Time Scurries Away
"Feast or famine" accurately describes the weather bombarding the apartment complex. For weeks, it had been bright sun, mild winds and pleasant outdoorsy conditions. They were in a small drought, but nothing too severe, only lacking maybe an inch or two of rain. That was before this had to happen. In a sudden and dramatic change of mind, the climate switched from picnic weather to stay inside forever weather.
Which is to say that it was raining. A lot. Going on upwards of three weeks, raining if not every day, then every other day. At first it had been a glorious change, as the air no longer felt that it was desiccating the inside of the lungs when breathing. The plants gave a communal sigh of relief, their branches and leaves unfurled outwards like a child with outstretched arms receiving a hug. Trees turned greener, birds sang louder, the splendor of nature wore a bright happy face.
For the first week, at least. After the next week of continued downpour, the plants were a little waterlogged but looked content. When the third week arrived in billowing sheets of wet, the drainage ditches overflowing with brown cloudy water and tiny rivulets changing the landscape into swamp, no one was happy.
Especially, two individuals lying in bed on a thoroughly dismal Sunday. The gentle rumble of thunder murmured happily in the distance, ignoring the rest of the ground dwellers in its performance. Light, pitifully dimmed from the rolling blanket of clouds, came into the room as a muted grey glow instead of full beams. Allowing the room to stay darker than usual, even when the sun should have been at its peak in the late morning.
The figure sprawled out on his back opened blurry eyes a crack to greet the day. Judging by the aforementioned glow, he thought it must be at least 11:00. A deep sigh of resignation came from him, because it was still raining. Hearing it pitter-patter in soft splats against the window and roof. He liked rain as much as the next person but you sure as hell get sick of it after three weeks.
On the other side of the mattress was another figure, entrenched in sleep. Orange hair sticking up in bizarre and frankly amusing angles, face buried into the pillow. Joshua could tell from the change in breathing pattern that his partner was just now coming out of the heaviest part of slumber, drifting into the light phase before awakening. He turned his head, blinking a few times to clear up his vision and observed the mild rising and falling motion beside him with great fondness.
Not giving it any thought before, Joshua wondered absently if there was some primal root left over from days long since gone that was the cause of this. This feeling of comfort that comes from sleeping beside someone you love, which can't be mimicked or forged in any other way. Having another soul, who feels the same for you, at arms-length in the hours of the night when you are the most vulnerable. Although, it would be a lie to say that they slept together in a calm fashion. Quite the contrary, as Joshua unabashedly found sleep in the most ridiculous positions and flailed in his sleep.
He hadn't minded sleeping alone and still did on occasion. This wasn't his apartment after all, though it might as well be, since he spent most of his time here. The main complaint that he had was that the full mattress might work okay for two normal sleepers, but Joshua's violent reposing patterns left almost no room for anyone else. Even the owner of the bed.
A mighty, jaw-cracking yawn escaped him, accompanied by a stretch as he settled back into the sheets. As his movement jostled the bed some, the other person stirred, taking a deep breath in and curling further into the pillow trying to beat the annoying wakefulness. It was not successful though, as even the heaviest of sleepers have to get up eventually. Joshua, who was now almost completely awake, continued to watch him struggle to wake up, floundering between the border of almost asleep and foggy awareness.
Back among the living to a degree, Neku caught eyes with him and after a pause to allow the mental gears to grind, he manage to drag out, "What?" Neku's voice was husky with sleep and a little grumpy. Waking up to find someone inches away from your face, staring. What a way to start the day.
"Nothing." Joshua replied, rolling over to his designated section of the bed and reaching for the phone on the bedside table.
"Hmph."
He halted. Seeing the sheets get pulled closer around Neku as he settled into sleep again, his partner interfered. "And what do you think you're doing?"
There was a different distinct grumble that translated into 'fuck off'. Neku closed his eyes to the grey hued room and a certain grey-blond asshole staring at him. Joshua rolled his eyes, then letting them rest on the shape curled into a ball next to him. Joshua envied how normally Neku slept on his side. Being able to sleep without thrashing around like you're fighting invisible bats looked like such a luxury.
"Oh, so I'm going to have to get around all by my lonesome?" He asked in mock dismay. Silence filled the space. He frowned but sat up with the intent on inching to the edge of the bed, beginning the daily routine. Seeing how much water had accumulated in the street, how hard it was raining, did it plan on quitting- all of the precipitation procedures. If it kept up for another week, Joshua humored the idea of investing in a gondola.
It was at that moment when a pale arm slithered its way across the bed and wrapped around his waist, circling it lightly. Looking back, Neku looked like he was still sleeping. Joshua paused for a moment, weighing the pros and cons of getting up or going back to bed. Upon finding the pros triumphantly superior, he gave an indulgent grin and settled back in. Aligning himself parallel to his partner, smoothing Neku's stray hair segments from protruding in unwieldy points. He had only left the comfort of the sheets for a second and already he'd forgotten how pleasantly warm they were. How pleasantly warm it was to be near flush against him.
"You're very persuasive sometimes, Neku." He spoke softly, not risking speaking in a normal tone at such close distance. The last thing he wanted was to be yelling into his face as they were both trying to drift off again.
"Mmph." An affirmative mumble answered him. Joshua continued playing with his hair, alternately twirling pieces of it and running fingers along his nape until his eyelids felt weighty.
Well, he thought, fading into unconsciousness, not like there's anything else to do.
The thunder outside gave a rumbling applause in approval.
~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~
~Author's Note: It's been raining here but writing short, cute fluff is great in this weather. "It Looks Like Fire" is still in progress, just taking a moment away to reconfigure how I want it to be and planning.
As usual, thanks for reading folks, it always makes my day to see that people actually read my stuff which is completely bewildering and makes me giddy.
-Moose.