Chapter Text
It was Ford's first night in the heart of gold. It was amazing. He didn’t expect to be getting any sleep tonight so had settled on roaming the halls.
Everything looked so new, high-tech. Not what he was used to on his time on Earth.
A lot of the stuff was still brand new. Boxed or wrapped up. He did pass by Arthur's room a couple times but he didn’t think the other man would be too happy about being woken up.
He had tried to at least stay in his room, but it was just a bland guest room, so nothing interesting in there.
It was interesting enough without going into any rooms anyway.
There were a lot of robots about he could talk to. One or two would sometimes follow him around for a bit. Though it still seemed pretty lonely wandering the dark halls by himself.
….
He ended up in the control room. He didn’t dare press any of the buttons on the control panel. It was still amazing to examine anyway.
Marvin stood slouched over in the corner. He wasn’t the best company anyway so he tried his best not to disturb him. Though a couple glares, or the equivalent of a glare he could get from a robot, was sent his way.
It was quiet dark in the room so he ended up fiddling with a few buttons in hopes of a light switch, after a few unsettling noises came from when he hit the buttons eventually he found the right one. It didn’t do much to spike his interests as he’d seen this room before obviously.
He settled for watching the small screen showing the outside. It wasn’t much but after a while stars began to appear.
It was calming to watch after whatever the hell had happened the past few days.
Not like he wasn’t used to it, but that didn’t mean he enjoyed it.
He did worry wonder how Arthur was fairing with this. It would be worse for him as well, with no experience, as well as having his planet destroyed pretty much right before his eyes.
He seemed to be doing alright, though he had discovered that humans commonly hid their feelings or lied about them. But he did seem if not more shell shocked then anything, when it had first happened he had acted distraught, or maybe just confused? He wasn’t sure.
Ford was never very good with knowing how people felt, and how to react to it.
He pondered this, eyes fixed on the tiny screen now disabling a dwarf planet.
It was a small brown thing. Ford liked brown, it tended to hide a lot of much more interesting colour in it.
Like just now, he could see a muted amber speckled with bits of gold on the lighter side of the planet. It kind of reminded him of Arthur’s eyes when he let his mind wander.
They didn’t pass by many more planets. He didn’t mind, less people to spot them and bother them.
It was getting boring staring at the stars after a while, they weren’t much to look at when you got close enough to properly see them.
His back started hurting as well so he took that as a sign to go back to his room and at least lie down, he probably wouldn't get much sleep anyway, though he was tired enough now to.
After a slow walk to his room. And a slight detour to go check out a door that had opened.( Which was just a cleaning robots doing and got his hopes up for nothing.) he finally came back to his room face planting the bed with a soft groan as he let his tried eyes shut though he knew it wouldn’t help him sleep, as he tried that countless times before.
He’d always had trouble sleeping and it had gotten worse when he’d found out about earth. He didn’t know why, he wasn’t particularly fond of earth, though it did have some nice views.
After trying and failing to find a comfy position he sat up, his head resting uncomfortably against the hard wall of the ship as he flicked through the guide out of boredom.
There wasn’t much to do on a never before used ship.
Whenever he lay, or sat still for too long his leg ached. Not painfully but a dull, constant pain that pissed him off too much to stay still. So that was how at, probably around 3 am he was pacing the length of his small room over and over to stop the pain from returning.
He kicked his leg at thin air every once in a while which probably looked stupid.
Giving in to his restless leg he opened the door as roughly as he could without making too much noise before starting another walk through the halls.
The cold air was nice on his skin as he walked, it had felt too stuffy in his room.
He had been meaning to go back to the control room, he had. But instead his tried mind had thought fuck it for him and trudged down too Arthurs room, which was pretty much the opposite way from the control room.
He knocked before pushing the unlocked door open, letting it click shut behind him.
Arthur seemed to be fast asleep in bed. He would expect that from an unexperienced human after a day like they’d just had.
He stalked over as quietly as he could to stand by the small bedside table.
It had been left untouched as Arthur hadn’t brought anything with him. Which was unfortunate as Ford would have liked something to distract him from the man by his side.
