Oreo

Chapter 37: The Plot Thickens

Orion's POV~

Romeo was sound asleep when I got home that night, so I decided not to bother him.  He confessed he was a light sleeper so I took extra caution about the noises I made in the shower - if you catch my drift.

Not too much had happened at work and most of my thoughts were towards his well being, which if I'm honest stretched the time to feel longer than it was.  Relief consumed me to come home and find that he had peacefully fallen asleep.  He deserved all the rest he could get, and I wanted to help him maintain a peace of mind.  That part would take a while, though.  He may not be entirely open to me, and understandably so.  We haven't known each other for very long and he probably isn't entirely used to kindness.

Hell, I'm barely used to this new side of me.

Is it new though?

After drying and changing into a pair of sweats, I returned to the bedroom. Romeo had fallen asleep in his clothes but he looked too comfortable to wake.  Flicking off the light and crawling in next to him, I wrapped an arm around his waist, pulling him closer to my chest.  He shifted and stirred, either in his sleep or from waking momentarily, but settled with breaths remaining slow and subtle.

I love you, Romeo.

~

By 6:30ish, a high stack of pancakes waited on a plate beside two others, a jar of peanut butter and a bottle of syrup as I danced back to the bedroom to awaken my slumbering boyf.  He was still out like the dead until my weight sank the mattress and I gently shook his shoulder.

Romeo groaned, rolling over to bury his face in the pillow but said nothing.

"Romey, we have school today and you need to get ready."  He hummed in more annoyance but I refused to cave.  "Boy, if you don't get up right now I will either pull you off myself or pour cold water on your head."

He huffed but got up grumpily, rubbing his eyes.  Not saying anything, he bee-lined to the restroom.  Letting him be for now, I returned to the kitchen to make my own plate of food.  He reemerged about three minutes later to join me.

"Two more days to get through before we get the freedom lf the weekend again." I stated plainly, taking a bit of hotcakes before continuing with a mouthful.  "You reckon that everyone's calmed down by today?"

Romeo sat himself beside me with his plate but just shrugged.  "If not today, then certainly by Monday..."

I hummed in agreement and tried to ponder a different topic.  "Hmm... So how was third yesterday?"

"It was fine."

"What class do you have?"

"Art."

"Aahh, lucky." I fake pouted.  "I have to take health to make up for a missing gym credit."

He hummed in response, proceeding to eat his breakfast.

"... So nobody was pestering you in art class?"

"Not really, no." I brushed off his plain answers to just be from how tired he usually was on school mornings or waking up in general.

"That's cool."

We conversed the rest of the meal discussing the assignments and tests going on in our mutual periods, as well as bristling over some harmless drama and gossip that had been speading about the school aside from Ro's headlining news.  He managed to finish a little more than half of his two pancakes, but he claimed to not be that hungry first thing.   Putting everything aside to clean later as well as storing the rest of the food for some other time, we finished getting ready and headed off to school.