The Everton AU.

by ssunsxt


Hangover cure.


— ✦ —

The world was dark and bleary; the only real sense of light in the small room came from the moon outside, bleeding through the curtains, and the horse shaped night-light beside Moondancer's bed. She sat up and wiped her eyes before turning her head to look at her bedside clock, the lambent red numbers indicating that it was only 3 am. Although her vision was blurred, Moondancer could tell that her bedroom door was left open, which was odd, considering it had been closed over when she had fallen asleep. She shifted closer to her bedside table in order to feel around for the protective case of her glasses, which she then proceeded to take out and slide onto her face.

The world around her came into focus and with a small hum she narrowed her eyes to try and make out any shapes in the dark hallway outside of her room. “Hey, Sunset? Are you awake?” She whispered, but when no answer came she instead shifted her gaze to where her best friend was sleeping on the floor.

Had been sleeping.

Instead of the red haired girl she expected to see tucked into her sleeping bag, Moondancer saw Sunset’s blankets scattered in a disarray across the ground. She pulled her own blankets from her body and climbed out of bed to maneuver towards the door, feeling her way through the darkness of her room until she came into the hallway. 

First she checked the upstairs bathroom, making sure to turn on the light and pull back the shower curtain to see if anyone was hiding there. “Sunset?” she whispered again, furrowing her brows as she switched the lights off once more and returned to the hallway. 

Moondancer paused and listened intently for any indication of movement throughout the sleeping house, and after coming up short once again she instead made a mental checklist of her friend’s usual hiding places whenever she did this sort of thing. She wasn’t in the bedroom, that was for sure; and the bathroom was empty, too. Her parent’s room was an automatic “red zone” since Sunset felt too sheepish to even go in there with permission. After checking the only closet upstairs and finding it empty, Moondancer quietly crept downstairs to begin her search of the bottom level of the small home. 

“Sunset?” she beckoned again, squinting her eyes to readjust to the darker lighting of the living room. She then heard her first sign— a hiccup— coming from the kitchen area behind her. She turned on her heel and waited for a moment to make sure it wasn’t just her mind playing tricks on her; but after hearing another small whimper she swifty but silently, moved into action. 

Her living room and kitchen was open plan and so she only had to round the breakfast counter to find her friend sitting huddled in a corner beside one of the kitchen cupboards, wiping at her eyes and shivering quietly. 

Moondancer let out a light sigh and gave a small smile in relief. At least this time she hadn’t actually left the house in the dead of the night, she noted to herself. That was at least an improvement. 

She wordlessly plopped herself down beside her best friend and wrapped her arm around Sunset’s trembling shoulders before pulling the smaller girl into herself, offering up gentle coo’s in order to try and calm her down. 

“Bad dream again?”

Sunset gave no answer for a moment, only a small cough before she wrapped her own arms tightly around Moondancer. “I’m sorry—”

Her voice was small and broken, and everything inside of the other girl just wanted to protect her friend; to make her feel calm and safe. “It’s okay Sunny, I’ve got you.”

Moondancer couldn’t really understand it, and she knew she was lucky that way, but seeing Sunset so fragile like this always broke her heart. She wanted to understand. Wanted to know how to help Sunset understand that she wasn’t alone anymore.

“I just— why did they leave me, Moondancer? Why am I not good enough?” Sunset buried her face into the friend’s shoulder as a small sob bubbled up in her chest and forced itself out of her throat. She didn’t want to wake Moondancer’s parents and inconvenience them more than she already believed that she had. “I’m sorry I get like this all the time, usually there’s no one to w-wake up back home,” she stuttered. 

‘Back home,’ Moondancer thought to herself, ‘the home, more like.’ For once she was grateful for the dark as it hid the frown that settled on her features and the pained expression of sympathy she felt for the smaller girl in her arms. 

She knew Sunset hated that the most. The way people looked at her like there was something wrong with her. ‘Was there something wrong with her?’ the red-head would ask between swings at the park. Moondancer could only shake her head profusely and reply with a firm ‘Of course not, dummy,’ but even she was aware of how old that had gotten, and fast.

Applewood Gardens Children’s Home always did their best to provide financially for the children in their care and Moondancer was especially grateful for their permission to let Sunset stay with her and her parents occasionally on weekends, should they both have their homework completed. But there was something that always itched in the back of the older girl’s mind.

