A/N: I wrote half of this last night when I was supposed to be writing my essay, and I finished it tonight when I was supposed to be sleeping. This turned out rather more...melancholic and introspective than I intended, but that's not necessarily a bad thing. I don't think I can write bright, happy JeTi fluff during such a time.

Tiffany wakes up to a hand lazily tracing patterns along her back. She can’t tell if they’re random scribbles or geometric figures or even letters.

The hand stills. “Sorry, did I wake you?”

She opens , but not her eyes. “Timesit?”

“Too early. Go back to sleep.”

“Whyoup?”

A single finger runs down her side, eliciting a shiver. “I can’t sleep.”

Tiffany musters some effort and manages to crack open one eye. It probably looks like a terrible attempt at winking. Finally, she succeeds in forming a coherent sentence. “That doesn’t sound like you. Hey, do you know anywhere nearby that sells canned food?”

“Uh, are you craving Chef Boyardee or something?”

“No,” she says seriously. “I just think we need to load up on non-perishables and head for an underground shelter.”

“…Why?”

“Didn’t you hear yourself? You just said you can’t sleep. The apocalypse is clearly coming.”

Jessica snorts, and then chuckles, and finally succumbs to full-bodied laughter. They’re pressed right together so Tiffany can feel it against her own body, in her own body. She likes it, sharing something happy.

“You talked in your sleep,” Jessica says idly. “You don’t usually do that.”

No, Tiffany thinks. That’s more her roommate’s forte. Correction: her ex-roommate. That makes her wince a little. She doesn’t think she can get used to thinking about Taeyeon that way, after they’ve lived together for…thirteen years now. It’s rarely a pleasant thing to slap ex- in front of a relationship, be it a boyfriend or friend or roommate. She doesn’t even want to think about adding member to that list, especially given who’s next to her.

“Hello?” Jessica asks. “Did you fall asleep again? You really are turning into me.”

That certainly seems to be what a lot of their fans are thinking. Tiffany has seen more than she can count comparing “9/30” to “10/09” and she wonders when that happened, when 9 turned from a hallowed number to a cursed one for them.

“Tiff?”

“What did I say?”

“In your sleep?”

Tiffany nods. “Mm hmm.”

“You said…” Jessica hesitates. “I didn’t really make most of it out. You talked in both English and Korean.”

“Both languages that you speak,” Tiffany points out wryly.

Jessica opens , looking on the verge of a reply, but then closes it again. “It was mostly just random gibberish.” She bites her lip. “You said my name. More than once.”

Tiffany can tell it’s the truth, but only one part of it, the easiest part to offer. “Jessi?”

“Yeah?”

“No, I mean, did I say it like that? Or did I say Jessica?”

“You said both, I think.”

“What else did I say?” Tiffany doesn’t look away from Jessica, who shifts uneasily, as if she’s trapped in a warzone and wary of stepping on a landmine.

“You said…our fanchant.” Her heart twinges at how Jessica still uses ‘our.’ “But you questioned the forever part. And you apologized. But I couldn’t tell to whom.”

“That sounds about right,” Tiffany says slowly.

“Hey,” Jessica says softly, when she remains silent, eyes on a point in the distance, the past maybe, a different future maybe. “Don’t really be turning into me with the zoning out, okay? One of me is enough.”

“That’s what they thought too,” Tiffany murmurs, mostly to herself.

“What?”

“Nothing,” she says quickly. “Maybe we should get up.”

Jessica’s eyebrows knit together. “Aren’t you tired?”

Tiffany gives a hollow chuckle. “I’ve been tired for the past ten years.” Before Jessica can say something to that, she hastily adds, “Plus, you’re the one who didn’t sleep.”

“I did sleep. I just woke up earlier than you.”

“Hence, I maintain that the apocalypse is coming.”

Jessica shrugs. “If it comes, it comes. It was supposed to be here in 2012, but here we are, still standing.”

“That’s true.” Now it’s Tiffany’s turn to hesitate. “Jessi?”

“Yeah?”

“How did you deal with it, after?”

Jessica freezes for a moment, then recovers and looks at her with unreadable eyes. It’s not that her gaze is blank, like empty pages in a new notebook, but rather it’s filled with volumes of words that Tiffany cannot read. For once, she can’t understand Jessica in any language.

“I…I guess I just did. I don’t know, it sounds lame when I put it like that, but—yeah. There’s no shortcut, you just deal with it the best you can. It’s not easy, far from it, but you find strength in unexpected places.”

Tiffany reaches for Jessica’s hand, fingers slipping between hers with an easy, well-learned rhythm. She doesn’t know how she’s dealing with it, other than finding strength in the most expected of places.

“I’m scared,” she finally lets herself admit, words that she didn’t let out around the others, not because she doesn’t trust them but because she felt that she had to be strong. She always had to be strong for them, and now she has to be strong for herself and she’s not sure she knows how. “This is all I’ve known for the past ten years.”

“It’s okay to be scared,” Jessica tells her. “I was scared too.” Her foot brushes against Tiffany’s, and even though she got her tattoo months ago she has a strange fear that the ink is not yet dry and will smudge off at the lightest touch. “You’re not alone in this.”

“Yeah, I know. I have Sooyoung and Juhyun.” At Jessica’s expression, she has to try really hard to hold back her laughter. “I didn’t finish yet! And I have you. Hey, do you know if Coridel are taking in any new people? Can you pass along a good word for me?”

“…Are you asking me to be your reference?”

“Are you saying yes?”

“Sure,” Jessica says easily. “I have lots of dirt on you.”

“Jessi!”

Jessica breaks into a grin, and for a second it’s like time rewinds and they’re just two bright-eyed, fresh-faced girls dreaming of a future glittering with possibilities. And then the hands of time align again, wresting the light from their eyes and glow from their faces, leaving them cold and alone in the dark.

“Hey,” Jessica says softly. “Don’t get all far away on me again. Just be…here, okay? Here and now.”

“Here and now,” Tiffany repeats, realizing that they had let go of each other’s hands. She reaches for Jessica’s again, and this time, when Jessica’s thumb brushes against the sonyuh tattoo on her finger, she relaxes. “Hey, you know what?”

“What?”

“You made me want Chef Boyardee.”

Jessica smiles. “Well, there’s nothing stopping us from getting some.” She climbs out of bed, almost getting tangled into the covers, and offers a hand to Tiffany. “Come on, partner.”

Tiffany returns the smile and takes her hand. “Right behind you, partner,” she says, as if they’re heading off on a journey together. One thing’s for sure – she’s ready for one.

A/N: Here are Tiffany's tattoos, if you've forgotten them.