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“Mitchell Marner you better be dying. Or worse.”
And- Oh. Oh yeah. When Mitch’s panicked brain had decided to call Auston at 3am to make sure he hadn’t fallen into a lava pit, he hadn’t really thought it through. But now that Auston’s sleepy-but-still-angry-voice was on the other end of the receiver he felt dumb. How the fuck was he going to answer that?
“Mitch? Are you okay?”
And now Auston thought that he was actually hurt, which would just make what he was going to say worse. Great.
“Um- yeah. I just, I had a nightmare? Okay so basically,” he started, trying to get this over with as quickly as possible, “I dreamt that a pit opened up in the ground and you tried to jump over it but you fell in and it was full of lava and I woke up and panicked but I realize now that this is dumb and I’m sorry for waking you up and I’m gonna hang up now, okay bye.”
He didn’t hang up.
“…you called me at 3am because you wanted to make sure I hadn’t fallen into a lava pit?” And maybe Mitch’s brain was still foggy but it sounded like Auston was smiling a little now, maybe more amused than angry. God, he hoped he was reading this right.
“Well yeah, I panicked. I thought you had died and figured that I’d check up on you so that I wouldn’t be suspicious if someone thought you’d been murdered.” He heard a trademark Auston Sigh on the other side of the line and sheets rumpling as if he was sitting up in his bed.
“Dude if anything that would seem more suspicious? Calling your dead friend at fuck o’clock in the morning? You’d be the first suspect, moron.” And yeah, that was definitely amused.
“First of all, I wouldn’t know you were dead, second of all, how about you don’t judge my 3am decisions? I wasn’t thinking straight.”
There was a silence on the other end and Mitch wondered if Auston had fallen asleep again.
“I’m pretty sure there’s a joke to be made between the me being murdered and me judging you thing. I can’t think of one though.” And Mitch let out a startled laugh. This idiot.
“You’re a moron, and I’m going to hang up now so that we can both go back to sleep.”
“You say that as if I had anything to do with this phone call. This is all on you bud.”
“Well you’re the one who fell into the pit, not me”
“I hate you, go to sleep.”
….
“Are you still there?”
“Yeah. But you are too, so.”
Long sigh.
“Do you want to come over? I am not getting up but I will tolerate you using my spare key. You’re welcome.”
“Okay.”
And that’s how Mitch ended up at the foot of Auston’s bed at 3:30am, shivering slightly.
“It stinks in here, you should really consider opening the windows.”
Another sigh. Or was it a groan? Mitch couldn’t really tell anymore. A siroan. A grigh. He looked cute when disgruntled and tired, though. A little. Mitch didn’t say anything.
“Dude shut the fuck up and get in before I kick you out, you’re being creepy just standing there.”
So Mitch climbed in, his heart beating faster than it probably should be when sleeping in a bud’s bed because they wanted you to shut up. Actually, said like that, maybe his heart should be beating faster. It didn’t matter anyway, Auston wasn’t even looking at him, facing the other way and probably already well on his way to falling back asleep.
Oh, and also, they were bros. Bros sleep in each other’s beds platonically. Not romantically. Mitch needed to remember that.
He wanted to reach out and touch his back anyway.
He didn’t.
He was tracing Auston’s figure with his eyes (platonically) when Auston suddenly turned around to face him. Before Mitch had any time to react their noses were a lot closer than they should have been and Mitch’s heart skipped about 3 beats.
That can’t be good.
If he died the coach would probably be pissed.
Auston looked about as startled about this new situation as Mitch was, as if he hadn’t been the one to flip around like a crazy person. They stared at each other, Auston’s eyes as wide as Mitch’s felt.
A beat. Mitch was pretty sure his heart was about to give out.
“Hell-”
“Did you really call me to make sure I hadn’t fallen in lava?”
A beat. Auston was looking at Mitch intently, the corners of his mouth quirking up so slightly that Mitch didn’t think he would have been able to see it if they hadn’t been this close.
“Yeah.” And Mitch would have been embarrassed about how breathless his voice sounded but at this point he was pretty sure Auston was in the same state.
Auston leaned in impossibly closer, Mitch’s heart beat impossibly faster.
“If it had been Willy, or Zach, or whoever else… Would you have called them too?”
“I- ” What? Auston was looking at him almost urgently, his mouth still far too close for just bros and Mitch- Would he? If he had had a nightmare about Willy would he not have taken at least a second to think things through? Realize that it wasn’t rational? But Auston- it hadn’t mattered.
“No.” Said so softly Mitch wasn’t sure Auston had heard.
A beat. Since when had time become so slow?
“Can I kiss you?” murmured almost right in Mitch’s mouth
“Yeah”
Auston leaned in to bridge the remaining gap in between them, and Mitch’s heart exploded. In the good way.
It only lasted a couple of seconds before Auston pulled back, looking as dazed as Mitch felt.
“Your breath stinks. You should brush your teeth. And open a window.”
The smile on Auston’s face was way too fond. Mitch might want to see it everyday of his life.
“You done?”
“Yes. Kiss me again.”
………….
“I can’t believe me making sure you weren’t dead is what really did it for you. You have worryingly low standards Matthews.”
“I like your face, so I guess you’re right.”
“Thank you.”
“That was meant as an insult.”
“And yet it wasn’t. You’re so besotted with me that you can’t say anything bad. It’s okay I understand, I am pretty great.”
“Oh my god, do you ever shut up?”
“Only if you make me.”
“Gladly.”
“See? Besotted I sa- mph”