Our dear colorfullycleanbrowserhistory queen may you bless us with a story about all 4 of them 🥺 (if you could ofc /no pressure)
of course my dear anon, it's about time i gave writing all 4 of them a try. i need to make the content i want to see in the world after all... PLEASE ENJOY THIS LIL FART OF A FIC I DID FOR YOU!
summery: Shelly is tired, and she refuses to sleep without her partners. unfortunately for her, all of them have awful sleep schedules.
AO3 LINK > https://archiveofourown.org/works/82142406
or read it under the cut
Shelly was getting ready to go to sleep, It had been a long day.
She wrote down her plans for tomorrow in her notebook, brushed her teeth, and got in her dinosaur pajamas. As she stepped out of her bathroom she felt cozy and tired. Her muscles ached pleasantly from her long day and her bed was looking more than just inviting. But it was missing something, a crucial detail.
Her bed was empty.
Her partners were all very different, but they had one important thing in common, bad time management skills and awful sleep schedules. Shelly loved them all dearly, but that had to be the one thing they all did that consistently annoyed her.
Shelly loved sleepy cuddles, pillow talk, and good morning kisses. And she wasn't about to let her partners get away with this injustice. She had three of them for crying out loud, at least one of them should always be here to fall asleep with her, but preferably all of them.
Since It could be a surprisingly difficult task to get them all in bed at the same time, Shelly gave them her biggest puppy eyes until they all agreed on a mandated weekend bedtime. if they weren't all in her bed by 11 then she was allowed to drag them here kicking and screaming if she had too. They had all begrudgingly accepted her terms. Shelly glanced at the clock on her bedside table, It was currently 11:15.
Shelly cracked her knuckles. She was ready to enforce bedtime.
She left her room and wandered down the hall to go get Vee first. Vee's sleeping habits were the easiest to forgive, as much as she did enjoy relaxing and recharging with her partners, she WAS a robot and she didn't necessarily need sleep to begin with. So for her to get caught up with work and forget to come to bed was more understandable. If she got tired she could just pop in some new batteries and be done with it. But none of that made it anymore palatable for Shelly to sleep without her.
Reaching Vee's bedroom door, Shelly barged right in, she knew Vee wouldn't care about the lack of knocking if it was her. Vee had an internal clock, she should know what time it was anyways so really she should be expecting Shelly to come get her by now.
"VEEEEE BEDTIIIME" Shelly hollered and stomped up to said robot, waving her arms above her head like it was an emergency.
Vee jumped the slightest bit at the intrusion and turned her head towards the noise. She was sat at her desk with a screwdriver in her left hand and a panel open on her right forearm arm.
"...Bedtime?" Vee replied slowly while raising her eyebrow. She turned back to her arm and tightened some mysterious parts back into place.
"Don't give me that look, yes it's bedtime! Don't tell me you forgot!" Shelly crossed her arms in disbelief and huffed in betrayal. The audacity.
"Huh?....oh wait, THAT bedtime" finally recognition hit the robot. She got done with her fiddling and closed her arm up, twisting the screws back and fitting everything as it should be.
"Is your arm okay?" Shelly changed the subject, All the mock anger at her snuggle time being forgotten was replaced with concern.
"Pfft yeah obviously! Everything is perfect as always" Vee put on a cheesy grin and flexed her nonexistent arm muscles in a show of her wellness.
"Are you sure?" Shelly ran her hand down Vee's arm until reaching her metal hand, smiling while interlocking their fingers. Vee followed the movement with her eyes. Her gentle insistence was enough to remind Vee who exactly she was talking to. She didn't need to pretend everything was fine if it wasn't. Vee looked her in the eye again, the robot's smile grew softer, more genuine.
"Yeah, don't worry. My arm was just a bit stiff today, nothing a little maintenance won't fix. Sorry i kept you guys waiting" Vee stood up and put a few small tools away so she wouldn't have to clean her desk tomorrow.
"Don't be sorry, especially if it was for something important like your health. You're not the only one that forgot anyways, Brusha and Tisha both aren't in bed yet either!" Shelly started her sentence sweetly, but towards the end all of her irritation at the situation came back in full force.
"I'm not surprised, Brusha told me a few days ago she was starting a new project. I bet she doesn't even remember what planet she's on right now, let alone what day of the week it is" Vee replied, finishing up her tidying and turning towards Shelly.
"Please, lead the way pajama princess" Vee added on, lifting her arm up for Shelly to loop around her own.
As soon as the ammonite had Vee in her clutches she dragged her right down the hall and back to her room. Where Vee sat primly on her bed and began undoing her bow tie.