As far as Moondancer was aware, Sunset had simply been left in their care from a young age with no real trauma case in her stead. That was good news, of course, but that didn’t stop the tears; and the shaking; and the ragged, uneasy breaths that tore themselves from Sunset’s small frame whenever parent’s night was a topic of concern. Or when their school would perform a show, and she would be forced to stare out upon the endless sea of faces, with none of her own to search for. No eyes of her own to stare into as they congratulated her on a job well done. No warm arms to welcome her ‘home’.

Another hiccup echoed in the quiet house and Moondancer hushed her once more by rubbing small circles at the base of her back. It worked to ease out some of the red haired girl’s tensions as her sobs soon turned into small yawns, and she rode out the rest of her relapse with her face buried into the older girl’s shoulder. “C’mon, Shim. Let’s go back to bed, okay?” 

The smaller girl gave a nod and pulled back silently to climb back to her feet. Moondancer joined her and cupped her face for a moment, tilting her own head in the darkness to see if there was any remnants of tears staining the usually charismatic girl’s cheeks. She ran her thumbs gently across her damp skin just to be sure before taking her hand and quietly leading her back up the stairs to her bedroom. 

“You need to stop being so silly, Sunset. I’m not going to make fun of you for crying. I will make fun of you for being a dummy and not telling me when you’re upset, though.” 

The smaller girl paused as Moondancer dropped her hand and then gave a small, sheepish nod. “Right… Sorry- ow—!”

Moondancer cut her off with a flick to the forehead, and Sunset let out another small whimper, “Stop apologising, dummy.” 

They both stood in silence for a few moments, Sunset awkwardly rubbing her arm, waiting for her friend to say something else. 

“Sunny?”

“Hm?”

“Could you sleep with me tonight? I had a bad dream, too.”

The room was dark, but Moondancer could see the smile that rose to Sunset’s lips as she gave another small nod and moved closer to Moondancer’s bed, stepping over her own sleeping bag on the floor. The two climbed onto the mattress and under the blankets before huddling closer together, Moondancer wrapping Sunset in a protective embrace against her.

“G’night, Princess Sunset.”

Sunset chuckled lightly, “Good night, Moondancer.” 


Sunset groaned and rubbed at her forehead as she struggled into a sitting position in her bed. She squinted against the harsh light of September as it intruded past her curtains, bathing her room in a warm light. She was going to vomit. 

She tore the restrictive sheets from her legs and made a break for the door, stumbling out and into the bathroom across the hall. She sunk to her knees, slammed the toilet seat against the tank, and released the contents of her stomach into the bowl. 

Just what had she drank last night? She groaned, resting her forehead on her arm as her body slumped against the side of the bathtub. She knitted her brows, trying her best to piece together memories of last night; beyond the rambunctious crowd, terrible taste in music, and the absolute garish wardrobe of the other girls who had been in attendance. Not that she really had any leg to stand on. 

She hummed. 

Who was she there with? Moondancer. Where even was she? Sun… burst. Star… light. Starlight. Starlight Glimmer, in fact. A closet. Starlight’s breath; all too close.

Her eyes shot open as her stomach lurched. She leaned over the bowl again to let out another round of vomit, hacking up bile, and wincing as the stench stung at her nose. 

“Well good morning, Mr Bach. Seems you had a lot of fun last night,” Moondancer arched a brow with a sly smirk as she rounded the door and leaned against its frame. She sipped at her coffee and hooked one ankle over the other. “I think you might have overdone it Arthur.”

“Painkillers…” Sunset groaned, “and a glass of water.”

“Magic word?”

Sunset groaned, louder, “Pleeeease…”

Moondancer set her mug down on the bathroom counter and made her way down the hall toward the kitchen.

Her mouth felt so unbelievably dry, no matter how much she tried to swallow or wet her lips. Sunset pulled back from the toilet seat, only to accept the chilled glass from Moondancer, and popped the two tablets into her mouth. “Gah…” Sunset’s face twisted as she swallowed down a gulp of water, “I don’t know if my throat burns more from the vomit or the vodka.”

Moondancer nodded, collecting her mug before squatting to sit on the bathroom floor with the other girl, leaning her head against the sink cabinet and taking another drink of her coffee. “Yeah. Trying to do vodka shots without any preface will do that to you, babe.”

Sunset stuck out her tongue and took a sip of her water.

“You’re not a drinker, Shim. What did mom and dad teach you about peer pressure?”

