Work Text:
“Rraughbrrllrrehmmmmorrrd.”
“That might have set the record for most unique phonemes in one sleepy utterance.” Apollo smiled, not yet looking away from his laptop. His husband had never been much of a morning person, and there were always times that he would wake up disoriented, nonverbal, or clearly still experiencing whatever dream he had woken up from. By now, this was just part of living with him.
“That can’t be right,” Clay mumbled out, not lifting his face from his pillow. “I can do better.”
“I’ll keep a log for you,” Apollo said. He was reviewing details of a decade-old case, a civil trial that had a lot in common with the one he’d be part of later that day. It wasn’t his first civil trial (and couldn’t possibly be as stressful), but still, there was a reason he was mainly a criminal defense lawyer. He was not looking forward to work.
“Is it okay if I go use the bathroom?”
Apollo met Clay’s bleary eyes, concerned by a question he hadn’t heard before. “Why wouldn’t it be?”
“We just have a normal toilet,” Clay answered.
“…Astutely observed.”
“But I’m supposed to be doing zero-G training. Isn’t it against the rules?”
…Ah. “It’s fine, Clay, it won’t be a problem for your training.”
Clay rolled out of the bed and stumbled to the door. Apollo tried to keep reading, but he couldn’t help being amused. The persistent dreamscape strikes once again.
When Clay was done, he crawled back into the bed, buried himself in the blankets, and fell asleep almost instantly.
Apollo kept working. He was pretty sure he had a solid case for the day. The precedent seemed to be on his side. But he also knew that his opponent would be looking at the same case precedent, and would be pouncing on any possible point that made the current case different from the last one. So his search had to be exhaustive, and absolutely exhausting.
He wasn’t sure how much time had passed – somewhere between fifteen minutes and a full hour – before an arm landed on his shoulders with more force than was probably intended. Clay wriggled until his arms were wrapped around Apollo and his face was smooshed into Apollo’s sleeve.
“Good morning,” Apollo said dryly.
“Rrghltrrmihnihmmprrrghordssss.”
“Hey, you just broke your own record.”
“Ah?”
“I’ll tell you later.” Apollo was sure Clay had no memory at all of the previous conversation.
“Hm… cool.” Clay kissed Apollo’s arm, the only thing within reach for him to do so, and adjusted so that his head was more resting on Apollo than squeezing him.
And Apollo knew he would be able to make it through the day.