precious || karlnap fluff fanfiction

if i die dont wake me

Sapnap always had a tendency of picking up habits from his friends, whether that meant acting more physically affectionate towards them, or in this case, driving to get your mind off of things. Of course, this was courtesy of Quackity, and how he'd always drive around aimlessly when he was stressed out about deadlines and such.

Maybe the subject Sapnap was trying to distract himself from was too strong for this coping mechanism, or maybe it just didn't work for him the way it did with Quackity. Either way, the entire drive to North Carolina, when he wasn't singing along to his Spotify playlist, he was thinking about Karl.

It was ironic since he was usually on call with Karl throughout the entire duration of these long drives. But now, even in the absence of his best friend, he was all that he could find to think about. It wasn't exactly unusual, he thought about Karl quite often, but he couldn't help but feel a sense of dread as his car got closer and closer to his house. As much as he always absolutely loved his time with Karl IRL, he was more nervous this time. He wasn't sure why, exactly. It was a bit frustrating.

He finally arrived at Karl's house, sleepy, as he stumbled up to his porch. Luckily, he had a spare key to his house, otherwise, he'd be sleeping on Karl's porch all night in the cold. It almost felt like a tempting offer, considering how reluctantly he unlocked the front door. There was no turning back now-not that there had been for the last several hours, despite how many times he'd considered it.

The kitchen light was on in Karl's house, which confirmed to Sapnap that he'd gotten home safely. Oh, in a strange and sentimental way he had missed this house. He usually felt uncomfortable sleeping at other people's houses-which had presented an issue when he moved in with Dream, which he got over eventually-but he'd never really felt that was at Karl's house, at least not anymore. One night, when they were having one of their sleepy late-night calls while Sapnap was staying at a hotel, Sapnap brought up his hard time sleeping in places he didn't live. Karl asked him if he had that problem when he stayed at his place, and Sapnap was too tired to lie. And that's when Karl proposed a solution-seemingly devastated he didn't know this sooner about his friend-, that Sapnap could try sleeping in his bed with him. It wasn't an entirely foreign concept, they'd fallen asleep accidentally together before, and when they put this official suggestion into practice, it worked.

And every since then, every time they were falling asleep in the same house, it would be together. Hugging each other, usually, their heartbeats in sync-except for the occasional times Karl got too comfortable, and Sapnap's heartbeat sped up significantly. Once, Karl called him out on it, making him swiftly roll out of his arms and cower on the other side of his bed, making Karl laugh.

No one knew they did this besides them, not even their friends. There wasn't any particular reason they didn't tell people, it just kind of turned out that way. Maybe there was a part of him that was scared that anyone would find out about it, irrationally. He knew none of their friends would judge him for it and would probably just laugh it off. Even if they were caught doing worse things, his friends were supportive enough to not mind. Not that they'd ever be caught doing worse things, or do worse things. But hypothetically, his friends wouldn't care, right?

In Europe, he remembered he'd gotten a hotel with Karl, and there were two beds, and for a second, Karl hesitated before climbing in bed with him, and it completely shattered his perfect reality for a while. It made him question if this was something Karl wanted to do, or if he just did it because he knew it made Sapnap sleep better. The last thing he wanted was to make Karl uncomfortable.

He knew that if something as small as Karl hesitating made him so self-conscious, he definitely wouldn't be able to take anyone else's judgment. That's one thing he liked about Karl, he never judged him. He hoped Karl felt that way about him too.

He quietly shut the front door behind him, relieved to see the kitchen light on and Karl's bags on the floor, confirming to him that Karl had made it home safe. He put his backpack full of trash and snacks down beside the abandoned duffle bags, deciding to temperately ignore the fact that he'd completely forgotten to bring clothes, and went to use the bathroom.

Once he was done, he walked out into the hallway and heard a faint scratching noise. It was only the meow that came after when he realized Karl had mistakenly locked his cat in his room with him. He walked up to Karl's door, trying to quietly open the door, careful not to wake him if the cat's angry meowing hadn't already. The cat ran out the door, not even stopping to greet Sapnap.

Sapnap's eyes soon found their way to Karl's dark room-the only light coming in was that of the hallways-and onto the blob of blankets on his bed. He smiled fondly, walking into the room. Karl was laying on his side, wrapped up in a burrito with all his blankets, his face squished against his pillow.

He wasn't sure why the state of his friend made his cheeks heat up and his stomach feel weird, but he decided to ignore it, walking around to the other side of Karl's bed.

Karl wouldn't mind him getting in his bed with him, right? That's what they always did, but it felt different this time. Maybe he felt creepy, watching him sleep. He sat down against the headboard beside Karl, who stirred in his sleep a little.

He couldn't resist bringing a hand down to Karl's head, ruffling his hair a bit, smiling.

"Nick?" Karl whispered.

1030 words. its 6am i have school so bye lol