(takes place a few weeks after they first meet, they're around 13 and 14) Cyrus is startled out of his reading by 3 quick knocks on the door. He was hanging out in the living room this afternoon as he often does when he has the house to himself. He stares blankly at the open book, trying to think of who I could be before the person knocks again, fast and more aggressively this time.
“HOLD ON! Yeah, I’m coming, holy sh-stars, calm down...” He trails off as he sees who’s on the other side of the door. It’s Juniper. They feel their pulse jump, but brushes it off as being surprised to see her.
“H-Hey Juniper. Um, what brings you over here? If you were looking for my parents, um, they’re not here. Sorry.”
Juniper tilts her head a bit in consideration, “No, silly. I came here to see you, duh.”
Cyrus has no doubt his face is flush with embarrassment at both the admission she was here to see night and that Cyrus didn’t put that together sooner. “Oh! Right of course. Um.. What exactly did you wanna do? Like if you came here to hang out— which is totally cool by the way— if you had something in mind…?” he trails off, unsure how to continue the conversation with what little context he’s learned he has.
“Well,” she says as she rocks back and forth on her heels excitedly, “I was hoping we could actually go to my place instead, and maybe you could sleep over, if that's okay with you and your parents. I have to watch over Aspen, and I don’t wanna bring them here. It’s nothing against you, I promise; I’d just rather they stay home.
But! I have a ton of cool things at home we could do! I promise it’ll be fun! Pleaseeee,” Juniper looks up at him with pleading eyes, and Cyrus can’t find it in himself to say no. His parents won’t notice if he’s gone for a night anyway, so there was no need to ask them.
Cyrus clears his throat and avoids eye contact with Juniper, “Yeah, we can go to your place. My parents are out right now— I already said that earlier, haha— but they won’t mind. Just let me grab some overnight stuff, and I’ll be ready.” It’s now that Cyrus finally realizes he’s been standing in the doorway this whole time and didn’t do the polite thing of letting her inside at least. It wasn’t a particularly cold day, but it’s still rude. “Ah, gods, sorry, come in, come in.”
He ushers her inside and onto the living room couch, “Just… Stay there and I’ll be back shortly,” with that, he races up the stairs and into his messy room. They rummage around for any clean nightwear, and they practically jump out of their skin at the sound of a voice behind them.
“Whoa! Your room is so cool!” Juniper says in awe, taking in ever details of Cyrus’ room.
Cyrus just awkwardly laughs and hopes to Shar she doesn’t think of night any differently. “Yeah, yeah, let me just get a few things, and I’ll be ready. Sorry, it’s such a mess.” He says as he tries to clean up a little bit as he packs an overnight bag.
“You ready, Cypress?” Juniper says with a smile, extending her hand to take his for reasons night can’t fathom. Ah, right, that name… She just seemed so happy to have matching names, and Cyrus couldn’t bear to see her face if he let star down. So, Cypress, it is…
The two make the short walk to Juniper’s house. It was a quaint cottage, also on the outskirts of town, just like Cyrus. Inside, it was rough but cozy; chipping paint on the front door, a few loose floorboards, but it looked lived in, much different than the cobweb collector Cyrus lived in. There was a myriad of rugs, blankets, pillows, and overall comfort that the house seemed to radiate.
“Whoa…” Cyrus says as night looks around, taking in everything.
Juniper fidgets a bit with her sleeve, also surveying the area for any mess she missed when she was cleaning beforehand, “Sorry, it’s not much, but it’s home.”
“No, no, it’s perf— just really nice. I like how warm it feels.” Cyrus says with a blush, not knowing how to put his thoughts into normal compliments that don’t come off weird.
Juniper just tilts star’s head in confusion, “Like the temperature?”
Cyrus just looks down and away from Juniper, feeling stupid for not knowing how to explain how this feels like a home. “It feels homey… I like it.” He says in a whisper.
Juniper’s face goes through a few emotions before settling on a soft smile as she looks at Cyrus, “Come on, I have so many fun things we could do,” she says as she begins dragging Cyrus towards her room. “We will have to be quiet, though, my younger sibling Aspen is sleeping right now, and I don’t wanna bother them.”
“Oh! Yeah, okay, we can do that.” He replies in a hushed tone.
They pass a few doors, one with a sign that reads ‘Aspen’ and two blank doors that Juniper says are the bathroom and closet for pillows, blankets, and other various stuff.
“Oh yeah, my dad kinda has a closet like that, but it’s just got his board game collection in it,” Cyrus says after she makes a stop at the closet before getting to her room.
Juniper perks up, “Board game collection, you say? What kinds are your favorite to play with him?”
Cyrus’ shoulders drop at the question, and he absentmindedly helps Juniper with the ‘Sleepover Supplies’ as he thinks of a neutral answer, “We uh… don’t really play anymore; he’s too busy. Which is fine, of course, but um… Sorry, that doesn’t answer your question.”
Star just looks over at them and gives that soft, sweet smile that she always directs at him, “Yeah, I get that, Mom’s busy a lot, but when she does come around, we mostly just play a quick game of cards before she’s too tired to keep up with us.” Juniper huffs a laugh as she reminisces, clearly lost in past memories.
