Work Text:
Dan had been watching Herbert work for what seemed like hours now. Hell, for all he knew, it had been hours now. He'd been helping, too, but he was tired. They'd been working since they got home today, and that was after work. Dan didn't know how Herbert was still holding up, with how tired he should've been.
"Herb." Dan muttered, his voice rumbling from how tired he was. "Herb." He repeated, taking a step forward and grabbing Herbert's shoulder.
"Dan. You should know not to disturb an experiment in progress." Herbert bluntly chastised him, not bothering to turn around, but also not bothering to shrug Dan's hand off him.
"Okay. Sorry." Dan sighed, taking his hand away and meekly stepping back to where he had been before.
"Mm." Herbert hummed, and Dan wasn't quite sure whether it was positive or negative.
"What're you doing?" Dan asked, craning his head and trying to lean up and sideways to see the table in front of where Herbert was practically hunched over it.
"An experiment." Herbert simply answered, hands busy with something under his head and protective eyewear. His lab coat draped halfway down to the floor, protecting his arms and body. Dan was thankful that Herbert at least took proper precautions.
Dan figured that if it involved his life's work, his reagant and reanimation, then he would be a lot more enthusiastic about disclosing it. And this, deviating from his most prominent interest, what he poured his whole life into, meant that Herbert was tired as all hell. He couldn't keep his mind or thoughts straight, and all that motivated him and kept him standing was sheer enthusiasm, muted by his outward coldness.
It was around this time, when he was deep into his work like this, that he would tie a tourniquet around his arm and inject a dose of reagant into his blood stream so he wouldn't have to sleep. Sometimes, Dan needed to help him out with that.
Dan watched him closely. He appeared to be doing some kind of.. experiment on a venus fly trap? Where the hell had Herbert even gotten a venus fly trap?
"Herb, what're you doing?" Dan repeated, more interested in hearing Herbert talk to tell how far gone he was.
"Feeding a plant large, concentrated amounts of caffeine to see how it will react under the circumstances."
Dan figured that Herbert was pretty far gone, indeed. This type of experiment was more to satisfy Herb's own curiousity than to serve as a use.
"Are you almost through with that?" Dan asked, immediately hearing an exaggerated sigh from Herbert.
"Yes, but I have three more experiments lined up after this, Dan, after I take a dose of my reagant." Herbert scoffed, as though it should've been obvious.
"How about I help you out with your shot?" Dan suggested, with no intention of actually doing so.
"Certainly." Herbert pleasantly looked over his shoulder to give Dan a little grateful smile, before returning right into his work.
Dan, now with an excuse, walked to their lab. He took a glance back at Herbert before starting to shuffle around, gathering up and closing the open bottles and containers they had been using. Thankfully, most of them didn't have to be refrigerated. Most of them did the best when stored in dark, cool areas with even temperatures, and their basement was the perfect place for that.
Dan gathered up the bottles that did need to be refrigerated, and brought them to the mini fridge in the room. The sound wouldn't cause Herbert to look back, thankfully, so Dan just opened it up wide and shoved in all the bottles that needed to be in it.
Dan had no intention of giving Herbert his shot of reagant. He was going to sleep, and in Dan's mind, that was final. He cared about Herbert, dammit, and he was going to sleep tonight.
"Hey, Herb, did you spill anything on your lab coat?" Dan causally asked, pulling off his own.
"No." Herbert answered, only sounding a slight bit confused.
"Mm." Dan answered, laying his lab coat across a table.
"Do you have the injection ready to go, Dan?" Herbert asked, looking over his shoulder at Dan, finally taking a step back from his table and then turning around.
In response, Dan clasped his hands behind his back and started walking forward. Herbert assumed that meant yes, and so he stood still.
Herbert was a much smaller man than him, and thank heaven for that. When Dan swung his hands to the front of his body and gripped Herbert's hips, there was no fighting as he slung Herbert over his shoulder, standing all the way up so Herbert practically bounced, and then holding his legs to his chest, tight, so he couldn't kick or fall.
Herbert made a noise of surprise, barely even knowing what had happened to him. First, he felt his belly digging into Dan's shoulder, and then he saw the floor a couple feet beneath him as he was suspended in the air. He didn't understand what was happening, but his eyes widened and he clung his fingers into the fabric of Dan's shirt when he started to sway, Dan taking a step towards the staircase.
"Dan, put me down. What are you doing?" Herbert demanded, his heart suddenly pounding in his chest.
"Bed time." Dan simply answered, too tired to explain his thinking.
"What?!" Herbert exclaimed, trying to look at Dan over his shoulder. Dan was going up the staircase slowly, the added weight on his already sore back making the need for precaution very necessary. He was only on the first step, left foot up on the second one.
When Herbert realized Dan wasn't going to put him down, he tried to move his legs, only to find them tightly immobilized. He tried to find a way to wriggle his body off of Dan's shoulder and drop to the floor, but that would result in falling down a stair or two and tumbling onto the lab floor.
Herbert still had the use of his arms, though. He couldn't kick, but he could hit, and he did. He used his fists and tried to maintain enough force to give Dan a good smack on the back, but he found his limbs to be too heavy to lift. His eyelids were getting heavier, too, his head buzzing with the usual monologue, right in the back of his mind.
