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Piers doesn’t really sleep well, never really has so used to the noise and lights of Spikemuth that it takes a bit to get lulled into sleep. It’s no different in Hammerlocke, even if the company is nice. Raihan is warm, his long limbs that take up a significant portion of the bed and has a constant desire for physical contact that Piers still doesn’t really understand. It’s nice though, to be surrounded by that warmth, and there’s something oddly comforting about falling asleep in someone’s arms that Piers can’t deny.
The problem is, Hammerlocke is too quiet. There are no random shouts at 2 a.m., no neon lights flickering outside the window. It’s disorientating. He mentioned it once in passing to Raihan and now when Piers stays the night they play music and leave the curtains just the slightest bit open. Which is nice, but doesn’t really help with the whole staying asleep part. But now when Piers wakes up at 3 and can’t fall back to sleep, he knows the cupboard in the kitchen that holds his favorite mug and tea, and that the warmest blanket lives on his side of the couch.
It’s one of those nights when Piers abandons hope on doing back to bed that he finds himself reaching into Raihan’s closet, light from the window peaking in just enough that he sees it. Piers isn’t sure why the shirt is hanging in there since it’s not something Raihan would ever wear. But he’s tired and too lazy to find where he’d left his clothes last night, and the shirt will likely hang off him like a dress. Without much more thought he grabs it from its hanger. It is, after all, very soft.
Making his way to the kitchen, he goes through his routine, fills and starts the kettle, grabs the mug and tea from the cupboard, waits, and watches. Bringing the mug over with him to the couch, he sits holding the mug in both hands, before pulling the blanket down. He smiles at the book Raihan’s left out for him tonight, The History of Hammerlocke Vault, sounds just about dry enough to lull him back to sleep. He tucks in and sips his tea until he falls asleep again.
“Babe,” Raihan’s voice wakes him up.
“No,” he says, pulling the blanket up further to cover his eyes and rotating so he’s looking at the back of the couch and not the too bright smile on his boyfriend’s face.
“You know you could have woken me up?” Raihan tells him the way he always does. Piers has lost track of the number of times they’ve had this conversation.
“One of us should sleep,” Piers says as he turns back around and gives him his best, very tired smile.
“Looks like both of us did,” Raihan says before climbing onto the couch behind him. “I guess I picked the right book.”
“What time is it?” Piers asks as arms circle around his waist and pull him into warm comfort.
“Not time yet,” Raihan tells him as he presses a kiss into his neck.
Later, they pull themselves off the couch when their stomachs make them. “Huh, not the look I was expecting,” Raihan comments as Piers rubs the sleep from his eyes.
Piers looks down at his current state of dress, deep blue flannel that comes to an end at his knees. Right, not his shirt. “Oh. It looked soft”
“It is. Come on, we can make brunch.”
Raihan spends the night on his way out of town for league business, drops his bags by the door and they spend the day lazy and quiet.
When Raihan’s rotomphone goes off at 3, Piers buries his face further into Raihan’s chest while cursing the alarm out. “Babe, I’ve got to get ready,” voice rough and as tired as Piers feels. Raihan slips out of bed, Piers not far behind him, determined to spend this last bit of time together before Raihan’s gone for a month.
“Come on,” Raihan says later while slipping an arm around his waist and dragging him back towards his bedroom. “let’s get you back to bed. I’ve got a bit before I need to leave.”
Piers climbs into bed without complaint, pulling the blankets up as he does. Fingers run through his hair and he leans into the touch. “Love you.”
“Love you too,” Raihan replies, voice soft and low. “I’ll be back before you know it.”
Raihan reaches down to the bag he left in the corner of the room last night when it’s clear Piers has fallen back to sleep and grabs the blanket from it. It’s the warm one that usually sits on Piers’ side of his couch in Hammerlocke. He drapes the blanket over Piers, sets the flannel on the back of the chair, places one of the books he packed and the note on the bedside table.
Just in case - Rai