Work Text:
Keeping the lights on would wear on the poor boy's eyes, the bulbs in lamps being too bright and irritating after it got too late at night and dark outside his windowless room. So instead, his lights would be flicked off and a match would be struck across a box, flickering the little flame to light. It would be gently pressed against a trimmed wick and let its flame spread and stabilize on its new fuel source. The match would be brought away from the now lit candle and blown out by a soft exhale from the tired man.
The brunette's body heavily flopped back over on his bed, letting the candle flicker and dance with soft light on his nightstand next to him. Laying on his back and letting his amber's stare at the ceiling, his mind plucked random things to think about as he accepted his night of insomnia yet again, knowing his rest during the night was pointless when dark thoughts and memories await for his guard to be down to flood his mind. He was used to it, but unlike other nights where he either worked or found something to entertain himself through to the next morning like reading, his eyes were, again, not appreciating the bright lamp lights and his head softly pulsed with a mild headache from his somewhat stressful day. His phone would have done similar harm to his head, so he left it on charge for the night on the same night stand as his candle.
He let his thoughts wander over what he'd be doing the next day and other trivial things as the night waned on and his body grew heavy, keeping him in place on his back. It was only a couple hours in that he was struggling to focus or have any thoughts that would keep his attention. His eyes blinked, heavy with his exhaustion and often just staying closed even if he wasn't actually asleep.
Barely cracking them open yet again to have a look around the room he knew every inch of, his ambers caught sight of something dark in the corner of his room. His eyes wandered over to it, able to make out a form in the corner that was humanoid in shape. It existed just out of the flickering candle light area, with no shadows being created over that far within the room. It wasn't very tall and no features could really be made out, like it was completely made of the shadows that were cast in the corners and under furniture.
He was confused as to what it was. Maybe a figment of a tired imagination? He wasn't sure, but he knew that wasn't his father or non-blood brother, who lived in the house as well. So it has to be some kind of hallucination.. or some kind of paralysis demon that his exhausted mind made up. It had to be..
It wasn't the first time, as his sleepy mind recalled a bit. He's seen dark figures in the corner of his eyes occasionally at these times of night when he's still up and working in the studies or out and about. This seems to be the first time he's been able to look at it head on.
As he looked at it with those slightly bloodshot eyes, the darkness parted in the area where a face would be, two sapphire ovals opened up and looked back at him, a pair of eyes now meeting his own. He couldn't help looking intently at them as he could, even in his sleep deprived state, as they were such a rich blue, like an watery cavern that goes down for miles, the kind that people long ago would throw bodies in to hide them or divers go into, get lost, and die in today. The pools of ocean color were mesmerizing and they ever so slowly blinked sometimes at the fool in the bed.
The brunette relaxed under the odd watchful gaze that should have been dangerous. Somehow those beautiful blues made him feel at ease, like whatever was watching him gave him a security he didn't have before. It lulled him, making his eyes feel heavier and heavier, opening back up less and less when he blinks. He eyes finally stopped wanting to open, with his last sight being those sapphires that would watch him the rest of the night…
The shadow moved inch by inch over the hours of the night, until he was right next to the bed, at the side of the human who just went to sleep. The head of it tilted a little as it loomed, like it was perplexed by something. From the dark form, a strip of it parted and reached out for the face of the man. Delicately, the shadowy fingers ran over the warm cheek, expecting the body to roll away. Instead, the head turned a bit and pressed against them, leaning into the touch almost shyly as he hummed a bit at the bit of disturbance it caused.
The figure paused, eyes blinking a few times out of confusion. It stayed there, feeling the warmth and letting the face press into the touch until the hand was completely trapped underneath the human's head, having rolled over to lay onto it. Unable to leave, and admittedly enjoying the heat this living thing provided, the figure stood there, looming over the sleeping insomniac with a hand that cupped and held his cheek as the night trudged on, candle still burning through its wax with no sign of stopping until the sun would begin peeking over mountains and treetops again to drive shadows back to where they usually reside…