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Alex’s glasses rose up his forehead as he rubbed his eyes. He stared blankly at his computer with his essay for one of his classes that wasn’t due for another week on it.
“Getting sleepy?” Henry said from the doorway where he had miraculously appeared.
“Yeah…no…kinda… I don’t know, I still need to finish this essay though, the supplementary reading has been kicking my ass,” Alex answered putting on his playful smile near the end.
“It will still be there tomorrow love,”
“Yeah, I know, but it’s starting to go the way I intended, and I need to keep it up before I forget. You get me?” Alex said as he looked over to Henry who put on his tired smile. That face always made Alex happy, even though he hated seeing Henry tired, he loved how he was the only one to ever see it.
“You head to bed though H, it’s getting late, and I don’t know how long I’ll be at it tonight,”
“Don’t stay up too late, okay love? You’re no fun in the morning when you’re grouchy,” Henry said as he walked over to Alex and put a gentle kiss on the top of his head.
--
The cursor on Alex’s screen was mocking him at this point. It kept appearing and disappearing waiting for him to write something new and brilliant, yet he barely managed to string together a coherent sentence at this hour. Alex looked over to the clock that shined the ungodly hour of 3:56 am and decided that if his brain stopped being in pre-lawyer mode, he wasn’t doing himself any good staying up. He left the office and headed downstairs to get himself a glass of water before returning upstairs to snuggle up with his lovely boyfriend who would be sound asleep in their bed.
As he started down the stairs, he heard a faint sound coming from what he assumed was the TV. As he got closer, he noticed it was indeed an episode of The Great British Bake Off that was playing. He noticed a peculiar lump on the couch which he made the correct assumption of it being Henry. Henry was peacefully turn on the side, facing the screen, with his eyes closed and breathing evenly.
Alex lips molded into a sad smile knowing Henry had stayed up waiting for him to finish so they could head to bed together but lost his fight to sleep. Alex quietly creeped over, turning off the television, drawing up the blanket over Henry and placing his hand over Henry’s cheek. Henry unconsciously moved into the touch. Alex stepped back after a moment and found a pillow and blanket that were thrown half hazardly onto one of their armchairs and headed back towards Henry. Alex knew the was no chance to snuggle up with his boyfriend, especially considering David was confortably nestled at Henry’s feet, without waking him. So, he chose the closest available spot to the couch on the floor, facing Henry. As he settled down on the carpet, he whispered an “I love you,” to Henry like he does every night, before closing his eyes and drifting off to sleep.
--
Henry woke to the sound of a loud clank followed by an even louder “FUCK”. He slowly and unwillignly opened his eyes deeming it an impossible task to go back to sleep after that ruckus and turned his head over to the sound. Sure, enough he saw his beautiful boyfriend hoping up and down on one foot shaking the other.
“Everything all right love?” Henry asked trying to hide his smile showing in his voice, even though he knew he was doing a pretty poor job of it.
“Never better,” Alex replied bending down and picking up what Henry assumed was what causes the loud clank.
Henry sat up to stretch and get up from the couch where he had inevitably fallen asleep last night. He loved Alex, he loved that he had a fire underneath his ass, but he would love it if he would get anything near the recommended hours of sleep. He couldn’t blame him though. Henry knew law school was hard enough and being the first son, with the entire country – if not more – looking at him a like he’s Mr. Perfect, Henry knew Alex didn’t want to disappoint everyone and gave everything he had to live up to it. Henry just wished Alex knew he was perfect just the way he was.
Henry looked around for the first time and noticed the pillow and blanket that they kept on one of their armchairs (after doing one of those photoshoot of the decor inside the prince’s and first son’s house they accumulated a lot of decorations that they actually enjoyed), folded neatly on the coffee table, not where he remmebered them being last night.
Henry walked over to Alex while his back was turn and was saying “listen I know you’re taller than me, and you love rubbing that in my face and all that, but would you please not put the heavy pan on the top shelf where you know I can’t reach”. Henry now right behind him wrapped his arms around Alex, and planted a kiss in the crook of his neck while whispering “I know, I know, we can move it to the bottom cabinet if you would prefer, I love you”
“Love you too, baby” Alex answered while turning around in Henry’s arms to face him. “Sorry I made you fall asleep on the couch last night, I should have listened to you and gone to bed earlier, pretty sure everything I wrote after that is shit anyways”
“Hey, no,” Henry said while grabbing Alex’s face between his hand making sure he was looking right at him. “Everything you write is perfect, okay. You don’t need to spend everyday up till dawn rewriting every last word, your essays are great. You are great.” He finished while pressing their lips together. “you know that right, you are amazing, and I love you ,”
“I love you too Henry, you are amazing, you keep me going and remind me I need to take a breath once in a while, and even if I don’t listen right away, your voice comes back to me no matter what. I’m sorry I made you sleep on the couch and wake up to me dropping the pan,” Alex said.
“Again there’s no need to be sorry, I’m just sorry your back is going to be sore after sleeping on the floor last night, you know you really didn’t have to do that right”.
“Oh I know,” Alex replied with a smile already forming on his face, “I did that for entirely selfish reasons, I wanted to see you as soon as I opened my eyes,” he continued as he weaved out of Henry arms “plus, your hair always looks ridiculous first thing in the morning” he finished with a wink.