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The first thing he was aware of was a dull aching throughout his body. It started in his legs and gradually spread, throbbing to the beat of his heart, rising up behind his eyes, even as they were closed.
The second thing he became aware of was a weight beside him, and the warmth that radiated from it, protecting him from the constant cold he normally felt.
The third thing he became aware of were the hushed voices nearby, whispering fiercely.
“It was so close, Em. If I hadn’t been prepared, I might not have been able to save him. Stars, Champ would’ve hated me.” A young voice spoke, thick and choked, as though the voice had recently been crying.
“Shh, you’re okay, you made it. You did it. I’m proud of you, yeah?” An older, higher voice replied, quiet and calm and steady. “You need sleep, Strike, you’ve overworked yourself.”
“I wanna be here when they wake up.”
“I’ll wake you, okay? I promise. Just get some sleep.”
He wanted to make himself known, tell these voices he was awake. But he was so drained, even opening his eyes seemed like an impossible task. He was warm, and it was dark, and the steady rhythm of breath beside him began to lull him back to sleep. He let himself go.
- - - - - - -
He woke again, nestled in someone’s arms. He breathed deeply, a familiar mix of cologne and washing powder and him, making him want to bury down and never resurface. He nuzzled into the crook of their neck, humming quietly, slowly blinking his eyes open. The arms around him shifted, the stronger one staying holding him to the person’s body, the other rising and slowly combing through his hair. His humming pitched higher, and he relaxed completely into their hold, his eyes slipping closed again. A little more sleep couldn’t hurt.
- - - - - - -
He awoke to soft light streaming through mesh curtains, spilling into the room, coating the furniture and walls in a wash of golden light. He squinted, then closed his eyes, leaning back and contemplating going back to sleep. But he felt groggy and sore in the way he did whenever he overslept too much, and he knew more sleep wasn’t the answer. Instead, he went to push himself up, to sit on the mattress of a queen sized bed. Key words being “went to”, because as he moved, the arm draped over his waist tensed, holding him down in a half-risen position. He rolled over, gently moving the arm so he could move closer to Champagne, who was still asleep beside him. The other man looked exhausted, dark rings under his eyes, longer stubble than usual along his jaw. Benny lightly touched his jaw, feeling the stubble under his hand and frowning. He must have been asleep longer than he thought, given he really only needed to shave once every two days, but definitely needed to now, after shaving before their date. He let his hand drop to Champagne’s jaw, gently tracing the bone, running his thumb over the coarse hairs, feeling his warmth, reminding himself they were both okay. Champagne stirred, his golden eyes opening to meet Benny’s. Several emotions flickered across his face, before settling affectionate concern. Benny leaned in and pressed a kiss onto his nose, smiling slightly as he moved back, bumping their foreheads together. Champagne’s hand rose from Benny’s hip to cup the hand on his jaw, rubbing his thumb over the back of his hand.
“I’m okay.” Benny whispered, kissing his face again.
“I know.” Benny’s heart fluttered at how deep his voice was, low and steady, even as his eyes searched Benny’s face for something unknown, maybe even to him. Benny swallowed, then cautiously asked,
“How long was I asleep for?”
Champagne didn’t answer immediately, moving his hand back down to pull Benny closer to him. He could hear his heartbeat as he whispered into his hair,
“Two days.”
“Oh.” Because what was he supposed to say to that? “Were… were you here the whole time?”
“Of course.”
A memory flashed into Benny’s mind of voices in the dark.
“It wouldn’t have been your fault.”
“Wouldn’t it?”
He looked up, accidently bumping the top of his head on Champagne’s jaw as he moved to look him in the eye, both hands moving to cup his face.
“No, it wouldn’t. The only person at fault is the dickhead who threw a stick at me.” Champagne looked away, his eyes tracing the ceiling. “I mean it Champ. Regardless of what happened, it was, and never would be, your fault.”
“They caught them. The people who attacked us. Turns out they worked for an assassins league the Sci-5 had been thwarting recently.”
“Assassins huh?” Benny mumbled around a yawn, dropping his head back onto Champagne’s chest. He idly traced patterns onto Champagne’s arm with his finger, looping around the bicep and swinging down to the stump, which he found amusingly paler than the rest of his arm, probably due to it constantly being covered by the cap of the prosthetic. It probably wasn’t that amusing, but he was still a little out of it.
“Am I high?”
“You’ve got some pretty strong painkillers running through you to help you rest. They should fade soon.” Benny hummed, still doodling random swirls on his bare arm. Champagne laughed slightly as he traced around his tricep, gently stopping Benny from continuing.
“Alright, that tickles. You wanna sleep a little more.” Benny shrugged.
“I’m too tired to move, but I don’t want to sleep anymore. Could we just cuddle for a bit?” Champagne kissed the top of his head, draping his arm back over Benny’s side.
“Of course.”
- - - - - - -
Benny ended up dozing for the next few hours until the painkillers wore off, then the two went to the main kitchen to find something to eat. Champagne kept an arm draped around Benny’s shoulder as they walked, and while the constant contact was a little overwhelming, Benny couldn’t find it in him to stop it. He’d been just as clingy after the whole turning-into-mindless-beasts-and-nearly-getting-hunted thing, and he figured nearly watching your boyfriend die was a little worse than being worried he was dead. Not to say it wasn’t a terrifying experience, but there were levels, ya know?
All of the Sci-5 were there when they walked in. Zeff didn’t say anything, just turned and left, tail low around his legs. Calamity followed after him, signing to his back. Jump-Kick ignored them, continuing to scroll on her phone. Strike was asleep at the table. Swipe smiled at them as they entered, serving up two plates of toast, with the options of butter, raspberry, strawberry or apricot jam, orange marmalade and vegemite.
