The shrill ring of a phone broke the peaceful quiet surrounding the two slumbering men. Groaning Spud instinctively lashed out at the offending noise, sending his cellphone skittering off the coffee table to crash on the floor with a shattering sound that caused him to fully awaken. Peering over the edge he sighed and scrubbed a hand across his face, "bloody buggering hell." Sitting up, confused at the warm weight on his legs he found himself staring at Ethan's peacefully sleeping face, one hand still loosely wrapped around his ankle.
"Ethan," murmuring lowly and carefully shifting his legs off of the other man's lap he reached out, intending to simply nudge him awake his traitorous fingers made a detour to brush a stray curl off of Ethan's forehead before sinking into the dark silk of his hair.
Swimming up through the layers of sleep Ethan opened his eyes and turned his head to trap the fingers weaving gently through his hair against the side of the couch, "hmmm, tiger?" Sleepily registering the surprise on Spud's face melt into pleased wonder he mentally played back his words, debating apologizing for only a moment. In truth it had felt … good to use that nickname again.
"You haven't called me that in a long time," swallowing dryly Spud tugged his hand free, standing and stretching with a back breaking pop he reminded himself firmly that kissing the sleepy smile on Ethan's face was an extremely bad idea.
Looking up Ethan grinned at the blush staining Spud's cheeks, an imp of mischief compelled him to push things just a bit further, "I haven't forgotten how fierce you can be Spud, even if I do seem to sleep like a baby next to you. Maybe we should make this a regular thing."
Rolling his eyes at the smugness in the other man's tone Spud used the excuse of bending down to scoop up his phone in order to hide how much he really liked that idea, "honestly Ethan." Tossing it irritably aside on confirming it was indeed broken he turned to look at Ethan with a serious expression, "I only have a double bed, I rather think it would be a bit cramped for the both of us." Ethan's delighted laugh was worth playing along.
"Oh, I don't know about that Spud," smirking Ethan stood and used his height to tower over the smaller man, as always charmed at the way Spud had to tilt his head back to meet his eyes. "You're small enough we could make it work, and I don't mind cuddling."
Blushing furiously Spud smacked Ethan on the chest, with no possible answer he could say out loud he hastily changed the subject, "how about we worry about supper for now." Wincing at the clumsy evasion he flushed under Ethan's slow smirk, very aware the other man had somehow heard the longing in his voice.
Deciding to give Spud a break from the teasing Ethan glanced down, a glimmer of an idea forming at the sight of the broken cell phone. "How about I order us a pizza?"
Following the other man's gaze to his shattered phone Spud sighed, "that … sounds perfect, thank you Ethan." Escaping to the kitchen he grabbed several cold beers, shoving the worry about how he was going to afford a new phone on top of all his other bills to the back of his mind. Tonight he was simply going to enjoy eating pizza in the company of the man he loved.