat.
“Heh, Mush Burnedead.” Dot chuckled.
Finn and Lemon giggled at the comment, Lance stifling a laugh as well and Mash softly smiled.
“Regardless,” Finn smiled, “Dot’s right, we’re here to celebrate! So let’s get this party started, right?”
The others cheered in varying degrees of agreement, so Finn continued, “I figured we start with a simple game.” He reached into his pocket, pulling out a deck of Uno.
“Aw hell yeah!” Dot exclaimed, “I’m gonna whoop all of you!”
“As if! I’ve played with Love and Wirth so many times, I got this in the bag.” Lemon grinned.
“You people are acting like I’m not clearly going to be the winner here. Have some respect.” Lance crossed his arms, waiting for Finn to finish dealing out the cards.
“At least we’re not playing with the Magia Lupus,” Finn started, “Otherwise none of us would get to win because Abyss is too in love with Abel.”
“Wait, are they actually together yet?” Dot questioned.
“They’re like, trying to be secretive about it I think.” Lemon shrugged. “But apparently they’re really bad at it.”
“I haven’t seen them since they graduated, I was wondering what they’ve been up to.” Lance commented.
“Oh yeah, I get sooo much info from Love about them! And I’m just with the Magia Lupus a lot in general. Milo’s single, in case you were wondering, Finn.” She cheekily grinned.
“Oh! Uhm, no- no I wasn’t… Wasn’t wondering about that. Thanks, though.” He awkwardly laughed.
“Just had to make sure!” She picked up her deck, looking over her cards.
Finn reached to place the remaining deck down in the middle, and just as he took the top card to be the starter, he spoke again. “Who’s going first?”
“I mean, shouldn’t it be clockwise starting from the person after the dealer?” Dot asked.
“So I get to go first?” Lemon asked. “Great!” She glanced again at the green 3 card, pulling out her own green 3 to go along with it.
Lance, immediately wanting to sabotage Dot, places a green skip down, smirking to himself.
“What the hell?! Tch, you asshole!” Dot yelled, moving to throw a punch at Lance. However, since Lance is sat on Dot’s blind side, he easily leans backwards, avoiding the punch entirely.
“What, is it too much work to turn your head and look at me when you punch?” Lance mocked.
“Yeah, ‘cause your stupid pretty face disgusts me.” Dot grumbled, crossing his arms. “Mash, it’s your turn.”
“Huh? Oh, right.” Mash blinks, taking a blue skip and placing it down.
“Whuh-!” Finn looks at the card, then at Mash. “Why?!”
“Sorry, it’s the only card I have that worked.” Mash shrugged.
Finn pouted, letting Lemon take her turn.
~~
“YES!” Lemon cheered, placing down her final card.
“NO!” Dot exclaimed, “Ugh, Lance, I told you that if we worked together we could get her card count back up!” He turned to look at Lance.
“Right, but I didn’t want to work together.” Lance blinked, looking back at Dot.
“Why not?!”
“Because, as soon as you were sure Lemon wasn’t going to win, you would’ve turned on me to make sure I didn’t win either.”
“You suck!” Dot pouted, flopping backwards to lay on the floor.
“You all wouldn’t have won regardless. All that practice with Love and Wirth pays off, what can I say?” Lemon grinned.
“I gotta get in on those games, then!” Dot hit the floor. “Finn, what else do you have? I gotta win against her now.”
“You can try!” She laughed.
“Uhm, how about Jenga?” Finn asked.
“Yeah, that works!”
“Alright! Mash, can you go grab the Jenga box from that cabinet over there?” Finn pointed across the room. “It’d be a hassle for me to do it.”
“Yeah, no problem.” Mash smiled, standing up.
“Wh- Hey, Jenga’s totally unfair!” Lemon called out. “You know my hands are unsteady, how am I supposed to win with that?!”
“We’re both at a disadvantage! I have shit depth perception, so who’s to say I won’t misjudge how something looks and move my hand too far and knock the whole thing over?” Dot bit back, sitting up again.
“That barely counts!”
“It absolutely counts!”
“Uh, we… We can choose something else…” Finn looked between the two nervously.
“No, I have to play now! I can’t back down and let him show me up with his stupid steady hands!” Lemon huffed.
