*Beta'd by sendtherain

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5. I Am Sleepy

I'm tired. So tired. But this article isn't going to finish itself.

I've been halfway through the second sentence of the third paragraph for the last 45 minutes, and I hate how I keep losing track of what exactly I was saying. Something about metas and the everyday criminal, I'm sure… And how both can be just as dangerous? Or redeemable? Or…something. I can't remember. I can't remember anything, except how tired I am and how many times my head has fallen from my propped hand on the table when I dozed off.

"You should go to bed, Iris," my darling husband informs me, even as he brings a mug of my favorite dark roast to the table beside my computer, and I immediately take a sip.

"Mmm, so good." I look up at him and smile. "Thanks, babe."

He leans down and kisses me, then whispers against my lips.

"It's almost one a.m., Iris. Come to bed."

"I will in a minute," I promise, and it's clear he doesn't believe me. I don't make an effort to acknowledge or change his opinion, though.

At six a.m. he wakes without me beside him and finds me snoring at the table when he comes downstairs to make breakfast. He shakes his head but rubs my back to rouse me from my sleep. My forehead sticks to a piece of paper before it plops down on the keyboard.

"Oh," I say, and he smiles.

"Pancakes?"

I look up at him and grin. "Pancakes."

He kisses me again, then heads for the kitchen.