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It was yet another sleepless night in the Manor, where all you seemed to do was roll around under your covers, desperate to coax your body into sleep. You had spent hours trying to tire yourself out by reading, meditating, listening to music, but nothing was helping.
You decided to distract yourself from your misery and made your way downstairs to the kitchen to make a cup of tea. As you turned the stove on, you saw a lamp in the living room click on and illuminate the space. Footsteps began to make their way towards you as you filled the tea kettle with water. Looking to see who was coming, you were surprised to see Dark in the doorway.
You and Dark had become close companions during your time at the Manor. It began one night, when you had not so surprisingly found yourself unable to sleep. You had been pacing around the halls outside of your bedroom, near Dark’s office, when he opened his door to investigate the soft pattering coming from outside of his study. He was met with you turning on your heel to do another lap around the hall. You looked up, panicked, and began profusely apologizing for disturbing the man during such late hours.
He had secretly found your sincerity endearing, and invited you into his office, claiming that if it was “the only thing that would get you to stop pacing around his door”, then he would allow you to stay in the room with him and occupy yourself with the mountain of books on his shelves.
So, for months, when you couldn’t sleep, you found yourself seated on the sofa in front of the fireplace of Dark’s study while he worked. During this time, you two had found yourselves growing closer. You had become his soft spot, and the other egos in the house had taken notice to this.
After your meeting that night, the egos noticed that Dark’s presence began to brighten. Though he was still his cold self, he seemed to be a bit more laid back. He wasn’t always on guard and he looked genuinely happy to be around you. The two of you would often be found not-so-subtly pressed up against one another reading in the bay window of the living room.
At night, he would stop his work while you were in his office so that he could read alongside you on the other end of the sofa, with the fire illuminating you both. This would lead to quick conversation. Soon you found yourselves discussing your pasts, your fears, and your dreams with one another. You quickly found yourself falling for the ego, and tried your best to hide this from him, as to not ruin what the two of you already had.
But for the past week, it seemed as if Dark had been avoiding the space, avoiding you, all together. Each evening that you made your way to his office, he was never there. Instead, he had made his way directly to his bedroom after dinner with the egos and yourself every night. So, you had resorted to your old habits when you couldn’t sleep. The ones that always led to you being bored out of your mind. That led to your current predicament in the kitchen, standing in front of the stove, waiting for the water inside of the tea kettle to boil. Dark stood leaning against the door frame, his eyes observing your figure as you placed your cup down on the counter. You glanced at him, noticing how he wasn’t wearing his suit coat, and how the buttons at the top of his shirt were undone.
You looked at him, giving a small smile. He only gazed back at you with an unreadable expression on his face. The normally cold and confident ego had seemed almost nervous as he walked further into the room, reaching above you to grab a cup for himself, the palm of his other hand softly brushing the small of your back as he did so.
You tensed up as you felt that funny feeling in your stomach. You hadn’t talked with him in over a week and yet he was acting like nothing had happened, like he wasn’t avoiding you at every turn.
The high pitched whistle of the tea kettle rang in your ears as you moved to quickly shut the stove off and began to pour the water into both cups. Dark mumbled a quiet thanks.
“Where have you been?” you asked, turning to look at him, the space between the two of you barely there. Dark hadn’t spoken so much as a word to you since he stopped appearing in his office at night. He remained quiet as his eyes drifted towards the floor.
“It’s just...You’ve been avoiding me. It’s like you don’t even want me arou-”
“No,” Dark interrupted. “That’s not it. I wouldn’t ever not want you around” he sighed. He looked up from the ground, meeting your eyes once again.
He slowly grabbed your hands in his, rubbing his thumb along your knuckles, the outline of red and blue glitching around his arms against his pale skin. Your face burned red.
“I’ve come to a realization lately and I haven’t known how to approach you. I do want you around. I want you around always. I like it when you’re with me, when we’re together”
His rambles were interrupted by him clearing his throat, obviously embarrassed at his small rant, as he was trying to keep up his hardened exterior. You squeezed his hands and quickly asked, “Why have you been avoiding me lately. Did I do something wrong?”
“I think I’m in love with you and I’m terrified” he stated. You stood in shock, dropping his hands. His expression turned to one of hurt as he glanced away, taking a step back.
You swiftly stepped towards him, connecting your lips together in a sweet, slow kiss. You breathed him in, feeling how cool he was under your hands. He moved his hands to cradle your head, pulling you even closer. His aura radiated red and blue light as you moved you arms around his broad back.
Pulling away and leaning towards your ear he whispered, “So I take it you feel the same way?” You felt his lips curl into a smile as a laugh left your lips. You nodded and pulled him into a warm embrace. He held you to his chest, pressing a kiss to your temple.
Thanks to your sleepless antics, you had found your way into Dark’s arms as the two of you made your way back up to his office, finding comfort in the familiarity of the place that you called home.