Work Text:
Etho had been staring at the piano for the better part of an hour, worrying the idea back and forth in his head.
Bdubs and Beef are heavy sleepers, if I just tap out a few songs until I get tired, they won’t wake up.
Why did I leave all my edibles at home? I could’ve been asleep at midnight.
It’s four in the damn morning the neighbors are gonna complain.
He groaned, dragging his hands down his face. The TV was flashing some obnoxious commercial he didn’t give a shit about in the middle of a video essay he wasn’t paying attention to because his hands weren’t busy and it was driving him nuts. He just wanted to sleep, goddamnit.
Fuck it.
He turned the TV off and tip-toed over to the piano, avoiding the floorboards that creaked. If he just played really quietly, nobody could complain. Pianissi-times four-imo. He quickly pulled his hair back as he cycled through all the different songs he knew in his head. Maybe… something from Terraria. The dungeon theme was fun and easy.
That pretty easily slid into the Final Fantasy battle theme, then into To Zanarkland , and really he might as well keep playing Final Fantasy songs so Aerith’s Theme was next.
He lost track of what he was even playing after that. Familiar melodies he’d long memorized, the source forgotten in the shuffle. Soft chords and simple melodies that didn’t hurt his head, but kept his hands occupied.
He wasn’t sure what time it was, but the sky was starting to turn gray and he was in the middle of something he was pretty sure was from Minecraft when he heard the bedroom door creak open, and he froze.
“Etho?” Beef started, his voice scratchy and quiet, “Honey it’s—it’s five-thirty in the morning, what’re you doing?”
His blood ran cold, and he immediately took his hands off the keys. “Oh, I’m—I’m sorry, Beef, I woke you up didn’t I, I’m sorry I’ll—”
Beef shuffled over and suddenly grabbed his face, turning him to look at him. Beef’s hair was all mussed up, sticking up in places, and his eyes were half-closed.
“That wasn’t the question. What are you doing?”
He blinked, pushing Beef’s hand away. “Uh… Well, uh, usually I get high to fall asleep, but we both know how Bdubs feels about the smell of weed and—and I left my edibles at home and I figured I’d just… do something until I got tired. Piano works for me on bad nights.”
Beef leaned away, and Etho could see the gears turning in his head. “Bad nights?” he asked.
Etho rolled his head back and forth. “Sleep’s not my friend.”
Beef nodded.
He sighed, pulled a leg up onto the bench. “W-We should, um, I can just go home or—or we can go to bed. Laying in bed not sleeping is better than being up and about I think—”
“Can I play with you?”
He blinked. “What?”
Beef smiled, soft and not as sleepy as he was a second ago. “Yeah, can I play with you?”
Etho glanced back at the keys. “I… I guess, yeah.”
Beef shuffled around him and slid onto the bench with an exaggerated huff, and Etho snickered.
“You moan and groan like a dad.”
Beef sputtered. “Hey! Rude.”
Etho bumped his shoulder—he’d never realized how small the bench was until he had to share it. “What? It’s true.”
Beef spread his fingers out on the keys, playing a quick scale, before throwing him a quick glance.
“Für Elise?”
Etho smiled back, resting his head on his shoulder. “I’ll just listen. You play it better than me.”
Beef played with a level of careful, practiced precision that Etho knew he lacked. He played like an old woman was standing behind him, ready to whip him with a ruler if his form was even the tiniest bit off. Etho pressed his full weight against him, and Beef was unbothered, just giggling and continuing on like he wasn’t there.
“You’re no fun,” he huffed, nuzzling a little closer.
Beef stuck his tongue out at him. Etho was tempted to lunge at him and bite it, but thwarted in his endeavor by a yawn.
As the song drew to a close, Etho had all but melded with Beef, mindlessly running his hand along his stomach, gently pulling at the hair that lived there. He hummed along to the final chord, which drew into a yawn.
“Can you play that—what’s that other Beethoven one? The other soft one? Moon… something.” Etho drew his eyebrows together, trying to force his brain to think. “What’s it called? Moon. It has to do with the moon—”
Beef giggled, wrapping an arm around him. “Moonlight Sonata?”
He snapped. “That one! Yeah, Moonlight Sonata.”
Beef hummed, running his hand up and down his arm. The sky was steadily growing lighter, but the sun hadn’t breached the horizon yet.
“Which movement?”
“All of them. Pick one, I don’t care.”
Beef shrugged, taking his arm back to start playing.
Etho… wasn’t sure when his eyes closed. His eyelids were just so heavy, so it made sense to let them drift shut. And Beef was so good at piano, really, he was so lucky to have such wonderful, handsome, talented boyfriends. What’d he do to deserve them? He sighed, trying to nuzzle closer to Beef.
Beef giggled. “Etho, I can’t play if you’re hogging my arm like that.”
Etho hummed. “Sure y’can.”
He sighed. “Okay, okay, didn’t know you got bossy when you got sleepy.”
He slid his arms around Beef’s waist, holding onto him as tightly as he could. “Not sleepy.”
“Uh-huh.”
Etho was vaguely aware he was still sitting up. His head was just so heavy, Beef’s shoulder wasn’t very comfortable, really he’d rather be in bed. He mumbled a complaint into his shoulder, and Beef stopped playing.
“What was that, sweetie?”
He tried to repeat himself, although nothing came out.
Beef snaked a hand around him, gently pulling the tie out of his hair. “Okay, you’re asleep.”
He huffed. No he wasn’t.
Then suddenly he wasn’t on the bench anymore, held tightly to Beef’s chest as he carried him off. The idea of him as a knight in shining armor popped into his head; if Beef was the knight, that made Bdubs the princess, right? Or would Etho and Bdubs both be the princess? Etho wanted to be the dragon holding Bdubs hostage.
Then suddenly Etho was set down in bed, and Bdubs immediately slung his arms around him, and whatever thoughts had been circling his head earlier faded into nothing as he drifted to sleep.