#i hate the shuffle why are my reflexes slow at times. stop doing that bro

[kaoharu]

VIOLENT SCREAMING. sorry i accidentally drew the wrong card in the shuffle FUCKKK

[redselfships]

under the stars. under new light.

Summary: Jamie can’t sleep, so she goes to her best friend for help. At that same night, she has an epiphany.

Pairing: TWDG Mitch / Jamie (OC/Self-Insert)

Word Count: 1903

Note: just mitch and jamie being BROS(tm) under the starlit night.

SLEEPLESS NIGHTS WEREN’T RARE FOR JAMIE. Sometimes she worries herself silly; about the walkers finding themselves in the boarding school and picking off her friends one by one. Sometimes her mind just runs a bit too much and a bit too fast to fall asleep. Tonight, was one of those nights. Where the whole day felt like it was running on fast forward and unfortunately, her mind hasn’t had the time to calm down like the rest of the world.

She knocked quietly on the door. Two light taps with her knuckle against the hardwood door, so as to not wake the others. Jamie waited patiently on the other side as she heard shuffling before the door swings wide open. Revealing a sleepy Mitch; eyes barely opened and extremely prominent bed hair.

“...Jamie?” He blinks, hand rising up to lightly scrub the fatigue from his eyes.

For a second, she half-considers apologizing and going back to bed. It’s not the first time she’s come over during the late of night. It’s happened before—where Jamie’s mind wouldn’t let her rest and Mitch would keep her company and chat, until they were finally too tired to continue on. It was weird—hesitating now of all nights. She gulps down the imaginary weight in her throat.

“I, um, I can’t sleep.” Jamie smiles apologetically at the boy.

Mitch stares her down before opening the door wider to let her in. He yawns, which prompts her own following yawn as the two of them settle down on the floor beside his bed. Backs to the bed frame and knees pulled tight against their chest.

“So,” Mitch breathes out a sigh before he spreads his legs out in front of him. “What’s in your mind this time?”

She shrugs her shoulders. It was weirdly complicated; there was too much and not enough all at the same time. When she glances at the side, his head is lolled back, resting against the dirty mattress they call beds. She huffs out a breath.

There’s little space between the two of them; which was not much of a surprise. Best friends don’t worry about something as little as personal space. The two of them learned that earlier on in their friendship. It was all because they were best friends and she found comfort with him. His arm flush against her’s and Jamie leans over a bit more. Mitch was always good for comfort—even if the others thought the opposite. They’d certainly pick Aasim for comfort over Mitch at any time of day.

“I dunno. I just can’t sleep.”

“That’s not very helpful.” Mitch shuffles a bit to accommodate her weight on his side. Her head somehow ends up resting on his shoulder by the end of it. “...Is it about what happened earlier?”

She immediately shuddered at the thought. A chill ran down her spine at the resurface of the memory. The feeling of the walker grabbing onto her with it’s disgusting, rotten teeth just a few inches of biting the crook of her neck—it nauseates her to just think about it. She was grateful for Aasim’s talent with the bow and arrow. Any second later, her hands would have given out and she’d be dead. Another walking dead for the others to kill. Or would she have let them kill her before she turned? The thought scares her. “P-Probably? I...I don’t want to talk about it yet.”

“...Okay then.”

Silence envelopes the two teenagers. Just sharing space, sharing company. It was one of her favorite things about Mitch. Complete silence with him wasn’t uncomfortable—not like it was with Violet, where she feels the need to fill the space of silence between them. With Mitch, it was unnecessary. Her mind starts to slow down, as intended. The ongoing rave of thoughts in her mind slowly clearing with every second spent.

“...Let’s go outside.”

She peers at him with confusion. “Why?”

“You look like you need some fresh air. Plus, you always talk about stargazing but never actually do it.”

“Well, Vi said the best place to stargaze was at the watchtower.” Jamie felt herself pouting. “And the watchtower is high. I hate heights, Mitch.”

“S’not so bad on the ground.” He stands up, abruptly, and she nearly falls on her side at the action if it weren’t for her arm jutting out to catch herself. Mitch ignores the glare sent his way and holds his hand out to help her up on her feet. She takes his hand anyway, with a petulant huff.

With tiptoed footsteps and hushed chatter, the two finally found themselves out the courtyard. The air was definitely more fresh than the air inside of their dorms. Jamie takes a deep breath in and then out. The crisp air helps serve as comfort to her, as Mitch predicted. She follows him over to the makeshift benches from logs and the two sit beside each other. Backs leaned against the log, shoulders flush against each other. Like deja vu.

Jamie immediately looks up at the sky. Her childhood is a blurry mess, for the most part anyway, but she faintly remembers the night sky being more dim. Less stars twinkled during the night. Her mother said it was because of something pollution that kept the stars away from them. If there was one good thing that came out of the end of the world, it had to be this.