Which was weird as he was ignoring the reason he came in here for.
He must’ve made some noise or maybe Arthur sensed there was someone there as he stirred rolling onto his back before blurry opening his tired eyes to focus on Ford. They only widened slightly as he realized he was there before going back to their half lidded state that probably meant he’d be pissed at Ford in a moment.
“Umm? What d’ you want F’rd?” he spoke, clearing his throat slightly though it still didn’t help his sleep muddled state.
“Uh, nothing, nothing I just.. Couldn’t sleep.” Ford muttered looking down in embarrassment now for some reason.
“Ook? And uh, what did you come to me for” Arthur asked through a yawn.
“Um, no reason.”
“Right, ok..”
“Ok..”
“Are you gonna go back to bed then? Try catch up on some sleep?” Arthur tried as Ford shifted from one foot to the other in hopes of a distraction.
“Ford?” Arthur tried again, as much as he liked Ford he also liked sleep.
“Hmm?”
Arthur let out a soft sigh before speaking up again, moving to sit up now, he would be eye to eye with Ford if he would meet his eye.
“What’s up? Why can’t you sleep?” he asked, trying to coax something out of the clearly uncomfortable alien.
“‘M not sure.. J’st can’t.” Ford muttered out a response, wincing internally about how difficult he was probably being.
“Anything I can do to help..?” Arthur offered, making Ford look up at him, his eyes darting from the bed back to Arthur again.
Arthur knew what was going on now, it finally clicked into place. This had happened a few times before. Back on earth when they’d get drunk at his place they’d normally end up tangled together on the couch or sometimes his bed the next day depending on how drunk they had been.
Ford had always been a clingy drunk, Arthur had always found it secretly enduring, though when he joked about Ford just gave him either a stern look or a glare.
Anyways he guessed with how sleep deprived Ford look the same drunken feelings were probably happening now as well.
"Do you wanna sleep in here tonight?” he asked, Ford’s eyes snapping to him as he spoke.
“Really? You-you don’t have to..” Ford spoke tilting his head at the option.
“Yeah it’s fine, I don't mind.” Arthur said, laying back down turning his back to Ford, he was done with this conversation, now he needed sleep.
He heard quite shuffling as Ford moved to the other side of the bed before slowly lying down. Arthur closed his eyes, content with the decision and ready to head back to sleep. He will admit it was nice to hear Ford's slow breathing, nice to know he wasn’t alone on this big ship.
He was about to fall asleep when he felt something grab his hand. He felt Ford drag his fingers along Arthur's hand, tracing the lines, trailing a finger over a small scar on the back of his hand.
Arthur wouldn’t admit it but it did feel nice. Calming kind of, though he didn’t think he’d let anyone else do it to him. Ford moved on to his wrist and arm after that, though he still kept one hand clasped in Arthurs. He felt along the veins, starting with the bigger ones before slowly moving back down to trace the smallest ones.
He was sad to end it but he knew that Ford would keep himself awake all night if he had it his way, and he knew if he waited any longer the sensation would put him to sleep.
Turning over he let their hands fall apart to instead wrap his around Ford, earning a surprised reaction out of Ford as he was now trapped between Arthur's chest and arms, if he lent his head down he could rest it on Arthur’s shoulder if he wanted.
“Shh, jus’ go to sleep, you’re fine.” Arthur muttered a quick reassurance before dropping his head to the pillow with a small smile, his work done.
Ford tried his best, but it was nice, and warm, and comfy. So he settled. Arthur didn’t have a tight grip on him so he shuffled around a bit before finding a comfy position, eventually pushing at Arthur slightly to get him on his back so he could effectively rest against his chest.
He stayed like that for a bit, trying not to fall asleep even though that was the whole point of this. But he liked this, and he didn’t think he’d get this again for a while. So he savored it for as long as he could before his eyes got too heavy to stay open and he shut them, content with going to sleep for once.
If he was aware enough he would’ve realized that Arthur stayed up till he fell asleep.
If he was aware enough he would’ve felt Arthur press a light kiss to his hair before letting his chin drop there when he fell asleep.