Mash returned with the box, handing it to Finn, who began emptying it and assembling the tower on the floor, the others making rows of blocks so Finn could just place them on top faster.
“You do understand it’s possible that both of you win, right? Don’t forget that all five of us are playing, so if, say, Finn knocks it over, then the rest of us win. That doesn’t give any distinction among you two.”
“Hey, why me?!” Finn pouted.
Lance shrugged.
“Y-Yeah, well, then in that case, we’ll just play rock paper scissors or something!” Dot crossed his arms.
“Yeah! And I’ll win in that, too!”
“Right…” Lance glanced at the two, “So, who’s starting?”
“We can go the other way this time, which means Mash starts?” Finn asks.
“Alright,” Mash agrees, reaching over towards the tower and finding a loose piece to take and place on the top.
~~
“Shit.” Lance spoke through gritted teeth, the tower that had nearly doubled in size now crumbling before him.
Dot started cackling, watching the pieces scatter on the ground.
“Oh, thank goodness! It was so unstable, if Lance hadn’t knocked it over, I totally would have!” Lemon sighed with relief.
Lance placed a hand on his shoulder, his eyebrows furrowing.
“Everything okay?” Finn looks at Lance, a glint of concern in his eyes.
“Yeah, I think I was just too tensed up trying not to shake the tower. It’s fine.”
“Wow, a Divine Visionary hurting himself in a game of Jenga is something I sure wasn’t expecting!” Dot chuckled.
“Dot! That’s rude!” Lemon frowned.
“He does this all the time, you shouldn’t be surprised.” Lance lightly stretched out his shoulder. “It doesn’t even hurt anyways.”
“Are you sure?” Mash asked, also concerned.
“Look, if he’s lying, I’ll know. And I have painkillers on me basically all the time from living with this guy that never listens to his body.” Dot explained.
“You’re acting like half of the reason you have those painkillers isn’t because you don’t look where you’re going and ram into things.” Lance deadpanned.
“That’s-! Besides the point…”
The others snickered, the room soon falling into a comfortable silence before Lemon breaks it.
“Dot! Rock paper scissors!”
“Right!” He grins, turning towards her.
“Rock, paper, scissors, shoot!” They both chant, Lemon throwing out paper as Dot throws out rock.
Lemon begins laughing, but gets quickly interrupted.
“N-No, best of three!” Dot puts his hands back up to play again.
Lemon playfully glares at him, then agrees.
The second round, when Lemon plays paper again, Dot plays scissors, making them tied.
And upon their last round, Lemon furrows here eyebrows and plays scissors, as Dot defeats her with a swift rock being played.
“Okay, that doesn’t even count though!” Lemon pouted, “I still won the first round!”
“Yeah, and then we agreed to best of three, where I won the last two. That makes me the winner, fair and square!” Dot grinned triumphantly.
“Finn, who do you think won?” Lemon asked.
“Uhm… I mean you did play best of three… And Dot won twice. So…” He trailed off.
“Exactly! Thank you, Finn.” Dot pointed at him.
“Ugh, fine, I guess you win this time… But what now? That just makes us tied.”
The two looked at Finn, expectantly.
“Um, I don’t know?” Finn nervously laughed, “We don’t have that much in the room, and-“
“You two need to stop competing already anyways. I don’t recall most celebrations having this much arguing.” Lance stated.
“Weren’t you arguing with Dot when you got here though?” Mash asked.
“… That’s different.”
“Uh huh, totally.” Lemon raised her eyebrows at Lance, “But I guess you’re right. Truce?” She turned to Dot.
Dot sighed, “Truce.”
“In that case,” Finn smiled, “Who’s down for a movie?”
The group excitedly agreed, all getting ready to move to the couch.
After everyone had settled in, and the snacks were put on a table closer to the couch, Finn reached for the controller and turned the TV and DVD player on.
“Do any of you have preferences?” Finn asked, moving to open a cabinet that was filled with movie cases.
The group shrugged.
“Ooh, can we watch a slasher?” Dot grinned, hopeful.
Finn nodded, “Any objections from the rest of you?”
