A House isn't a Home Without You
[Duke x Bells]
The sound of thunder rolled loudly over the soft music playing in the small apartment. All the lights were dimmed to a medium, making every room seem glazed in honey waves, contrasting around the blackness that blocked out the scenic windows overlooking the street below. The plainness of the apartment amplifying the mild gold hue that befell the three room flat, as a melody fluttered and waned against the walls. The owner of the household, being only half sober on sleep, mulled thoughtlessly as he read over the same page in his book for the third time in the last hour.
Tired and groggy but still refusing to sleep. Beelz was never one to shy away from sleep, he was normally the first of his siblings to fall asleep. Cherishing the privilege to get as much sleep as he desired without worry. His early years of abandonment still to blame for his logic on such a simple thing most found a normal part of life, as well as his near constant state of hunger.
Yet, the recently turned 21-year-old, couldn't figure out the reasoning for why he refused to sleep; why he continued the torment of staring down the same page of romantic text over and over again. Why he was reading the book at all was lost to him at this point. After barrowing another stack of books from Pastor Ange's sister-in-law, Angela, who ran the small alleyway book store near the store-front district, the blond –for the most part– randomly picked the first novel on top of the pile, flipped to a decent page within the first-third of the book and started reading. Bells struggled to stop himself from dozing off on the cold loveseat situated adjacent to the full bookshelf in the corner of his very empty bedroom.
Normally his white room would have a little more warmth, a little more life, when the Lord's boyfriend was there. However, he seemed to be the one vacant on the blonde's flat for the moment. Duke hadn't been there since Bell woke up, cold and alone, in bed that morning. Finding that the larger male had been called into the Royal Knight's HQ earlier than usual, due to police investigations needing back up in a case linked to the Demon Lords new business employees for a backdoor operation. Money was more Barb's department as he was in charge of the operation, as Luc would rather not deal with having multiple DL's in cuffs and only have to pay for one bail fine as well. And, though none of them would say it out loud, Bells' mother would lose it on the older blond if her beloved glutton landed in cuffs.
Looking at the digital clock on his bedside table, Bell moved his glasses to rub the heel of his hand against his eye. 11:47 PM. Duke said he'd be back before 10 in his message. "What the hell, Duke." He mumbled grudgingly. All day he was fine without seeing the taller; he and his mom went for brunch at a nice place, took Ai and Mako to the park, even let Behemoth go to their alt form –which he hardly ever let them do because of their dog-like tendencies– and play with the youths. For some reason, the night made him miss Duke. Whether it was at his or Duke's, they almost always slept together, they hardly ever went to bed without the other. They've been together for five years and they've been doing it for just as long.
The blond groaned finding his frame of mind unhelpful. He dropped the book onto the other end of the loveseat, and swung his legs off. Maybe a drink would help. Pushing the sliding door to his room aside, he entered the main room of his flat, taking a glance at the speaker system as it softly played the ending chorus for "Overload". Duke never understood how someone like Bell would openly listen to Angels and Airwaves. Seeing them as a more upbeat band for the blond, but he wasn't complaining about it since the blond would probably counter with why the knight had such a wide collection of E-Dubble and Hollywood Undead. He guessed enjoying American artists was just another one of those things they shared.
By the time he was in the kitchen pouring himself a glass of water from the plastic pitcher in the fridge, the lock mechanisms of his door groaned and sputtered as a familiar key slid into the tumblers. Bell sputtered himself at the sudden loudness of his lock. It was on quiet nights like these he realized he needed to grease up his lock, damn thing was so loud.
For a singular moment the Lord thought about making a second glass of water for the other male, but completely forgot about it when he realized the glass that was in his hand before was on the ground, thankfully in one piece, but his feet and the edges of his purple plaid pajama pants were now cold and wet from the water. Bells' brain completely rebooted then, lost beyond comprehension, drifting between being there and asleep. And after finally coming to reality again, came back to the puddle his toes were in, and carried on crouching down to pick up the unscathed glass and clean up the pool with a hand towel.
"Bell, you're still up? I thought you'd be asleep by now." Duke said, peeling off his blazer. Dark splotches covering the shoulders and sleeves, thick rain was pouring down in patches across the city. Duke's hair and the collar of his red button-up were damp with water, even his tie had a few large dots on it too. He looked frigid; his nose and ears were getting a bit of a rose color on them, his eyes had dark hue under them, and his lips were pale. His broad shoulders quivered in the door way as he tugged at his tie and kicked off his shoes. "I didn't worry you did I, sweetie?"
"…N-no, no, you didn't." His brain stumbled, rolled over itself like worked taffy, sleep and relief blowing bubbles in his head as he registered Duke's frozen stance, before feeling the sharp popping of being grounded once more. "In fact, you worry me more now that you're home."
Duke gave him a look, Bells then relapsed; thinking over his sentence for a second, believing he said something wrong. 'In fact, you worry me more now that you're ho-.' "Home." Bell hardly ever called his apartment or anywhere else home. Stopped calling any place besides his mother's home. It was a fear thing, attachment to a location that wasn't permanent. Another thing inflicted by his early years. Bell sputtered outright this time; feeling his face warm up as Duke let a small smile garnish his face.
"I-ignore that! I-I uh! What I mean is-! What I meant was-! I'm tired ignore everything I say tonight, alright!" Bell gargled out, his brain readying to collapse with how tired he was. Was he really this pathetic, he couldn't function two and a half hours after his usual curfew. Apparently, if he was scrambling like a scared kitten seeing its own reflection. Before he knew it, the taller was in his personal space.
Duke crowded Bells' space in typical fashion; eclipsing the smaller waist with his barkers' arms, filling the space between that creamy neck and the curve of the half covered collarbone, and digging his nose into the warm woolly flap of the large black sweater's stretched turtleneck. And on impulse Bell reflexively wrapped his arms around the larger, stuffing his hot cheeks into the damp crook of Duke's shoulder. The sound of "Parasomnia" playing softly in the background as the first verse bled into the second and the room began to feel so warm and velvety with the softer sound of rain pattering on the windows in the other room.
"I'm home." Duke muttered gleefully, a smile painted across his face as he kissed the column of the skin in front of him. Bell didn't say anything for several moments, too tired and too cozy in the other's arms to try forming words.
"Welcome home." He finally whispered into the red button-up. Everything was hazy and blind to the sounds of the music finally breaking into lyrics before dropping into alien silence, never once noticing the feeling of being laid down in the sheets of his bed with Duke not far behind. Yeah, it certainly did feel like home when Duke was there.
