Chloe knew something was amiss when she woke up suddenly in the dead of night. There was no noise, and she remained still as she listened. She thought that she had heard something just as she had woken up.

Before long, she heard something once more.

And to her surprise, it was what sounded like a muffled sob coming from Red's side of the room.

Chloe turned in bed, looking over at the other bed. There was complete silence, and Chloe knew that Red must have heard the mattress squeak as Chloe had turned over on top of it, and as a result, she had gone quiet.

Chloe swallowed, squinting as she tried to make out Red's form in the dark.

"Red? Are you up?" Chloe questioned, her voice groggy but her mind growing more alert by the minute as concern brought her an increased awareness. Red was quiet, and Chloe turned over more fully as her eyes began to adjust to the night. She could see Red's eyes were open, and she furrowed her brow.

"I'm awake," Red answered after a few moments. Chloe raised up, looking at Red as she noted the disarray of the blankets on Red's bed. Red was breathing rather strangely, too, and Chloe noted how her pace changed as Chloe moved to get up from her own bed.

"Are you okay?" Chloe asked, and Red's eyes glinted in the dim light as she looked in Chloe's direction.

Chloe approached, and Red sat up quickly, trying to disguise her movements with nonchalance as she moved an arm behind her to hold herself up.

"I'm fine," Red answered.

"What are you doing up in the middle of the night?" Chloe questioned her, and Red swallowed with such a force that Chloe could hear it in the silence of the room.

"I could ask you the same thing," Red responded, and Chloe sighed. As she grew closer, she could see the sheen of sweat on Red's head.

It was clear to Chloe what had been going on. It was clear that it was a nightmare of some sort.

"I woke up. Why are you up?"

"I woke up," Red answered drily, parroting the response back at the bluenette. Chloe huffed softly, not about to give up on this despite the fact that Red was being stubborn about all of this.

They had been roommates for probably about a month now, and they had been getting closer and closer.

However, there were still some things that Red did not let Chloe in on, and Chloe wanted desperately to be her best friend through thick and thin. In the surface-level lighthearted stuff and the deeper, life-changing stuff.

Deciding to go out on a limb, Chloe pushed further.

"What's going on?"

"Nothing," Red insisted, the word sharp and cut off.

Chloe noted the stiffness of her body language. She seemed almost like a wild animal, fight or flight waiting to show itself in one extremity or another.

Getting somewhat frustrated with the lack of progress, Chloe allowed a bit of the desperation to seep through in her words. She felt that she and Red had been through enough together that Red could give her a little more than just utter denial.

"Red, talk to me about it," Chloe reached out her hand.

"Look, leave me—"

Red stopped herself, taking in a sharp breath. Chloe remained still, perched there on the edge of Red's bed as she looked at her wordlessly with her hand partially extended to Red. Red rubbed her face with her hands before letting out a soft sigh.

"I'm okay," Red assured her, her tone gentler now as she revised her word choice. Red then realized Chloe's hand was suspended between the both of them, and she looked at her long and carefully.

After a moment, Chloe tilted her head a little, letting her hand fall away.

"I don't think you're okay, Red," Chloe finally answered, and Red ran her fingers through the red tresses at her scalp. Chloe watched her as she waited for her best friend to respond. Red just laughed humorlessly after a moment, the sound more shaky and near tears than anything else.

"I'm fine," Red insisted, her voice somewhat thick as she obviously attempted to overcome another set of tears.

"I woke up and you were crying," Chloe told her quietly. Red did not say anything for a moment before soft words passed between her lips.

"You weren't supposed to see that," Red muttered under her breath, and Chloe was not sure if the words were even meant to be heard and interpreted by the bluenette. Nevertheless, Chloe was going to address them.

"Why not?"

Red shook her head.

"I… I don't have problems like these," Red told her simply as she looked at her.

There was desperation in Red's watery eyes, and while she was not crying, Chloe could see both that she had been and that she could cry again at the drop of a hat.

Chloe took in a breath to speak, aiming to somehow try to make things better.