No one disagreed, so Finn sifted through the cabinet for a moment before pulling a case out. “How about this? ‘The Final Girls’, I think it’s a slasher comedy, if that’s alright?”
Dot agreed, so Finn put the disc in and began playing the movie.
~~
“That was.. Certainly a movie.” Lance watched the credits roll.
“That last scene with Max and her mom was so sweet though.” Lemon pouted.
“Finn, why do you have a movie like this on hand?” Dot asked, “Half of the dialogue was about sex.”
“Uhm, that’s a good question.” Finn thought for a moment. “I’m honestly not sure? I have a lot of random movies that I don’t remember the origin of.”
“It was good, though.” Mash said.
“Well, good is a stretch.” Dot looked at Mash, “But you probably don’t have the largest frame of reference.”
“Yeah, Mash, did you ever have the opportunity to watch movies growing up?” Finn asked.
“I couldn’t go to theaters, and we didn’t have a TV, so no.” Mash shrugged.
“Wait, so you’ve never seen Howl’s Moving Castle? Or, like, Your Name?” Lemon frowned.
Mash shook his head, “I don’t know what those are.”
“Oh my gosh, we are so having another movie night so you can watch them!” Lemon cheered.
“Do we all have to be there for that?” Lance asked, yawning.
“Obviously! It’s less fun without everyone.”
“Don’t worry, we’ll work it around your schedule, since you’re a lot busier than the rest of us.” Finn stated.
“That works, I suppose.”
“Then it’s settled! Mash and friends movie night!” Lemon smiled.
“Why ‘Mash and friends’? Why not just, like, group movie night?” Dot questioned.
“Well, he’s the one that’s never seen the movies before, so we’re kinda doing it for him.” Lemon shrugged.
“I guess, yeah.” Dot blinked, yawning. “Is it just me or is it getting late?”
“Well, it’s nearly 11, so that makes sense.” Finn glanced at the clock.
“Should we start getting ready to sleep, then?” Mash asked.
The group shrugged, agreeing.
~~
After everyone had settled in the mats laid on the floor for them, the room slowly fell into a comfortable silence.
Mash drifted off first, they’d all expected it of him, too. He can fall asleep so easily in practically any situation. Lemon followed not too soon after, the sound of her quiet, even breathing filling the silences Mash left in his own slumber.
Dot, however, upon falling asleep himself, was far less graceful. He sprawled out more than anyone else, and while he didn’t snore per se, he wasn’t exactly quiet either. Finn wanted to glare at him, but as he adjusted himself to be able to see Dot, his eyes met Lance’s, wide awake. He paused.
“Is he always like that?” Finn whispered.
“Yeah.” Lance responded, “And then doesn’t believe me when I tell him the next morning.”
Finn snickered, “That sure sounds like him. You not tired yet?”
“I am, I just can’t fall asleep.” He shrugged.
“Is it Dot? We can trade places so you’re not-“
“No, I’m used to him.” Lance cut him off, “Just insomnia.”
“I see.” Finn’s eyes softened, “Is that why you’re tired all the time?”
“Pretty much. If Dot doesn’t fall asleep immediately he’ll sometimes make me tea, but that doesn’t help too much. I’ll fall asleep eventually, though.”
“I hope you do soon. If not, you’re still very welcome to the snacks!” Finn smiled.
“Thank you, I’ll think about it. You go on and sleep, though.”
“That sounds good,” Finn yawned, “And if you need anything or something happens, you can wake me up. I won’t be upset or anything.”
“Good to know. Much nicer than this one, if he’s woken up in the middle of the night he’s far too cranky, even if I didn’t do anything to him.” Lance pointed at Dot with his thumb.
Finn giggled, “That’s Dot for you.” He laid back down, “Good night, Lance.”
“Good night.” He followed suit, closing his eyes.
Minutes passed, Finn drifting off not long after. Then hours begun to roll by, and Lance laid still, hoping to be able to sleep, though his attempts were futile.
Eventually, he got up, went to the table, and took a creampuff. He’d given up on sleeping much that night, as it was already nearing 2 in the morning and he hadn’t slept a wink. He sat down at the table, eating the creampuff in silence with only his thoughts.
