p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-right: 0cm; margin-left: 0cm; font-size: 12pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; text-align: center;" align="center"strongspan lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Garamond, serif;"Good night, Jason/span/strong/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-right: 0cm; margin-left: 0cm; font-size: 12pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;"span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Garamond, serif;"Jason's getting better at sleeping in his bed./span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-right: 0cm; margin-left: 0cm; font-size: 12pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;"span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Garamond, serif;"It took some time, some nights are better than others, but if he's tired enough, relaxed enough, content enough, he'll sleep in a bed. It helps that his little mouse doesn't mind him in her space when he can't find comfort in either his own bed or the rug in the living room. Some nights, some nights it's better when he's with her./span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-right: 0cm; margin-left: 0cm; font-size: 12pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;"span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Garamond, serif;"But of course, he can't expect her to always be ready to tuck in when he is. Some nights she's already snuggled up in her duvet, hidden underneath her mountain of pillows, when Jason comes back from patrol. She tells him that it's okay for him to join her, that she doesn't mind if she wakes up when he peels the blankets back. But Jason feels bad either way. Tries his best to not disturb her sleep when he can./span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-right: 0cm; margin-left: 0cm; font-size: 12pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;"span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Garamond, serif;"Other nights she's up even later than him, working at the desk that she's set up in the corner of her room. She's doing better at managing her time between video editing and her schoolwork. It was a bit touch and go during their first semester. She had a lot of late papers, begged professors to make an exemption, and had to back out on more than one project which cost her some good money. But she's found a balance. Which Jason is happy about, of course, he just wished it didn't come at a cost of a particularly bad breakdown./span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-right: 0cm; margin-left: 0cm; font-size: 12pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;"span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Garamond, serif;"Jason learned that night that after a good cry, and some screaming against a pillow, she's ready to go again, ready to tackle her problems. And he's proud, if not a little sorry that she has to reach a breaking point before she can move forward./span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-right: 0cm; margin-left: 0cm; font-size: 12pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;"span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Garamond, serif;"So tonight, tonight she can't join him under the covers. Tonight, Jason is tired. Patrol went on for longer than he would have liked and he has an early start tomorrow. (He'd like to have a word with whoever decided eight am classes should be a thing.) He's just about ready to pass out. He just wishes that she could be next to him, curled up against him when he does./span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-right: 0cm; margin-left: 0cm; font-size: 12pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;"span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Garamond, serif;"But she's typing away at her keyboard, finally in the "zone" for her reflection paper. She's been agonizing about it for the past week, had the document open on her computer even if she was working on something else just in case inspiration hit. Seems like tonight's her lucky night. That or desperation has hit, the due date is tomorrow, and she's just typing out whatever comes to mind, not caring if any of it makes sense./span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-right: 0cm; margin-left: 0cm; font-size: 12pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;"span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Garamond, serif;"So, Jason closes his eyes, focuses on the steady tapping of her keyboard, the clicking of her mouse, and smiles when he hears her aggressively hit the backspace button./span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-right: 0cm; margin-left: 0cm; font-size: 12pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;"span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Garamond, serif;"Seems like tonight he's going to be sleeping alone./span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-right: 0cm; margin-left: 0cm; font-size: 12pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;"span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Garamond, serif;"But it's okay, Jason is okay. He can sleep on his own, on a bed, no problem./span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-right: 0cm; margin-left: 0cm; font-size: 12pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;"span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Garamond, serif;"So, he takes a deep breath, tries to empty his mind of all his troubles, past, present, and future, and tells himself that tonight, tonight he can sleep./span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-right: 0cm; margin-left: 0cm; font-size: 12pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;" /p