"Red—"

"No, you don't understand. I don't have problems like these," Red informed her more emphatically, and Chloe furrowed her brow, understanding that there was a deeper meaning than she had originally interpreted.

It was not that Red did not have problems like these. It was that she was not supposed to and did not let anyone know that she did.

Chloe's gaze softened, and she felt her heart squeeze painfully. Chloe looked at the bed before moving to sit down on the edge, her gaze concentrated on Red as she eyed her.

"Everyone has things they struggle with, Red. To assume anything else is unrealistic," Chloe told her gently yet firmly. Red looked down.

"Maybe it's unrealistic to most people, but," Red stopped before she finished, and Chloe knew where this had come from.

Red's mother must have had something to do with these issues. And while the Queen of Hearts was nothing like she was before and could not be held accountable for something that she had not done in this timeline, there were still scars that ran deep in Red. Red had not forgotten the person from before, and she was still living with the pain while her mother lived in blissful ignorance when it came to the horrible person she was before.

"I'm sorry for waking you up," Red told her, looking at her with nothing but a forced distance and barely disguised pain in her eyes.

Chloe immediately knew that Red was cutting this conversation off and closing the doors to this heart-to-heart.

And Chloe was desperate to stick her foot in the doorway.

"Red, don't shut me out," Chloe directly addressed the problem, and Red's eyes widened just the barest bit as she looked at Chloe. Chloe almost thought that she was about to burst into tears.

Instead, the redhead bit her lip and looked down at the blankets as if they were the most interesting thing in the world.

"Do you want me to stay?" Chloe offered softly.

The way Red looked up at Chloe in response to that comment made her heart hurt and it was so childlike that Chloe could not help but wonder if anyone had ever stayed in bed with Red to comfort her after a nightmare. Her eyes were so soft, and Red was looking at her as if she were afraid that Chloe did not really mean it.

She guessed she knew where those fears had stemmed from.

How could Red's mother— or the version that only Red and Chloe knew had existed— ever deny Red comfort? Chloe found herself trying to picture Red as a kid, and all she could think about was a small, lanky little kid with red curls and these same soft eyes that Chloe was looking into now. And Chloe honestly could not understand why anyone could be cruel to anyone that looked at them with such trepidation and such a need for affection as well as comfort.

"You don't need to," Red simply answered finally. Chloe remained looking at her for a long moment. Chloe narrowed her eyes a little.

"Do you want me to, though?" Chloe asked, persisting. She knew what Red wanted. The whole thing about not needing Chloe to stay was because Red wanted to at least try to look tough.

But she did not have to look tough in front of Chloe.

"I… don'tneedyou to," Red placed special stress on the word "need." It brought on the implied meaning that even if she did not need her to, she did want her to.

Chloe tilted her head, her eyes softening.

"Okay. Move over. I'm sliding in," Chloe told her as she nudged Red, and Red furrowed her brow as she huffed.

"It's a twin bed," Red acknowledged, her voice still thick. Chloe smiled at her.

"It's made for two, then," Chloe optimistically answered.

"This thing is barely big enough for one, much less two," Red persisted. However, Chloe noticed that Red was moving and making room for her. Chloe could not help the slight grin on her face at Red's actions, and the bluenette grabbed the blankets, raising them as she moved her feet and legs underneath.

"Well, I guess we're going to have to scoot in close," Chloe suggested.

Red mumbled something, but she protested no further.

Chloe then pulled the covers over her, shimmying further down into the bed so that her head was on the pillow next to Red's. Their shoulders were pressed against one another, the both of them having just enough room to lay down side-by-side on their backs.

There was nothing said between them for a few minutes, the both of them just resting next to each other.

However, as Red's breaths took occasional spells of shakiness, Chloe finally decided to speak up.

"How long have you been having bad dreams?" Chloe questioned, her voice quiet but plenty loud enough to hear in the silence of their dorm and in the small distance between them.

Red scoffed a little as soon as Chloe got the last word out, and Chloe got the distinct impression that it was due to the phrasing of "bad dreams." It likely made Red feel childish. However, Chloe was going to simply play dumb and wait for Red's answer to the question.

