As Darkness Falls

- Slender -

It was one of those few nights when he'd been able to pull himself away from upgrading the security system early enough to get a decent amount of sleep. Chuck had swept his hair back and had gotten most of it in a rubber band, and after brushing his teeth twice (the garlic ravioli Texas recommended had been a mistake,) he had stepped carefully over the diagrams and piles of dirty socks and clambered into bed.

Chuck loved his bed. Maybe it was because he so rarely got to be in it for more than five hours a night. (Sometimes he wondered if it was because he was always more worn out by the Burners' battles than the others were, because everyone else seemed to complain about theirs constantly.)

Whatever the reason, when the programmer squirmed his way under his mountain of blankets and nuzzled into his pillow, he felt like he could sleep forever.

He barely heard his door open, and until there was a weight on the edge of his mattress, he had been half-dreaming about bugs in the program he was trying to integrate into the security feeds.

"Chuck?" A warm, gentle hand was squeezing his shoulder. "Chuckles, you awake?"

"Barely."

"Sorry, dude." Mike hesitated.

Frowning a little, Chuck prompted, "Yeah? What do you need?"

"Uhhh… I, um…" Mike fidgeted, running a hand through his hair. He now had Chuck's full attention. "Nothin.' Just - y'know - checking up on ya."

The blonde stared at him. "Dude, just tell me what's going on."

"Nothing," Mike insisted with a little shrug. His eyes were full moons in the darkness.

Chuck sat up and leaned against the wall. "This isn't about that game, is it?"

"No," lied Mike."

"This is about that game!"

"C'mon, man, it was freaky."

"Mikeyyy!"

"Dude, it was freaky, okay?"

The programmer gave an exasperated sigh and hid his face in his hands as Mike turned to sit cross-legged, waiting for Chuck to pacify him. The blonde gave a heavy sigh.

"That game was not scary."

"How can you say that?"

Peeking from between his palms, Chuck was mildly disappointed to see that Mike was completely serious. The hacker patted his hands on his best friend's knees for emphasis. "The graphics were terrible - probably even for then. The way they built tension was totally predictable. The map was identical every time, and the algorithm for how it moves was ridiculously basic. He wasn't even scary, Mikey!"

"Wh- yes he was!" Mike blurted frantically. "How can you be so cool about this? You're supposed to be the scared one!"

Chuck glared at his leader. "You scare me, Mike. How you drive and how you think and how you rope me into insane crap nobody should ever try - ever. Cheesy, ancient PC games don't scare me."

"IT WAS NOT CHEESY."

A long silence filled the gap between them. Chuck sighed again. "Do you need a hug, man?"

Mike's face was impassive. "Kinda."

The blonde pulled his friend's head against his chest and threaded his fingers into the dark mop of hair there. There was a long moment of contented quiet and of Mike's familiar, musky smell. Chuck did his best not to laugh softly, resting his chin on the other Burner's forehead.

"Maybe we shouldn't play that anymore, man."

The brunette snorted, and Chuck could hear the smile in his voice. "Maybe."

"You sleeping in here tonight?"

"Uh, yeah." A hand was ruffling his hair, making his stubby ponytail fall out and curtain around his face. "Thanks, Chuckles."

"Get under the covers. I wanna get some sleep before Kane terrorizes us next."

There was a flurry of movement as the leader of the Burners stood up and kicked his pants off, crawling into the bed in his boxers and t-shirt. It took everything in the blonde not to burst out laughing when Mike laid down next to him, staring at him with wide eyes.

"Uh, Mikey?"

"Yeah?"

"Don't look behind you."

Chilton whipped around so violently that the bed shook. The programmer howled with laughter, covering his head when blows rained down on him.

"You're suck a jerk, dude!"

If you don't know what game I'm implying they dug up somewhere, consider yourself a fortunate person.

Hopefully there are more lighthearted chapters to come! :P