After finishing it, he put his head in his hands, tired, yet unable to properly rest. He’d been hoping that at least for tonight, for a sleepover, he’d get sufficient sleep, but his hopes appeared to be in vain.
Gradually, though, he heard Dot’s breathing even out and quiet down. He glanced over, seeing Dot stir a moment, and his eyelids fluttered open.
“… Lance, that you?” He groggily asked.
“I didn’t mean to wake you.” Lance turned to face Dot.
“Nah, I don’t think you did.”
“Hm.”
“You slept yet?”
“Nope.”
“Did you even try?”
“No, I actually consumed as much caffeine as humanly possible and stood in place the past 3 hours.” Lance rolled his eyes.
“Alright, asshole.” Dot gritted his teeth, standing up.
“Don’t get loud. The others are still sleeping.”
“Yeah, yeah.” He ran a hand through his hair, walking towards the cabinets in the dorm. “Chamomile?”
“What?”
“Do you want chamomile tea? If not, I can go back to ours and get-“
“You’re seriously going to make tea?”
“Yeah? Why wouldn’t I? Unless you don’t want any.”
“… Chamomile is fine.”
“Alright.” Dot reached for the box, then began heating the water. “You know, you could make your own tea when you can’t sleep.”
“You’re acting like I woke you up and begged you to make me tea. You just decided to do this.”
“Not what I meant, idiot.” Dot frowned, “I mean it’ll help you, so you should probably do it.”
“It doesn’t even help that much.”
“But it helps, doesn’t it?” He raised an eyebrow.
“Yes, but-“
“End of sentence. If you’re getting better sleep with tea, then drink tea.”
“…”
“Exactly.” Dot begun to brew the tea. “So stop being stupid and take care of yourself.”
Lance glared at Dot, to which he snickered.
“I’m fine as is.” Lance huffed after a moment.
“Do you consider being constantly exhausted as ‘fine’? Because you really shouldn’t.”
“It was worse when Anna was sick. But now that I don’t worry over her as much anymore, it’s considerably better.”
“You know, the average teenager usually gets, like, 7 good hours of sleep a night. You barely manage an uncomfortable 5.” Dot brought the tea over to Lance, setting it down carefully.
Lance took a sip, “You act like it’s so easy to just fall asleep at will. I’m not Mash.”
“Well that’s just ‘cause Mash is insane. And, like, I get it’s difficult, but you don’t even try to do anything about it and then complain when you’re running off of nothing but caffeine and sheer will.”
Lance rolled his eyes, not responding.
The two sat in silence for a bit, letting time pass and allowing Lance to finish his tea. He left the cup on the table to be dealt with later, and decided to get back to trying to sleep. Dot soon followed suit.
“In the morning, if I can help it, I’ll keep these idiots quiet.” Dot spoke, “Get the sleep you can manage, and if I catch you up before me I’ll deck ya.”
“How lovely, a threat.” Lance deadpanned. “We’ll see.”
“You’re the worst!”
“Yeah, yeah.”
~~
In the morning, Lance, out of habit, had been the first one to wake up. He glanced at the clock, seeing that it was just past 6 in the morning. 4 hours of sleep was manageable, but not preferable. He put his head back down and hoped to get more sleep in.
Eventually, the others began to awake. Lemon rose first, quietly, and glanced around. She didn’t seem to notice Lance was also awake, so she quietly got up and tiptoed around the others to get her bag and go to the bathroom.
Returning a couple minutes later, she sat on the couch, and opened up a book she’d brought with her to continue reading.
Finn woke next, quietly stretching. As he began to get up with his crutches, he noticed Lemon, and went to sit next to her.
“Oh, hey Finn! Good morning!” She smiled, putting a bookmark in and placing her book down.
“Good morning!” Finn cheerily repeated, leaning the crutches up against the couch. “How’d you sleep?”
“Pretty good! Better than I was expecting to not being in my own bed. How about you?”
“Good! I can sleep comfortably in most situations.” He shrugged.
“That would make sense, wouldn’t it.. Also, how come Lance isn’t awake yet? Isn’t he usually up super early?” She glanced over at the mats.
“I’m not sure. He might just be trying to get extra sleep in because he has nothing to do today?”
Lance moved slightly, catching the attention of the duo. He turned his head to face them, then spoke. “Actually, I was awake before either of you.”
