Chapter Text
“Ash and I will probably stay for breakfast, but I’ll be back just before lunchtime.” Nathan explained, basing the plan on previous stays, knowing Adam preferred both him and Ash to eat before leaving.
We have work at 11:00, can you try to be home before that, please?” came the reply from Scarlette.
“Yeah, I can do that- uh, I’ll leave a bit earlier to get there in time, alright,” they responded, startling momentarily as someone’s arms wrapped around him from behind, before quickly relaxed back into Adam’s chest after a glance backwards.
“Okay then, we’ll see you tomorrow, don’t stay up too late, alright?” Scarlette
“Yeah, I won’t. I love you guys.” they replied, leaning further into Adam’s embrace.
“Love you too Nate, bye,” Axel concluded, having taken the phone off speaker.
“Bye”
Nathan sighed as they hung up the phone before turning to face his boyfriend, being careful not to dislodged the arms around their waist.
“Thanks for letting us stay over” he mumbled into the side of his neck after a short moment of silence between the two.
Adam huffed softly in amusement, bringing his hand up to settle on the back of Nathan’s head as he spoke, “like I said earlier, the two of you trying to get home at this time of night is bound to end up going poorly. Plus, it’s not like you both haven’t spent half your nights over here since I got the place.”
Nathan smiled as they straightened from the hug, turning to search through Adam’s drawers for clothes for the night. “Mm, that’s true, I guess. Not our fault you get overprotective whenever we try to leave though.”
Adam rolled his eyes fondly, deigning not to answer, and instead gently shoving Nathan away from the drawer, him having not managed to find anything. The two descended into comfortable quiet as Adam gathered two sets of pyjamas, only the faint sounds of the shower being heard through the walls.
Once Adam had the clothes ready, he started heading back to the living room, gesturing for Nathan to follow. The comfortable silence continued as Adam dropped the clothes on the coffee table before gathering the few dishes strewn across the surface.
As they moved to the kitchen, Nathan diverged to retrieve a tea towel while Adam filled the sink with hot, soapy water, gently placing the dishes on the counter beside it.
When Nathan returned, he leaned slightly against his boyfriend’s back, the two watching as the water level continued to rise. When it reached just over halfway full, Adam reached to turn the tap off before grabbing the first cup and beginning to scrub. Once deemed clean enough, the cup was handed to Nathan who had the job of drying it thoroughly and returning it to the cabinet.
They repeated this process for each dish, neither breaking the quiet, and instead both choosing to take the time to get lost in their own heads.
It was only once the last dish had been put away that they realised the sound from the shower had cut off, and as they made their way back to the living room, they saw Asher returning from down the hallway, seemingly distracted by something on their phone.
“Hey, I’m done in the bathroom now if you two want to clean up,” they said, barely glancing up from the phone as they flopped down on the couch.
Nathan smiled slightly, knowing his friend was probably informing their family of the change in plan, just as he had done earlier.
“Thanks, you can head straight to the spare room if you want, it’s still set up from the last time you were here,” his boyfriend told him in reply, “Nate and I will probably go to bed right after we shower.”
“Well don’t have too much fun in there together while I’m here,” Asher chuckled, smirking down at their phone.
“You could always join us if you want, pretty. Or does Karl not like to share?” Nathan fired back, winking, before following Adam down the hall, who had simply rolled his eyes at the both of them and grabbed the discarded clothes from earlier.
As the two entered the bathroom, the soft sound of the shower filled the space with the two going about washing each others hair and cleaning themselves up. Once clean, they turned off the water, carefully drying off and handling their skincare. While brushing his teeth, Nathan glanced over in the mirror, smiling at the look of concentration on their boyfriends’ face, which didn’t match his current activity.
Stepping out of the bathroom together, the two made their way back to the living area, seeing the kitchen light off and Asher not in any of the rooms. Concluding that they must have already gone to bed, Nathan watched as Adam turned off the rest of the lights before the two of them turned and headed back to Adam’s room.
“Ugh, thanks for letting us sleep over, walking back this late would’ve sucked.” Nathan sighed, letting his memory guide him in the dark to flop face-first onto Adam’s bed before reaching for the lamp on the bedside table.
Adam glanced over at his words, smiling fondly at his boyfriend, “like I said before, I wasn’t gonna let you two go be idiots and trek across half the damn city at this time of night.”
Nathan smiled back as they pulled the blankets down, climbing under them before lifting their arm to offer Adam a spot beside him. His boyfriend huffed a laugh as he climbed in, settling with his back to him and taking out his phone.
Nathan quickly moved closer, wrapping his arms around Adam’s back and burying his face between his shoulder blades. After a minute, he lifted their head again, tucking it over Adam’s shoulder to see what he was doing on his phone.
“What are you two talking about?” they murmured sleepily, after seeing Adam’s sister’s name at the top of the screen.
“Nothing interesting” Adam whispered back, getting a sleepy hum in response and having to shift to accommodate Nathan turning and snuggling into the side of his neck.
The two lay in silence for a few minutes, the quiet sound of typing filling the air, before Adam gently moved to plug his phone in on the nightstand. Moving back, he slowly turned to face Nathan, being careful not to disturb his boyfriend’s position and bringing a hand up to gently run his fingers through the wavy brown locks, pressing a soft kiss to the top. Adam watched as Nathan slowly relaxed in sleep, feeling the pull of it at the edges of his own mind, and letting himself drift off with the warmth of the body in his arms.