What you do when you can't sleep

Conor fell asleep on the quite uncomfortable sofa in the tour bus. The others left him sleeping and went to their beds. At least someone had put a blanket over him.

He moved in his sleep and as the blanket fell down he tried to grab it but missed it and woke up. It was silent except for the sound of the driving bus. He stared into the darkness. Black shapes of trees and bushes rushed past the window, some headlights formed mysterious shapes on the interior. He felt alone and wide-awake but weary at the same time. The way you feel when you wake up in the middle of the night unaware of place and time.

Conor looked at his phone. It was half past two. Still enough time to sleep and he could sleep very well at the moment. He stood up and went to the tiny bathroom. On the way he tried to undress himself, stumbled out of his trousers and threw his sweater into his bunk bed.

The noise woke up Dom who had to see what was going on. What he saw was Conor through the open bathroom door, brushing his teeth, taking a piss and revealing half his bum between T-shirt and boxers. "What a nice view" he thought in his sleepy stare "food for dreams."

Conor now scuffed to his bed, scratching his head and his belly and yawning loudly. He suddenly looked at Dom who was staring absent-mindedly at his body. "Hey, girl, never set your eyes on such a well-shaped body before, hu?" He teased Dom who looked startled into his eyes.

"Um ... sorry ..." Dom didn't know how to reply and felt ashamed of looking at his friend so blatantly. "Good night, Dom." – "Good night, Conor" he whispered back, closed the curtain on his bunk and turned around.

Conor had to put some stuff aside to have enough room to sleep and while he was arranging his bed he realised that this was not going to be a good night with good sleep anymore. He lay down and his mind was bringing up thoughts of home and his girlfriend that made him homesick and then memories of bad times when everything was too much and too heavy for him. It was too late to take his medicine because it would make him sleepy the next day. He tossed and turned restlessly.

The noises kept Dom from falling asleep again. He dragged away the little curtain, turned to Conor's bed and whispered "Hey, can't you sleep?" – "No." – "What is it?" – "Don't know ... bad thought stuck in my head. Thought it would be a good night, but ... no." Conor sounded quite exhausted. "Can I help you?" Dom asked him. The answer was just an unintelligible grunt. "Try to rest." Dom said, knowing that it was a redundant advice, and closed his eyes.

"Can I come in to you? I can't be alone" Conor stood there in the darkness like a helpless child. His clothes seemed too big for him. A teddy bear in his hand would have made it a perfect picture. "Of course you can!" Dom said and lifted his duvet to let Conor slip underneath it. "Will you sleep?" – "I'll try." Dom put his arm around Conor's waist, shut the curtain again and fell asleep.

Dom had wild dreams about kissing and touching and smelling and beautiful people. So real they seemed that he woke up as he kissed Conor's neck and was tickled by his hair. "Oops, sorry" he said to Conor who turned around to face him. "For what?" Conor asked in his sweet voice. "I ... I dreamt ... I ..." stuttered Dom and could rather feel than see that Conor was smiling at him. "Please, do it again. Kiss me!" Dom hesitated and placed a peck on his friend's nose. "Kiss me on my lips!" They sometimes kissed each other on their cheeks or brows, just friendship's affection, but this now felt different. Dom tried to look into Conor's eyes but it was too dark to actually see something and now it was all about feeling. Dom moved his head a bit forward, the tips of their noses touched and there it was: a pair of soft and warm pink lips that wanted to be kissed, that needed to be kissed by his own luscious lips.

It felt so good and it tasted so good that their kiss grew more and more passionate. They buried their hands in each other's hair and tore at their shirts. They began to explore each other's bodies and their thin clothes could not hide much. Dom pushed Conor gently to lie on his back and started to kiss his jaw line and neck. One hand was holding Conor's hand and the other was pulling down the neckline of that slack shirt until he revealed a small pink nipple on Conor's soft chest.

He pinched and tickled it and then he licked and kissed and bit it gently. Conor couldn't contain his excitement anymore and sighed and moaned with pleasure, as Dom shifted into a better position and bumped his back against the roof of his bunk. Out of nothing a piece of clothes hit them in their faces followed by sleepy but angry grunts from Joe's bed above them. They started to giggle and lay next to each other, holding hands, feeling happy and relaxed.

The next morning, Conor left Dom's bunk wearing the sweat shirt that had been thrown at them in the night. "Hey, it'smine!" Joe exclaimed. "No, it's mine now." Conor said smiling, took Joe's face into his hands and kissed his surprised friend right on the mouth.