Finn jumped slightly, and Lemon giggled at him.
“However, Dot threatened me if I got up before he did, and I’d prefer not to spend my time evading being punched this morning.”
“He- he threatened you for that?!” Finn gawked.
“This shouldn’t come as a shock.” Lance sat up. “All that idiot does is threaten me.”
“But why threaten you for getting up early?” Lemon questioned.
“I don’t sleep well most of the time, and he caught me up at 2 last night. He was so annoying about it as well.” He rolled his eyes.
“Maybe…” Dot’s voice gruffly came out, “I wouldn’t be annoying if you’d listen!” He launched out from under his blanket, reaching to punch Lance.
Lance quickly kicked him away before his fist made contact, sending Dot backwards to fall on his butt.
“I woke up just under an hour ago and couldn’t fall back asleep. What did you want me to do?”
“Well, I mean…” Dot trailed off.
“He’s got a point there, Dot.” Lemon shrugged. “Did you seriously expect him to lay there in silence until you decided he could get up?”
“Okay, you’re not helping! I was just trying to get this idiot to actually get some sleep for once.” He huffed.
“What if I knocked him out?” Mash asked, suddenly.
Dot jumped, “Holy-! Mash! When did you wake up?!”
“Just now.” He yawned, moving to sit criss-cross.
“I saw him moving out of the corner of my eye and yet it still scared me when he spoke.” Finn muttered, much to Lemon’s amusement.
“Well? What if I knocked Lance out? Would that help him sleep?”
“Mash, I think that’s a very terrible idea.” Lemon spoke, “Being knocked unconscious is different from sleeping.”
“No, I think we should give it a try!” Dot grinned at the idea.
“Uh.” Mash glanced between the two.
“Please do not knock me out.” Lance turned to Mash. “Dot is just stupid.”
“Hey!” Dot swung a punch towards Lance, who dodged with ease, sending Dot to fall flat on the floor. “… You ass.” He grumbled, sitting back up.
“Okay.” Mash slightly frowned.
“You’re not stupid for suggesting it, Mash!” Lemon quickly added, “It’s just that Dot shouldn’t be encouraging trying to hurt Lance..”
“Yeah, Dot, just a proposition, but maybe stop trying to assault Lance at every possible opportunity?” Finn spoke.
Dot huffed, “You people are never on my side!”
“Maybe stop being insane and people will agree with you for once.” Lance shrugged.
“ALRIGHT-“
“Cuffus!” Lemon called, wand in hand.
Dot’s hands were chained together, as were his legs, so he merely dejectedly sat back down before he lunged for Lance.
“You get time-out.” Lemon stated, “And we’re gonna go eat breakfast.”
“Wait, I’m sorry! I’ll stop attacking Lance, no matter how much of an ass he’s being! I’m hungry! PLEEEAAASSSEEEEEEEE!!!” He exasperatedly begged, trying to wrangle himself free of the cuffs as he watched the group get up and begin walking to the door.
“Sorry, Dot.” Mash shrugged, “Lemon’s chains are unbreakable.”
“But- but you can break them! Can’t you?!” Dot stared at Mash.
“Uh.” Mash paused.
Lemon quickly ushered him out the door before he could speak again, “See ya! I’ll bring something back for you.” She grinned.
“Oh, and the snacks from last night are off limits now.” Finn innocently smiled, casting Changeas on the food to place it in the pantry.
“W-Why?!” Dot pouted.
“Lemon said you’re in time-out! I don’t make the rules.” He shrugged.
“This is YOUR room!”
“You’re right..! Well, then, you’re in time-out still. Sorry.” He waved, then walked out the door and closed it behind him.
Dot sat in silence, frowning.
“My friends suck.”
“Do you want me to bring you something or not?” Lemon called through the door.
“YES PLEASE!” Dot quickly yelled.
The others began laughing through the hallway, and Dot couldn’t help but snicker alongside them.
Later, when the group returned, and Lemon handed Dot a plate of waffles and undid her spell, he sat politely while eating them.
Though, if his eyes twitched at every opportunity to insult or yell at Lance while he stayed silent, no one said anything.
They just laughed about it instead.