The Stains Beneath Our Skin [mxm] ✔

22 | Thin Morning Light

Cain woke exactly the way Casper expected – with a groan hastily followed by a war with the covers as he scrambled out of bed and ran to the bathroom. Humming, Casper nestled deeper into the covers while Cain vomited noisily in the en suite.

Nice to know he was human enough to get hangovers like the rest of them.

Casper had been awake for a while, dozy beneath the covers. His bones were full of lethargy and it was warm here. Soft. Safe. Raindrops pattered white noise against the window and the pleasant nattering of the droplets smoothed out Casper's thoughts.

Cain had curled around Casper in his sleep – knees in the crook of his and his face nestled into Casper's hair. Slow breaths ruffled it, still tinged with lingering copper. The heat gathered between them had sunk into his skin. A little clammy, but nothing Casper minded too much.

Hey, maybe if he let his mind slip away to a daydream, it'd be like he was here forever.

And it sort of was, for a bit, until the alcohol ghosts lingering in Cain's system demanded exorcism.

Eventually, the retching stopped. The flush of the toilet didn't quite drown out the low, miserable moan that followed. Casper smiled behind the covers and waited for the flow of water to finish before he called out, his hoarse voice creaky and strange in the quiet.

"You want anything?"

A loud hiccup drifted out the bathroom. "No."

"You want me to get R2 to get you breakfast?"

"God no."

Casper snickered and rolled onto his back. The sheets brushed across the nape of his neck and ran silken fingers down his spine. The raindrops made teartracks over the windows, veiling the way the hills trickled away to kiss the nadir of the grey sky. The monochrome brush of the light across Cain's vast room was tranquil, still. "Want me to come in there?"

"No." That word came out sour, reluctant. "Want you to go away if you're just going to be an arse."

Casper sighed. "Cain, I'm not..." That wasn't going to work. Casper rubbed his hands over his cheeks, a small groan rattling in his throat. "Give me a chance?"

He never replied, but he also didn't say leave, so Casper lounged amongst the sea of sheets watching the maze the rain made across the window. Waited in the peace and the warmth until, eventually, the door cracked open and Cain slipped out. He crept across the room as if even the creak of his bones would wince through his skull, and his breath smelled of mint when he crawled into bed. A weariness gathered across his features, vivid in the droop of his eyes and the hollows of his cheeks.

Shit, he really was fucking beautiful.

A pout gathered on Cain's lips as he drew the covers around him, and Casper let him have more than usual to bundle all the way up to his shoulders and above his head. Fucking adorable.

"What are you looking at me like that for?" Cain asked, a petulant note in his voice.

And this time Casper listened to The Plan. He folded his arm behind his head and grinned down at Cain. "You kinda look like if snowmen had supermodels."

"That doesn't even make sense."

The grudging twitch around Cain's lips said it didn't matter too much to him anyway. Just looking at him put warmth in Casper's belly like a cat curled there, purring vibrating out to the tips of his fingers and curling his toes. His lips tingled, the memory of the kiss and the bitter taste of not-pine fresh as the day seeping into the room.