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Every inch of Wooley ached with the weariness a vod could only experience after a brutal mission with little time to sleep. He wasn’t sure how long it had been since he’d left for his mission with a couple of other ARCs, but Wooley hadn’t managed to get any sleep the entire mission. All he wanted to do was curl up right where he stood and pass out for the next tenday.
He wanted to, but it was definitely not what an ARC should do. Instead, Wooley gave a report to General Kenobi and Commander Cody and then marched directly to the freshers to get rid of all of the grime coating his body. Only once he was clean, did he turn towards the barracks for some rest.
With every step, his feet dragged, and Wooley struggled to find the strength to pick them up off the ground. His eyelids drooped, his body sagged, and it took everything in him to push past the exhaustion just to make it to the barracks. When he finally managed to stumble his way there, the barracks were dark and the familiar sound of sleeping vode washed over him. It was warm, comfortable. It was home.
It was also almost impossible to see who was in what bunk, and Wooley didn’t want to flop himself down onto a couple of vode kriffing. Ordinarily it wouldn’t be a problem, but he was too tired to want to do more than just sleep. Wooley hovered by the door, squinting into the darkness to try to find anywhere he could bunk down and pass out for the next two cycles.
Suddenly, arms wrapped around Wooley’s waist, and a familiar body pressed close. Wooley didn’t startle, only because he was too tired to care.
“I’ve got a place for you to sleep,” Longshot murmured in Wooley’s ear. “Come on, I’ll take you there.”
Wooley let Longshot guide him past the rows of bunks to the farthest corner. His eyes had adjusted enough that he could make out a couple of mattresses from empty bunks piled in the corner, along with a truly impressive number of pillows and blankets. It was a nest. That was the only way Wooley could think of to describe it. And it looked heavenly.
“I love you,” he said to Longshot, completely serious.
Longshot snickered and pressed a kiss to Wooley’s temple. “I love you, too. Go on and get comfortable.”
“Are you not staying?”
“I am,” Longshot murmured. “Just lay down and I’ll curl up with you and make sure you have plenty of blankets to wrap yourself in.”
“How he doesn’t suffocate when he’s got even one blanket over his head baffles me,” Crys joked lightly in the dark. “I’ll bring the two of you food in a few hours.”
Wooley hummed an acknowledgement and then toed off his boots as best as he could, leaning on Longshot for support and balance. And then he knelt down in the middle of the nest that Longshot had built for him and sighed contentedly. He curled up with a pillow and before Longshot joined him in the nest, he was asleep.
Longshot smiled at Wooley and placed a tender kiss to Wooley’s forehead. He wrapped an arm around his partner and tucked him in close. Wooley made a soft, sweet noise in his sleep and melted against Longshot’s chest, clearly content even in his deep sleep.
Wooley, when they were off-duty, was known to sleep deeply enough that even heavy artillery fire wouldn’t wake him up. He woke up when he wanted to and not a second before. Longshot hoped that Wooley would be able to sleep as long as he needed—especially since he’d heard rumors about the kind of mission that the ARC had taken. And based on the exhaustion that weighed heavily on his bones, Longshot really hoped that nothing would happen that would require Wooley’s presence for the next week.
“I can cover your shift in the morning,” Trapper said softly. “So you don’t have to leave Wooley and possibly wake him up.”
“Thanks, Trap,” Longshot whispered back. He’d already slept recently, since it was in the middle of third shift, and Longshot was assigned to first shift. But it was no hardship to curl around Wooley and cuddle him for the next several hours.
From time to time, Wooley shifted or murmured quietly in his sleep, but for the most part, he was completely relaxed and quiet as he finally rested. He didn’t even wake up when Crys brought food as he’d promised earlier. But that was okay—Longshot figured he needed sleep more than food at the moment. Instead, Longshot and Crys had shared the meal, setting Wooley’s aside for later, and Crys had even fallen asleep draped over Wooley’s back for an hour or two.
Wooley woke up once in the middle of first shift, stumbling off to the freshers, and had immediately returned and gone back to sleep.
“How is he?” Cody asked when he checked on him after first shift ended.
“Tired,” Longshot murmured. “Didn’t think he’d sleep this long, but he was clearly exhausted.”