She shakes her head and looks back to Cyrus, “Well, if you don’t know your favorite then I shall take up the brave and noble task— with your help— to find out what games you like,” She says with a dramatic flair, shaking around the tower of games star’s holding along with other various pillows and blankets.
Cyrus has his own armful of stuff, and the two drag their spoils to Juniper’s room. His first thought when he sees the room is ‘Pink’. So much pink and pastel colors. The room is full of ruffled blankets and frilly pillows. It had a charm to it that Cyrus couldn’t place. He enjoyed his room at home, but this place felt like he could actually breathe, a place to escape from everything, despite his hatred for most colors. They set down their haul on star’s bed, along with Cyrus gently setting down his pack on the floor. Night was scared to intrude on her space despite that being what’s expected. Listen, he doesn’t know anything about what goes on at sleepovers at all; this is new to him.
Juniper looks at their collection of stuff and… goes and gets more stuff?! Cyrus looks at her, baffled, “How much stuff do sleepovers require?!”
She just smiles at them before setting down the new spoils she obtained; it looked like beauty products?? Cyrus could see nail polish, hair bands— a curling iron?!
“And you’re sure this isn’t… excessive?”
“Nope! It’s all required if we’re gonna have the maximum fun ever for our first sleepover,” she says with a smile. Wait— first?!
Cyrus gives her a confused look, “First?”
“Yeah, did you think this would be the only time we’d do this? We’re friends now, we gotta make the most of it,” she beams, seemingly excited at the prospect of doing this again with him.
“O-Ok, uhh, yeah, I’d like to do this again; but only if you prove it’ll be fun,” Cyrus says with a challenging lit to his voice.
“Oh, it’s on Cypress!” Juniper grins back.
Cyrus was never challenging Juniper again.
“You’re sure you don’t have any black? Or like anything darker than pastel?” Cyrus asks with a slight whine.
“Nope, sorry. Rules are rules. If I’m going to paint my nails pink, you have to match me!” Juniper replies, pulling out a nice light pink for Cyrus.
“Ughhh… fine. You can paint them pink, but I make no promises they’ll stay like that for long.” He says with a long sigh.
Juniper cheers and starts to grab Cyrus’ right hand. He startles, “Shoot, sorry, I didn’t mean to scare you. Is it okay if I touch you?”
Cyrus can almost feel the heat that creeps up his face and across his neck, “Yeah, yeah, sorry. Just wasn’t expecting it.”
She just smiles at him and gently grabs for his hand again. Her hands are cool and soft in his. They feel… nice. He forgot that part of someone painting your nails meant skin contact, but it wasn’t all terrible. It was just nice that night could actually feel it, the skin on night’s hands was thinner than the tougher rock-like exterior of the rest of them. Juniper’s brush strokes were precise and calculated. She takes every movement slowly and carfully and Cyrus can’t help but admire her patience. When he paints his nails, it’s typically quick and only slightly a mess.
It takes some time for Juniper to be satisfied with her work, but eventually it’s done. His nails are now a nice shade of light pink, and Cyrus… he can’t find it in himself to be upset with the results. Granted, he still doesn’t like pink and thinks it looks bad on him, but he doesn’t mind if it makes Juniper happy.
“It’s… acceptable,” Cyrus says with a false professional tone.
“Acceptable? It’s damn right good, is what it is. I did a great job, and you love it. Admit it,” Juniper smiles and lightly shakes Cyrus.
Cyrus raises an eyebrow before smiling, “I won’t immediately take it off?”
“Better,” Juniper’s smile seems to light up the room, and Cyrus can’t help but match her energy back. “Okay, next up: hair.”
Cyrus clutches one of his braids in faux horror, “You want me to trust you with my precious hair?”
“Yes, you idiot, I promise it’ll turn out good. I know what I’m doing.”
Night pretends to contemplate, but of course, eventually gives in. They don’t know if they could ever say no to her.
“Fine. But if it turns out bad, I’m never letting you touch my hair again.” Cyrus says with a huff, crossing his arms and turning around to let his hair be messed with.
Juniper just laughs, “You’re so dramatic.”
“Juniper. How could you not take this seriously. This is a life or death matter, I’ll have you know.”
“Mhm. Okay, sit still, I don’t wanna burn you.” Juniper says with a smile Cyrus can’t see, knowing exactly what reaction her words would cause.
“BURN?!” he exclaims.
She lightly hits his arm but huffs out a laugh, “Quite down, would you? You’ll be fine.”
“Right, right. Sorry.”
As soon as Juniper finally gets Cyrus’ hair out of braids, she begins running her hands through it and Cyrus has never felt more relaxed in his life. The soothing hand carding through his hair feels magical, and he feels his eyes slip close instintivly. Juniper messes with his hair for probably a lot longer than normal, but neither could find it in themselves to mind.
“Your hair’s really soft, y’know?” Juniper says in almost a whisper, scared to break the peaceful atmosphere that they’ve created.
“Thanks. I try my best to take care of it. I have to add my own oils to it every day to keep it like this.” Cyrus says in an equally soft tone.
“Why oils?”
