Of Plushie Wars and Bed Hair

My response to a pair of OTP writing prompts I got. I'm using a certain couple of mine: Alana Sheelan and Jayden Callen - both my characters.

Of Plushie Wars and Bed Hair (Modern World AU)

Alana Sheelan was bored as she lay upside down on the couch in her best friend's apartment, watching some random movie that was playing while he worked on his homework from university. He always took forever to finish it while she always did it straight away so she nearly always had to wait for him. He'd told her that he was busy and that they couldn't hang out today, but Alana had shrugged and said she'd wait for him to finish up. In all honesty, she'd missed him and since her mother's parents were coming over she wanted to be as far away from them as possible. Jayden's apartment had always been like a second home to her - they'd been friends since they were both barely able to hold their heads up and from the moment of their meeting they'd been inseparable, more family than friends. They were both 19 now, but nothing had changed. Alana still popped over at the most random times and Jayden still let her in, just shaking his head at her.
She knew she'd promised to be quiet so as not disturb him from his homework, which she would never ever understand since it was a mess of math, physics and so on - in short, everything that made her head hurt, but Alana was bored. She reached up beside herself to grab the remote, but instead her fingers closed around something soft, small and familiar. She pulled it out to see that it was a small stuffed Bantha with a faded blue ribbon around it's neck that Jayden had had since they were kids, he'd gotten it for his 5th birthday after they'd both fallen in love with Star Wars. Alana had a matching one with a pink ribbon around it's neck. Smiling, Alana decided that her best friend had done enough studying for a day and chucked the plushie at his head. Her action had the desired effect. He looked up at her and winced, rubbing his head, messing up his dark hair more than usual:
"I thought you said you were going to be quiet?"
Alana rolled her midnight blue eyes:
"I'm bored."
"Yeah and I'm busy. Tough luck."
Alana sat up, blowing her relatively short light caramel-brown hair out of her eyes, her legs hooking over the back of the couch to keep herself upright. She'd just noticed a plushie of the pig from minecraft. Smiling mischievously, she picked up the plushie and glanced at her green-eyed best friend who'd gone back to work.
"Hey, Jayden?"
"Yeah?"
He automatically responded without looking up from his work. Alana raised her arm and tossed the second plushie at his head, yelling:
"CATCH!"
Jayden responded in time and caught the piglet in his hand. He sighed and looked between Alana who was picking up a teddy bear and his nearly finished homework. Judging from the mischievous look in his best friend's eyes he was definitely not going to get any work done soon. She was like a pet sometimes, he needed her to tire herself out before he could work. Jayden took off his rimless glasses that he wore while working and grinned at his best friend.
"Are you sure you want to start a war?"
"Oh, I'm so scared!,"-Alana exclaimed sarcastically before flipping off his couch to stand up and grinning,"You're so on, hunter!"
Jayden only grinned brighter at the nickname she'd had for him since they were kids. He suddenly dashed off to the room next to the living room and Alana rushed to collect all the plushies in the living room. Jayden rushed into the room with an armful of plushies for ammunition. She cursed her forgetfulness - he still had his little sisters toys stored in his apartment. Dropping them into a pile, Jayden stood behind the table and tossed a horrendously pink butterfly plushie at her. Alana ducked behind the couch and retaliated by throwing a teddy bear at him. He didn't react fast enough and the teddy bear whacked him across the neck. Alana jumped out of her cover and fist pumped the air, cheering:
"Yes! Score one for me!"
"Don't think you've won just yet, princess!"
Jayden chuckled and retaliated by tossing a trio of small round blue birds at her - angry bird plushies. Alana laughed as they hit her, quickly grabbing that unfortunate piglet again and tossing it at him. The pig didn't reach her best friend however, being knocked out of the air by a fox plushie. However, Alana wasn't deterred. Grabbing, Jayden's fallen birds she threw them right back at him, laughing all the while. Soon, the whole living room was a mess and the two 19 year old best friend's were laughing and pelting each other with plushies, neither one willing to back down. Their combined stubbornness was a force of nature. The physics homework lay forgotten on the table of the living room.

