#mikorys

(... This was going to end with "Cue Keiko dragging all three of them to bed each night and making them get a proper rest", but actually I don't want to put that on her...)

So, cue Keiko going to Sisko to ask him to sort it out and make sure his senior staff are looked after properly. He's kind of aware of it - it's not like he doesn't put in more hours than is reasonable, especially now Jake's moved out - but over the next few days he starts to get into the routine of hunting down the three of them to send to their quarters, and then going back to his own for the night. It's better for all of them.

Or at least, it seems to be, for a few days - maybe even just over a week - before they discover Julian's been sneaking back to his office to put in a few more hours of research and is getting just as little sleep as before.

And now Miles has had a week of proper sleep and remembered how good it actually feels to be well-rested, he and Keiko put in a team effort to start taking Julian back to theirs each night and making him sleep. (Since Kira's been with Odo, she only stays with them when Odo's regenerative cycle has got out-of-sync.)

It's... better for Julian. His nightmares are even more regular than Keiko and Miles', which is bad news for their newly-improved sleeping schedule... She mentions it to Nerys, who suggests Odo could put a tracker on him so he could go back to his own quarters. Keiko's not too sure about that one, but they were going to ask him to spend a few nights next week in his quarters anyway while Nerys came to stay, and when she tells Miles he laughs and thinks it's a great idea. So, they try it the following week, all fond banter and "wouldn't want you to ruin your progress the next few nights!" as Julian lets himself be fitted with the tracker.

Of course, once they're gone and he's suppposed to be sleeping, he removes it. And would have fooled them, too, if he hadn't been so euphoric about figuring out a seamless way to get around the tracker that he totally forgot about the people on the night shift who might physically see him and report him.

Odo drags him back to bed. It's not his proudest moment.

When Ben's told, he resigns himself to this being his problem again. After talking to Kasidy, he goes back to Julian and presents him with the option - no, the order, really - that if he's not going to sleep in his own quarters, he can go back with Sisko and stay in Jake's old room. Julian agrees a little too readily.

(He's not really got a handle on how he's feeling about all this. Embarassed that everyone's making such a fuss of it, warmed by all the attention, in some ways more relaxed since he's been sleeping with the O'Briens, but also more tense at the idea of being a burden on them, and not being 100% clear on what they are now? And still completely unable to unwind at the end of the day when he's on his own and desperately tired of all the fucking nightmares, and relieved that he won't be spending another night completely alone, but maybe Sisko won't hear him yell if he's in a different room...)

Ben wakes up in the middle of the night. Everything's still as he crosses the hallway to the refresher. As he walks back to his room, he remembers that, from how the O'Briens had been talking, he'd been expecting to be woken up by his visitor that night, but there's been no sign of the violent nightmares Julian apparently usually experienced.

An urge to check in on Julian, just as he used to look in on Jake, takes over him, and he changes course towards the other door. It slides open softly, giving gentle illumination to both the passageway, and Julian's sheepish expression as he looks up from the stack of padds surrounding him.

Ben sighs. He grabs a couple of the padds and places them on the desk, and Julian resignedly follows suit, uncharacteristically quiet—

Oh, that's not out of character, actually. It's the end of season six.

...Julian resignedly follows suit, in that quiet manner he's adopted over the past year. He becomes far more animate when Ben climbs into Jake's bed, awkward and fumbling and protesting, but Ben simply turns over and orders the lights off. Moments later, he feels the bed dip beside him, and a back bumping against his own. Good.

There is a nightmare - of course there is - but after waking them both up, Julian comes down from it pretty quickly. And, if he's being honest, Ben falls back to sleep as easy as ever with the warm weight of Julian in his arms.

It becomes a thing, after that. Him-and-Julian when Kasidy is away (she understood, the first time, when she found them curled up together - and she's pleased this whole thing has made Ben sleep better when she's not there - but she does like having Ben to herself on nights when she's back), Miles-and-Keiko-and-Julian when she's not. Worf quickly overrides Dax's playful motion that the two of them should join in and make it a proper game of pass-the-Julian. Nerys and Odo share a nervous look with each other, relaxing as they both give a minute, definite shake of their heads at the idea.

