|
  |
.~{:--------------:}~.
Doug has not been sleeping well. A lot of tossing and turning. Sweaty, restless dreams. Sometimes its been getting so bad he self-medicates a little bit before bed — a couple of glasses of wine, which seems to help. It's not every night, but it's frequent — and gradually getting moreso.
Stubbornly, he insists that everything's fine. Like now, how he woke up sitting bolt-upright, and then got up and went into the bathroom to splash cold water on his face.
One of the boons to having Jay over is that he does. Not. Move. In his sleep. He is a feathered, warm-running rock when he goes to sleep. There is no risk of waking up with a wing in your face or pulling feathers out of your ass, because Jay spent a lifetime with someone in bed with him, usually with someone's tiny knee in his back or foot in his face, so when Doug jolts awake in a cold sweat, there is no express flailing from ol' Red.
Jay wakes up quickly and clear-eyed, sitting up as Doug leaves the room. He's been quietly watching as Doug drinks before bed. He hasn't wanted to bring it up because…Jay, but his worry is still loud and clear from Doug's point of view. Letting Doug collect himself for just long enough to turn the water off again, Jay pads to the doorway of the bathroom quietly, hangingin the space. Concern vibrating off him from head to toe. Permeating every word. "Bad dream?"
Doug inhales slowly, as he combs his hair back, just to get it out of his face. He stands there, water glistening on his shoulders and dripping down his chest and back. "Yeah." He says, "It's fine, though. It's nothing." He looks at himself in the mirror, and then looks at Jay's reflection in it. "It's fine, go back to bed. I'm just going to go in the living room and read for a minute, okay?"
Jay's reflection is just as concerned as the real thing. The tension in his left eyebrow pulling in coupled with the way the center of his lips tighten and a million other minor nuances tell Doug a story in an instant, even when the young man tries to wipe it away and offer the smallest smile in support. He wants to believe Doug. He wants to believe that it's nothing. He does. The problem is that deep down, Jay knows that it's a load of shit. "You had a lot of those lately." He shoots for innocent and misses the mark by a mile, instead hitting 'prompting' squarely.
"I just have a lot on my mind," Doug says, brushing it off. He's trying to convince himself that something isn't really wrong. He walks past Jay, brushing against him, as he walks out into the living room. "Been really wrapped up in my work, and it's hard not to bring it home with me." He grabs a book off his coffee table, and flips through it — it's in German, but it has a strange design on the cover — a circle with latin script running around the inside of it, and a triangle inside of it, with more latin words at each corner.
Brushed past, he should take a hint. Instead, Jay turns smoothly and rather than do as asked, the quiet padding of bare feet on the floor follows Doug to the living room. "Yeah?" Latin. German. It's all Greek to Jay. He doesn't think anything odd of the book except that Doug is now having a rough time sleeping and blaming it on work. Is that work? He…honestly doesn't know. Hovering behind the couch, he braces both hands along the back and leans in, looking over Doug's shoulder. "Anything you need t'get off yer chest?"
Doug flips a page, and there's an image of a group of imps tormenting a man, and an older man making some sort of incantation which is causing them to burn away. "Nothing really. I've also been thinking about the little glitches in my powers a lot. It's stressing me out a little bit, that's all." He looks up at Jay, and then says, quietly, "Has anyone ever told you that you worry too much?"
Jay tilts his head slightly as he peers at the page. He may not know Latin from German, but the pictures of burning imps while they torment another fellow looks pretty…uh…satanic? Suspicious? Both?
But then Doug turns to look at him and Jay tries to quickly change his expression into gentle amusement despite himself. Dropping down to his elbows onto the back of the couch, forearms crossed, he leans a charming, warm smile to Doug. "You know, some folks say that's one of mah best attributes." Tossing a wink in there for good measure. "You had any more of em? Glitches, Ah mean. You mentioned that you guessed someone's country wrong, an' you been reading people a little off. Something else happen?"
"Just little things. Misinterpreting a word here and there for a few seconds. Things I don't do." He sticks a bookmark in the book and then tosses it aside. "Jay," Doug says, "…I love you, but you're reading too much into this." He tries to take on a reassuring tone. "I'm FINE. There's nothing to get to the bottom of here. These sorts of hiccups and systemic changes happen to mutants all the time." He leans up to kiss Jay on the cheek. "Just go back to bed.
The edge of his worry smoothed over for a moment when Doug soothes him, Jay is distractable with affection. His smile relaxes into an easy warmth, a hand uncurling to reach over and pull through Doug's damp curls. "Yer a lot of things, Dougie. Fine is one of 'em. But you could use someone who worries about y'a little bit t'offset how little you worry about you." His eyes shine with amusement over all of Doug's contesting before falling a little more serious. "Ah know that this stuff happens, but the last time Ah got a systemic change in mah powers, Ah woke up under water. It don't hurt to check in a little. Y'know?"
"I know." Doug says. "But everything's going to work out in the end. You'll see." He closes his eyes, and gives a small smile. "I'll tell you what. If something goes really wrong, you can have all my good records." His eyebrows go up. "Does that make you feel better, bud?"
A tired smile returns to Jay's face, letting his head drop to one side, his hair falling to match as he peers at Doug from his askew position. "As generous as that isan' trust me, Ah'll take you up on it anywayAh think Ah'd rather keep you around a little while." Leaning in, Jay lingers in Doug's personal space for a moment of anticipation before closing the deal with a kiss. "Jerkin' off to Gene Vincent and his Blue Caps is great an' all, but yer pillow talk is still better."
Doug is still distracted — that much is plain, though he returns the kiss and inhales just a touch to catch the lingering scent when Jay pulls away. "I don't think I'm good for that tonight," He says, "I just need to order my thoughts a bit and I'll be in to go to bed. Okay?" He looks up and gives Jay a wide-eyed look. "Promise."
The mellow smell of a restful night's sleep mingled with Jay's natural scent dances around him, teasing Doug. Ah, sleep. Remember what that's like? Sleeping through the night and all. Mmmm.
The younger of the two mutants pulls back a moment later, a flutter of motion hitting his feathers, and for a moment he plays with the idea of seizing the moment and pinning Doug down on the couch. But the moment is short-lived as Jay's primal instinct is shoved back down. "Ah know, Sugar. Didn't figure you would be. An' Ah want you 'round fer more than all that. Just promise me if ya get any more glitches, you'll tell me about it. Ah'm not some delicate flower you gotta protect all the time. Ah wanna know what's goin' on with you, even when it ain't good. Ah can take it." Jay adds more seriously as he pushes up to his hands, broad arms unfolding as he gathers back to his full height. A hand falls onto Doug's shoulder, kneading digits firmly into muscle. "Ah love you, too. Don't fall asleep out here."
Doug closes his eyes, and then nods. "I won't. I promise."
Of course he will. Not an hour later he'll be slumped on the couch with the book in his lap.
Of course he will. Jay already knows he will and smiles to himself about as much while he walks back toward the bedroom, shaking his head fondly. When he wakes up just before dawn, and realizes he's still alone in Doug's bed, he'll walk back out to the livingroom and physically relocate Doug to bed with him without complaint.