***

Neerean Sheelan sighed as she closed the door behind her parents. It was well past 10 o'clock when they left and her lively daughter was nowhere to be seen. She had expected Alana to escape when she wasn't looking due to her toxic relationship with her grandparents and Neerean had long given up trying to stop her. She had a strained relationship with her parents as it was and arguing over her child (which was a topic her dear mother always brought up) was not something she wanted to do in front of Alana. Neerean looked around the house to make sure Alana wasn't anywhere at home, before sighing and beginning the search for her phone. She always managed to lose the darn thing somehow. When she found her black iPhone on the kitchen counter she unlocked it to find it strangely absent of messages. Neerean frowned, her eyebrows furrowing over her midnight blue eyes: it wasn't like Alana to not leave any messages. She normally would tell her mother where she had gone especially if she was staying out late. Where could she have gone?
Exhausted, Neerean sat down on her couch with her phone in hand. She sighed when she felt something pressing up against her back. She reached one hand behind herself to pull out whatever it was, half-expecting it to be a book her daughter had forgotten on the couch as per usual, but her eyes widened when she pulled out a plushie. A small Bantha plushie with a faded pink ribbon around it's neck. Neerean' gaze softened as she remembered when her daughter had gotten it. Neerean shook her head with a smile: she should have know where her daughter had gone - it was the place she felt most at home, of course. And it did seem like she had been a little lonely lately. She relaxed: she didn't need to worry if Alana was there. Placing the plushie down on her lap, Neerean opened her phone's contact list and pulled up the contact labelled Jayden Callen. She smiled slightly at the picture of her 10 year old daughter riding piggyback on a dark haired boy her age who was smiling brightly. She leaned back in the sofa as she called him, pressing her iPhone to her ear. After two rings he picked the phone up and a quiet male voice sounded over the line:
"Good evening, Ms. S."
"Good evening, Jayden. Is my wayward daughter at your apartment again by any chance?"
She heard a soft chuckle before the young man answered:
'Yes, m'am. She came over this morning. She looked a little stressed so I was worried."
"My parents came over today so she ran away again. I hope she didn't disturb your work. I heard you two have finals soon."
"It's fine. We both needed to let off some steam. "
"I see. Can I speak to her? She didn't even leave me a message."
"That, uh, may be a problem since she is kind of asleep."
"Again?" Neerean chuckled ", Please tell her to wake up, I'll meet her at the driveway--"
Jayden quietly objected to Neerean's request:
"I don't think she's slept well in a while, Ms. S. Maybe we should let her sleep. I wouldn't mind letting her stay over - I mean she's been doing it since we were tiny. It's really no problem."
Neerean sighed, sitting back down on the sofa. There was a pause before she quietly asked:
"Is she calm?"
"Yeah, she's sleeping like a baby. Has she been having nightmares again?"
"Yes. I've asked her what they're about, but she won't tell me."
"Give her time. She's like a small creature in that way - get too close and she'll get spooked off."
Neerean chuckled at Jayden's analogy.
"That's true. I just wonder why she doesn't trust me."
"She does, Ms. S. You're her only family in the world. It's just a phase."
Neerean gave a hum of disagreement.
"And that's where you're wrong, young man. "
"Pardon?"
"I'm not her only family - she has found a kindred spirit in you. Are you sure you don't mind her staying over?"
"I'm sure. I'll send her home after lunch tomorrow."
"Alright. Thank you for looking after my wayward daughter, Jayden. Goodnight."
"Goodnight, m'am."
Jayden ended the call and awkwardly returned his phone to the coffee table in front of the couch. They'd been watching a movie together after he'd finished his homework and they'd tidied up the room, somehow before he knew it Alana had fallen asleep. She'd always been a cuddled in her sleep so right now he was stuck with her. But as he looked down at her finally calm sleeping face he smiled: it had been a while since this had happened and he didn't really mind it.
There'd been quite a while when she'd been dating Kyle and they'd been unable to hang out or do anything together, so having her fall asleep in his arms just like when they were little kids was kind of nice, comforting, familiar. It almost made the heartache go away. As her brow scrunched up in her sleep, her face taking on the expression she made right before crying, Jayden carefully ran a hand over her head, stroking her head. Instantly her body relaxed and she instinctually burrowed her cheek further into his shoulder. Jayden chuckled, pulling up the fleecy blanket so she wasn't cold. As she smiled in her sleep, Jayden's heart clenched again and he was once again struck by the thought that Kyle didn't deserve her, she was too good for a d****e like him, but then again it wasn't his place to decided who was good enough for her and who wasn't. Alana was smart enough to make her own choices and all that mattered to him was that she was happy. As long as she was cheerfully smiling every single day that was enough for him, he couldn't ask for anything more. Sleep slowly tugged at Jayden and as he fell asleep he caught the faint scent of lavender and mint. He smiled sleepily: she still smelled the same as she had when they'd been kids.

