Another Red/Sabrina sisterly bonding story….I love writing these ones…

Oh! So I don't get complaints that "Red's older, but you're saying that Sabrina is older" or anything like that, I will clarify now. When I use older or younger as a descriptive term, I'm not using it in the actual age description, but for how old or young the characters look. So, Sabrina is older than the other girls.

Disclaimer: I don't own it. Stop rubbing it in, okay?

Thanks always to libaka. You rock my socks. Every last pair of them. :)

Chapter 21: Sleep

Three girls lay curled up on the bed, sleeping quietly. Well, sort of. One of them snored loudly. One of them sat up sleepily, rubbing her eyes. She blinked at the girl lying next to her, then peered across the bed to see if the oldest was awake.

Red smiled when Sabrina raised an eyebrow at her. "Can't sleep?" The older girl asked kindly.

The Everafter shrugged sheepishly. "I'm still getting used to, um, well-"

"The snoring?"

"Yeah…"

"You get used to it. Hopefully we'll get our own rooms soon, but that depends on whether or not Heart and Nottingham leave us alone."

Red nodded shyly. She wasn't used to being around other people, so having the older Grimm sister talking easily with her was a new experience.

Sabrina sat up, sighing as she rolled Daphne onto her side. The snoring abated slightly, then increased in volume as the girl flopped onto her back again. The blonde girl rolled her eyes and stretched, glancing around blearily.

Red bit her lip. Daphne had happily welcomed her into the family, but Sabrina had only watched her silently during meals, sometimes asking questions, but mostly just letting everyone else interact with Red.

The newly sane child wondered if Sabrina hated her. She'd been nice enough tonight, but what if she didn't want her around? Daphne had said that Sabrina didn't like Everafters very much, and Red didn't want to cause more friction in the family than was already present. She blinked when Sabrina sighed loudly and got out of bed.

"Where are you going?"

Sabrina glanced back. "Just getting some water. Do you want any?"

Red shrugged uneasily. She didn't really want to be alone right now, even though Daphne was there. But she didn't know if Sabrina was asking to be polite or if she was actually concerned. What if she supposed too much and the older girl got angry?

"Are you coming or what?" Red jumped, then hurriedly slid out of bed to follow the blonde-haired girl down the hall to the kitchen.

"Remember to skip the third stair from the first floor, it squeaks. Oh, and watch out for the books on the floor." Red nodded, trying to follow Sabrina as silently as possible. For a human, she was surprisingly quiet!

Red watched as Sabrina flicked the kitchen lights on and pulled some glasses from the cupboard. As the girl filled them with water, Red fidgeted more and more.

"Do you hate me?" The younger girl blurted out. Sabrina turned around, blinking at the nervous child. Red bit her lip, feeling tears well up. She'd messed it up again. Daphne said that Sabrina took offense at everything, oh, why had she made it accusing? She just wanted to know! She'd leave if Sabrina didn't want her there!

Red started when a glass of water was placed gently in front of her. She glanced up at the twelve-year-old who was seating herself next to her. The girl seemed to be thinking, gently swishing the water in her glass around.

"Oh I'm sorry! That was rude! I'll never get this right!" Red tapped her head harshly. She wished that poor Mr. Clay hadn't tried to save her all those years ago. Maybe then she'd have learned to hold her tongue by now. But when she was crazy, it had all been so different! It was easier, because no one expected her to be good. Now, she just wanted to fix everything.

"It's okay." Sabrina's voice was quiet. "I'm not particularly polite myself."

Red glanced up again. Sabrina sipped her water, then continued. "Really, I wasn't very nice. Not to anybody. But I want to do better now."

"Oh, me too! I've been so awful, I just want to make it up to everyone," Red burst out, nearly spilling her water.

Sabrina smiled a little. "Well, I guess we'll just have to work together then."

She laughed when Red blinked at her. "You know, to be better. We've both screwed up so much, we can only go up from here, right?"

The little girl clutched her glass, gaping like she'd been smacked over the head. Sabrina wanted to make amends with people too? Daphne had said a lot about her sister, but nothing about that. And Sabrina was always so cool, dealing with her admittedly weird family. So, maybe Sabrina understood her a little more than she had thought. This was all so confusing!

Red suddenly lifted her glass and took a large gulp of water. She gagged as she tried to swallow it all, and Sabrina hurriedly took the glass and pounded her back as she tried to breathe.

"Are you okay?!" Red nodded, gasping. She blinked away the tears and smiled brilliantly at Sabrina, who blinked back.

"I will do my best to become a better person too!" Red declared happily.

Sabrina nodded, still confused. "Um, that's great?"

"Let's make a pact!"

"Huh?"

"A pact! To work together to become better people!" Red looked expectantly at Sabrina.

The older girl smiled and nodded sheepishly. "Sure. What do we say?"

Red laughed happily. "We've already said everything we need to! I'll help you, you help me, and we'll help ourselves too!"

"Well, okay. Sounds good. Are you sure you're alright? That was a lot of water."

"Oh I'm fine!" Red rubbed her nose to get rid of the itching caused by the water that had shot up it. "I was just really happy that someone got it!"

"Got it?"

"Yeah! I mean, everyone's been really nice, but I'm still the girl who tried to kill you all! But, you get it. I don't want to forget all the bad stuff did. I want to make up for it! You're the same way!"

Sabrina nodded thoughtfully, still patting Red's back gently. "Well, anyway, we should probably get back to bed. Maybe Daphne's stopped snoring by now."

"Okay!" Red hopped down from the chair and helped carry the glasses over to the sink. She followed the older girl back to the room, listening carefully to the quiet warnings about squeaky areas.

The two peeked in and saw Daphne, lying sideways in the bed, snoring as loudly as ever. Red giggled, Sabrina shrugged sheepishly.

"Well, so much for that," Sabrina said.

Red suddenly tugged on Sabrina's shirt. "What?" The older girl looked at her curiously.

"Does Daphne really sleep through everything?" Daphne had told her that proudly the day before, and Red couldn't really bring herself to believe it.

Sabrina shrugged. "Basically."

"Whoa." Red stared at the dark-haired girl on the bed. Then she smiled. "Hey, hey, wanna see if she'll wake up?" She pulled Sabrina towards the window.

"Wake up to what?" As Red raised a mischievous eyebrow, the older girl blinked, looked toward her sister's sleeping body, then smiled, a hint of impishness flickering through her eyes.

The two girls readied themselves, then sprinted towards the bed and leapt.

****

Sabrina and Red never explained how they ended up being good friends, but the entire house, including Daphne, vividly remembered waking up at 2 in the morning to the two girls' terrifying war cry of

"BANZAI!"

******

Haha this was fun to write, so I hope you enjoyed it as much as I did. I know it doesn't have too much in the idea of sleep to it, but it is at night, and I just had this idea instead. Oh well!

Please R&R,

Tam