The red-head stared down at the ripples in her glass as she swirled it around a bit. She puckered her lips and let out the air from her cheeks. “I just-... I wanted to drink.”

Moondancer rolled her eyes. “Then start on lighter stuff. You pretty much passed out thirty minutes after you started because you didn’t pace yourself.” She leaned forward to flick her sister’s forehead, “You’re just lucky I was there to take you home.”

The younger girl’s brows squeezed into a frown before she fixed her jaw. “Well, if it wasn’t for you I wouldn’t have been there in the first place.”

Moondancer’s face pinched, lips stretching before she gave a lopsided, chagrined smile. “So what? You’re mad I invited you?”

“Yeah.” Sunset paused, wrung the glass between her hands, and sighed. “No. Sorry.” She ran a hand through her hair and sipped some more water to cool herself down. “I just-... Starlight and I almost kissed.”

“Yeah, no shit. That’s kinda how 7 minutes in heaven works.” She rolled her eyes, adjusting herself against the cold tiles of the floor. “I figured something happened, since you bolted out of that closet, at a speed the likes of which I’ve never seen.”

It was Sunset’s turn to roll her eyes. “We were just talking and then she started to lean in. The door opened and I—”

“You shit yourself and ran away.”

“—I didn’t”

“You tore ass, Sunset. Like, really. I haven’t seen you run that fast since they had a special vegetarian chili wrap day at school, and you literally tackled some poor girl on the way to the cafeteria.” Moondancer swallowed down the rest of her coffee, “there’s no denying it, Shim. I was there.”

Sunset scowled.  “Well, whatever. Point is, I don’t know what I’m supposed to do.” She shifted to sit back against the tub, rather than awkwardly propping herself up with one arm, legs tucked to the side. She sipped some more water, sloshed it around her mouth, and spat it into the porcelain.

“Do about what?”

“About Starlight!” Sunset shot the other girl an incredulous glare, “she tried to kiss me! How am I supposed to act next time we talk?”

Moondancer clicked her tongue and sat cross-legged, throwing another eye roll in Sunset’s direction. “Yeah, cause you two totally always talked to each other before the party. Totally forgot that you two were bestfriends.”

“Moondancer.”

“What?” She held her hands up in defence, “I’m being serious. You’re freaking out over nothing. Look, she was drunk, you guys were playing a game, she probably wasn’t even trying to kiss you. She could’ve just been trying to get comfortable. That closet was cramped.

That… made more sense, actually, Sunset frowned. She wasn’t sure why that disappointed her.

“Wait… how do you know how cramped it was?”

Moondancer smirked, “You might have stopped playing, but I didn’t.”

“Damn. So you made out with someone in a closet? Are you, like, thirteen?”

Moondancer punched Sunset in the arm, hard. “On a scale from one to ten, yeah.”

Sunset scoffed and let out a snort, before both girls erupted into a fit of giggles. “You’re a dork. You know that, right?”

“How’s the headache feeling now?”

“Mh,” the red-head hummed. “It feels a little better. Still a killer, and I definitely feel like I could throw up again; but, better.”

Moondancer nodded and pulled herself to her feet using the bathroom counter, leaning over to ruffle Sunset’s already bed-messed hair. “If you need anything just gimme a call. I’ll pick you up some snacks when I go out later.”

“Salted popcorn?” She gave a pleading pout.

“Sure thing. If you want anything else though, just text me. Later alligator,” She gave a small salute and a wink as she rounded the door to leave.

Sunset shot finger guns in response. “In a while, crocodile.”

Once her head had stopped throbbing, and the dorm had settled, Sunset shakily rose to her feet, using the side of the tub for support. She leaned against the counter and the wall, making sure to keep her glass in a steady grip before she could set it down at her bedside. 

She flopped down with a relieved breath. Her body felt heavy and light all at the same time. Her pounding head was in the clouds, which was unfortunate, because every beam of sunlight caused her to recoil further into her sheets. “I’m never drinking again,” she groaned into her pillows, hugging the plush material tight. 

Visions of Starlight danced across her mind in a walts between foggy, alcohol-laden memories, and the fuzzies behind her eyelids. Her body rose and fell like a piston, her heavy breath entering and exiting her lungs through her barely parted mouth. Before long she resigned herself to the sweet embrace of sleep, allowing the gentle mistress to hold her tenderly. 

I wonder what Starlight’s lip’s would have felt like.

