This was great. Bloody fantastic to be precise. Earlier that day, they arrived in Monteriggioni, their first real stop in days. Desmond and Lucy had been busy trying to find an entrance to the sanctuary, while Shaun had to wait with Rebecca. It wasn't like he wouldn't enjoy her little shit chat about snowboarding, because really, he didn't.. but at some point she seemed to have enough of his snarky remarks, so she put on her headphones and made sure the volume was up high enough for him to hear it as well. Rebecca had a horrible taste in music, Shaun had already told her a dozen times. He didn't see how something that went like "DUB DUB DUB DUB DUB DUB DUB" could be called music at all.
And now they had everything set up, had brought all the boxes and the Animus down to the sanctuary, Desmond had managed to get them proper electricity down here and Shaun had hidden the van. They agreed that it was enough action for one day, but only after Shaun scolded them for being workaholics numerous times. Desmond had been in the Animus the whole trip and they couldn't really get anything done if he was tired. Not that the others weren't important too, even though Lucy seemed to think otherwise.
So since they didn't exactly had any beds down here, they had to stick with sleeping bags. It wasn't comfortable, but hey, they weren't on vacation either. Everyone got their bag, but when Shaun rolled out his one, he made a face. It smelled horrible. At first he thought it was Desmond, who just took a swim in that ancient cloake earlier, but no.. it was definitely his sleeping bag. What the hell. When he checked it under a lamp, he saw were it was coming from. Must.
"Great. You won't happen to have another sleeping bag Lucy, no?" Shaun asked annoyed, raising an eyebrow. "This one's rotten and I would rather not choose to sleep in it. I don't want to smell like Desmond in the morning." The protesting sound from the other assassin was ignored with ease.
Lucy shot him a confused glance, which slowly changed into an apologetic one. "Sorry Shaun, these four were the only one I found in the van."
"Oh this is bloody fantastic, how am I supossed to get another one now? It's past midnight, I doubt this hamlet has a day and night wallmart around the corner." he started to nag, already being past the point of being annoyed. This was great, where was he supossed to sleep now? On the animus? Yeah, Rebecca would be thrilled.
"You could share with Desmond, they are big enough, you know?" Lucy suggested, shrugging lightly.
Shaun looked at her as if she was out of her mind. "I would rather sleep in the van than spooning with Desmond." he said flatly, not even looking in his direction.
"Hey I am okay with this." Shaun heard the american say, before the guy rolled his eyes. "I can also take the floor if there's no other solution." Why was he being a nice guy now? Probably to suck up to Lucy. Yeah. Shaun saw no other reason why he would play the hero now. Desmond just being nice and trying to do him a favor? No way.
"No, no no no. If anything, Shaun's sleeping on the floor." Lucy retorted then. Ah right, they needed Desmond. His health was their main concern. Well, Lucy's to be precise. Of course. How could he forget.
"Hey, I understand. My body can take it, I don't have to lie down on that bloody chair all day, doing nothing but watching the adventures of my ancestors, no. Being up and doing some actual research is a piece of cake, why would I need sleep anyway. Thank you very much, Lucy." he snarled that last part, before throwing the rotten bag away.
"Stop acting like a dick already and come over." he heard Desmond respond from the other side of the room. Lucy just shot Shaun an angry glance without trying to defend herself. Maybe she was tired, Shaun thought. But most likely, she just knew that he was right. They always put Desmond first, his well-being was more important than anything else. Secretely they all knew Lucy was simply blaming herself for frying Desmond's brain.
But hell no, he wouldn't share with the bloody american. No way. The floor was no option either if he didn't want his back to kill him in the morning. It already hurt a little from sitting in front of the computer all day, he wouldn't try to damage it further with laying down on the bare stone floor. So it would be the van then. Without another word, he left the sanctuary. Lucy's warnings about it being too risky were ignored, Shaun had already hidden the car without being noticed by anyone.
"He will come back." Desmond said after a while, his voice sounding calm while he had a smile on his lips. Rebecca and Lucy shot him questioning glances, but he simply pointed to the table a few metres next to him. There lay the keys for the van.