"Okay you stay here and get changed, I'm going to grab the other two!" Shelly said over her shoulder on her way back out.
"Good luck" she heard Vee replied as she shut the door and started towards the elevator to get Brusha.
Brusha's sleep schedule was always entirely up in the air. When she was actively working on a new piece she'd go days at a time hardly getting a few hours in, feverishly working on whatever painting she deemed worth the energy, until inevitably crashing and sleeping the whole day away. During times like that it could be hard to tell she was even sleeping at all, she'd come into bed while everyone was already passed out and leave before anyone woke up. The only sign she got any rest at all was the few loose bristles left on her pillow and the lingering smell of coffee and acrylic that followed her.
In-between projects she was more consistently in bed at normal times, in fact she slept a lot when not working on anything. As if that would somehow make up for the rest of the time. Shelly didn't mind though, Vee and Tisha were both very work oriented people. They had things they wanted to do and they intended to get them done early. Shelly loved that about them, but it also meant they were morning people. So Shelly appreciated having somebody willing to occasionally stay in bed with her and have a slow, lazy start to the day as she preferred.
Leaving the elevator and getting to Brusha's door, Shelly once again didn't knock. This time because she knew good and well how focused Brusha could get when working on a painting, knocking would just make her jump and probably mess up her brush stroke. Shelly learned that the hard way after the first few times of walking in on Brusha rather distraught at her work not going exactly how she wanted.
Walking in on the artist, Shelly saw she didn't have to be worried about interrupting. Brusha was standing a foot or two away from her canvas, a hard analytical look in her eye with one hand cupping her chin and the other holding a pencil between two fingers. She was so deep in thought she didn't notice Shelly had entered the room at all until she was right up next to her.
"Brusha, it's bedtime" Shelly lightly tugged on the sleeve of her sweater to get her full attention.
"Huh...what time is it?" Finally looking over, Brusha playfully grabbed Shelly's hand to stop her pulling.
"Past 11 and the weekend, you know the deal, you should be in bed. You look tired" Shelly pulled on their held hands to get them to move towards the door. Brusha really did look like she needed some sleep. Well, more than Brusha usually looks anyway. The dark circles under her eyes were extra pronounced.
"Mm? Oh right, your forced group snuggle nights. I guess time got away from me, I just need to fix this painting and I can join you all" Brusha replied and turned her full attention back to her canvas, it was a mirrored pair of swirling purple patterns with sporadic spots dotted around. If you asked Shelly she'd say it looked like a triceratops head crest, but in her time getting to know Brusha she learned maybe she wasn't the best at interpreting abstract art. Regardless of personal bias it already looked amazing, what more you could really add to it was beyond Shelly.
"It already looks pretty finished to me" Shelly tilted her head to the side, maybe it was just the angle?
"Hardly. It is atrocious in its current state. Art only in the way it conveys my frazzled unfocused mind during its creation. It needs more, I just can't seem to be able to think of what it needs exactly" Brusha put the eraser end of her pencil to her mouth in thought.
"Welllll I mean I'm no artist, or doctor, but you probably can't think of it because you're exhausted. If you get a full night of sleep I'm sure you'll wake up and be able to finish this off easy" Shelly plucked the pencil out of Brusha's hand and put it in a nearby cup full of pens and brushes. Shelly knew if she left this room without Brusha the artist would forget to come to bed entirely. Which wasn't going to happen, bedtime was non negotiable.
"And also you're getting impatient and need a big spoon?" Brusha added on for the fossil. Shelly nodded her head enthusiastically.
"Alright, fine" Brusha finally relented, letting out a big yawn into her elbow and putting her paints away before allowing Shelly to pull her out of the room.
Once they made it to Shelly's room, they opened the door to Vee laying casually on her side in bed flipping through a magazine full of dinosaur illustrations Shelly had on her nightstand, She was now wearing a T-shirt and pajama pants. Once she noticed them she gave Brusha a cocky grin.
"Oh heeyy Brushy there you are! I thought you died or something" Vee sarcastically quipped and crossed her arms.
"Haha. Sorry you have to cancel the funeral....and don't call me that" Brusha glared and flipped her off while heading towards the bathroom to wash the paint off her hands.
"Okay I'm going to get Tisha! Don't kill each other while I'm gone" Shelly called out at them both. She heard Brusha grumble something about saving her murder plans for another night and Vee laughing in reply as she shut the door. She walked away from her room for hopefully the last time that night, she went to check the kitchen first. There's always a mess to clean in there.
Tisha was normally the first one in bed. She enjoyed spending her evenings reading a good book to relax before going to sleep, so she was often there even if the others were busy. So it was a bit concerning that she hadn't showed up yet, she must be anxious about one thing or another.