"Everyone has nightmares," Red finally answered her, taking a stance of indifference.

It was funny how Red went from saying that she did not have these sorts of problems to everyone having nightmares.

"Yeah… But I have the feeling that this is not the first time you've had one here at Auradon," Chloe said as she turned her head, repositioning as she looked at Red silently. Red remained quiet, staring at the canopy over the bed.

Just as Chloe was beginning to wonder if Red would say anything at all, Red suddenly spoke.

"That night after we came home from the past," Red confessed, her words soft.

Chloe nevertheless felt their impact as if they were yelled in her ear.

Red did not look at her, and Chloe stared at the redhead's side profile, deep pain knotted in her gut. Chloe looked away tentatively, looking up at the canopy along with Red as she took in this information.

She figured that it had been happening a while, but since the very first night that they had been there at the school?

"How did I not know?" Chloe asked, feeling absolutely awful for her best friend and feeling even worse that she did not detect this when it started. What kind of a friend was she?

At this point, all she could think about was the times when she had seen Red with dark circles under her eyes and those days that Red had seemed somewhat distant from her. Why did Chloe accept Red's stupid excuses she came up with?

"Don't feel bad. I've had to learn how to cry silently," Red shrugged, her shoulder moving against Chloe's. Chloe looked over at her quickly once more, offering her side profile a onceover.

Red looked over at Chloe carefully. She mustered a weak smile that did not meet her eyes, her gaze averting down somewhere around Chloe's shoulder as she made a slight face.

"So how could you know?" Red tried to make her feel better as she glanced back up at Chloe to meet her eyes.

Chloe's eyes started to mist as she looked at Red, her features looking blurrier as she felt the pain and guilt deep in her chest.

"Hey, don't sweat it, Chlo. I'm fine—"

Chloe moved closer, reaching her arm out as she turned toward Red. She threw an arm out over Red's form, squeezing her tightly as she pressed her face into Red's neck as she hugged her.

Red instantly froze underneath her, but Chloe felt that she needed the hug for at least a little longer, so she remained holding onto her.

Just when she was about to let her go to avoid making her too uncomfortable, she felt Red's arm coming up and around her. Surprise took hold of her, but before long, Chloe allowed herself to settle in further as Red's hand flattened over Chloe's back.

Honestly, despite her initial surprise, she was not entirely shocked that Red had hugged her back. She had suspected for a while that Red had secretly wanted affection, and while Chloe was not in special need of it— after all, it was simply something that was entirely natural to her that was freely given and taken by her— she was happy to give it to Red.

And if Red's grip tightening on her was any indicator, it seemed that Red was more than happy to take advantage of her generosity.

To Chloe's surprise, she felt moisture against her temple where Red's jaw was touching it. Chloe instantly knew that Red was crying, and Chloe simply tightened her grip as she held her best friend.

"I'm sorry," Red told her, doubtlessly apologizing for the tears, and Chloe shook her head.

"No. I'm sorry I didn't realize it sooner, Red. I'm so sorry," Chloe spoke carefully, trying to keep her own tears at bay.

There was a pause before a quiet, strangled sob left Red. Chloe pressed her brow to Red's neck, closing her eyes as Red's tears ran down her own face where they were coming from the corners of Red's eyes.

"I'm sorry I wasn't there for you when you needed it," Chloe told her, and another sob left Red that was a little louder and more forceful.

Chloe closed her eyes as Red brought both arms around her. Chloe remained there with her, her weight rested on Red's form as the lankier girl cried underneath the safety of Chloe's form.

"They get worse every time I have them. In all of them, my mom stays evil and she takes over Auradon and I'm stuck with her watching it all, and tonight, it was even worse than usual because—"

Red abruptly stopped herself, sniffling as she sucked in a breath that was almost wet as she cleared her throat. Chloe remained still, a few tears of her own having escaped against Red's neck.

"What?" Chloe asked softly after a few moments, pushing Red to continue.

Red's jaw clenched violently against Chloe's temple, and Chloe waited as Red remained silent.