Shaun was pissed. Not only did he have the luck to get the only rotten sleeping bag, no. He was as well annoyed by the fact that Lucy put Desmond over anything else. God damn it, it's not like the bloody american could do any of this without them. Shaun was an important part of the team as well. He stayed up all night just to do researches, trying to get some actual work done. All Desmond did was lying down in that chair all day and dreaming about his ancestors and doing plainly nothing. On top of that, he acted like he was tired as fuck, gaining all the pity from the girls. No, Shaun didn't entirely believe in things like the 'bleeding effect'. A little bit of a headache was one thing, but Desmond always acted as if he got run over by a truck. He had no idea how hard the assassins really worked, the real one's, out on the field. At least, this was what Shaun thought.
Yeah, he didn't like the guy. Now that he thought about it, it was probably because he was behaving like a whiny bitch all the time AND gained the pity of the girls for that. What did Shaun get? A rotten sleeping back, bloody fantastic.
It took him a while, but he finally reached the van. He had hid it in the village, in some kind of abandoned alley and covered it with a huge blanket. But then realisation hit him. The keys. He checked his pockets, hoping he had left them in there earlier and not actually put them out, because they felt too uncomfortable in his pants. No, he wasn't so lucky, of course not.
He sighed and leaned against the wall for a moment. There was no way he would go back just to get the keys and return to the van. It took him 15 minutes already and chances to be followed or noticed would rise if he constantly went in and out of this alley or the villa. Defeated, he lightly threw his hands in the air and went back, watching out that he wasn't followed by anyone.
When he arrived at the villa, Shaun noticed that his little walk had cooled him down. So if no one made a wrong comment now, everything should be fine and they could all find some rest. He still wasn't happy about sharing with Desmond, but there was obviously no other way around this. When he entered the sanctuary, everyone looked at him. Rebecca and Desmond were just talking about something, while Lucy read a book, already being in her sleeping bag. No one dared to say anything though, which was just good for Shaun. They probably noticed the warning glance and how thin his lips were. Obviously they had been waiting for him, because Rebecca moved over to her bag now.
Shaun chose to ignore the keys on the table when he moved over to Desmond, who had already spread his sleeping bag over the floor. Yeah, they were wide enough to fit two persons in, but.. this was too close to bloody american for Shaun's taste. Way too close. He sighed at the sight of Desmond already putting down his hoodie, forming some sort of pillow out of it.
"And why is it that you girls can't share one of the sleeping bags? Would be less awkward then, wouldn't it?" he murmured, not really expecting an answer.
"Just shut up and get cozy with Desmond." He could practically hear the smirk in Rebecca's voice, but said nothing, still being a little bit embarrassed about his early outrage and that he was dumb enough to forget the bloody keys. He looked at his new sleepover buddy, who had already made himself comfy on the floor. This was about to be great.
Shaun kicked his shoes off and placed his glasses on the table, right next to the keys, before slowly sliding in besides Desmond. "Ugh.. you still smell like fish, buddy." he commented and made a face. This was how he was supposed to spend his night: sleeping in a too tight sleeping bag, while being pressed up to the man who likes to swim in ancient cloakes and still smelled a little fishy, despite washing himself earlier. Bloody fantastic. "Just try not get too touchy, will you?" he murmured, while wiggling a little to get in the sleeping bag, trying to get more space to himself.
This was so awkward and the giggling of the girls from the other end of the sanctuary didn't make it any better. Shaun couldn't remember a situation in which he had been so close to the other man. Even though they were teammates, he always kept a certain distance to him. Well most likely thanks to Shaun's snarky comments all the time and because of the fact that he didn't even want to get to know him any better to begin with. Well, but he didn't have to befriend him in this sleeping bag either, he just had to sleep next to him.
He heard Desmond complain about how he shouldn't take up so much space, but all Shaun did was snort. "Well maybe you shouldn't have eaten the hamburgers, Desmond. This way we would both have more space now."
"Fuck off." the other Assassin sighed and turned around, so that they were lying back to back. They heard Rebecca snicker from the other end of the room and ignored the "Play nice, boys!" that followed her laughter.
Oh boy, how should he be able to find sleep like this? They switched out most of the lights and Shaun closed his eyes, trying hard to concentrate on falling asleep right away. He was tired, that was out of question, but with the bloody idiot right next to him, he just wasn't comfortable enough to drift off.
After a while, he heard Desmond's breathing becoming more steady, meaning he probably dozed off already. Somehow, it calmed him down a little. At least he wasn't snoring or moving while sleeping. Or.. screaming, like most of the time. While Shaun drifted off, he thought about how he would slap the idiot out of reflex and then another time when he noticed that he woke up by Desmond screaming in the middle of the night right next to him. The mental image of that brought a faint smile on the historian's lips.