Quest 49: Spend A Night
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“Goodnight moon,” Nicholas said to himself. He was sitting on the edge of his bed. Quarters De Royale provided the most luxurious mattress possible. It was made of the softest materials to provide optimal sleep. Numerous pillows were ready to carry the heads of weary guests. A large blanket kept its occupants warm, and more were in the room’s closet in case the night got too cold. After all, winter was around the corner. The bed was large enough to fit three people, but only Nicholas was assigned to this room. He clapped his hands to turn off the room’s magical lights.

He rested in a bed fit for the king himself. It was fantastic. It was everything he could have dreamed of. This was the closest he’d ever felt to his old world. Nicholas got under the covers. He readied himself for his first night of undisturbed sleep. There was no sleeping in shifts. There was no one to share the room with. The hotel’s staff would handle any issue. Finally, Nicholas could sleep alone and in peace since he arrived in this world.

It was…uncomfortable.

“I can’t sleep,” Nicholas thought to himself. It was a wondrous night, but it felt too perfect. The bed was too soft. The room was too quiet. He felt alone. It was impossible to rest like this. He needed a way to tire himself out. Sleeping would be much easier after that. Before he could do anything, however, there was a knock at the door.

“Yo, are you up?” Rex asked from the other side of the door. His voice was low to avoid waking up the others. He softly knocked once more. The shadow beneath the door shifted as if Rex was getting impatient. He wasn’t rude enough to barge into a room without permission, but he was ready to move on. Nicholas let out a sigh. If he couldn’t sleep anyway, he may as well talk to someone.

“I am now. What do you want?” Nicholas said. The door to his room opened slightly. Light poured in through the small opening and landed on Nicholas’s face. It was blinding. He rolled over and clapped his hands. The magical lights that turned on were nice enough to illuminate slowly. It allowed the room's occupant to fully awaken without jarring him. There was no chance he’d go to sleep now, not that he could have without the new presence.

“I can’t sleep. Feels weird, you know? I was wondering if…” Rex said. He seemed a bit reluctant to talk. It was probably awkward for him to imply that he didn’t want to sleep alone. Thankfully, Nicholas picked up on the subtle hints. He couldn’t judge his friend. He had the same feeling less than a minute ago.

“Fine, but if you take my blanket I’m throwing you out the window. Also, stay on your side of the bed.” Nicholas said. He nodded his head toward the room before walking away. He jumped onto his indescribably soft cot and rolled to one of the edges. They were fortunate enough to have an incredibly large mattress. The chance of the two friends colliding in the night was slim at best. Rex followed behind his generous ally after retrieving something from the ground.

“It’s cool. I brought my own blanket.” Rex said. He showed off the pillow and blanket that he brought from his own room. It wasn't hard to predict what Nicholas would say. That was why he knew to bring his own supplies to avoid a fight. The blanket was readied, and Rex's pillow was thrown atop the mountain of pre-provided ones. After all the preparations were in place, the two were finally ready to fall asleep. They clapped their hands, said their goodnights, and closed their eyes.

Then, there was a knock at the door.

“Nic, are you awake?” Robyn asked from behind the door. A new shadow appeared under the door's light. Nicholas sighed. He clapped his hands to turn on the room’s light again. He walked over to the room’s door again. He opened it to see his friend who was probably there for the same reason as Rex.

“Do you need a sleeping buddy too?” Nicholas asked. He looked down and realized his question wasn’t necessary. Robyn was holding a pillow and blanket. She looked embarrassed. It was hard for her to say that she couldn’t sleep in such a large and empty room. They were all adults. They should have been able to put up with the new environment, but it almost felt unnatural. Robyn had hoped that her friend would be kind enough to share his bed, but it seemed someone else beat her to the punch.

“Too?” Robyn asked. She peered over Nicholas’s shoulder to see Rex in his bed. She sighed. Someone did beat her. She could have always bothered Xander, but he was a heavy sleeper. She didn’t know Emma and Oliver well enough to ask them, and Morgan would have probably gotten the wrong idea from the request. She didn’t know what to do. Luckily, her team was willing to cooperate. They escorted her into the room and closed the door.

“It’s cool. The bed’s big enough for all of us. We can use pillows as dividers. We should be fine as long as-” Nicholas tried to say. He threw two pillows onto the bed so no one would roll onto another person. It was an easy way to evenly divide the bed, but a third unexpected guest knocked on the door and interrupted Nicholas’s sentence.

“Hey, are you up?” Xander said from behind. Everyone in the room looked at each other. Did all of The Unnamed Team's members have the same issue? Were they all unable to sleep in a place as ritzy as this? After spending the entire day gushing about having their rooms? It seemed that way.

“I guess we all had the same idea?” Rex said. He let out a laugh and everyone else followed suit. Xander came into the room and sat on the bed with Robyn and Rex. He threw his pillow onto the almost limitless pile, and his blanket was lost in the sea of fabric.

“Yeah, but why does it revolve around my room?” Nicholas said. They were all friends. It wasn’t as if they all had to go to his room. Nothing was particularly special about it. Sure, Nicholas and Rex shared a room at The Feral Tomcat. It was easy to understand why he’d come, but Xander and Robyn shared their room. They could have shared a bed instead of accidentally having everyone convene at a single spot. Unfortunately, there was no real answer that could be given. It remained yet another mystery.

“Dunno. What I do know is that we can’t all fit in the bed. Lucky for you all, I was an expert pillow and blanket fort constructor back in my day.” Robyn said with a smile. She was more than ready to enact her plan. She had only come to Nicholas’s room because he was a light sleeper and was most likely to let her in. Xander and Rex would have probably turned her away and directed her to the room she was already in. Now that everyone was here, that didn’t really matter. They could all share the room for a night.

The four made use of their team-building exercise to build the greatest fort they could out of pillows and blankets. The bed was stripped of all of its materials. The lights were moved and dimmed to provide atmosphere. They got lost in the moment. Everyone was having so much fun. They couldn’t control their laughter and almost woke up their neighbors.

No one was sure how much time passed, but they eventually fell asleep together in their fort.

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