"She hurt you," Red managed to choke out before an awful, broken sob wracked her form. Chloe instantly felt her heart hurt for the redhead. At the same time, she felt intense fondness swell for the girl who had become her best friend so fast.

However, despite Chloe's own feelings, Chloe knew what Red had meant by the words and she understood the terrible effect that they had. The Queen of Hearts had pulled an "off with her head" in the dream.

"That's why I took a minute to respond to you when you first said something to me. I didn't… You were," Red stopped herself both times, and she let out a long, shaking breath as more tears hit Chloe's head. Chloe swallowed, sadness overcoming her.

"I'm here, Red," Chloe assured her.

Red sniffed, shaking as she grabbed Chloe more tightly and turned her head a little. Her cheek touched against the side of Chloe's head, and Chloe just held onto her despite the fact that it was growing harder to breathe in the small space between her and Red.

"I've got you," Chloe said, and Red squeezed her more tightly. Chloe closed her eyes, enjoying the embrace.

She knew Red needed this so much. Chloe herself honestly was honored to be someone that Red was willing to show this side of herself to. She was surprised Red had actually remained here for so long without trying to push away, but Chloe was nevertheless very pleased with this development.

Chloe just hoped that Red would keep leaning on her like this in days to come.

Chloe had never a female best friend. She had never really even had that many friends despite being quite the social butterfly. Most of her concentration on social butterfly-ness, however, had been centered on her brother and on adults. With adults, she learned the stories of days gone by, her love for history always shining through. Moreover, she found herself relating to adults quite a bit. It was also safer than throwing herself out there in front of kids her own age where she could be humiliated.

She had of course been friends with people on her Swords and Shields team, but she had only really developed a large interest in making friends her own age just before coming to Auradon Prep.

And there was where she met Red.

Red was someone that she had not bargained for in her life, but she was nevertheless so grateful to have her. She was crazy, disorganized, and chaotic, but she had a heart of gold and a wild spirit that Chloe truly appreciated so much.

This was the girl that had become her best friend, and she would not have it any other way.

Granted, she did not know all of Red's stories or everything about her, but they had literally changed the course of time together.

But Chloe wanted to know everything about her. She wanted to be her best friend. To be the person that stuck with her through thick and thin.

Chloe wanted what she saw that her mother and Bridget had had when they had visited the past and what her mother and Bridget had now in this timeline.

"I got you wet," Red told her abruptly, her voice rough yet more controlled with a definitive regretful tone.

"What?" Chloe questioned somewhat dumbly, not sure what to say as she tried to come back to Earth instead of wherever her thoughts had taken her. She actually wondered if she had almost fallen asleep.

"I cried all over you."

"Oh. No, that's okay, don't worry about that," Chloe assured her, and Red let out a shaking breath, turning her head away from Chloe. Chloe shifted her head so that she could breathe more easily. She shifted just a little, raising up to change position a little. Red looked at her quickly, uncertainty shining in her gaze.

Chloe felt a wave of pain hit her chest, sympathy for Red coursing through her. Red must have thought that she was going to leave.

Instead of offering a verbal response, Chloe simply squeezed Red's arm, settling in next to her as she moved off of her some. Red looked disappointed at the shift of position, but Chloe took her hand comfortingly.

Chloe had figured that Red needed a break from the hugs, but apparently, she still craved them. Chloe made a mental note to make sure to spring hugs on her from now on.

Or at least see how it went. Hopefully they had entered new territory where hugs were all good with the redhead.

"Do you feel better?" Chloe asked, her voice gentle as she addressed Red.

Red did not say anything, and after a moment of hesitation, she finally quietly uttered something in agreeance.

"Good. Let's get some sleep, okay? Things will be better in the morning," Chloe told her, and Red looked at her with surprise as if she were not expecting Chloe to actually stay after Red agreed that she was feeling better.

Chloe smiled at her softly, and Red offered a somewhat weak smile in response.

The bluenette took in a deep breath, closing her eyes, and Red squeezed her hand where they were linked together.

That was her best friend.

And Chloe would do whatever it took to help heal her scars.

A/N:These two

Thank you to babyydragonnn on Tumblr for this request! I hope you enjoy!

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