Work Text:
Even before he was finally given his long-overdue promotion, Eli had already been housed way above his station, as far as the HR department was concerned. Ensigns didn't get to have their quarters on high ranking officers decks, period. But bureaucratic periods often didn't apply where Thrawn was concerned, and Eli Vanto was Thrawn's aide with the Emperor's blessing. If some of the number pushers questioned the fact that Eli's room was right next to Thrawn's, they wisely didn't do it aloud.
Eli certainly didn't question it. Working with Thrawn, studying military tactics under his guidance and teaching him the finer aspects of politics in return could and did claim long hours from their night cycles, and having a door interconnecting their quarters on the inside was simply convenient. Most of the time, Eli didn't even notice its existence.
He was reminded of its existence rather abruptly when the quiet woosh of it woke him up one night, roughly two hours after he went to sleep. He half rose onto one elbow, blinking in confusion towards the main door leading out to the corridor - any unexpected visitor was surely to come from there, and no, he wasn't at the Academy anymore, no more hazing rituals for the Wild Space Yokel - but there was nobody in the darkness. His muddled brain was trying to convince him he imagined the sound when suddenly the mattress dipped behind him and he nearly squeaked as he overbalanced, a rush of cold air making him curl on himself reflexively as the blanket was lifted away from his body. But then the cold was replaced by a warm, solid, heavy body plastering itself along his back, a long arm sneaked around his middle and stabilized his flailing, and stupefied Eli found himself back under the blanket, cocooned in the warmth of Thrawn's body spooning him from behind.
Because it was Thrawn. Eli would recognise his smell anywhere. Standard washing detergent, standard cologne and something underneath it, something he could only describe as the smell of blue ice - clean, cold and dangerous in its seeming impassivity. Soft, regular breaths were ruffling the hair curling at Eli's nape and if he turned his head a little, he could still smell the faint hint of Batuuan mints, a treat Thrawn liked to indulge in for some reason. Eli's initial panic subsided and gave way to confused curiosity. The rise and fall of Thrawn's chest against his back was slow and regular. He seemed to be dead asleep.
He must have sleepwalked here. For some unfathomable reason, he got roused into this half lucid, half unconscious state, navigated through the connecting door and crawled straight into Eli's bed.
Eli was at a complete loss what to do. There was no protocol for this. He tried to wriggle - but the arm thrown around him only snuggled him closer. He opened his mouth to say something - but no sound left him. He was tired. And if he was, it meant Thrawn was probably twice as much. They both needed their rest. The solid weight at his back was nice, the arm around him not crushing but anchoring, already pulling him back to sleep. They could postpone the awkwardness for the morning.
He didn't even notice he'd fallen asleep until he woke to the blaring of his alarm clock and an empty bed.
Some time during the night, Thrawn must have woken up properly, realized what happened and quietly left for his own quarters. Or possibly he simply sleepwalked back. Eli didn't know. It didn't feel like something he should be bringing up. Again, there was no protocol for this. How does a Commander tell an Admiral, hey so did you know you have really pointy knees?
Thrawn acted as if nothing was amiss the whole day. Eli had the question at the tip of his tongue a couple times but in the end, he said nothing. Nobody, not even a Chiss warrior, would be able to act like his usual collected and politely standoffish self after waking up in the bed of his subordinate, so maybe Eli dreamed the whole thing up.
Except that a couple nights later, there he was again. Unannounced, silent, deeply asleep and snuggling Eli close to his chest as naturally as if he always belonged there.
From then on, it became almost a regular occurence. Some nights, Eli wasn’t even woken up by the door opening. He would only half-rouse when the familiar body slotted along his and soon dozed off again, sleeping better than before.
Eli was put through weirder things at Thrawn's side. This one seemed almost innocent in comparison. It was - so startlingly human, really. Thrawn tended to come across like some infallible automaton, moving with a calculated poise, talking without emotion. Feeling him so… soft and warm and safe in his bed was making something tender flutter inside Eli's chest. Who knew what went on in Thrawn's dreaming brain that made him seek out another breathing body at night. Far away from his own people, fending for himself in a society that despised him… yeah, Eli knew a thing or two about loneliness.
