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Hours later, in the comfort of her room. Sissi’s mind kept returning to Aelita’s complement. She growled, throwing her heart-shaped pillow across the room. Huffing when it bounced back off her closest and nearly hit her.

Maybe she shouldn’t have ignored it.

Aelita probably had a barb ready for her if Sissi had reacted. Aelita had been getting better at those. Either she or one of her friends would have been ready with a joke at her expense. They always did.

They’d have laughed at her again.

But at least then she wouldn’t be still thinking about it in the middle of the night. She was going to have such bad bags in the mor-

Screaming.

Sissi didn’t even need to check where it was coming from. Even if she’d just woken up she wouldn’t have needed three guesses to work out who was making the racket. She sighed, swinging her legs out of bed. Crossing the hall and grasping the door handle.

“Hey!”

Sissi watched as the pink blankets flinched, then they jolted as Aelita jerked up. Her red-ringed eyes met Sissi’s and… she flinched again.

Sissi… Sissi had wanted to yell and scream like she’d done every other night. But that flinch. She wasn’t sure what how to feel about that. How did she look to others if Aelita seemed scared? The weary stare she was getting made her shift.

It… She was tired.

She wasn’t sure when she’d stepped forward. Or when she’d sat on the edge of the bed, the mattress dipping under her weight. Sissi wasn’t sure who was most surprised. Her who had moved or Aelita who’d watched her the whole time.

Sissi also wasn’t sure how long they were sat with only the sound of Aelita’s sniffles. Apparently everyone was used to Aelita’s night terrors now, it didn’t seem like Jim was checking anyway.

...It’d be awkward if she just got up and left like this, wouldn’t it?

“So…” Urg, her voice was so scratchy. “What was it about? The dream?”

For a moment there was only more sniffles. Aelita shuffled, bringing her legs up. Hugging them to her chest as she rested her chin on her knees. Her damp, green eyes staring at Sissi the whole time.

Sissi swallowed. This whole thing was dumb. She should have just told Aelita to shut up and gone back to bed. Aelita’s bed creaked under her as Sissi shifted to stand, only to freeze and Aelita’s mumbling.

“...wolves.”

“Huh?” Sissi had barely heard it. If it’d been raining outside, she wouldn’t have. She turned to look. “Wolves? … Like when you called Emily one in the showers?”

Okay. Wrong thing to say because now Aelita was glaring at her.

“I didn’t call her a wolf. I saw a wolf and it started chasing me. Like they do in my dreams.”

“Right…” More silence. Because what was she supposed to say to that? Why would Aelita think there’d be wolves in bathroom? Sissi thought she was smart… But the silence and Aelita’s staring. Sissi couldn’t take it. She looked away, focusing on almost empty desk.

“Wolves huh? Doesn’t Canada have bears? I’d be more scared of them.”

And now Aelita was just giving her that blank stare she occasionally did. The one that made her friends crowd around her and start whispering.

“Bears?”

“Yeah, you know-” Sissi turned again. Holding her hands up and curling her fingers and growled. “Bears. Like- nine foot tall, hair and they get real mad when people wake them up.”

More silence. Great. Maybe she should have stayed in her room. Then she wouldn’t feel so dumb.

Then Aelita gave a snort of laughter, her hands coming up to muffle the noise.

“That… That just sounds like Jim.”

Sissi’s breath caught for a second as Aelita’s hands moved away and she finally smiled. Sissi returned it, leaning back until she was against the wall. Feeling lighter than when she’d been in her room. Even though the sun was beginning to rise and she’d gotten no sleep at all.

“I meant what I said, you know? You really can be nice when you want to.” Sissi huffed, only glancing at Aelita with one eye.

“Shut up.”

Aelita’s smile only widened.

-Additional Credits-

Hi morf I hope you enjoyed this :D! Though I didn’t hit all of your points, I did my best to do your prompt justice.

This is a bit outside of my normal art stuff but I love road trips myself so. While things like coming up with adult(ish) designs and all the background stuff posed quite the challenge, I’m glad to have had the chance to take it on.

Here are a couple additional images–all the panels together, preliminary designs for the group circa mid 2010s, and an itinerary map of their trip, including some extra locations that I would route them through:

Finally, I could probably write a book on "things I missed and why", so for completion’s sake, if there’s anything glaring you’d like me to add (for anywhere) I’d be happy to do a couple extra panels !

lmk if you have any questions about any of this. I’ve got plenty of notes and details on the whole thing but I didn’t want to blab on here forever.!