Archive of Our Own ^beta

Alex tried to give it a chance.

The foster group home, she meant. She had to give it a chance, because if she let her thoughts wander to literally anything else, she would cry.

So she tried to give the group home a chance.

And, to her own credit, she was better at doing that than her brother was, who was sulking the whole time they were being shown around the home. Alex briefly contemplated asking him what was wrong, but decided against it; she would just make him angry if she tried to talk to him right now.

They were finally led to the sleeping quarters to unpack; Alex made small talk with the other kids they'd be sharing the space with and tried not to stare at Gabe idly sitting on their bunk bed, on the bottom bunk, away from everybody else (she wondered what he thought about the foster home. Did he like it? Hate it? Maybe she would ask him when she got the chance.) before they were all called for dinner. Some time after that, the sky blended into blue and black, and it was time for curfew.

But Alex couldn't sleep.

Even with Shu-Shu pressed against her cheek, and the late hours ticking down from nine to ten to eleven, Alex still couldn't fall asleep and had resigned herself to tossing and turning under the silence of the night (there hadn't been enough room to take her headphones with her—at least she managed to pack her guitar) until she couldn't anymore.

Grabbing both her pillow and blanket, along with Shu-Shu, she carefully climbed down from the top bunk bed as quietly as she could. Standing in front of the bottom bunk now, the same bunk Gabe was currently inhabiting, she guessed where his shoulder was approximately and reached down with her free hand to gently shake it.

"Gabe," she whispered, then shook his shoulder again. "Gabe?"

After a couple more shakes, she felt him start to stir. A yawn, then a lazy groan. "Alex? What do you want?"

"Can I sleep with you?"

It was dark, but Alex could tell that Gabe was squinting at her, somehow. "What are you, six?"

Alex bit her lip; in any other circumstances, she would have just taken the hint and left him alone, but she really, really needed this right now. "Please? I can't sleep."

Another groan. Then she heard him sigh, and the sound of him shuffling over soon after. "Fine. But if you take up the entire bed, I'm kicking you off."

"Thank you," Alex replied, voice still soft as she climbed into the empty space Gabe left for her. Setting her pillow down beside Gabe's, she set Shu-Shu in between them before pulling her blanket all the way up to her chin. "Sorry."

"Don't say that."

She couldn't really see Gabe; there was a tiny nightlight behind him in the distance, but that was it, so he was mostly just shades of black in the dark, but she could feel their shoulders touching and Alex felt better already.

Then— "Gabe, are you still awake?"

"Yeah," he answered after a beat. "I'm awake."

"Can I ask you a question, then?"

"What is it?"

"It's probably a little too early to ask this, but…" Alex turned her head to look at Gabe; she couldn't tell if he was looking back at her. "Do you like it here?"

"The group home?"

Alex made a noise of confirmation, and Gabe blew a heavy breath of air.

"Uh… I don't know yet. I guess it's better than what we were dealing with."

Alex paused (Was it better? She wasn't sure). "…Maybe. I mean, the other kids seem nice, but everything is so… different."

"Yeah, I can't deny that… But you'll get used to it eventually." He paused after that sentence, like there was something more behind it. "I know you will. And we still have each other, right?" He squeezed her wrist. "So let's get some sleep, okay?"

"Alright," Alex said, and found herself snuggling closer to Gabe—she felt his arm wrap around her, and her lips curled up into a content smile—and closed her eyes. "Goodnight, Gabe."

"Night, Allie."

Gabe was right, Alex decided, they did have each other. Even if everything else had completely changed, they were still brother and sister, and she at least had that.

She held onto that comfort as she started to drift off into the holds of sleep.