A month or so later, Miles and Keiko are settling down for the night when they suddenly remember that Julian should have been coming over that night. The computer says he's in his quarters: Miles volunteers to go and get him, but Keiko says she'll go, since he's supposed to have an early shift tomorrow, and if Julian's sneaking around the station again she'd rather be hunting him down and Miles start getting some rest.

But Julian is in his quarters. And he's not even surrounded by padds! He's curled up in his bed, sweetly asleep.

"Mommy, you forgot Auntie Nerys!"

"Molly, what do you mean, sweetheart?"

"You forgot her kiss goodbye! You gave Yoshi and me our kisses, but you forgot Auntie Nerys's!"

--

(I started to add things to the tags but they spiralled and I can't be bothered to copy and paste them all so, sorry, but gonna leave them here as a screenshot...)

"Look, Miles, Keiko, I just — I don't think this is a good idea."

Kira's arms were tense at her sides, and for all her trying, she couldn't quite hide the frenetic energy coiled within her as she paced the length of the small room.

"Well, why not?" Miles asked, just on the edge of too gruff, and Keiko put her arm on his bicep, gently admonishing.

Still, Kira didn't appear to notice his tone; she just kept pacing, hands rhythmically clenching and releasing while Keiko and Miles watched on.

Abrupt, she came to a stop, not looking at either of them. Her jaw was working, and for a long moment, nothing but silence came out. Then, "I'm — well, I'm hardly what they'd hope for," she burst, spinning back into motion. "I'm — I'm a terrorist, for Prophet's sake! And I don't regret it!"

"And you had very good cause," Keiko interjected easily.

"But — they're Federationers!" Finally, Kira turned to look at them, stopping her pacing once more. "How can they understand, what the Occupation was like? How can they accept me, with all the people I've killed? Won't they want better for you? Better for Molly and Yoshi?"

Miles scoffed. "Don't be ridiculous," he said. "They'll love you!"

"They'll love you, Nerys," Keiko repeated earnestly, gently tugging Kira down into a hug — then tugging sharply on Miles' sleeve until he wrapped his arms around them both, strong and warm.

Kira shuddered in their embrace, sinking into it with a sigh. "What if they don't?" she asked, but the question was quieter now, no longer so afraid.

Keiko just smiled, pressing a soft kiss to the side of her head.

Kira stood in the center of the doorway, staring at the bed which took up the center of the room with a dawning sense of despair.

At first glance, it was a perfectly acceptable bed; it was clean and well-sized, and undoubtedly far, far nicer than anything she'd slept in prior to the end of the Occupation. However, notably, it was the only piece of furniture in the room, save for a small table. Just one bed. Which was an issue, seeing as there were two of them.

Maybe, Kira should have been thrilled by this. She liked Keiko, really truly liked her — both her and Miles! — and, despite everything, they seemed to like her, too. And it wasn't as though she'd never shared a bed before! So really, this should have been a dream come true, except — except—

"I'll take the floor," she blurted, snagging a pillow from the bed before Keiko could protest. She tossed it on the ground and swung her bag down next to it, not meeting Keiko's gaze.

The hand that found her shoulder, terribly gentle, didn't take Kira by surprise, but she flinched anyways. Still, all the hand did was guide her to the bed, where Kira sat, pulling her feet up underneath her.

Keiko sat next to her, mattress dipping beneath her, then carefully shifted until they were facing one another. "Nerys, it's okay if you've changed your mind," she said, and her voice was so earnest and warm that Kira wanted to sob.

"No, it's not... Keiko, I—" She screwed her mouth shut, turning away. Something about that gentle expression was — too hard to look at. "I just dream, sometimes, that's all. I don't — scream, or anything! I just... well, sometimes I kick. Or lash out." Her fingers tightened on her knee. "I... didn't want to do that to you."

Keiko's hand on her shoulder was warm, rubbing gentle circles.