Hello! This little oneshot was based off a prompt I was given by a Tumblr mutual. It's set vaguely sometime in season 2 while Nomi and Amanita are still living with Bug, but that's about all you need to remember of the timeline for it to make sense. I hope you enjoy!

-RayWritesThings

Taking Care

Amanita was just as determined as her girlfriend was to figure this whole homo sensorium thing out and help her other cluster members. But she also knew she had a second job to do, and that was making sure Nomi didn't get totally lost in all of this.

It was regular habit of her girlfriend to plant herself in front of a laptop for hours at a time, but it had taken on a whole new extreme since she'd discovered the seven other people she was connected to around the globe. Amanita frequently woke to the faint blue glow of a screen while Nomi sat up in bed typing away. Different time zones and all that.

And while she knew it was important — people's lives were on the line, often enough, and she shuddered to think of what was going on to people like Sun, Will and Riley and even Lito — she also knew that at the end of the day, homo sensorium or homo sapien, everyone needed to unwind and decompress now and again.

On one such night, she sat up slowly as well, the bed in Bug's guest room creaking a little. Grateful as she was to him, she so missed their apartment.

Nomi didn't look around. Her gaze was far away, the kind of look she got when she was visiting someone else. Amanita sighed and leaned in close, her arms winding around her girlfriend's waist.

"Where are you this time?" She murmured, lips brushing the shell of Nomi's ear. She brushed her hair back to kiss behind it, then traveled down her neck.

The breath left Nomi in a sigh as her shoulders eased a little. "Neets…"

"Yeah?"

"I just need five more minutes."

"To do what?" She paid special attention to the juncture between Nomi's neck and shoulder, pulling the strap of her tank top down a little.

"Research on BPO." Nomi's breath hitched a little. "I'm trying to trace Whispers' involvement with them."

So no one was dying. Any guilt she might have had faded away, and Amanita rubbed her fingers in circles over Nomi's hip. "I know that'd be really good information to have, but it's also, like, the middle of the night when no reasonable person but Bug is awake." She pulled back a little to meet Nomi's eyes. "You need to rest, to take care of yourself. The others would want that for you, too."

Nomi hesitated, her eyes flicking back to her laptop. Amanita leaned in to kiss her cheek, and she felt Nomi's hand reach out and seek her own.

"Okay." Her girlfriend turned to her with a smirk. "Though I feel like you're looking for more than sleep."

Amanita sheepishly removed her free hand from under Nomi's top. "I wouldn't say no… but sleep should come first."

Nomi closed her laptop and set both it and her glasses aside, then shuffled around on the squeaky mattress to face her. "Thank you. I know I haven't been thinking about things like sleep or food or keeping track of my health, and you shouldn't have to do it for me."

"You're going through so much more than anyone could imagine, Nomi. You're taking care of seven other people. And I like being the one who takes care of you," Amanita added with a smile.

Nomi leaned in and kissed her, soft and lingering. "I love you."

"I love you, too."

They both snuggled down under the covers, and Amanita watched her girlfriend's eyes close, a smile on her lips.

Their door creaked open.

"Hey, if you ladies are up, I can fix us all a little something for breakfast," Bug rasped, his eyes even bigger than normal in the strips of moonlight that illuminated his face. "Think I skipped dinner."

"Go to bed, Bug!" They both called out. Nomi didn't even open her eyes.

He ducked out of sight with a whispered, "Oh! Sorry." Their door shut, though she could swear she heard one last call of, "Goodnight…"

Amanita rolled her eyes, kissed Nomi on the forehead, and went back to sleep.