Before them was the night sky. Millions, maybe even billions of stars scattered about with no real pattern. It almost felt like the sky was a darker shade of purple too, if she stared long enough. She faintly remembers hearing about how stars could be connected and make pictures. But, with the amount of stars littered about, it was hard to tell what was what.

“...It’s pretty.” She commented, with a soft smile.

“Yeah, it...it is.”

Jamie takes her time to take in the view before her. A part of her heart breaks at the view—how could something awful have to happen for her to see such a view? She cranes her head to look at Mitch but he was already looking her way. The sudden closeness brings a nervous chuckle to bubble out of Jamie’s lips and she quickly turns away. It wasn’t before she can take note of the number of freckles dotting the bridge of his nose. It reminded her of the stars blanketing over them.

“A...anyway,” she clears her throat, trying to shove the unease settling under her skin away. It was a familiar feeling, nothing short of foreign, but towards Mitch—it was odd. “Thanks, Mitch. I needed this.”

“Just learn to be careful next time, idiot. Stop prancing around like a damsel in distress.” Mitch sighs, his hand reaching up to run his fingers through his hair. “I know how you feel about getting out the walls too—”

“I know, it’s just…” Jamie pulls her knees up against her chest and wraps her arm around her legs. The memory resurfaces again; seeing Louis busy with a walker while another one slowly crept up on him. It scared the hell out of her and before she knew it; she’d tackled Louis out of the way of the walker. She basically sacrificed herself out there—and it was stupid. There were other ways to tackle the problem that didn’t cause her near death experience. “The walker nearly k-killed Louis.”

“And you almost got killed too.”

She pouts. “...I’ll be more careful next time.”

“Good.” He chuckles, breaking the tension between the two by ruffling Jamie’s already-mused hair. His hand pushes her head down a bit as he does so, She grabbed Mitch’s wrist to stop him with her own laugh.

“Hey, hey—!” She laughs. “Leave my hair alone....”

Jamie looks up from her lap, a smile still lingering on her face as she does so. It’s the second time that night that they’ve met face to face; the space between them was practically nonexistent. They were close enough that Jamie could feel his breath on her cheek. Dark eyes flicker over to his lighter ones and she stares with bated breath.

It was weird. This was weird. Right?

Seeing him so close was normal. She could remember the countless of times that she’d pull Mitch’s face close during playful banter and vice versa. Not to mention the countless of times that they’ve sat in this same position from before. Jamie couldn’t place what was so different now. Maybe it was the stars—something about seeing the night sky for the first time made her heart soft. The pounding of her heart slowly filled her ears, until it was all that she can really hear. He has a weird expression on his face. She can’t quite pinpoint where she’s seen it before.

His eyes seem to brighten under the light of the stars; there’s a softer gleam to them too. It’s the expression that she sees on him whenever Willy is around. The sort of expression that no one else really sees because Mitch was the mean, rough boy. But Jamie doesn’t see that, she sees her best friend who cares too much for everybody.

Jamie is suddenly hyper aware of the space between them. Or, rather, the lack thereof. She swallows down the invisible lump in her throat. Her eyes flicker over to her hand wrapped around Mitch’s wrist and she lets go out of reflex. Her eyes meet Mitch’s once more and she takes in the way his eyes seem to brighten under the blanket of stars.

...Pretty.

“...’s that so? You’re not too bad yourself, Jay.” Mitch chuckles with a shy smile. Her heart skips a beat at the smile—who’d have thought Mitch could smile so bashfully? Not her. Not ever.

Warmth bloomed at her cheeks as her eyes widened. Her hands come up to cover her face, all too flustered to look at Mitch anymore. She bites at her bottom lip, mind racing what felt like 100 miles per hour. Too fast for her to grasp at any concrete thought. Instead, she keeps her eyes trained on the ground—it almost felt like she was stuck in a carousel. Spinning an endless loop.

“Does this mean I finally beat Louis as the prettiest boy?”

A sudden burst of laughter slipping past Jamie’s lips breaks the endless loop. And she playfully buffs Mitch on the arm. If Mitch was any level of embarrassed, at least he was better at hiding it. “V-very funny, Mitch.”

He grins. One of the shit-eating grins that he managed to perfect. And she buffs him once more. She was still uncomfortably hot on the cheeks but at the very least, her flustered mind began to calm down with his lighter teasing.

“I’m never letting this go, by the way.” He hums appreciatively in thought. “Me being the new resident pretty boy.”

“Shut up already! It was a slip of a tongue.” She protests with a weak glare. Whatever she was feeling—for Mitch, her best friend of all people, had to be some odd psychological trick. She’s exhausted and clearly still in shock from having almost died. Not to mention the stars—especially serving as backdrop to Mitch—was clearly doing something with her mind. That was it, she rationalized with a satisfied nod.

But then, Mitch smiles again and her heart skips a beat and all her rationalizing goes down the drain. She was fucked.