Insomnia

Judith could tell a lot about them from how they slept.

She didn't know any of them all that well yet, and not nearly as well as they seemed to know each other, but she'd stayed with them long enough by now to pick up on a few things. And considering Judith tended to be the latest sleeper out of everyone, their habits were all too easy to notice.

Estelle's sleep was deep and long and peaceful, which made her both the hardest to wake yet also the best rested of them all every morning.

Karol's was antsy, riddled with tosses and turns, but he slept the entire night and woke up with all the energy that a child his age was supposed to have.

Rita could sleep late sometimes, her work-driven mind as active as it was, but she knew her limits and went to bed when she needed to with an uncanny degree of self discipline.

And Raven…well, he laid in bed and snored a bit sometimes and barely moved at all in a way that didn't quite seem natural, but he slept all the same.

But then there was Yuri.

He went to bed, sure, but it was always later than everyone else. Even then, he barely slept and tended not to stay in bed for long. He would get up, walk around the room, walk outside to get fresh air (and every once in a while, they'd meet each other out there and chat), come back, and then lay back in bed. Some nights, he would do it a few more times before finally falling asleep. Occasionally, he kept doing it for who knows how long after Judith herself had dozed off.

Judith didn't doubt that his actions were based in part on a protective instinct—Yuri felt like he needed to watch over all the rest of them, and while Judith couldn't quite relate to the feeling, she understood it. But she saw that there was something else to his insomnia too, something much less practical, something that Judith related to all too well and probably understood better than Yuri did himself.

The children slept soundly because they wanted to keep moving forward. Raven slept just because he could. But Judith and Yuri didn't sleep much and didn't really try to.

Because the longer they stayed awake, the longer they could prevent having to face tomorrow.