And he was always gone in the morning and he never said anything during the day. Eli concluded Thrawn must have been doing it entirely subconsciously, coming and leaving like a ghost. It stung a little, knowing Thrawn wouldn’t probably even consider it when awake. There have been days when Eli would’ve said yes before Thrawn even finished asking… but then they grew too far apart in rank and too deep in friendship. So Eli did what he was best at - making the most from what he could get.
Looking back, his time at Thrawn’s side should’ve taught him that things were never going to go the way Eli wanted them to.
He woke up as usual, with the familiar and comforting presence next to him, locked in the one-armed embrace, long fingers clutching lightly onto the fabric bunched on Eli's chest… but that was the last usual aspect about this time.
Because if he didn't misread the glowing red numbers on his chrono display, the Aurek shift would start in sixty minutes. Eli blinked. The time remained the same. Already, the lights in his bedroom were slowly rising up to twenty percent, just as he programmed them to last night. The daily shock of the alarm clock was getting on his nerves so as an experiment, he disabled it and set up the lights instead to wake him gently.
Thrawn had overslept. Eli couldn't remember if today was Thrawn's day off and that was why he would let down his guards so much but it didn't matter. In a few minutes Eli would have to get up and ready for his shift, and Thrawn was still in his bed. Things were about to become exceedingly awkward.
Well, there was no helping it. With a kind of fatalistic stoicism he cultivated during all those years at Thrawn's side, Eli glanced at the chrono and decided that he had a couple more minutes to indulge before this would be taken from him forever. He burrowed back into the comfortable dip in the mattress created by the combined weight of their bodies and closed his eyes again, breathing in the warm smell of clean sheets and Thrawn's smooth skin. Behind him, Thrawn was still breathing slowly and regularly. The panicked tension gradually left Eli's body. Really, what was the worst that could happen?
"Interesting. You've relaxed again."
Eli was pretty sure that if it wasn't for the heavy arm across his middle, he would have levitated off the bed. His heart was definitely beating outside of his body for a moment there.
The arm around him tightened its hold and a thumb stroked soothingly back and forth over the bird-like fast beating heart beneath it.
"I apologize," Thrawn said, as maddeningly unfazed as ever. "I didn't mean to frighten you so."
With thousands questions stumbling over each other at the tip of his tongue, Eli finally blurted out the most outrageous:
"I thought you were asleep! Were you - were you always awake?"
Thrawn shifted and Eli suddenly became aware of all the points they were touching - from knees to nape, Thrawn was fitted around him like the perfect big spoon. And he didn't seem as if it occurred to him that the proper thing to do would be letting go.
"Always? So is this a regular occurrence?"
Eli frowned.
"You really don't remember anything?"
The hand let go of the front of his sleeping shirt as Thrawn lifted his arm back, and Eli felt instantly a little colder with the loss. But now he could roll to his back and turn his head to meet the Chiss' eyes - steady, curious and just a little apologetic.
"I'm afraid not," Thrawn admitted. "Based on your reaction and my experience, I must have sleepwalked here, and it would seem it wasn't for the first time."
Eli surprised himself when a little laugh escaped him instead of some stuttering apologies. There was something about the warmth under their shared blanket and the way his body clung onto that familiar, cosy feeling that made the awkwardness almost inconsequential.
"Yeah, you sleepwalk a lot," he told Thrawn. "But usually you wander back to your own bed after an hour or two. This is the first time you stayed."
Thrawn's red gaze fleetingly focused inwards in contemplation.
"I apologize again,” he said after a moment. “I suggest putting a lock on the door between our-”
“Don’t-” Eli blurted out and nearly bit through his tongue. “I mean, I shouldn’t have let it go on as long as it did, I should’ve woken you or something… But....you seemed like you needed the rest.”