That was Tisha's one big hang up. without something to occupy her mind she'd inevitably get caught up in her anxiety and get out of bed in the middle of the night to organize Shelly's toy dinosaurs by color or something, anything she could focus on besides her thoughts. The others always had to make sure she fell asleep first, she had an easier time resting when she had the distraction of listening to her partners talking back and forth about nothing in particular.
Turning the corner to the kitchen, Shelly found Tisha right where she thought she might, she was washing the dishes. Well she was scrubbing at a plate that already looked quite clean, But still. Shelly came up behind her and put a hand on her back right in-between her shoulder blades, and began rubbing in small circles. Immediately the tension in her posture loosened and she leaned into the touch.
"oh... mmm hi" Tisha said slowly, she sounded as tired as she looked.
"Hello, do you know what time it is?" Shelly was half worried Tisha was going to fall asleep standing up. But at the question the tissue box straightened back up and grabbed the sponge she had dropped in the sink.
"Wh, um. Fairly Late?" Tisha rinsed her sponge out and put the plate on the drying rack to the side. She looked over at the clock on the oven's display.
"Cmon, you should be in bed" Shelly turned the sink off before Tisha could even think about cleaning the few remaining utensils sat at the bottom.
"Oh I didn't realize, I guess I forgot to check the time" Tisha dried her hands on a towel and rubbed at her eye.
"Are you alright?" Shelly asked while putting her hands on Tisha's hips.
"Yes...ugh, it's just squirm was being so MUCH today. He was going around leaving bits of paper everywhere, and that's not easy to clean! You can sweep up some of it, sure but it's annoying. And then you can't even ask him to clean up after himself because he'll just cry about it and then I'M the jerk!" Tisha gestured wildly with her hands to get her frustrations across.
"I know he can be a lot, I tried to help him stop crying the other day and nothing worked. Everything I said just upset him more" Shelly scratched at her cheek remembering it. It ended with her nearly begging the bug to cheer up.
"Exactly! He could at least TRY to stop and appreciate the effort you put in. Oh and he ate the last copy we had of a book I was looking forward to reading. I just don't understand, we have blank printer paper laying around! Why must he insist on eating our books, or the least he could do is eat the bad ones!" Tisha threw her hands in the air. She took a deep breath and blew her tissue out of her eyes before collecting herself.
"Okay, Thank you for listening. Please, let's get to bed before I feel the need to ask Dyle to pick me up some pesticides" Tisha added on. She clasped her hands together and led the way. Shelly giggled as she followed after her.
Once they got to Shelly's door they stopped a moment to listen to the racket from the other side. It was mostly Brusha huffing angrily while Vee laughed her ass off. They glanced at one another a second, and Tisha rolled her eyes in such a dramatic fashion Shelly snorted.
Entering the room, they saw both of them in bed, Brusha laying nearly entirely on top of Vee with the robot in a headlock.
"You know that's not doing anything, I don't need to breathe!" Vee managed to say through her giggling.
"Yeah. It's really pissing me off" despite her words Brusha had a big grin on her face. She tightened her hold while Vee batted at her arm.
"Hey you two better not mess up the bed before I get a chance to lay down!" Tisha scolded them on her way to the closet, probably intending to steal one of Shelly's shirts.
"Well tell Vee to stop being so annoying and I won't feel the need to beat her up every 2 seconds" Brusha let Vee's head go but didn't get off of her, instead she started playing with the TV's antenna. Mostly trying to straighten out the crooked one, it wasn't working very well. However Vee looked very pleased at the attention.
After finally accomplishing her mission, Shelly was well and truly sleepy. She walked up to the empty part of the bed, plopping face first into the sheets and wiggling into the middle. After settling with a sigh, Brusha rolled off Vee and onto Shelly's back. The pressure felt nice on her spine and the fossil smiled.
"Make room for me" now clad in stolen pajamas, Tisha hit Vee with a pillow to get her to move over.
"Bossy" Vee remarked while scooting to the side. Tisha nodded her head in agreement.
It was a tight fit. The bed certainly wasn't made for 4 people, and it wasn't an uncommon occurrence for one of them to fall out of bed. But that was alright, it just meant they had to cuddle real close.
Shelly repositioned so she was on her side, Brusha holding her from behind, while Vee scootched up close to her front. She heard Brusha talking about something with Tisha over her head, but she was having a hard time paying attention. Shelly was officially the filling in a cuddle sandwich. Her favorite place to be with her favorite people, She was so happy she was practically purring.
Even if it took a little extra work, they were always worth the effort