***

The next morning Alana woke up groggily and stretched, the fleecy navy blanket sliding off her shoulders and pooling at her waist. It took her a moment to register where she was and when she did she groaned: she'd fallen asleep at Jayden's apartment again and she hadn't even told her mother. Her mother liked Jayden and treated him like a son, even though he insisted on being formal with her. It taken years to convince him to call her at least "Ms. S". In any case, though her Mum liked Jayden she was pretty sure she wasn't too happy with Alana staying over all of a sudden. It was just the way she'd been raised. Alana rubbed her eyes, sitting up, and smiled when she heard a familiar voice greet her.
"Morning, Sleepyhead."
Alana turned her head to the side to find Jayden standing at a stove, making breakfast in the kitchen, which just happened to be the next room connected to the living room. If the food didn't smell so delicious she would have laughed slightly at the sight of him wearing an apron. He'd always looked strange to her in an apron even if it was one obviously made for guys. Alana stood up, carefully folded the blanket and padded over to kitchen before easily sliding onto a bar stool in for the of the counter. She leaned her chin in her hand, smiling at Jayden in amusement. He rolled his eyes at her behaviour.
"Your Mum called last night, by the way."
"Was she mad?"
"No, she was worried. I told her I didn't mind you staying over and she thanked me."
"Thanks."
At her quite words of gratitude, Jayden pretended to look shocked.
"Alana Sheelan is thanking me?! Well, the world must be ending."
Alana rolled her eyes, throwing a paper towel at him. She would much rather punch him in the arm, but he was out of arms reach. She pretended to scowl at him.
"Jerk. I do thank you."
He laughed and nodded, cracking open and egg over a separate frying pan.
"I know. I'm just messing with you. Oh and Alana?"
"Hm?"
"You might want to go fix your hair."
Jayden commented calmly, nodding his head towards the mirror. Alana groaned when she saw her own reflection with sleep-tousled hair.
"Why does this keep happening?!"
"It's nature. I have bed hair too."
"Yeah, well, your hair is naturally unruly while mine is normally neat doing the day. Does it go to wild parties at night or something?!"
Alana grumbled as she went over to the adjacent bathroom and grabbed the hairbrush she kept at his apartment. She popped over so often it was kind of natural for him to keep some of her things at his place, it made stuff easier after sleepovers too. Jayden chuckled at her complaints. It was strange, the scene was so common for them and yet so domestic. Alana smiled as she glanced at Jayden's reflection in the mirror. She really wouldn't mind having a plushie war everyday if she woke up like this. Somehow the thought made her heart flutter in a way it hadn't since she'd gotten over her middle-school crush on Jayden. She pushed the thought to the back of her mind. It was a good morning, a good morning indeed.