Comfort

How long has it been since you slept?

Eugene was so tired. As of late, his Aunt had needed more help with her clinic and the animals due to the construction right outside of it. The kittens, dogs, and birds needed a place to stay since the noise and the dust were causing problems so Eugene took in as many as he could, with he mother's permission, like the good nephew he was. Of course, with animals came the responsibility of feeding, taking outside, giving attention, and making sure they were healthy, and since Eugene had grown up helping his aunt he had not trouble at all with that. But with all those animals work began to pile up. He would come home and have to clean up any mess the animals had made, make sure they were fed, try and get his homework done, make sure they were in their kennels for bed, and actually get some sleep.

Sleep was the main problem. After running around all day he was so tired, but those animals were always ready to play around 1 A.M. and that meant barking, mewling, cawing or talking, and scratching. It was never quiet often meaning there was never more than 3-4 hours of sleep every night. It had been like that for two weeks now and he didn't know how much longer he could take it. He could hardly keep his eyes open during school!

That was his main problem now. Gray had just gotten up to use the restroom, sending a death glare to the class in the process, and left Eugene without supervision. This wouldn't normally not be a problem, he would just keep working until Gray came back. But exhaustion had taken over long before Gray had left and Eugene couldn't fight it any longer. After one last covered yawn, he cleaned up his desk, crossed his arms, and burried his face as comfortably as he could. He could feel his eyes dropping lower and lower until he couldn't keep keep open anymore and be succumbed to sleep.

By the time Gray walked back into the room, quickly glancing over what was technically his classroom, Eugene was out. Gray didn't worry too much about it. His friend had been tired and was getting some much needed sleep, but when their free period ended and classes started back up, Eugene didn't stir. He wasn't sure what to do at this point, but he decided it would probably be best to wake Eugene up.

Gently shaking his shoulder, Gray quietly began to murmur to awake Eugene. At first it didn't work, Eugene was tired and a very heavy sleeper, but after about 5 minutes if doing this he finally woke up. Dazed, confused, and kinda cold, Eugene woke up feeling no more refreshed than before. In fact, he believed he was more tired now than before his little nap. He shook his head, glasses slightly crooked on his face, and looked at Gray and smiled.

"Thanks," Eugene whispered, "I didn't even realize I fell asleep."

Gray nodded and went back to his notes though he continued to worry about Eugene. Thankfully, this was their last class of the day and he would be able to get Eugene home since today was one of the few days they didn't have Cram School.

Class was boring and Eugene was struggling to keep his eyes open all over again. He wasn't even sure what he was being taught, but he doubted that the teacher would do anything about it if he fell asleep. He knew Gray, who kept looking over at him, would scold him later. It wouldn't be the first time he fell asleep in class nor would it be the first time Gray scolded him, but he like receiving praise from his stoic friend. It made him feel like he was doing something right, but dispite this, Eugene's eyes drooped, his arms folded, and he returned to sleep.

It wasn't until after class that Gray woke him. He was dazed, confused, and still rather tired, but he was awake. Gray didn't yell, didn't frown, didn't scold, nor sigh at him. He just told him to get ready to go. Eugene quickly gathered his stuff, doing his best to rub the sleep out of his eyes, and shoved everything into his bag so he wouldn't keep Gray waiting. As the two walked out of the school a path was made, parting the sea of students, and when it collapsed behind them whispers arose like foam from a wave. Gray truly had made quite a reputation for himself in such a short amount of time, but Eugene honestly couldn't have cared less. He was just glad to have a good friend.

They continued walking, making their way towards where they usually split when Gray spoke. "How long has it been since you slept?"

"W-what do you mean?"

Gray sighed, stopping entirely to look at Eugene. "As someone who is called heartless, I tend to worry a lot, most recently, about you. Now you're going to tell me why you've been so tired lately." Grays sentence ended suddenly. Eugene was expecting a threat to follow, but his friend just stopped and continue to stare at him.

"Um... the stores around my Auntie's clinic are under construction. It's effecting the animals." Eugen rubbed his eye from under his glasses which caused them to rise. "So I took in as many animals as I could, but they don't tend to sleep well at night."

"I can take a few."

"Huh?" Eugene's hand moved away from his face to stare wide-eyed at his friend. "You'll what?"

"I will take a few. I like animals quite a lot, and I don't like you being dead tired. I see an easy solution." Gray smiled at Eugene, small and sweet and one of the first smiles Eugene had seen from him. "It was sweet of you to take in those animals, but you need to take care of yourself too."

Eugene smiled back and, after double checking that Gray truly was willing and wanting to take home a few animals, lead the way to his own home where Gray left two hours later with a large husky; a beautiful white cat, a sleeky black cat, and a very cuddly gray cat, and one bird who kept singing. Neither of them knew what the song was, but both were laughing when the bird would cry out "ta-da!"

That night Eugene went to sleep with a little more quiet, and Gray fell asleep cuddled into the fur of his new husky friend. Both could agree it was the best sleep they had in a while.

_______________________________________

This is so not a Weaktober thing considering October has come to a close and November has begun!

That won't stop me from writing though!

Thank you all for reading and supporting this story and I hope you enjoy!

Also if you have any requests, based off the topic of comfort, comment or message me!