Chapter Text
Getting up at five in the morning every day wasn’t exactly my favorite fucking thing in the world, but work demanded that I get to the school at 7 in the morning to prepare for a day full of crazy teenagers trying desperately not to fall asleep in class and most of the time not paying attention.
I was a high school Government and Politics teacher, and most of my students adored me for some God awful reason. My bosses’ patience with me was wearing thin, but I was only teaching high school until I got my Ph.D in education, which was going to be another year but it will be completely worth it when I’m teaching college age students who aren’t completely incompetent, are paying to be there, which by extension means that they actually want to be there.
This morning I almost threw the alarm across the room because it was fucking cold as hell and I would much rather have been curled up in bed. Especially this morning.
I heard Sollux groan in my ear something along the lines of, “Turn that stupid alarm off KK before I break it.”
I would have, but I had Eridan curled up against my chest and his shoulder was digging into my arm, completely cutting off the circulation, but I didn’t care because he was comfortable and somehow still sleeping through my alarm, which could probably wake the dead.
I hadn’t opened my eyes yet, I simply grunted and slurred, “Eridan, wake up and turn off the alarm.”
Without missing a beat, he muttered, “Fuck that, I’m goin’ back to sleep. You turn it off.”
“Fuck you, you’re closest to it,” I mumbled, which mostly sounded like intelligible garbage but somehow Sollux was able to understand me enough to say, “Both of you shut the fuck up and turn off the alarm, I don’t have to work today and it’s been going off for an entire fucking year now.”
Eridan growled, rolled over, which successfully sent pins and needles through my arm, and shut off the alarm before rolling back over and curling up against my chest, “You guys owe me.”
“For what? Shutting off the alarm so you can go back to sleep?” Sollux teased, but between his lisp and the fact that he was half awake it was barely a coherent sentence.
“Shut up Sol and go back to sleep,” he muttered.
“Both of you shut the fuck up and let me go back to sleep for another ten minutes before I have to get up, shower, and go to the fucking school to deal with demon teenagers all day,” I growled.
They both stopped their bickering and I felt Sollux tighten his grip around my waist and Eridan curled up closer and I was lost in a half awake state of thinking that despite our bickering and the fact that we act like we hate each other sometimes, we were still together and we all loved each other, and that was the important part.
It was good to have Eridan home though, him being in the military kept him at the base a lot. We lived nearby of course and he lived with us, but he spent most of his day on base, leaving early and staying late. He was on leave right now, hence why he was even still in bed with us instead of having already been awake two hours before us.
Sollux was a software engineer, which he ascended to quickly after college because with computers he’s a fucking genius. He’s helped me with so many innovative presentations for my classes half awake and he still complained that it was too easy and I should have been able to do it it was so easy. Only I can’t program anything worth shit, and he knows ways around programs like someone would know their way around their own house.
I was the only one still in school, mostly because I went back for my Ph.D after being a high school teacher for awhile and while, yes, I enjoy it because I get to educate a bunch of idiots, I would much rather teach a group of individuals who will actually listen and give a shit.
I felt Sollux nuzzle his head into my hair, which meant he was more than definitely asleep. He normally wasn’t like that, that was more of Eridan’s thing, who was mimicking him at the current moment by nuzzling his face into my chest, mumbling, “I love you two, even if you suck at five in the mornin’.”
“Love you too, now shut the fuck up and go to sleep,” I muttered as Sollux murmured some intelligible stuff that neither of us could understand.
It was fucking cold so I buried my face in Eridan’s barely long enough to be fluffy hair, which was just short enough to fit military standards and no longer had his signature purple streak in it, and with my free arm pulled the comforter farther over us before wrapping it back around Eridan’s shoulders. I felt Sollux shift and he nuzzled his face into the back of my neck and I heard him sigh. Mumbling something that resembled a “Thank you.”
Even when he was cold, Sollux was a fucking space heater. He was more than definitely keeping my back warm right now and he were to dare to move I would somehow get my arm free from Eridan long enough to pull him back down because he was keeping me warm and it was the middle of January.
Eridan on the flipside was an ice cube at all times and he was clinging to me for warmth. Which I didn’t quite understand because I was freezing everywhere except for where Sollux had wrapped his long limbs around me.
As time passed I realized that I was not going to be falling asleep any time soon, so I ran my fingers lightly in a circle motion on Eridan’s lower back, causing him to hum a little bit in his half awake state. Sollux was still dead to the world, snoring softly (in my ear of course).
He could sleep through everything except for my alarm clock apparently.
Eridan’s arms were held up to his chest and his legs were tangled with mine and Sollux’s, which made my legs cold in some places and warm in others. It was a weird combination, but not entirely unpleasant.
At least until Eridan’s one foot moved and it pressed against my foot, and it was cold as the snow that was laying on the ground outside.
“Fuck! Eridan move you’re fucking foot,” I hissed. “You’re colder than the damn Arctic.”
Eridan shifted and his foot moved before mumbling sarcastically, “Happy now Kar? Is there anythin’ else you’d like me to do?”
“I’d like you to shut the fuck up, now go to sleep.”
I didn’t have to tell him twice, within a few minutes he was snoring as well. A few long moments passed of me listening to my boys snoring softly in unison and feeling them curled up around me, and I started to fall asleep myself.
Just was the abyss of darkness was about to take me over, the alarm clock went off again.