'Til Sun Beams Find You [COMPLETED]

Forty-seven (Part 4)

Saturday

It was midnight, and Nico only knew it was midnight because the clock downstairs chimed a tune every night at the same hour, indicating the time.

She had been tossing and turning for the most part, unable to sleep as she had plenty on her mind. For the most part it was worry regarding her future with Carter, but also anxiety and hesitancy.

The clock continued its tune for an entire minute while she stared up at the ceiling before it quieted down again.

She felt restless, and she knew she would need her sleep tonight as they were set to return home later that afternoon, and then tomorrow would be Christmas, so there wasn't much turnover time for her to find rest outside of right now. She thought of redoing her nighttime routine, just to induce some sort of fatigue or trick her brain into being forced to sleep, but she was too lazy to brush her teeth again.

And when she got restless like this, one of the only two things that helped was tea.

Nico grumbled quietly as she rolled out of bed and put on her slippers. She was careful when opening the door because it creaked, so she did it slowly, slipping out of her room and quietly heading down the stairs.

It took her a while to find the light switches in the dark, but once she did, the entire kitchen brightened up.

"Mm... mm.... mmm," she hummed quietly to herself, an old self-soothing technique she didn't realize she had until Carter pointed it out a few months ago.

She grabbed the gooseneck kettle, filled it with water and put it on the stove before lighting a torch to the gas.

"Where did we put it?" She muttered to herself, recalling the last time she was here that they bought tea that Nico only used two teabags worth of, so there had to be plenty left.

She searched through the cabinets before locating the black tea box and plucked out a bag. In the refrigerator, she grabbed the half lemon she put in there from dinner the night before and juiced it into a mug.

"Mmm... mm..."

The kettle whistled in no time and then she poured the boiling water into the mug, only grabbing a small cube of sugar to toss in before carrying the mug towards the chair by the phone. She set it down to let it seep for a few minutes and picked up the phone to dial the number to her parents' home.

Her mother was usually awake this time of night, and speaking to her was the other remedy.

She sat up to wrap the blanket around herself before pulling her knees to her chest as she listened to the phone ring for a very long time.

"Hello?" Her dad finally answered.

"Hi dad," Nico smiled, happy to hear his voice. "How are you?"

"Nicolette?"

"...Yeah. Who else would be calling you dad?" She frowned. "Do I have siblings that I don't know about?"

Martin laughed. "No, I'm just stunned you called because I was thinking about you a second ago and sent you a text..."

"Oh. I don't have reception. What did the text say?"

"I was just texting to tell you that I love and miss you..."

Her heart literally melted in her chest. "Aww daddy.. I love and miss you toooo," she sighed. "I'll be home tomorrow night. Why are you up so late?"

"Watching my Warriors play.. why are you awake?"

"Can't sleep," she said, reached over for her mug. "Made some tea to help.."

She took a small sip of her drink.