Work Text:
Kondraki had a long day today. Most of his days were long days, but things had gotten better lately. This was mostly because of two main things; firstly, Kondraki had finally started regularly attending therapy and taking care of his mental health. Secondly, thanks to his partner who he now co-habitated with, he had started eating actual real, regular meals, instead of just handfuls of stale chips and 3 pots of coffee to make it through the day.
Still, despite all these improvements, that didn’t stop the day from being long. Nothing notable, just piles of paperwork, hours upon hours of emails, and just long, tedious, mindnumbing work. Kondraki didn’t even get the chance to go down to 408’s containment cell to unwind like he usually did. He was mentally and physically exhausted.
Settling down under the covers, Kondraki yawned and tried to make himself comfortable. The light in the room was still on, albeit turned low, thanks to his partner still sitting in the bed beside him working. That wasn’t something that really bothered Kondraki though; with the level of exhaustion he was feeling right now, he could probably fall asleep lying face up directly under the brightest light on a table in the site cafeteria during lunch rush. What did keep him awake, was a pain in his left elbow. Every time he moved it, even just a little bit, it ached with a pain that was both dull and sharp at different intervals and intensities, and even his specifically chosen texture picked explicitly for its sensory-friendly feel seemed far too rough against the joint. Kondraki groaned and ran his right hand over his elbow, wincing a little as his fingers caught on two lines of rough scabs, vaguely noticing that he felt the bone a little more prominent than usual underneath the pain. It wasn’t anything major, just enough to be annoying, and just annoying enough to keep him awake. He repeatedly shifted where he laid, trying desperately to find a position that was comfortable for sleeping and didn’t make his elbow hate him. He was so tired.
Clef looked up from his report and glanced over at Kondraki raising an eyebrow. “You okay Konny?” he asked, and gestured to the light fixture on the nightstand. “Do you need me to turn this off? I can finish in the morning if I get up early.” He was worried; Kondraki often had trouble sleeping, though typically that was because he refused to actually get in bed. Clef noticed the difference, and it sort of threw him off.
Kondraki shook his head. “No, ‘s not that,” he clarified, “I think I hit my elbow on something today. Hurts enough to bug me but not enough I can actually do anything about it.” He bent his elbow with a wince and turned over, displaying his wounded limb to his partner, who winced sympathetically.
“At least it’s not too bad,” Clef commented, reaching over and gently running his thumb over one of the two small lines of scabs. He was right; the wounds themselves didn’t look very severe. The pain likely came from the bruising around each of the cuts, and their position on the elbow itself. It looked like they came from being hit against something with an edge- a desk or a doorway maybe, they didn’t look like scratches with the bruises that surrounded the wounds.
“Yeah, I’ll throw some bandaids on it tomorrow and it should keep them from getting scratched up again,” Kondraki idly mused, pulling his elbow back. He blinked, noticing that suddenly Clef had a confused look on his face. “Uh… What is it?”
“Give me your other elbow,” Clef requested, pointing vaguely at Kondraki. “I need to see something.”
Kondraki was confused, but he laughed and offered up his right elbow to his partner. Clef then proceeded to put his whole hand on the end of the bent elbow, giving it all of a rub and a half before recoiling his hand like the elbow was a snake that bit him.
“Konny what the actual fuck,” Clef said, barely disguising a laugh. “Your elbows are so weird now!”
Kondraki blinked. “Alto what the hell are you talking about?”
“Your elbow!” he exclaimed, and grabbed it again, tapping the end of it where the bone was most prominent. “Look, you can feel it and everything, it’s not squishy! It’s so weird, I’m not used to that at all, not even a little bit.”
“That’s what you’re on about?” Kondraki asked with a laugh and tired smile. It was getting late, and Clef was startled by the fact that he could, in fact, feel his partner’s elbow. Incredible. “Yeah, it’s not the only place you can sort of feel the bone now, I think I’ve been losing a little-”
“Well stop,” Clef demanded, entirely joking but pretending to be firm about it. “I can’t have you with your fuckin keter class elbows in my bed while I’m trying to work.”
Kondraki snorted and supressed a laugh, and proceeded to feign offence. “First of all,” he began, “it’s my bed, I bought it and just let you lay around in it because I like you or something. Secondly, I’d think my elbows are Euclid at best. Keter is a serious accusation!”
Clef grinned, clearly pleased that his partner had taken up the joke and ran with it. “Oh you’re so right Konny,” he said in the most dramatic way he could muster without yelling or waving his arms about for emphasis. “It absolutely is euclid, you have euclid elbows.” He barely suppressed a snicker. “But regardless, your elbows are scaring me, put them away.”
A snort laugh from Kondraki and he turned over, pulling his end of the blanket up over his shoulders and reaching to fiddle with his phone. “Happy now, Alto?” he asked, flipping through his music to select a playlist to play quietly so he could sleep a little easier.
“Absolutely,” Clef replied, and turned back to his work, but only half heartedly. He kept glancing every once in a while back at Kondraki, finally settling into a comfortable position. Hopefully, Clef thought, the bit of humor would be enough to numb the pain in his partner’s elbow to let him fall asleep.
Kondraki chuckled to himself, funny thought fragments drifting through his sleep deprived brain. “Secure. Contain. Elbows.” he muttered to himself, laughing a sleepy laugh and half burying his face in his pillow. Most of his focus was on the quiet rhythm of his chosen playlist and how absolutely exhausted he was, trying to fall asleep. He vaguely heard Clef make a sound behind him, and he drowsily sat up halfway to look back at him, hair askew already from rubbing his head all over the pillow trying to get comfortable.
“What’d y’ say?” Kondraki asked, sluring his words a little as his mind finally started to give into the concept of sleep. “I couldn’t hear you over Johnny Cash.”
Clef snorted and reached over again, brushing some of the hair out of Kondraki’s face. “I said I love you, you sleepy dumbass,” he replied.
Kondaki smiled and leaned his head into Clef’s hand for a moment. “Love you too jackass,” he mumbled, and laid back down, not resisting when Clef moved to take his right hand in his own. His partner softly kissed the back of Kondraki’s hand before letting it fall back away so he could get comfortable. “Sap.”
“Night Konny,” Clef said, saving his document and pulling up Flight Rising instead.
“Night Alto,” Kondraki replied, slowly, and finally succumbed to sleep.