Identity V One Shots {𝓡𝓮𝓺𝓾𝓮𝓼𝓽𝓼 𝓞𝓟𝓔𝓝}

Aesop x Andrew: Early in the Mornings

Good morning! Cheered the sun.

Indeed. Is what Andrew did not think. He was tired, and wanted to sleep. Unfortunately, the sun is an attention hungry toddler in the mornings.

Very little about mornings was liked by Andrew. In fact, he hated the mornings. He hated the way the sun burned his pigment deficient eyes. He detested the way it clawed at his pale skin begging to eat into his skin, where its faux warmth could sink its teeth into his brittle bones. It made him recall his old graveyard shifts, where it relieved him of his duties and signaled the start of the harassment. He was a star that was born blue instead of white, fated to be mocked for eternity by the glimmering ones that surrounded him.

Emily recommended that he spent more time in the sun since it could help him with his vitamin D deficiency, but Andrew didn't want to spend any more time than needed in her fiery embrace. Her gaze alone made him shrivel up and shrink like a dried potato. He'd rather spend hours in the infirmary, leaning over a counter and desperately trying to swallow a few hard white pills, than be barbecued into a charred meatstick. It happened once, and the pain didn't make him want to relive it.

Unfortunately, his eyelids failed their duty to keep him wrapped in sleep's sweet embrace, and he awoke with a slight scowl when the morning sun stabbed her fingers into his delicate eyes.

Still, he grumbled and tried to block her assault with his hand, but he was used to the bitter cold of the night, and the heat on his skin made it impossible to sleep.

Andrew could feel his patience slipping. He would slip out of bed himself to fix the issue, but he couldn't forgive himself for waking another person. He grabbed his shovel from the bedside and used it as an extension of his arm, mashing the curtains closer so they rejected the sun's advances.

Proud that he was no longer being cooked alive, Andrew smiled and quietly returned the shovel to its original position.

Rest seemed to evade him for a while, and Andrew stared at the ceiling for longer than he'd like. He didn't enjoy contemplating life; especially his past.

Oletus manor was the first time he'd felt the warmth of a family; a sense of belonging. It was the first time since the death of his dear mother, that he'd felt genuine love from those around him.

Maybe it was recalling the friendships he'd made, or the love he'd picked up, that lured the lady of sleep back to him, but he soon dozed off.

Perhaps it was their shared opinion on the morning that brought them together; Aesop hated the mornings as well, but for a different reason. He used to wake up early in the mornings with his mentor, to prepare different bodies. As a child, he resented the hours where the sun herself had barely awoken. He could remember the earlier days of embalming patients in the morning, ones where he bit his lip to keep his small stomach from committing suicide and clenched his hands with a force strong enough to crack a dead man's spine in the palm of his hand.

Though he wasn't deficient in certain vitamins like his lover, he certainly wasn't clear by Emily's standards. He too, received the 'get more sun' speech from Emily.

Now, he wasn't sure when he'd awoken, but he was sure that Andrew had risen before him. The shovel was perched at an awkward angle against the wall, and the curtains had been awkwardly shoved together; perhaps a resemblance to the way he and Andrew slept in bed.

Every night, they'd start facing away from each other; it was the only way Aesop felt comfortable. The position meant they could avoid eye contact, but they were close enough to hold pinkies on their trip to dreamland together. Of course, by the morning they'd be woven together in a messy tangle of limbs. Even during nights where Aesop would be violently shaken from his sleep, he always woke with his face in Andrew's chest.

Xenon, Calcium, clay. All materials he'd never forget; knowledge his mentor had bestowed upon the student, before the mentor moved on to the next realm. Aesop can still remember watching his mentor mix the chemicals for preserving bodies. He can still smell the metallic scent of blood as organs were scooped from the deceased and placed into clear jars. The pale, unmoving face of his mother forever haunted him.

Too many bad thoughts to start the day. Aesop practiced the breathing techniques he learned from Norton as he wrung his hands together.

Today was going to be a good day. He and Andrew were planning on cleaning and restoring the tombstones in the far corner of Oletus. Aesop couldn't ruin the good vibes before they'd even started. He glanced at the time, and reasoned that since they weren't supposed to be leaving until six hours later, he could afford to fall back asleep.

Intuition told him sleep would not return easily, and Aesop tossed and turned a bit. This must've woken Andrew, as one of his hands reached towards Aesop's, and their fingers wove together. No words needed to be spoken; a mutual understanding sewed their hearts together.

Mutants, outcasts, were the two were before Oletus. And defects were what they started as. But an unknown force; perhaps destiny, said Eli at one point, pulled them together. Maybe Lady Fate took mercy upon their lonely souls and tied their red strings of fate together.

Even though their pasts differed, they found each other and learned to love. The ghosts of their past might be something they've accepted, but the things the morning stood for might never disappear from their memories. But perhaps mornings weren't that bad, especially wrapped up in the arms of a lover.