When Herbert realized he couldn't kick, hit or escape, he started to bargain. "Dan, please. Just one more experiment."
"No." Dan answered, rising up another step.
"Put me down. I can walk." Herbert tried, attempting to sound awake and alert. It came out as slurred, putting so much effort into sounding awake that he exerted too much energy into the sentence, too much energy that he did not have.
"No." Dan said again, nearing the top of the staircase. "Bed."
"Dan, I need my reagant, come on.." Herbert pleaded, to no avail as Dan opened up the door to the upstairs. Herbert stopped his talking when he finally stopped trying to talk into Dan's ear, and just looked straight ahead. The full length of the staircase was in front of him, and if he were to drop, it would not do wonders for his short and long term health.
Herbert grabbed Dan again, clinging to him, squeezing his eyes shut tight. A fall that would leave him with permanent pain and suffering scared him much, much more than death.
Dan rose the final step, and Herbert was still squeezing his eyes shut as Dan kicked the door to the basement closed. He opened them and happily gazed upon the floor to their house, swaying along as Dan walked him to the bedroom.
Herbert was suddenly swung through the air, and he yelped, before sinking back into the mattress of Dan and his bed. His side was the left side, usually, because it was closer to the wall, but Dan swung him right in the middle of the bed and then gave him no time to recover from being dropped, simply climbing on top of him and straddling his midsection, effectively pinning him there.
Dan gripped, and then tugged off, Herbert's lab coat.
"Now. Shirt on or shirt off?" Dan asked, for it depended on the night for Herbert.
"This is ridiculous, Dan." Herbert grumbled, glaring up straight into Dan's eyes now that he could.
"Shirt on? Or off?" Dan repeated, clearly not in the mood for Herbert's nonsense tonight.
"Off.." Herbert grumbled, too tired or else he would've crossed his arms.
Dan easily ripped off his black tie and threw it aside, tugged Herbert's shirt from where it was tucked in his pants and pulled it over his head, adding that to the pile.
"Now you're going to sleep. No arguments."
"I can stay awake for longer than you." Herbert smugly pointed out, his point dramatically dampened by the way the almost gaunt features of the bags under his eyes were accentuated in the dim lighting.
"I seriously doubt that." Dan smugly said, pushing his hands into Herbert's bare chest. "Incase of that, though, I'm heavier than you."
Herbert made a face, shooting daggers into Dan's face with his tired, heavy lidded eyes.
There wasn't much to say, after that. Herbert recognized that his best shot at escaping Dan's hold was to have Dan go to sleep, and therefore stop holding him down. He hoped that Dan would use up all his energy doing that. Herbert tried not to struggle against him, using up his energy, but it was exceptionally difficult to lay there silent and still without his eyelids starting to droop, just a little bit more at a time.
A twisted idea came to Herbert's mind, and he opened his eyes with a grin. It was worth a try, hopefully to get Dan off of him.
"This is your latest attempt at seduction, isn't it?" Herbert evilly murmured, grinning as best he could.
"Sh. Shh. Go to sleep." Dan replied, barely even registering what Herbert had said.
Herbert practically pouted, upset that his severely sleep deprived mind had failed him. "Bastard." Was the only other word he could think to say, grumbling it up into Dan's face.
"Love you, too." Dan replied, his brain starting to slow down for sleep.
"Let me get under the covers, Dan." Herbert demanded, using the last of his fight to push up against Dan's hands, to no avail.
"You have covers." Dan scoffed, rolling his legs to remind Herbert he was on top of him.
"No, I don't, Dan." Herbert argued, his chest only covered by Dan's two big hands, neck and stomach cold.
In response, Dan moved his hands to Herbert's sides and wrapped his hands around his back, clasping Herbert's arms to his sides. Dan fell forward, then, his body aligning to Herbert's and practically smothering the smaller man.
"Oh, this is worse." Herbert thought aloud, completely unable to do more than shift around.
"Shut up. Sleep." Dan placed a small kiss on Herbert's neck for emphasis, then nuzzling under his chin.
"I'll sleep if you get off me." Herbert lied, his last desperate attempt.
"Mmhm.." Dan murmured, his eyes closing, settling into Herbert's body. He was comfortable to lay on, and even better to hold to his chest, cuddling the smaller man like a teddy bear.
"Dan." Herbert said into his ear, the weight of Dan's head on him forcing him to lay back into the pillow. "Dan."
Dan didn't respond, his breathing steadying. He let out a "mmm...", but it was more of a purr. Herbert struggled some more, and then he realized that Dan's weight had gotten heavier. He couldn't move. And, worse yet, the feeling of Dan steadily breathing in and out into his skin relaxed him, as well as the comforting weight on top of him.
Herbert had no idea why, but he liked being crushed. It felt nice, and it was very comforting to be crushed down by a warm, soft weight like Dan. He found himself falling asleep, unable to suppress the droop of his eyelids and the total relaxation his body was feeling.
When Herbert finally fell asleep, his head rolled to the side. He settled against Dan's head, instinctively nuzzling into the warm familiarity.
Maybe Dan should've done this a long time ago.