“Aaaaand I’m vomiting again.”


Sunset shovelled a handful of popcorn into her mouth, dismissing the kernels that completely missed altogether and tumbled down to join the small collection in her lap. She didn’t even know what she was watching. If she were being honest, she had tuned out for the first half hour and now was dissassociatively trying to follow the narrative. But even Goldilocks and the Three bears would have proved to be Shakespearean in her current state of mind.

After throwing up— what she could only assume to be the lining of her stomach— she had tried to take a shower. 

Tried.

She really tried.

All she could recall was sitting in the tub, letting the water wash over her skin. Was that water hot, she couldn’t tell. She just remembered falling asleep and waking up around 40 minutes later, pruned and hungry. “Ugh,” she’d groaned, “this is why I don’t drink.”

Currently, she found herself wrapped in one of Moondancer’s fuzzy blankets on the couch, gorging herself on popcorn and fruit juice. It was all she could stomach, if she were being honest.

She shovelled another load of popcorn into her mouth. With an almost frustrated harrumph, she pulled at the front of her shirt to inspect the crumbs and salt that coated the fabric. She hesitated with a firm jaw. She plopped the fallen kernels into her mouth, one by one, an animated, cartoonish munching noise punctuating each bite.

Sunset had allowed her hair to air-dry, but the dampness that clung to skin sent a shiver through her system as a weak draft breezed past. She snuggled deeper into her sister’s blanket. 

“Why are you watching…” Moondancer squinted toward the screen as she paced into the room, “is that… Dark Fowl?”

Sunset shrugged, snaking her arm out to collect another handful of popcorn. “Mhm. Honestly I have no idea what is even going on.”

“Have you gotten to the part where the main chick sleeps with the understudy?” Moondancer sat on the arm of the couch, eyes not leaving the screen.

Sunset choked. Through a fit of sputtered coughs, she replied, “The who does what? I thought this movie was about ballet—” 

“Well, it is,” Moondancer leaned over to steal some of the other girl’s snacks, and held the kernels in her hand, picking at them one at a time. “But it’s also, like, a psychological thriller. It’s super interesting.”

“Yeah. I bet. Nothing more psychologically thrilling than sleeping with another woman.” Sunset grumbled, blush faint on her cheeks. She’d blame her shower though.

The older girl snorted and fixed Sunset with a look; not that she would have noticed as she kept her eyes forward. “Thrilling for you? Maybe you should call up Starlight and ask her to—”

“Shut up!” Sunset swatted her, the heat spreading down her neck. “God you’re so insufferable.”

“That’s what sisters are for. You didn’t read it in the fine-print? It was on the adoption forms.”

“Ah, didn’t notice it. I knew I should have had a lawyer comb through it and look at the terms and conditions.”

Moondancer clicked her tongue and slid down to sit beside her sister on the couch and nudged her playfully with her shoulder. “See. That’s why you gotta read those things.”

“You sure got me.”

“How are you feeling now?”

Sunset let out a wistful puff of air, blowing a curled lock of hair from her face, only for it to fall back into place. “I felt better after having a shower and having something to drink, but you’ve just brought my migraines back. I hope you feel terrible.”

“Oh, I do,” Moondancer held a hand over her heart and stole more popcorn with the other. “You’re almost out.”

Sunset grabbed her bowl from the table and adjusted in place. “Yeah cause some asshole keeps eating it all.”

“Now, Sunset. I know you have low self-esteem but calling yourself an asshole isn’t the way to go.”

“You’re so annoying.”

“Again, it’s my job.”

“Well, you’re fired.” 

“I own the company, Sunset.”

“I hold the majority of the shares.”

“Damn…” Moondancer clicked her tongue and shook her head. “You got me there. I know when I’m beat.”

“Mh.” Sunset pulled the blanket from around her shoulders and offered a corner to the other girl who then slipped in beside her, rubbing at her arms and thighs a bit as she adjusted to the warmth.

“Cozy.”

They fell into a comfortable silence, watching the plot flicker by on the screen. Sunset sat quietly as Moondancer made passing comments— sometimes about the narrative; sometimes about the characters; sometimes about the acting. But she always finished off with an airy sigh, “I wish I could write something this enthralling.”

“Hey, moon?”

“Yeah?”

“Thanks.”

“For what?”

Sunset settled deeper into the couch. “I dunno. “

But Moondancer did.