Cody nodded. “Rough mission. From what I understand, none of them had even a spare second to sleep for the entirety of the mission.”
Longshot winced. While clones could go a bit longer than a baseline human without sleep, it was still not recommended. They operated best when they had plenty of rest.
“No wonder he’s only woken up once.”
Cody sighed. “He’s off duty for the next few days to let him recover. Let him have some down time to recuperate. But Trapper can’t keep covering your shift indefinitely.”
“I know,” Longshot said quietly. He brushed Wooley’s mohawk back away from his face. “I’ll be back on shift tomorrow. Just wanted to have someone familiar nearby while he slept.”
“You take good care of him,” Cody agreed. “And he needed it. I’m glad he has you. If you hadn’t taken care of him, I probably would have had him stay in my quarters for at least the night.”
“I’m happy to help him.” Longshot looked down at Wooley and he knew he had a dopey grin on his face, but he couldn’t help it. Wooley was wonderful and Longshot had fallen for him a long time ago. No matter what kind of shenanigans he got up to and trouble he caused, Longshot loved him fiercely and would always take care of him as much as the war allowed.
Cody smiled and bumped Longshot’s shoulder with his fist before leaving, likely heading to the bridge to talk with General Kenobi or to his office to work on the endless piles of formwork he had to deal with.
Longshot settled down for a nap, happy to cuddle Wooley for as long as he was allowed to.
His next shift came all too quickly. Longshot carefully removed himself from Wooley’s clinging grip and then headed off to the mess hall for breakfast and his morning caf. There were a few others in line, most of them scheduled to work the same shift as Longshot, along with a few from third shift, likely coming in for a quick bite to eat before heading off to bunk down. He shuffled down the line, filling his tray with food, and grinned as his vode pushed and shoved at each other. Crys was getting teased by Doll, and Longshot didn’t hesitate to jump in, always happy to quote some of Crys’s midnight sleep rambles.
Halfway through the line, there was a small commotion at the entrance to the mess hall, and Longshot turned to see what was causing the issue. With a fond huff and a shake of his head, Longshot watched as Wooley stumbled through the door, clad only in his blacks and completely barefoot. His mohawk was the fluffiest and messiest he’d ever seen, likely from the last two days of sleeping with a blanket covering his head.
“Is he still asleep?” Crys asked, incredulous.
“I’m . . . I’m not actually sure,” Longshot said with a chuckle. “He might be sleep-walking at this point.”
“What the kriff is he doing here?” Doll asked.
Based entirely off of how Wooley barely managed to keep himself from falling over, he was almost completely asleep. It was endearing and adorable. Longshot watched as Wooley made his way through the crowds, most of them parting to let him through unimpeded while others helped guide him towards Longshot.
The second he found Longshot, Wooley latched onto his back and grumbled incoherently into his shoulder.
“Morning, sweetheart,” Longshot said with a chuckle.
“Mmmmnnnghgg,” Wooley groaned.
The other vode laughed, all of them fond of how utterly ridiculous Wooley could be when he was sleepy.
“Does he need caf?” a shiny asked Longshot hesitantly.
Longshot shook his head. “He’s just looking for his bed warmer. He got back from a bad mission a couple cycles ago and wants to cuddle, but I needed to leave for my shift.”
“Oh,” the shiny said. “Does—does he always act like that when he’s tired?”
“Yes and no. During a campaign, he’s alert. Any time we have official down time, though, Wooley is almost impossible to wake up. First time he’s followed me to the mess hall though.”
The shiny looked at Wooley and smiled. “It’s nice, sir. Seeing Ghost’s ARC like that. He’s . . . cute.”
Longshot smiled. “He definitely is cute and he’s proud of that fact.”
The shiny smiled back and then shuffled off to his friends nearby.
Longshot turned back to his tray of food and got some caf before heading towards the table where Crys and Doll were still teasing each other and arguing playfully. Wooley moved with him easily, rousing briefly when Longshot carefully sat down so that Wooley could also sit comfortably and still hold onto him, but he settled back down quickly.
Wooley was entirely ridiculous and adorable. Longshot loved him completely.