Work Text:
Ulaz had never been one to argue against Thace hanging around his lab while he was trying to work. Thace’s presence was comforting, and Ulaz found he was able to focus a little easier sometimes if Thace was around. Sometimes, he would talk through an issue he was having with one of his projects out loud with Thace until he figured out what the problem was—and usually his utterly exasperated reaction at such a silly mistake would draw a laugh out of Thace as well.
More often than not, however, Thace would just sit and half-listen to Ulaz speak, only occasionally contributing to the conversation. He had admitted on more than one occasion that he just liked listening to Ulaz’s voice sometimes—he found it comforting. Ulaz was pleased that Thace could sit and be at ease while he was working. His shoulders would relax, as did his posture… but that was nothing compared to Thace slipping into humming softly to himself. While it was a faint noise, only just barely audible over the tapping of his claws against his datapad’s screen, it was soothing to hear.
However, while Thace’s humming was calming and often helped Ulaz focus, Thace trying to fiddle with his headfur was not as welcome—and he’d been doing it for at least ten doboshes now..
“Thace,” Ulaz finally sighed.
“I think your headfur has gotten longer,” Thace said as he ran his hand through it. Ulaz had tied his headfur back earlier in order to keep it out of the way as he worked—at the time, it had seemed like a good idea… but now Thace was running his fingers through it and Ulaz could feel his mind leaving his work—
“Thace… I’m trying to concentrate,” Ulaz insisted, gently as he could.
“You’ve been working for nearly ten vargas,” Thace retorted. His hand moved upwards, running lightly along the top of Ulaz’s head and behind his ear.
Ulaz leaned into the touch before he could stop himself, but his purr died halfway out of his throat as he straightened up again, clearing his throat before he continued trying to work. Short of saying pay attention to me, Thace wasn’t going to demand anything, and Ulaz didn’t have it in him to tell Thace to go away and do his own work. Instead, Thace continued running his fingers through Ulaz’s headfur.
The humming started up again. It was a soft sound, low in the back of Thace’s throat. He didn’t even to seem to notice that he was doing it. But his gaze had softened, his ears weren’t twitching nervously as they might have had he been worrying over something. Thace was completely at ease.
As Thace’s hand moved back up behind his ear again, Ulaz sighed and gave in. He lifted an arm, allowing Thace to duck underneath it and snuggle up against his shoulder. Ulaz continued trying to work even in spite of Thace—he didn’t know why he tried at all, really. His work was already slow going enough, but now that Thace had started purring softly, ears drooping and relaxing against the sides of his head…
Ulaz had no idea why Thace was being so cuddly, but his gut was telling him that Thace had had a rough night and just didn’t want to talk about it. Ulaz wasn’t going to complain, though. Instead, he returned the purring, rubbing his cheek against the top of Thace’s head, and left well enough alone.