Work Text:
One
Todd woke up to someone softly jostling his shoulder, their touch gentle and almost overlooked, which he tried to do but failed as it continued. Opening his eyes, he found himself looking at Neil's face, who put a stop to his nudging, but promptly groaned and turned away and said, "Five minutes more." in his sleep-roughened voice. Neil protested, attempting to grab Todd's shoulder to resume his previous activities, his fingers brushing against Todd's neck which caused the latter to jerk away and giggle involuntarily. Neil's eyes lit up, already planning on using Todd's ticklishness to his own advantage, and pressed his fingers into Todd's sides and brushed them against his underarms, fully waking Todd up as he laughed and tried to fight back, to no avail. Both of them were late to breakfast that day.
Two
Todd doesn't know when he fell asleep, one minute he was reading about chemical bonds and the next he was asleep right there on his table, cheek down on his book. As had become custom, he was woken up to Neil, softly patting his back this time. Neil stood him up gently, and seeing that Todd was still in a sleep-induced haze, guided him to his bed smoothly. Far too sleepy to be embarrassed, Todd allowed Neil to lay him down and pull the blankets over him, making sure he's covered from the winter chill, then brush his hair back to press a soft kiss to his forehead. Todd smiled softly, and was asleep almost instantaneously.
Three
Todd vaguely registered the kiss pressed his forehead, but his mind started waking up when he felt another kiss on his cheek, and another, and another, then there were lips on his eyelids, his nose, his temple, the corner of his mouth, his cheeks and his own lips again and again till he smiled involuntarily and opened his eyes to grin a lovesick grin at Neil who pulled away to smile softly at Todd.
And that's when he knew, that Neil was It for him, he would never feel such happiness again unless it was him, no one else could ever send his heart spiralling the way Neil could with a smirk, or make him lose his thought process the way he did when he looked into Neil's chocolate-coloured eyes, dark and dusty and promising as the world fades away save for the two of them, or make him feel the way Neil does. Looking on at his boyfriend as he fell in love, Todd Anderson was sure he would never be contented as he was in this moment.
One
Having fallen asleep after a fitful night spent tossing and turning, with an awful feeling of foreboding, Todd was woken up, not by his boyfriend like usual, but by Charlie jostling his shoulder, his touch unlike from Neil's in every way possible. Todd woke up to see his tear stained face, and felt his heart stop when Charlie spoke those words, those cursed words. "Neil's dead.", he said.
Even while Todd refused to believe it, shouted and Charlie and the others to stop lying, a part of him, quelled immediately, said that the poets wouldn't lie about a thing like this, and Neil had gone home with his terrible father, it was probable- but it was the sight of Neil's bed, so often occupied by them as they studied and slept or just sat with each other, where love confessions were whispered and kisses stolen, lying there barren and unoccupied- was what made him realise that Neil was really gone, as were the tameless heart and hazel eyes he fell in love with, and even as Todd screamed into the snow, he felt his heart break and knew, he wouldn't love again.