the upstairs room

.><. one .><.

   robert grumbled and squinted his eyes, trying to see the hallway ahead of him as he staggered through steven severin's apartment. the sky just barely visible through the curtains had begun to brighten, and the familiar signs of a hangover had already crept in. it was atrociously early and he had just woken tangled in a pile of naked, sweaty bodies. left only with the clouded memories of the night before. memories that were slowly beginning to come together, piece by piece.

   he brushed them away. it was much too early for any complex thought after all, and besides, he had much more urgent matters to attend to. mainly, finding somewhere comfortable to finish off his nights rest. his whole body ached from sleeping in an awkward twist on the hard wooden floor... robert could assume that there were a couple more reasons for this, but he paid them no mind for the time being. the chill of morning air on the cold floors made his journey all the more excruciating. robert shivered slightly and leaned his weight against the closest wall. he caught the door he was searching for in his bleary vision and threw his hand out in front of him to wrench open the handle. in the process he lost his balance and wound up stumbling right through the doorway. he lazily shoved the door behind him to close it and now in the bedroom, he clapped eyes on last nights eternally courteous host.

   he swung the door closed behind him and managed to make the last few steps into the room before flopping down and curling up at the end of the bed, at stevens feet. the idea of getting into the bed itself seemed too much of a bother at this point. he was already panting with effort, making small noises of discomfort when he moved. he weakly tried to rearrange himself and quietly nestle down in a ball but it was apparent that his struggling had stirred the sleeping man in the process. he slept alone in his bed, strange, after the night that had just passed. he looked small, so harmless in his sleep. his shock of bleach blonde hair was the only thing that stood out against the dark expanse of the bedsheets. he stayed perfectly still and hoped that steve would just fall back asleep, but it was already too late for that.

   steven raised his head and sat up confusedly. he was still half asleep and unsure of what had woken him, but when he looked down he was met by roberts naked form. his pale body was covered with sore red marks, remnants of lipstick still smeared across his face. he was curled up like a cat and his quick flickering breath created an indescribable air of peace about him, only broken by his slight shivering.

  'robert' stevens voice was thick with sleep. he had pulled the duvet down beside him. 'robert' this time he was much stronger in tone and pat the exposed mattress beside him. robert felt his eyes flutter open, so exhausted that it took him a second to interpret what was going on. steven pat the spot beside him on the bed again and cocked his head 'cmon rob' to which he responded by sluggishly crawling across the bed. his whole body felt slow, as though it was full of lead. the linens rustled as he lethargically dragged himself up and over the expanse of the bed, until he finally reached the bare spot beside steven.

   they both stayed silent. for a short second, robert felt especially exposed under his friends gaze. steven scanned roberts body and took in a long breath before leaning over to plant a kiss on roberts forehead, grabbing the duvet and pulling it up to cover the pair of them. robert inched closer to his bedmate, when steven didn't protest to this he curled right against the blond mans side. he threw an arm over stevens chest, steven wrapped an arm over his shoulder. the rise and fall of his steady breath was rhythmic, soothing. to bask in another mans warmth again as he drifted into exhaustion was so comforting, so familiar, he could have broken into tears. he almost did, before sighing and slipping into a near comatose sleep.

NOTE: my brief hiatus turned out to be not quite as brief as i thought. who knew the secret to actually writing was telling yourself to not write. i have five more chapters planned out so ill hopefully be updating weekly(ish). but please be aware that im fully prepared to eat my words.

and ps the other chapters wont be quite as short as this one...