A small beam of sunlight slipped through the narrow window at the top of the wall. The bright light landed directly on Aidan's closed eyes, slowly bringing him back into consciousness. Today was a rare occasion: Aidan was actually awake before Josh. At home, Josh was always up over an hour before he needed to be anywhere. Aidan, on the other hand, had to be coaxed from his bed every morning. He could certainly get up of his own volition - he had been doing so for hundreds of years - but the way Josh would tip-toe into the room and speak softly to wake him was so warm and comforting that Aidan never got up with any real time to spare.
Today it was Aidan's turn to wake Josh. Shifting from his still-cold resting spot upon the concrete floor, he silently stepped over to the large, metal cage door. Aidan gazed through the small window on the door to see the back of a pale and naked Josh curled up in the fetal position directly in the middle of the cold, concrete floor. Without making any noise, Aidan opened the door; and, taking great care, he quietly glided across the floor until he was about five feet from his friend.
"Josh?" Aidan whispered. "Are you awake?" No answer came. Now Aidan was faced with quite the dilemma: Josh would be far more comfortable off that hard floor; but, Aidan simply couldn't bring himself to rouse Josh from his current position. It occurred to him that he had never actually seen Josh asleep; and, he had to admit, it was pretty cute. Just as he began to lose himself in the moment, Aidan realized that Josh must be freezing without any clothes on. He gave in to the slightly more selfish plan of action and decided to just try to make his friend more comfortable. Aidan removed his jacket and draped it gently over Josh. After all, he thought to himself and smirked, 'Let sleeping dogs lie.'
Though his gesture was warm, Aidan's jacket was not, and the icy material brought Josh back to the world of the living - or, at least, the somewhat-living. With a quick inhale and a quick blinking of his eyes, Josh asked, "What's going on?"
"Nothing, sleepy-head. Are you ready to get up?"
"Yeah." Josh pulled on the edges of the jacket to cover himself, feeling slightly embarrassed as he always did after the full moon. "Do you have my clothes?"
Aidan had almost forgotten about that reason for his being here. He had left the clothes in the hallway when he came in to wake Josh. "Right… About that…" Josh shot him a no-nonsense glare and Aidan couldn't stop himself from chuckling. "I'll go get them. Give me a second."
As Aidan turned to leave, Josh sat up and pulled the jacket to his face. He could smell Aidan on it. He knew the smell well, after all, the two men had been around each other for an inordinate amount of time in the past two years. Whereas Josh's smell was musky and wild, Aidan's was soft and sweet. He wanted to bathe himself in that scent so that he could carry it with him wherever he went. But, just at that moment, Aidan turned the corner of the cage wall and tossed the fresh clothes at Josh.
"Okay, Cinderella, get dressed or you're going to miss the ball."
"You realize that if I'm Cinderella then you're the Fairy Godmother, right?" Aidan's face went blank as he realized the flaw in his analogy. But, he was far too excited to let the backfire bring him down.
Because Josh had had the full moon the night before, both of the men had gotten the next two days off. It was rare for the two of them to have days off at the same time, and Aidan was determined to make the most of the occasion. He had been planning the miniature vacation for the last three days, putting everything in place to help Josh feel more like a normal person.
After a moment gathering his thoughts, Aidan returned to the conversation. He smirked and exclaimed, "Bippity-Boppity-Boo!" waving his hand as if holding a wand. "Nope. You're still not dressed."
Josh smirked. Then, Aidan came to the sudden realization that for the entire conversation he had been staring right at Josh, who was stark naked under the jacket and clothes he held and probably was not super comfortable with changing in front of his best friend. "Oh," Aidan said, shocked by his epiphany, "Sorry. I'll turn around."
Behind him, Aidan heard the sounds of fabric sliding smoothly over soft skin and a zipper being pulled quickly shut. "Okay," Josh proclaimed after no more than thirty seconds, "I'm ready to go."
"Good," Aidan said, still grinning, "We have places to be."
"What? No we don't. We both took the day off work, remember?"
"Yeah, that's not what I was talking about. Come on." Aidan put a hand on Josh's shoulder and led him quickly out the cage door.