“Earth genasi, at least the kind I am, don’t really make our own ‘cause our skin is like rock. Can’t really get oil through that barrier in the first place, so why make it at all?” He replies while idly staring at his now pink nails.
“Huh. I never knew that. I’m sure Aspen will be excited to learn everything about earth genasi from the new resident expert.”
“Aspen’s your sibling, right? Are they younger or older? What do they like doing?” Cyrus asks in rapid order.
Juniper just gives a light laugh at their eagerness, “Okay speedracer. Yes, they’re my sibling. They’re younger than me by about four years, and they like reading and learning in general a lot. Very curious kid.”
“That’s cool.” Cyrus trails off, not knowing how or even if he wants to continue the conversation.
Juniper seems content with the silence, so the two go back to comfortable silence. The lamps nearby give the room a comforting, warm glow. They’re dim but not enough to be a hindrance to whatever Juniper is doing with his hair. He barely feels the warmth of the curling iron but can smell the heat coming off it.
Eventually, Juniper is finished with night’s hair. Thoroughly messed with now, she quickly drags him over to her vanity, “What do you think?”
Cyrus inspects his hair in the mirror, also seeing Juniper standing behind him in the reflection. His medium-length, grey-streaked hair is now curled into neat ringlets. It looks pretty; he wasn’t expecting it to look nice on him.
“It looks nice, thanks.” He says softly.
“Of course, Cypress. I’m rather proud of it as well.”
Cyrus looks at Juniper through the mirror, “So… does this mean I get to do your hair too?” he says with a sly grin.
She seems to think it over for a while, dramatically humming in consideration, “Hmm, I don’t know. Y’think I can trust you with my precious hair?”, she says, mirroring Cyrus’ words earlier.
Cyrus straightens up with a faux seriousness that impresses Juniper, “I will make it my mission to not f-up your hair. You have my word,” he says, puffing out his chest a bit.
She rolls her eyes and laughs. “Alright, drama queen, I’ll trust you. But let it be know Cypress Middlename Oleander, I will make you live to regret it if you burn my hair," her tone deadly serious before changing on a dime to a grin, “Got it?”
Cyrus nods enthusiastically and gestures for her to turn around. Star does so without complaint, and he begins working. It turns out good in Cyrus’ professional opinion. Juniper also seemed to like it so it was a win in his books. From there, the night becomes a blur of activities, from Juniper cooking up a quick, easy meal for dinner to playing various board games together. It was the first time Cyrus learned board games could actually be fun; he didn’t know if his dad had really bad taste or something about Juniper’s company made everything better. Eventually, it got late enough that both of them were officially exhausted but were reluctant to stop the fun now.
“Let’s just lie in bed and maybe play like… twenty questions or something,” Juniper says, yawning as she starts to get comfortable in her bed.
“Okay, yeah, we can do that. Um… Should I sleep on the floor?” Cyrus shuffles, suddenly worried if he’s intruding on her space.
“No silly, the floor gets cold and you’d regret it tomorrow. Just sleep here,” she says, patting the space next to her on the bed.
“I-I could just sleep on the couch?” He says a whole octave higher than normal, night really doesn’t want to encroach, especially sharing her bed.
Juniper starts turning off the lamps and the room is plunged into darkness, although both of them can see perfectly fine anyway. “My mom sleeps there when she comes home. Just get in the bed, Cypress.”
Despite Cyrus refusing to correct her about his name, the effect works all the same. He gets into the bed as gently and percariously as possible. Juniper, just wanting to sink into the soft, comfortable mattress, grabs the fabric of Cyrus’ sleep long-sleeve and yanks him down.
“Bedtime, get in the bed,” she demands.
“Yep. Getting in the bed,” he says as he laughs nervously.
Cyrus tries his best to get comfortable and leave her as much space as possible. The bed is easy to melt into, along with her very thick comforter that feels like a nice hug. He sighs in bliss at how nice this is, despite his swirling anxieties about messing it up.
“This was nice,” Juniper says softly, “I hope you had fun too.”
“I did…” Cyrus sucks in a breath before he speaks again— something about the darkness making everything more vulnerable, “We could do it again sometime… I like spending time with you.”
They have their back to her, so they miss the soft smile that she has, “I like spending time with you too.”
The two drift off at that, no energy left to play their game of interrogation or do anything other than sleep.
Cyrus wakes up slowly and quite comfortably. He vaguely feels something warm next to him and he burrows his face back into it. He hears someone give a quiet laugh before he registers that his pillow is actually a person. Juniper. Shit—
He jumps up like he’s been burned and looks anywhere but Juniper’s face, “Um- S-Sorry. I didn’t mean to do that. I messed up, didn’t I? Oh gods, I’m so sorr—“ He’s cut off by a half hug from Juniper while she makes eye contact with him.
“It’s fine, Cypress, really. I didn’t mind it, I promise.”
Cyrus peeks through their fingers to look at her, gauging if what she said was true. He lowers his hands, still feeling embarrassed and very sure his face is flushed purple. “Okay… If you say so.”
Juniper pats night on the shoulders and starts to get out of bed. “Come on, I know you start your shift soon, I’ll walk you home.”