Tired
by: skyz
Disclaimer: I don't own High School Musical or Chad or Sharpay.
A/N: I can't seem to write a drabble. This is obviously longer than a drabble but the theme fits. I should point out that I'm using prompt words to write these things. Today's prompt was tired. The first drabble's prompt was dirt.
2.
He slept like the dead.
She sent him a resentful glare, not because she was envious, but because he'd promised to cut back on his hours. What he had said and done had been two different things however. She'd thought he'd gotten the point when she'd cut back on her own hours.
Their lives ran on a semi form of competition and for the first time she'd grown weary of it. The tug and pull between them. Trying to see how far they could push each other.
It was old. Tired. Useless. Fucking pointless.
With a sharp sigh Sharpay sat up in bed and glanced at his slumbering form once again.
His face had lost the taut expression he'd been wearing for the past few weeks. In sleep Chad looked peaceful and relaxed. He didn't look like an angel, as she'd absurdly heard referenced before in regards to him. He looked like a man at peace, content with his life.
He liked to joke that he got the best sleep while she was beside him. How could he not when he had a mountain lion guarding his back.
She sneered faintly to herself while running a hand through her hair. She didn't particularly find that funny but she'd gotten used to his lame jokes and was glad he didn't go spreading that one around. She supposed it was a private joke between the two of them.
Abruptly Sharpay twisted slightly and reached over his body to his bed side table and grabbed the remote for the television.
She wasn't about to get any sleep and glancing at the clock she realized they'd gone to bed entirely too early. It was barely ten o'clock.
God, she thought, how the hell had that happened? When had they become that couple? The ones who knew each other so well they finished each other's sentences, ordered from the same places on regular days. The couple who fell asleep before eleven for no good reason other than that they were tired?
Next, she mused in horrified disgust, they'd be scheduling sex.
She shuddered at that thought.
She flicked on the television and lowered the volume to barely a murmur.
She knew she could get up and watch whatever she wanted in the living room, but she couldn't quite get the energy to move. Besides though she was loath to admit it she rather enjoyed having Chad beside her, feeling the warmth of his body and the sound of his steady breathing.
It brought her a measure of peace she hadn't known she sought.
Feeling restless and irritated she surfed through the channels.
Out of habit she settled on a basketball game that was in the tail end of the third quarter. Her mind was not on what she was watching even as she followed the players running up and down the court.
She was so tired.
She hadn't been sleeping well. She didn't have a mountain lion to guard her back. She just had Chad...and she wasn't sure what to think about that.
He worried her. Well no that wasn't true. He didn't worry her at least not all of the time. He aggravated her. He made her angry.
He made her wonder about all sorts of things. He made her wonder why she bothered to put up with him. He made her wonder why she'd never paid more attention to him in high school. He made her wonder why she could now coherently understand basketball. He made her wonder why it was so hard to pick up dirty socks. Wonder why he couldn't understand the perfection that was Spencer Tracy and Katharine Hepburn.
He made her wonder at how...happy she was.
It was mundane.
Pedestrian.
There was nothing glamorous about the two of them.
She was so tired.
Sharpay glanced at him as she heard Chad murmur in his sleep and roll towards her.
"S'pay," he mumbled throwing a heavy arm across her stomach. "Wa'you doin'?"
"Watching a game," she responded dryly as she turned her attention back to the game. Intent to try and ignore her thoughts. Watching this might help her go to sleep.
"Huh? What?" he asked sounding more alert as his fingers began to trail up and down her hip. "Who's winning?"
"Golden State."
She could feel the full force of his gaze on her and turned to meet it head on.
"What's wrong?" Chad asked covering a yawn. He sat up slightly to rest on his elbow.
Sharpay eased a little bit away from him.
She ignored his slight flinch.
"I can't have done anything wrong. I've been sleeping. What's going on, Pay?"
His voice was so loving and worried that she couldn't help but scowl. And God that fucking nickname! He was the only one who could ever get away with calling her that. She didn't even know why she let him. Never mind the fact that she enjoyed the way it rolled off his tongue or that when he said it the look in his eyes could take her breath away.
"I didn't say you did anything. Nothing is going on here," she snapped.
He reached out to take her hand.
She jerked back.
"Well, shit," he snapped back and he was the one who moved away to create more space between them.
"Just go back to sleep," she told him dismissively as she turned the channel.
"You've been weird for the past month, Sharpay. If you want to break up with me then I'd like to know. This limbo shit isn't working for me. I don't want to be left hangin' wondering when you're going to drop the bomb. Let's just get it out in the open, okay? I don't know what --I--I just want you to be honest with me."
She glanced at him and found him staring down at his hands. She watched the flickering light of the television flash across his flesh. Saw the determined set of his jaw.
"I don't want to break up with you," she said at last, turning the channel back to the basketball game. Needing a distraction.
"Then what the hell is going on?" His voice was sharp and tense.
Chad was angry now and she couldn't blame him. She didn't know what was going on herself. She'd felt out of sorts for awhile now and nothing had helped to ease it.
"I don't know," she admitted thinly.
He sighed heavily and when he reached for her this time she didn't resist.
Chad curled his arm around her shoulders and pulled Sharpay into the curve of his body. He pressed a kiss to her bare shoulder and laughed a little.
"You don't make this easy," he announced. "You made me think I was getting the boot. You had me so worried. I know you...didn't intend for this to be what it is, but Sharpay I like it. I love it. I didn't expect this with you but...I love it."
He loved it.
They were always careful where the word love was concerned. They lived together now and had been dating for over two years and still they were careful with professing love. It had never been an 'I love you thing' between them. All of this had come as a shock.
Love would make it real.
She tightened her arms around his waist and inhaled deeply. Taking in the fading scent of his after shave and deodorant. Taking in everything that made him Chad.
"I want you to marry me," she stated clearly and calmly. The thought and the words had been heavy upon her mind. They hadn't given her any rest and she'd debated with herself wondering why what they had wasn't enough.
She felt his whole body tense and his arms tightened reflectively against her.
"You're tired," he began as he cleared his throat. Disbelief heavy in the air.
No doubt he'd had the chauvinistic thought that he would be the one to ask her to marry him.
"And I know exactly what I'm saying. I think perhaps I wasn't clear enough. Will you marry me?"
"I...I...Sharpay?" His confusion was clear.
"The response I'm looking for begins with a Y and rhymes with Wes," she said the weight she'd been carrying falling away as she grinned.
He peered down at her and she kept the grin.
She lifted an arm and trailed her fingers down his cheek amused at his gaping.
"You're serious?" he asked barely above a whisper.
"Quite."
"Where's my ring?" His demand was filled with joy and wonder and with something akin to relief she laughed throwing her head back.
"Look at your hand," she told him.
He found the golden signet ring adorning his ring finger and cast her a curious glance. Sharpay knew he was studying the engraved Lion of Judah and hoped he wouldn't be so tactless to bring that up. She knew he'd like it which was why she'd had it custom made for his birthday, but this was better. Much better.
"You sleep like the dead," she reminded him with an arch look.
"Yeah..." he agreed slowly glancing at the ring and back to her.
"So now you'll have a reason to guard my back," she told him softly.
"I think one mountain lion in our bed is enough," he said with a chuckle as he pulled her even closer.
"I don't need a mountain lion. I need you."
"You've got me, Pay."
She kissed him pressing her palm against his cheek and shifting her body ever closer.
"I think that's all I've ever wanted," she whispered against his lips.
She wasn't so tired anymore.
