Gideon X Male!Reader ~ Midnight Excursions

Midnight Excursions

Darkness met your eyes as you opened them to the night-drenched bedroom, feeling them sting in protest at being made to awaken unexpectedly in the pre-dawn hours. You waited a moment for your eyes to adjust to the darkness, and they did so to reveal the modest bedroom around you. You could feel the cold chill on your face and bare arms where they were exposed above the duvet, but the rest of your body was engulfed completely in heat courtesy of the man curled around your body from behind, legs tangled in yours, his breath hot and steady against the back of your neck as his stubble tickled the bare skin of your shoulder blades.

Carefully you moved to lift his arm from around your waist, moving it onto his own side despite his sleep-addled grumble of protest as you slipped out of his grasp, each movement gentle so as not to wake him. You climbed out of the bed slowly, striving to keep your disturbance to a minimum. Once out of bed you sighed deeply, the full force of the nighttime chill hitting your body in your flimsy [type] sleepwear and making you shiver.

Your bare feet padding near-silently on the carpeted floor of the bedroom, you made your way to the door and found yourself in the living room, and you waited again for your eyes to adjust to the darkness. They trailed over the shapes of the sofas gathered around the TV, lingering on the happy wedding photos alongside joyful depictions of picnics and dinners and friends.

You moved on from the living room, feeling along the wall to find your way until you were grasping at thin air. You slipped into the new room, finding the light switch on the wall and flicking it on. You blinked rapidly as the sudden light hit your eyes, reflected from the white tiles on the walls to make it more blinding than it already was on its own. Your pained gaze was met by the sight of the bathroom, your eyes inspecting your scruffy appearance in the mirror and lingering on the dark shadows under your eyes that were your body's complaint at being out of bed at such an ungodly hour. You looked around and frowned in slight confusion as your [e/c] eyes landed on something dangling on the bottom of the radiator on the other side of the room. You moved forward, feeling another shiver through your body as your bare feet hit the cold tiles, and you crouched down for a closer look to see that it was a necklace. Curious, you reached to take it from where it was caught and, upon closer inspection, saw that it was two sets of dog tags tangled together.

With a tired sigh you sat yourself down on the closed toilet seat and bent over the two chains as you slowly started picking at the places where they were knotted together, losing yourself in the small task your tired mind had set for itself in an attempt to distract itself from certain troubling truths.

"Hey, sweetheart." The sudden sound of the sleep-slurred voice in the doorway made you jump, your heart jolting harshly in your chest, and you clutched the necklace tightly as you turned to stare wide-eyed at the man who had suddenly appeared in the bathroom doorway, himself blinking at the light in the same way you had done only a few short minutes before, dressed in a simple sleep shirt over his boxers. "What are you doing up?"

"I found these caught on the radiator." Your voice, like his, was hushed in the way that the night brought about, as if there were someone around trying to sleep that you were attempting not to disturb, despite that there was nobody else around. You brandished the dog tags vaguely in his direction as if to aid your explanation. He let out a quiet 'humph' of acknowledgement, rubbing at his tired eyes.

"One of us must have knocked them down getting ready for bed." He mumbled, and you stared at him as he took a few steps closer to you. He caught your gaze and froze, eyes widening. "Uh ... I must have knocked them down getting ready for bed." He amended, and a giggle dropped from your lips despite yourself, averting your gaze from his and focusing back on your task once more.

You sensed his smirk, satisfied that he had earned your amusement, as he closed the distance between the two of you and knelt on the cold tiles by your side, large calloused hands closing around your smaller ones as he moved them to a small knot in one of the chains and clasped it between his thumb and forefinger, gently rubbing the pads back and forth in order to loosen the knot enough that he could loop it through, removing the tangle. For some time the two of you simply sat together in silence, working at the knots and tangles in the two chains until you held two separate sets of dog tags in your hands, the metal warmed against your skin by your combined body heat.

"Thank you." You murmured, voice low but in the empty, silent bathroom it sounded loud to your ears as you got to your feet and carefully set them down on the windowsill.

"They'll be tangled up again by morning." Was the gruff comment from behind you, and you let out a low chuckle as you turned, hesitantly meeting his eyes which were crinkled at the edges by his smile and swimming with affection despite his fatigue. "Come back to bed, sweetheart."

You didn't resist as muscular arms pulled you flush against his chest, and he guided you from the room, turning the light off as you left, and you allowed him to lead you back to the bedroom. You curled up on the edge of the bed as he climbed in the other side. Arms wrapped around you in the darkness, tugging you along the mattress until you were once more pulled against his chest, and he nuzzled the top of your head, placing a gentle kiss in your hair as his stubble scratched pleasantly against your crown.

You sensed him drift off to sleep on his side of the bed, eyes wide and pricking with tears that trickled down your face and soaked your pillow now that you knew they wouldn't be discovered, your body shaking despite that you were now warm again as your hands clenched into fists, clutching childlike at the front of his shirt as you sought some form of silent comfort regardless of the source.

You didn't tell him that you didn't know his name, or recognise his face. That you didn't know your own when you looked in the mirror, nor were any of your surroundings familiar. You didn't tell him that from the moment you had awoken in the middle of the night you had been in a state of lost confusion and fear as you realised you had no knowledge of who you were or of anything around you.

Instead you lay in silence beside his steady breathing and gentle heartbeat, unsure of what to do or how to do it or if you could even trust him as you silently sobbed your heart out into your pillow.