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Jimmy wakes with a start to the sound of birdsong by the window. He groans involuntarily as he blinks the sleep from his eyes, slowly adjusting to the waking world. He can distantly hear the farm animals bustling about off in the distance as they too wake up to a warm Spring morning on the Ranch. Jimmy scrubs his hands at his face, trying to brute force his way through the wake-up process.
He sits up slowly in bed, stretching out his back to work through the knots and kinks he’s accumulated during the night. He raises his arms over his head to stretch out the rest of his limbs, only slightly achy from the less-than-comfortable mattress they’ve been sleeping on every night. It’s big enough for the both of them, at the very least.
A yawn makes its way out of his throat and he just sits in bed for a moment, letting his eyes adjust to the brightness of the Ranch as the early morning sun begins to filter through the windows.
When he turns to look at Tango, his soulmate is still curled up and dead asleep on his respective side of the bed. He snores lightly, pointed ears twitching every now and again. His hair is all mussed up and will definitely need a good combing once he’s awake, but Jimmy thinks Tango doesn’t mind much right now seeing as he’s still asleep. As the sun filters in through the lace curtains on the window, it casts the netherborn’s skin in a golden glow and only makes Jimmy more smitten with the man.
Jimmy’s had a long history of being dealt a bad hand in life, ending up as the butt of the joke more often than not, but he’s beginning to think that his luck is turning around because he’s got Tango as his soulmate.
He allows himself a little time to take in the view before leaning over to press a soft kiss to Tango’s cheek. He lets it linger for a moment as his hand runs down the length of Tango’s exposed arm, gently waking his soulmate.
It works in the end because Tango gives a light groan, face scrunching up. A low, fond laugh rumbles in Jimmy’s chest at seeing his soulmate like this.
“Good morning,” he whispers, his morning voice rough and deeper than usual.
Tango’s ruby red eyes flick open ever so slowly. He blinks a couple times, eyes also adjusting, before a sleepy smile breaks out on his face.
“Mornin’, rancher,” Tango greets, voice as equally slacked with sleep as Jimmy’s. Tango’s voice is already ‘rough’ enough as it is, and it only gets more rugged when he’s just woken up. Even though this is a routine they carry out every morning together, it still never fails to bring a smile to Jimmy’s face and cause butterflies to flutter in his stomach.
“Time to get up,” Jimmy says softly. He leans down and pecks Tango on the lips, earning a purr from the netherborn in response. Tango reaches up and gently runs his hand down the side of Jimmy’s face, setting little fires all across Jimmy’s skin in his wake.
“Five more minutes?” Tango asks with a grin, hand wandering to the back of Jimmy’s neck to pull him closer.
Jimmy smiles at him, bucking up the courage to say no to his adorable, cuddly and cozy Rancher. “Not today, Tango.” Tango groans, flopping back into the mattress with a frown. Jimmy chuckles at him, turning around to swing his legs over the side of the bed. “It’s a busy day for us, don’t you remember?”
“No, no, I do.” Tango blows out a huffy breath from behind him. “I guess I just thought I could convince you to stay in bed a little longer.”
Jimmy smirks at him from over his shoulder. “Any other day and I would have.”
“How you are able to resist my charms is beyond me.”
Jimmy snickers, stretching out his back and limbs again now that he has the space to fully stretch out. He rolls his neck just for good measure, and manages to pop a couple of his knuckles in the process. He blows out a breath, mind beginning to wander as he considers the events of the day.
He was thinking they’d have pancakes and eggs for breakfast. Usually he’d ask Tango first before making a decision, but Tango is always craving pancakes so it’s usually a safe bet. There’s plenty of chores around the Ranch that need to be done today, including expanding the cow pen, tending to the crops, fixing the hole in the roof they discovered when it spontaneously rained yesterday, tidying up the weeds that continually pop up around their property, and mending a broken fencepost on the guardrail to the ravine. And all of that is just off the top of his head, they also have to consider trading for resources, doing some mining, fixing their storage system and the like. There’s always something to be doing on the Ranch, unfortunately for the two Ranchers who would most definitely be content just to laze around in bed all day.
It’s then that Jimmy realizes just how quiet Tango has gotten, and worries that his soulmate has fallen back asleep. But when he looks over his shoulder at the other side of the bed, Tango is in fact wide awake, and is currently propped up against the pillows and watching Jimmy with a serene smile. He watches Jimmy fondly, like there’s nothing else he’d rather be looking at.
“Hi,” Tango greets, smile widening when Jimmy meets his gaze.
“Hi?” Jimmy says, but it’s more of a question than anything. “What are you doing?”
Tango shrugs, cheeks tinged pink. “Just taking in the the view.”
Jimmy’s face flushes at that. He immediately diverts his gaze, eyes widening as his heart leaps into his throat. “Oh,” he sputters out, spurring Tango to burst out into amused laughter. The irony of Tango’s statement does not go unmissed by Jimmy, and in fact only makes him blush harder.
The bed creaks as Tango moves forward, closing the distance between them in what feels like painfully long seconds. Jimmy is frozen in place as Tango settles just behind him on the bed, his presence like a specter hanging over Jimmy. He’s trembling slightly from anticipation, waiting for Tango to do something.
When Tango presses a kiss to Jimmy’s back, just below his neck and placed in between his shoulder blades, a shiver runs down Jimmy’s spine. It makes him regret not wearing a shirt to bed last night, but then Tango kisses his shoulder and suddenly he’s not regretting it so much anymore.
“Tango,” he drawls, letting his eyes flick shut as Tango’s fingers dance warmly across his exposed skin, nerve endings being set alight by every touch and carefully placed kiss.
