Rei opened the door of the small apartment to reveal a dark bedroom, neatly organised and well-presented. He closed the door behind him as he stepped inside, toeing his shoes off to reveal his butterfly print socks. There was almost total silence in the room, except for the faint sounds of deep breathing coming from his bed at the other side of the room. It his boyfriend, Nagisa. He took his phone out from his pocket to check the time. He under-estimated how bright his screen was in the darkened room, and caused his eyebrows to knit together while he squinted through his red-frames.

02:13am.

"Fuck." Rei whispered under his breath. He had just come home from work, but after working over-time for a little extra money he hadn't anticipated to be home this late. He sighed and slid his phone back into one of his pockets, before making his way over to where his younger boyfriend lay.

He sat down on the edge of the bed, before carefully swinging his legs up and propping himself up onto his elbow to get a good view over the sleeping boy beside him. His eyes scanned over Nagisa's body, taking in the beautiful sight. His thick blonde hair was sprawled across his forehead, tickling his eyelashes ever so slightly which made his eyelids twitch in retaliation. Rei slowly brought his hand to Nagisa's face and softly brushed the hair to one side, letting the soft locks flow through his long slender fingers.

He noticed that the younger boy must have been sleeping restlessly throughout the night, as the covers were almost entirely off him, exposing the entire top half of his body. Also, his green penguin shirt had rolled up at some point, revealing the small tanned waist beneath it, illuminated by the glow of moonlight shining in through the window. Rei took matters into his own hands and gently tugged the shirt back down to meet Nagisa's (also penguin-themed) boxers, and pulled up the covers so that they were wrapped around the smaller boy, holding him in a warm and soft embrace. He heard Nagisa sigh contently during his slumber, which made his heart skip a beat. After all the time they had spent together, he still hadn't quite gotten his head around just how effortlessly cute Nagisa could be, even while he was unconscious at 2am.

He stood up from the bed and was about to get changed out of his clothes, until he heard a soft groaning noise from behind him. He turned around to see Nagisa rubbing his eyes with clenched fists.

"Rei-chan?"

his voice was low and hoarse, which made Rei feel overflown with guilt, both for coming home later than expected and for waking him up from his peaceful slumber. He knew how important it was to avoid messing with the brain's REM cycle, especially since Nagisa didn't get too much sleep nowadays with having to go to work and college every day.

"I'm sorry for waking you up, I didn't mean to" he said, throwing on a baggy grey t-shirt and removing his black work trousers to replace them with his blue tartan pj bottoms. He walked back towards the bed, and stood over the blonde boy, looking down to him apologetically.

"Rei-chan, I'm so happy you're home." Nagisa was relieved, and was trying to sound as cheerful and excited as possible, but his voice was still husky and his eyes could barely open to look up at him. He was still so exhausted. He stretched his arm out and took the older boys hand in his own, squeezing it gently.

Rei laced Nagisa's fingers into his own and ran his thumb over the soft skin of his sleepy boyfriend.

"Yeah I'm sorry, I expected to be home 3 hours ago but they asked me to stay back to help clean up after everyone had left."

He could tell that Nagisa was struggling to stay in any physical state to hold a conversation at the minute, so he let go of his hand to climb under the covers with him. The younger boy shuffled backwards in order to give them both more room, but his efforts were defeated when Rei wrapped his arm around his waist to pull him closer. With one hand on his boyfriends small waist, he used his other hand to stroke the blonde's soft messy hair with his fingers, holding him tightly against his chest.

"I missed you so much Rei-chan." Nagisa mumbled, his voiced muffled against Rei's warm chest. He laced his arms around the larger torso, holding onto him as tightly as he could, as if holding onto Rei was the only thing that could keep him alive.

Rei smiled and slipped his hand up the back of Nagisa's shirt, before running his fingers up and down his spine slowly. He could feel the smaller boys skin twitching slightly at first due to the tickling sensation, but he soon relaxed into Rei's touch, and tangled their legs together at an attempt to get even closer. The dark-haired boy chuckled softly at his desperate efforts, and ceased the tickling to simply place his hand on the warm, bare lower back of his boyfriend.

"Don't worry Nagisa-kun, I'm not going anywhere. I'm right here."

He spoke in a calm, reassuring voice. He could feel how hard Nagisa was clinging onto him, he didn't want to ever be the reason that his boyfriend was scared or hurt. He knew how sensitive the younger boy was, and how many time's he had been hurt in the past, and he certainly did not want to be just another name on the list of Nagisa's "fuck-ups".

"I didn't think you were going to come home, I started over-thinking everything and thought that you had just left me without any explanation, I was so scared Rei-chan..."

Rei could hear Nagisa's voice start to crack while he spoke, and it broke his heart. He tightened his grip around the boy's waist and carefully moved his other hand down from the golden hair to caress his boyfriends soft cheek with his thumb. He brushed the smooth skin in slow, calm motions in an attempt to calm Nagisa down, but froze momentarily when he felt a warm, wet texture on his own skin.

Nagisa was crying.

He placed his fingers underneath the blonde's chin and tilted his head up so that the tear-filled eyes met his own. A warm palm cupped the hot, moist cheek while his thumb attempted to brush away some of the tears that were slowly falling.

"Nagisa-kun..."

Rei leaned down and pressed his lips against Nagisas. The kiss was soft and sweet, despite the salty tears lacing over his boyfriend's (and now, his own) lips. He snaked his arm further around his boyfriend's waist, pulling him so close that he could no longer tell which was Nagisa's heart beat and which was his own. He pulled away slowly and wiped away the remainder of the tears, relieved to see that he had stopped crying.

"I would never leave you Nagisa-kun. Never in a million years would I ever do anything to hurt you, I love you. I want to protect you no matter what."

His voice stammered slightly on the L-word. This was the first time he'd ever admitted it to himself. He loved Nagisa, there was no other word to describe how much he adored this boy.

Nagisa looked up at Rei with hope, a slight smile formed in the corners of his lips.

"Really? Do you mean that Rei-Chan?"

Rei slid his glasses off and leaned in to kiss Nagisa's forehead one more time, before placing the red frames on the table beside him. He pulled his boyfriend back into his chest. He was blushing lightly at what he had just said, he wasn't usually this verbally open about his feelings, and it felt very strange to him to get it off his chest. He furrowed his eyebrows together and closed his eyes, trying to ignore the embarrassment that was flooding through him.

"Yes I do, I'm so sorry for worrying you tonight. Please try and get some rest now though, okay?"

Nagisa let his eyes close and smiled softly into Rei's chest, taking in the scent of his loving boyfriend as he squeezed the older boy's waist to hold his body close to his own.

"I love you too Rei-chan."