Thrawn hummed, his eyes losing some of its glow as the ambient lights in Eli’s bedroom rose to full capacity, the slightly darker pupils narrowing, sharp and considering.
“Last time I was here - would it happen to be two days ago? And six days before that?”
Eli quickly ran the numbers in his head. “Yeah, I suppose so.”
“So the correlation of my nightly visitations with the days you showed twenty percent increase in attention span and thirty five percent increase in positive emotional state is just a coincidence or is that why you never said anything?”
The words flew by Eli’s ears just a little faster than he usually needed to make sense of them but when he finally did, he felt a rush of heat rising to his face. Fine, so perhaps he needed the rest too.
“Why do you sleepwalk, anyway?” he scrambled for a diversion. “I mean, isn’t it a dangerous habit for a warrior? Or is it normal with the Chiss?”
Cool fingertips touched his face and Eli stopped talking. He even stopped breathing for a moment before he realized Thrawn was probably just taking his temperature. The man was obsessed with physical signs of emotional reactions…
“Interesting,” Thrawn hummed again. “You’ve now tensed again, although before, when you thought I was asleep, you have been quite relaxed. Even though upon discovering me here in the morning would warrant a certain level of distress, you remained calm. Why?”
So much for the diversion.
“It’s just...” Eli sighed, searching his brain for any other word than just nice . “Safe, I think.” Yes, that was it. He slept better with Thrawn’s arms around him because nothing and nobody could get at him and make another night of his life a living hell. “I feel safe like this. With another person.” With you.
“And you still have to ask why I keep sleepwalking into your bed?” Thrawn’s face remained impassive but Eli would swear he heard the smirk in his tone.
Or the joke. Because it must have been one, there was no way a strong and incredibly well trained warrior like Thrawn would subconsciously seek protection in the arms of someone like Eli.
“I do have to ask,” Eli protested. “You can’t be saying you feel safer with me. I can’t protect you from anything, Thrawn.”
The arm around him was back, this time unrelenting, pulling him closer until their foreheads almost touched.
“You have protected me from many slights you aren’t even aware of, Eli Vanto,” and really, it wasn’t fair that his breath should smell this good in the morning… “but as for this, it would seem that I sleep better when I know you are safe.”
Eli definitely wasn’t breathing. He knew he should, the lightheaded feeling was getting to him- but before he died of embarrassment or excitement, he could throw a coin on which it was later, he decided to do one thing he’d always wanted to do. He tipped his head forward and planted a little kiss on the corner of Thrawn’s mouth. Just a peck, a butterfly touch of dry and burning lips on cool blue skin, and he pulled back. Now he could spontaneously combust, and he’d die happy.
When Thrawn didn’t react at all, the heat coursing through Eli’s veins slowly dropped to cold dread.
“You… didn’t mind that, did you?”
One lifted eyebrow, collected as ever. “What should I mind?”
Seriously ? “That I just kissed you?”
“Oh.” Thrawn’s eyes fell closed for a moment. “That was a kiss?”
Oh, Eli was wrong. He wasn’t panicking before. He was panicking now.
“The Chiss don’t kiss? At all?” This was wading into cultural differences, bordering on biological differences, and how in Sith hells could Eli ever think that anything between him and Thrawn was possible-
“Why would we?” Thrawn looked genuinely puzzled. “There are no reproduction organs in the mouth.”
Eli groaned and covered his burning face… when something made him stop the self-loathing train of thought.
Thrawn had looked puzzled just then.
Thrawn never looked puzzled if he could help it.
Eli peeked out from between his fingers. “Are you pulling my leg?”
Thrawn’s smile was bright, approving and a little predatory. Eli couldn’t look away. How did he never notice that Thrawn’s teeth had sharper points than a human’s?
“I lied a little,” Thrawn drawled, lifting himself up on one elbow. “The Chiss do kiss. They just don’t kiss like that.”
And he leaned over, covering Eli’s mouth with his own.
Eli decided that as far as biological differences went, he was enjoying them very much.