“Five more minutes?” Tango says cheekily, obviously pleased with himself by the inflection in his voice. He kisses the side of Jimmy’s neck tenderly and lets his lips linger there for an excruciatingly long moment. It makes Jimmy shudder.
Jimmy is already breathless by the time Tango’s lips have reached his jawline, and he might just combust if he denies Tango’s whims any longer.
Jimmy, despite himself, gives in. He’s never really been able to deny Tango much of anything, in truth.
“Fine. Five minutes.” He says it definitively, and before Tango can say anything else, Jimmy has rounded on him and pulls him back into bed beside him. Tango makes a strangled yelping noise as he falls back onto the mattress but it quickly turns into a fond laugh. Jimmy wraps his arms around his soulmate, holding him close as Tango begins peppering his face with kisses. Jimmy’s giggling like a maniac every time Tango kisses him, but he’s cut off when Tango finally properly kisses him. Jimmy can’t stop smiling, though, leeching away some of the seriousness of the gesture.
Tango’s hands card knowingly through Jimmy’s hair as their lips connect, his nails gently scratching at the base of Jimmy’s neck and sending shivers running down Jimmy’s spine. It’s a bit overwhelming to think about, really, how they’ve only been together for a short amount of time and yet already know each other’s little quirks. For example, Tango’s tail wags when he’s excited, just like a cat’s, and when he’s standing next to Jimmy sometimes said tail will absentmindedly wrap around his soulmate’s ankle. Or how Tango knows that Jimmy likes to be scratched at the base of his neck, or that he’s terrible at saying ‘no’ to his soulmate.
Their legs are all tangled up together and Jimmy’s got a hand possessively gripping Tango’s waist and everything just feels so incredibly right in this space between them. Sure, they’re a little more breathless the longer the kiss goes on and Jimmy can’t form a single coherent thought right now, but those are all sacrifices he’s willing to make.
He wants to know everything about this wonderful man he’s sharing his heartbeat with. He wants to know all his little quirks, not just some of them. He wants to stay up late at night talking about anything and everything. He wants to hear him tell endless stories of Hermitcraft and Create and whatever he was up to before that. Jimmy’s just barely gotten a taste of Tango and now he can’t get enough. Now that he’s seen Tango, it’s like he never wants to look away. Tango has woken him up from a thousand year slumber, and now he’ll never know a restful night again. He wants to—
Something buzzes in the small space between them on the bed, abruptly ending their moment. Tango pulls back from Jimmy and fishes around in his pocket for a moment, pulling his communicator up to his face and squinting at the screen.
“What is it?” Jimmy asks, words a little sluggish as he props himself up on the pillow to get a better look at Tango.
“It’s just Impulse,” Tango says, eyes tracing the text on the screen. “He’s asking about a trade-ification possibility.”
Jimmy raises an eyebrow in curiosity. “Oh, should we get out of bed, then?” He goes to sit up but is promptly pulled back down by a hand on his wrist.
“Nope,” Tango says, popping the ‘p’. “We still got,” he checks the time on his communicator, before throwing it over his shoulder, “three more minutes.”
Jimmy lets out an amused laugh and Tango, who has now climbed on top of him, grins down at him, something beautiful and bright. It could just be the morning sun shining through the curtains to their left or Tango’s netherborn qualities shining through, but right here in this moment, Jimmy could swear that Tango is glowing.
Just like the sun.
And it makes Jimmy want to kiss him even more, if that was at all possible.
Tango’s smiling against his lips and Jimmy’s sighing against him and as Jimmy reaches a hand upward to cradle Tango’s face a warm hand traces down Jimmy’s cold, exposed chest and he shivers at the touch, resulting in Jimmy only pulling his soulmate closer than before.
It’s unfair, really. Unfair how gorgeous Tango is. Unfair how kind he is. Unfair how out of all the people he could have picked to team up with he picked Jimmy, death omen and danger magnet Jimmy, despite it all. It’s in quiet, blissful moments like this that Jimmy thinks he’d do anything for Tango. He’d willingly throw down all his weapons and armor for Tango. The world has always been cruel to Jimmy, but he’d spend years unlearning that cruelty just for a chance to treat Tango with the amount of kindness and adoration he deserves. Jimmy doesn’t even want to think about having to say goodbye, doesn’t even want to entertain the mere thought of it.
So he lets himself soak in this blissful moment, even though it’s only going to last for another minute or so. He holds Tango close and kisses him unabashedly and tries to hold in his giggles when Tango lets his lips wander to his rancher’s exposed jaw and neckline.
And then when the five minutes is up, true to both of their words, they extricate themselves from the bed and finally begin getting ready for the day.
Okay, maybe that doesn’t happen right away. Sure, Tango gets up after pressing one last kiss to the tip of Jimmy’s nose and stretches out his clicky joints, but Jimmy lays there watching and admiring. Jimmy’s now the one in quiet dismay, finding himself chasing after five more precious minutes with his precious rancher. His soulmate is bathed in a golden glow from the rising sun and Jimmy can’t help but think that if love was one singular color, it wouldn’t be pink or white or even red. It would be gold, this shade of golden-yellow that shines over the netherborn in front of him right now.
Tango catches him staring, but Jimmy’s not ashamed in the slightest. “C’mon, sleepyhead,” he teases, tossing a shirt at Jimmy playfully.
Jimmy chuckles as he sits up and pulls the shirt over his head. “I’m awake. Wide awake.” He yawns, which doesn’t exactly prove his point, but he grins at Tango and the other man seems to accept it and wanders off to start preparing things for their breakfast, shaking his head fondly the whole way.
And Jimmy just sits there for one moment longer, soaking it all in.
Their blissful morning may be coming to an end, but they’ve still got plenty of daylight left.