A/N: Written for Chelsea ( msbricolage) for Stitchmas In July 2016 on tumblr
Camille knocked on Kirsten's door for the second time that night. "Hey, just checking in."
Kirsten glanced at her roommate hovering in the doorway, but quickly turned back to her equations. If she could just figure out the algorithm to where her father traveled to, maybe she could make some progress.
"You going to eat that?," she asked, pointing at the plate she dropped off an hour ago. It hadn't even been touched.
"Not hungry." She wrote down another piece of the equation.
Camille tapped on the doorframe. "Just like every other night this week," she said under her breath. She tried taking it easy on her, but Kirsten was only falling deeper into her own obsession. It was time to call in reinforcements. She walked back out to the living room and pulled out her phone. Kirsten's gone off the deep end.
Cameron quickly texted back. I'm already on my way. He threw on a hoodie and was out the door in less than a minute, not even bothering to put his contacts back in.
Camille had been looking out the peep hole every five minutes, give or take. She opened the door as soon as she saw Cameron park his car in front of their house.
His expression softened when he saw Camille. "How's she doing?"
"Why don't you see for yourself." She closed the door behind him and followed him to Kirsten's room.
He surveyed her room. There was laundry piling up, her bed wasn't made, she had a few glasses of water at her nightstand, and her dinner was still untouched. "Hey there Sunshine. Why don't you take a break for a few minutes?"
"I'm okay."
"I'll accept that statement if you can answer me one question."
She finally turned to look at him. "What's that?"
"When was the last time you had a decent meal?" He took the marker from her hand and capped it.
"This morning I had breakfast," she replied glaring at him.
"Which was?," he asked.
Before Kirsten could get a word in, Camille answered for her. "A piece of toast and a cup of coffee."
"What? I like toast." Kirsten glared at her roommate and crossed her arms.
"No, you like toast with strawberry jam. But we ran out of jam because it was your turn to get groceries and you didn't." Camille equally stared her down.
Cameron stepped in between them. "Alright, alright. Before one of you starts throwing punches- I'm looking at you Camille. Kirsten you need to take a break with the whole hunt for your father thing."
She plucked the marker from his hand and turned back to her algorithm. "I'll stop when I find him."
"No," he insisted. He grabbed the marker back from her hand and set it on her desk. "You need an actual meal and some rest. You're no good to anyone if you're running on a few hours of sleep."
"A few hours of sleep for the week," Camille interrupted. "Pretty sure I've heard her awake at 4am most nights."
"I've heard enough. Kirsten you're coming over for movie night." His hands were on her shoulders and he was leading her out of her bedroom before she could protest.
"Go, try to have some fun. It's movie night, whether you like it or not," Camille agreed. She was already getting Kirsten's flats out of their hall closet and handing them over to her.
"Seems like I don't have a choice."
"And I am going to lock you out, until I have confirmation that you've slept for at least eight hours."
Kirsten turned to her two friends. "I didn't agree to that."
"You need the sleep. Just think of it this way, once you are well rested you can think more clearly about how to find your father." Cameron noticed that his hands were still on her shoulders, and he lightly removed them so she could put on her shoes.
Cameron's logic did make sense. She hadn't made much progress over the last two days... or was it three days? "Fine, I concede. Movie night it is."
Camille practically shoved the pair out the door. Kirsten heard the distinct sounds of the deadbolt and the chain after the door closed. "I guess she wasn't kidding about locking me out."
"Come on. It won't be that bad taking the evening off with me, will it?"
Kirsten was relatively new to the whole emotion thing, but the slightly pained expression didn't go unnoticed. "No, I guess it won't."
Cameron led her directly to his couch and pulled up Netflix. "How about we pick up where we left off with Star Trek?"
"Yeah sure," she replied. The last time they watched Star Trek Camille had insisted on the new reboot because she wanted to watch the fine specimen of a man, aka Chris Pine, Camille's words of course. However that started a heated debate between Cameron and Linus as to which movie of the whole movie series was the best. That then turned into Cameron insisting they start the series from the beginning and they stayed up until 3am watching The Wrath of Kahn. Camille had vetoed them starting the television series, because she wanted to get to all the movies with Chris Pine. Logically it was quicker to go through the movie series, before watching all the seasons on television.