Benny had strawberry jam, like a normal person. Champagne slathered on a thick layer of butter, then spread a much thinner layer of vegemite over the top. Strike woke up as they were eating, rubbing their face and yawning before seeing the two men eating. They froze, then quickly excused themself, jogging down the same corridor the Zeff and Calamity had gone down. The memory of voices in the dark resurfaced, and Benny shook himself to try and ward it off. He gathered his plate and went to wash it in the sink. Strike took it from him and cleaned it herself.
“Thanks Swipe.” He said simply. She smiled at him, and he noticed she too had dark rings under her eyes.
“I’m not in uniform, Benny, you can just call me Emily.” It was true, she was dressed in a simple dark blue dress and grey jacket, with fluffy black slippers covering her feet.
“...Emily?” She raised her eyebrow at him.
“Did Champagne not tell you our names?”
“I didn’t want to betray your trust!”
“Fair enough. Yeah, Emily.” The smile returned, before she excused herself, taking a tablet into another room. As she left, Jump-Kick made eye-contact with Champagne, then excused herself as well, following Sw- Emily, down a new corridor.
- - - - - - -
Throughout the day, they were only separated for a few minutes at most, and each time was either to have a shower/use the bathroom, or to go and grab something from another room. Even then, often the other would trail along behind like a lost puppy, seeking the reassurance that the other was okay.
Champagne had a follow-up appointment with Dr Young online, and while Benny was present, he mostly just slept through it. When he woke up again, Champagne was reading one his phone, non-metal hand rubbing circles into Benny’s shoulder. As he moved, Champagne looked down, lifting his hand to allow Benny to sit up from where he’d been slumped into his side. He sat up, then rested his head on Champagne’s shoulder, shifting into a comfortable position. They sat for a few minutes before Benny spoke.
“Can we finish the movie now?”
“Iron Man?”
“Yeah. I wanna see how it ends.”
“...Alright, lemme get it up.”
“Hey,” Champagne paused where he’d grabbed the remote for the TV. Benny pressed a brief kiss to his lips. “It’ll be fine.”
“I know.” Champagne sighed, scrolling through his Disney+ profile, pressing “continue” when he made it to the previously watching section. They were near the end of the film, with barely twenty minutes of actual action left, and it passed by quickly. Compared to the events of a few days ago, the ending seemed anti-climactic for having so much happen between watches, but they both still enjoyed the movie.
They’d gotten up late, so it was nearing dinner time when Benny’s watch exploded with messages. He’d been lying on the couch, head in Champagne’s lap and legs over the armrest, dozing, when it pinged the first time. He ignored it at first, then couldn’t as a rapid flurry of messages came through. Groaning in frustration, he lifted his arm to look, only for the messages to be going by too fast for him to read.
Still reclined, he made the screen grow and go through the messages one by one. His heart warmed as he saw several messages from the previous two days, asking if anyone had seen him or knew where he was. There were dozens of private messages, and he realised with a start it was Saturday, meaning he and Champagne missed Panini Friday.
Vasilia had messaged the group pointing this out, asking if anyone had seen the two men, as well as privately messaging him to see where he was. Heath had clearly contacted the Sci-5, saying that something was wrong, but they wouldn’t tell him what. The new flurry was in the groupchat, returning to ask if anyone had seen him. It had been four days since he’d been at the Sharp Tank last, three days since his date with Champagne, and the fight that had nearly killed him (that was something for process a different time), and two days since his friends had gotten information about what was happening.
Biomech Buddies
He’s not in his world. Tayrun and I just checked… Heath have the Sci-5 gotten back to you?
Hurricane Man
Nothing, I asked this morning and got the same response, just “they’re fine”. But come on, this is Benny we’re talking about! He’s probably just off on some adventure or something.
The Sharpest Armour Crafter Around
Geez guys, I’m gone for a few days and you all panic.
His message was responded to with a flurry of “Benny!”s and questions about where he’d been, why he just went AWOL, why he and Champagne missed Panini Friday, if he was okay.
We’re fine, we just had a run-in with some dumb goons, nothing serious. I’ve been hanging out at the Sci-5’s base, and didn’t have my watch on so I didn’t see all your messages.
It was a gross oversimplification, and just triggered more questions, but he took off his watch and threw it onto the coffee table, sliding further onto Champagne.
“Everything okay?”
“Concerned friends. We missed Panini Friday.” He looked up at Champagne, tiredly resting his head against the armrest. Champagne started combing his fingers through Benny’s hair, a lack of gel causing it to poof up and become fluffier from the contact.
“Yeah, we did.” Benny took a deep breath.
“I’m gonna have to tell them.”
“You don’t have to.”
“But I want to. And Vasilia should know.”
“But not right now?” Benny smiled, shimmy-ing up to kiss Champagne’s jaw.
“Not right now.”
His back was cradled by the armrest, his head resting on the front of Champagne’s shoulder, completely curled into him. Champagne just hugged him, and they talked quietly until Emily brought the two of them serves of fish and chips.
They both slept deeply that night, not waking once until sunshine streamed in through Champagne’s window, slowly rousing them with its warmth and light. They stayed cuddled in bed for a little while longer, not rising until their pangs of hunger grew too great to ignore. Today, they’d tell Vasilia what had happened. They’d be overheard, and the news would spread. They’d be greeted with warm words, kind enough they knew the other person knew, but not so out of character it drew attention to what had happened.
That would all happen later, after they ate and relaxed for a few more hours.
Later, such a wonderful time to have.