A Slice of Life

Morning Rush Hour

The next morning, Sam woke up with Aleksei in his arms, still sound asleep. There were butterflies in his stomach that went crazy at the sight of Aleksei sleeping. To Sam, that morning was one of the happiest mornings he had ever had.

Nothing was better than waking up with the boy he liked so much curled up in his arms.

Which was why he decided not to wake Aleksei up just yet. He took a moment to simply look at him with a permanent smile on his face.

Well, that was until Roman bursted into the bedroom. He immediately strode over to the bed and gave it a hard kick. The bed shook and Aleksei stirred and mumbled some inchorent words.

"Wake up," Roman demanded.

"Go away," Aleksei grumbled in response, until his blurry morning brain suddenly realised he had warm arms around him.

Roman was there. Sam was there. In the same room. And Aleksei was suddenly wide awake. He immediately clawed at the sheet and pulled it up to his chin so he and Sam were covered as far as possible.

Roman rolled his eyes. "Too late for that. I'm already scarred for life."

Sam ignored Roman, leaning in to kiss Aleksei on his cheek. "Morning Aleksei," he whispered. "Can I brush my teeth somewhere?"

"Yeah. Yeah, of course," Aleksei replied, still keeping his eyes trained on Roman, however. It took a moment before Sam's words actually registered and he shifted himself upright to get Sam a toothbrush from their storage. Mom and Dad liked to buy things in bulk whenever things were on sale, which meant they always had ridiculous piles of toiletries and such in stock.

Thank God Roman was gone when Aleksei entered their bedroom again with the toothbrush. "Here you go," he told Sam with a slight frown, still having Roman and him walking in on them fresh in mind. "And I guess you know where the bathroom is?"

Sam nodded, and took the toothbrush from Aleksei. "Yeah, I know," he answered, leaning in for a quick kiss on the lips before he left the bedroom to head over to the bathroom.

The combination of being as happy as he was, and waking up with Aleksei in his arms made him cheerful enough to hum a song in the morning. One of the songs they had both enjoyed during the concert was stuck in his mind, and he could already envision practising the song with Aleksei.

Sam's peace was short lived. Extremely short lived. First, Sofiya, Aleksei's sister came into the bathroom and froze when she saw Sam standing there in his boxers.

"Oh, sorry!" she stammered, going beet-red before running out of the bathroom.

But Stepan, who pushed past Sofiya immediately after, didn't care.

"Morning Sam," Stepan said while he carelessly squeezed himself in the spot next to Sam in front of the mirror.

Sam blinked his eyes in surprise, staring at Stepan in the mirror. He suddenly was highly aware of the fact that the shower was running in the background, and Stepan was casually grabbing his own toothbrush. To Stepan it might've been normal to brush his teeth while someone else was in the shower, but Sam wasn't used to sharing a bathroom.

Let alone brush teeth with someone in the shower.

"H-hey... Stepan," he mumbled a reply, quickly rinsing his mouth from leftover toothpaste. He rushed back to Aleksei's bedroom, not wanting to wait to see who was in the shower. Besides, he was still in his boxers himself; not the best impression for his first sleepover.

In the bedroom, Aleksei had stripped himself down to just a towel around his waist. He blinked at Sam practically running back into the room.

"Everything alright?" he asked, before swearing under his breath when he heard the water running in the bathroom. "Damn it, Mark said I got to shower first today."

"I...I'm..." Sam stuttered, both distracted by what just happened in the bathroom, and the fact Aleksei was wearing a towel around his waist. He swallowed hard. "They caught me off guard, is all," Sam eventually admitted. "I just didn't expect people to use the shower while I was in there."

"... Oh, yeah, you have your own bathroom." Aleksei scratched the back of his head before his hand shot back down to keep the towel from slipping off his waist. "It's um..." Aleksei's felt his face going red. "We can't take turns, else we'd all be late every day so it's anarchy in our bathroom. Sorry, I should have warned you."

"Don't worry about it," Sam answered, smiling a bit when he saw the towel nearly slipping from Aleksei's waist. "I'm just glad I was still wearing my boxershort."

Sam felt his cheeks heat up at the thought of freely using the bathroom. He was thankful he was just brushing his teeth when Aleksei's older brothers had rushed in.

"But yeah... I'd like to take a shower too, but I guess I'll just skip first class and go home for that." He took Aleksei in from head to toe. "You are free to join, though..." he added with a smirk.

Aleksei literally felt his blush intensify. If there wasn't the constant risk that Roman could barge into the room again, he would've dropped the towel.

"Okay," Aleksei agreed, after weighing in his head whether or not the headmaster would report his absence to his parents, and if it would be worth it. The answer to the second question was definitely yes. He smiled sheepishly. "Sorry, though. I hope the morning traffic didn't freak you out too much."

"No, really, it's fine," Sam answered truthfully. "A warning would've been nice, but I'm not scarred like Roman," he joked. "Besides, now I get to take you home. To my private bathroom..." For good measure, he added a wink and wiggled his eyebrows.

"Can we go now?"

Aleksei inwardly cringed. That sounded so overly eager. Then again, Sam was his boyfriend. He was allowed to be overly eager and show it. The concept was still one he had to get used to, but reaching out and grabbing Sam's hand made it much easier.

"Let's get dressed, and we'll leave right away," Sam replied, pulling Aleksei closer by his hand to kiss him.

No matter where they were, Aleksei always melted when Sam kissed him.

With their kiss still fresh in mind, Aleksei suddenly became the king of five minute showers, getting dressed and ready in ten seconds.

"Are you going somewhere so early?" Aleksei's mom asked when he and Sam were in the hallway, putting on their shoes.

Aleksei coughed and cleared his throat. "Yeah, I forgot something at Sam's place," he lied. "From when I stayed over there."

"Wait, but doesn't your friend want breakfast first?"

Aleksei's mom's eyes were wide in genuine concern as she looked at Sam, while Aleksei's younger brother Roman snorted loudly in the passing.

"Oh, eh..." Sam turned to look at her. "Thanks... but I... never eat breakfast?"

"That's right, he never does," Aleksei quickly added, putting one hand on Sam's shoulder and opening the door with the other.

"Be back soon. Bye, mom!"

Aleksei quickly ushered Sam out and closed the door behind them before any more discussion could ensue. He let out a deep sigh, shooting Sam an all saying look.

"I'm so bad at lying at the spot..." Sam let out a nervous laugh. "Let's go to my place. No parents, no sister, just you, me, and a very nice shower."

Aleksei had long forgotten about Roman, his mom, and all the awkwardness surrounding spending the morning at home with Sam. He bit his lip. "Seems like bathrooms are our thing."

Sam snorted. "As long as there's no crowd, yeah."

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