Kirsten just happened to let it slip that she actually enjoyed the movies. But with the search for her father, they hadn't gotten to make any further progress in the series.
Cameron pulled up the next movie, which apparently was The Search for Spock. "I'm going to make you some good old fashioned comfort food- fried chicken and mac and cheese. Plus a surprise for dessert." He smirked at her before rushing off to the kitchen. He had just found a recipe for Nutella bread pudding and this was the perfect occasion to try it out.
Cameron worked in the kitchen. Kirsten had offered to help, but he insisted that she not do any work on her night off. He wouldn't even let her set the table, because he didn't want to ruin the surprise dessert.
It wasn't long before the macaroni was boiling and the chicken frying. So while those were cooking, he pulled up the bread pudding recipe he had saved in his email. He had to keep organized, with the amount of recipes he had. He recently made a new tab just for Nutella recipes. So far he had acquired six recipes and already tried the Nutella brownies to bring into work. They were, of course, a big success at the stitch lab.
"You know," Kirsten called out, "you should be watching this too." She paused the movie and turned towards the kitchen.
He laughed. "I've watched it plenty of times. You haven't, which is why I'm making dinner."
"And I thought it was because of your culinary skills."
He pointed back at the screen. "Really, it's fine. I could probably recite the movie word for word. You just go ahead and watch."
She glared but didn't make any move to turn back to the movie.
"I will join you as soon as dinner is done. Deal?"
She nodded. "You drive a hard bargain girlfriend."
"I'm never going to live that down, am I?"
Kirsten turned back to the screen and resumed the movie. "Just be thankful I haven't used it around Camille. She would be calling you girlfriend all the time."
He had just put the dessert in the oven, so they could eat that after the movie had finished. It wasn't long before dinner was done. Cameron got a slightly larger than normal portions out for Kirsten. If all she had was toast today, she would be hungry.
The movie was almost half over when he brought dinner to the coffee table. Typically he would eat at the dining room table, but he would make an exception for Kirsten. That combined with the fact that she really needed to rest up.
Kirsten's eyes were started to droop from her exhaustion. But she perked up when she smelled the cheesy goodness.
He handed the plate over to her and he eyes widened at the amount of food on it. "Eat up. I have plenty leftover, so you can help yourself to more. And you'll have a decent lunch for tomorrow too."
She took a few bites of the mac and cheese, savoring the creamy taste. "This is so good!" She ate a few bites of the chicken, which was the perfect combination of crispy and tender.
"Thanks, it's a secret family recipe," he smirked.
They ate in comfortable silence. Kirsten finished hers before Cameron was halfway done with his own plate.
She got comfortable on the couch, leaning back more. Then she leaned ever so slightly onto Cameron's shoulder. Within minutes she was asleep.
Cameron was so entranced by the movie that he didn't realize Kirsten had fallen asleep until he heard a light snoring next to his shoulder. With everything that had been going on, he didn't see the point in waking her.
He continued to enjoy the movie, until the timer went off for the dessert. He carefully extracted his shoulder from Kirsten's head, placing a pillow there as a placeholder. He quickly turned off the audible alarm and removed the pan from the oven.
He quietly returned to the couch to watch the last few minutes of the movie. As soon as he sat down, he was met with a pair of wide eyes.
"I should get back home," she stated.
"You've barely been asleep for thirty minutes. And besides, I don't think Camille will let you in. Unless you plan on breaking into your own house."
She raised an eyebrow as if seriously considering that idea.
"It wasn't a suggestion. And would you really want to explain to your insurance that you broke in because your roommate wouldn't let you inside?"
She thought about it for a minute, realizing that Cameron was ultimately correct. Camille wouldn't let her in, and she really didn't feel like putting forth the effort of breaking in. "Fine," she resigned.
"Good," he nodded. "Then why don't you take my bed, and I'll sleep on the couch." He was already on his feet, leading her to his bed.
"Alright. But only because your bed is comfortable." It absolutely had nothing to do with the fact that his sheets smelled of his cologne, and that could relax her like nothing else could. Well, other than Cameron himself. She got settled in and under the covers, quickly falling into a deep sleep.
"Goodnight princess," he whispered. He placed a feather light kiss to her forehead and shut off the light.
While his couch wasn't nearly as comfortable, he fell asleep with a smile on his lips. If nothing else, he helped out his best friend today.