Work Text:
There’s a familiar weight against Victor’s back.
Victor’s still groggy from the fog of half-sleep when they slowly crack their eyes open. There’s something familiar to the room, too, to the couch across the floor and the lamp against the wall. Warm streetlights are filtering in through the window blinds from below, stripes of yellow cutting across the ceiling and casting a dim glow on the rest of the apartment. He can just barely make out his red hoodie on the floor where it had been haphazardly flung the night before, and the brief flutter of panic in his chest starts to ease.
The weight shifts and sighs before settling down again, the hand across Victor’s waist creeping up towards his chest, and Victor finally registers where he is and who he’s with. He stays still for a moment or two, listening to Mac’s soft breathing filling up the room in time to the heartbeat against their back. Mac’s touch is usually light, but the arm he has wrapped around Victor right now feels almost immovable. Or maybe it’s just the fact that Victor doesn’t really want to go, not just yet.
And almost as if he can hear Victor’s thoughts, Mac lets out a heavy sigh.
“Heading out soon?” Mac asks, voice low. He slowly leans up to plant a kiss just where Victor’s morning glories curl under his ear, hovering there even after he lifts away.
“Sun’s not up just yet,” Victor replies just as softly, looking up to meet Mac’s gaze, and even in the dim light they can make out what passes for Mac as a smile. Mac leans in now, brushes a kiss along Victor’s jawline, starts to creep just a bit further, but he stops sharply as Victor meets his eyes. There’s a beat there, and instead he simply pulls Victor in a bit tighter and his forehead comes to rest against Victor’s temple, dark hair brushing against Victor’s cheek.
“Then stay,” is all Mac offers in reply before he lowers back down to the pillow and leaves Victor staring at the ceiling.
For a second they’re both still, quiet, listening to each other as the world wakes up. Victor would rather stay right there than go anywhere out in the cold morning, they think, their hand moving to lay on top of Mac’s as they relax into him again. They feel his breath hitch ever so slightly as they do, and there’s a catch in their chest in response.
But the sun is going to be up soon, a peek of gold starting to glow from behind the blinds and the morning traffic of the city beginning to rumble from the streets below. It’s only a matter of time before Damien’s alarm goes off a few blocks away, and Victor can’t stand another set of raised eyebrows and unspoken conversations over breakfast.
He gives it a heartbeat… three more… five, six… lights flicker across the ceiling in time with each one as cars move on the street. After two dozen warm, still seconds, Victor gives a heavy sigh. He lifts Mac’s hand entwined with his own and slowly slides out from under the blankets. Mac’s fingers try briefly to stay tight in between his before letting go all at once, like they stopped themselves from hanging on.
“Lock up behind you,” Victor hears as he scoops up his hoodie, wrinkled from a night spent on the floor. There's an edge to the remark - there’s always sarcasm with Mac, especially when Victor slips away on dark mornings, but gives Victor enough pause to look back.
They pull the hoodie on and slowly cross to the bed again. Mac’s turned to face his back to the room now, pulling the blankets up around his shoulders. Victor puts a hand on one and leans down to kiss the back of Mac’s neck, just where the tattoos end in delicate tapering edges.
“I always do,” Victor says back, hand lifting away. He lingers just a moment too long, though, long enough to feel another catch in his chest at Mac covered in the comforter and outlined in soft gold.
But it’s almost bright enough to make out proper shapes now, which means it’s Victor’s cue to go. He manages to make his way across the floor without tripping over the coffee table this time, to gather clothes strewn on the couch and pull on jeans and tie up sneakers without the glow of a phone screen to find it all.
And even though he knows he doesn’t have the second to spare, Victor can’t help stealing one last glance over his shoulder as he slips out the door. In the back of his mind he realizes that he’s never seen Mac’s apartment after sunrise, and something about that sticks funny in his ribs.
But as the glow from the sun begins to seep through Mac’s hair and spill across the floor, Victor can only wonder just how long that will be true.