Work Text:
Today had been a very long day.
You and Sniper had been sent off base for what had seemed like a simple mission, but everything that could’ve gone wrong, had gone wrong. Sniper had dark bruises along his jaw, and you were covered in mud.
It was a long story, but suffice to say, you both couldn’t wait to get into your hotel room and fall asleep. Ms Pauline had booked the rooms, and she was usually good for making sure it wasn’t a flea infested motel at least.
You both had high hopes for at least a good nights sleep after this awful day. Sniper had been leaning on you the whole way to the hotel, the exhaustion in his bones apparent. (It couldn’t have been comfortable for him to lean on you like that, with how tall he was, but you weren’t going to complain. You liked having him close.)
The smell of his cigarettes clung to him, a telltale sign of how stressful today had been. You knew he didn’t often smoke on the job, especially never when waiting with his rifle. But after everything going wrong, you couldn’t fault him a few smokes.
You’d been trying to get closer with sniper for a while now, his dry sarcasm was all the more endearing when you knew you got to hear it so much more than the rest of the team. He was still quiet around you, but you’d gained enough of his trust and respect to be the one he made his quips to when one of the other Mercs were being stupid.
And so you had expected to relish this mission, getting to spend some time alone with him. This was supposed to be great! Instead you were counting down the seconds until you could get a shower, and he was practically falling asleep on his feet as you walked into the hotel.
You knew you must’ve been a sight but you smiled wearily at the receptionist, rattling off the fake name the reservation was under. They seemed concerned, but you sped through the interaction,
Avoiding questions, Once that awkward conversation was over and you had the room key, you pulled Sniper along with you to the elevator.
“Just one room?” He asked as you pressed the button for your floor.
“Yep, haven’t you heard Pauline? There have been a bunch of budget cuts lately for her. Getting us two king suites is a bit much to ask for, I suppose,” You tried to laugh, but it sounded more like a tired cough.
“So long as I’m not sleeping on a hard floor, I’m happy,” he replied. Sniper’s smile was tired but sweet, and you couldn’t help but smile back at him. Your matching smiles stuck around as you walked down the hall to your rooms
Of course, when you opened the door to the hotel room, your smiles dropped.
“There’s…. Only one bed.” You said slowly, walking into the room and looking around as if another would be hiding around the corner.
“God fucking dammit.” Sniper had walked over to the bed, and grabbed a note that was lying on the blanket. “Sorry guys, budget cuts. You know how it is. Pauline.” He read out, scoffing. “Fucking budget cuts.”
“She really couldn’t have warned us beforehand?” You asked, dropping your bag by the wall.
“Probably knew we’d bother her for something better. It’s fine, I can sleep on the floor.” He replied.
“What? You had a long day, got beat up, and not three minutes ago said that you didn’t want to sleep in the floor, Snipes,” you said immediately. He looked like death warmed over right now, there’s no way you were gonna make him sleep on the floor. “I can take the floor,” you insisted.
“You’re not sleeping on the floor. You can have the bed.”
“Well you’re not sleeping on the floor either! You need the bed more than I do.”
“I’m taking the floor.”
“If you sleep on the floor I will to!”
“Crikey, either I sleep on the floor or we share the bed, alright? I’m not making ya sleep on the floor.”
“Then we can share,” you said “It’ll be fine, and we’ll both sleep better there than the floor.”
“That’s fine with me then.” He dropped his bag on the bed, and ran a hand through his hair with a sigh. “You can use the shower first, Go ahead.”
You weren’t going to argue with that, you could feel the mud everywhere and it was awful.
You jumped through the shower quickly, not wanting to keep him waiting for his turn, and did your best to keep your thoughts away from the situation at hand. Sharing a bed with him? It was out of convenience of course but still! What if you accidentally invaded his space in your sleep and he hated you for it? And he’d be so close to you either way!
Keeping your thoughts away clearly wasn’t working. You towelled off your hair roughly when you got out of the shower, shaking the thoughts away.
Stepping out of the bathroom, you say Sniper sitting at the edge of the bed, looking half asleep already. His stuff had been moved to the side of the bed, which took the burden of choosing a side off of you at least. He yawned as he stood up and walked past you, and you were hit with how exhausted you were too.
It was simple enough to slip into some pyjamas and get set up on your side of the bed. The only thing that kept you from passing out was the anxiety biting at your thoughts. Sharing a bed with him like this was totally platonic and just cause of work stuff. There was no reason to get all worked up about it.
Right?
That line of reasoning unfortunately went out the window when Sniper walked back into the room, with only some grey sweats on. Jesus Christ. You were thankful that he seemed too tired to notice you ogling him.
When he laid down in the bed, you were struck by how small the space was. He was so close to you. Not quite touching you but you could feel the warmth he radiated like a heater.
“Get some sleep, alright? We both need it,” he said, turning off the lamp next to him.
He was right, and you were tired. So even his proximity didn’t keep you from passing out just about as soon as you closed your eyes.
-
When you woke up, you were warm and comfortable. That was nice, but as your brain slowly turned on, you realised you should not have been warm and comfortable in this hotel room, it was the bare minimum of good enough.
Cracking your eyes open, you were met with the fact that you were curled up half on Sniper’s chest with his arms wrapped around your waist.
Fuck.
What were you supposed to do? Move? What if you woke him up? But it would be weirder if you didn’t, right?
You tried to slowly sit up, and you very quickly realised that his hold on you was too tight to just pull away without waking him up. So now you were sitting at an angle looking down at his sleeping face. He looked peaceful. When awake, Sniper always looked so stressed, but in this moment, he was calm.
You were significantly less calm. Especially when he cracked an eye open to look up at you.
“Go back t’sleep,” he mumbled, pulling you back down onto his chest. One of his hands moved up to your hair, gently holding you as he fell back asleep, his breath evening out once again.