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Sleep never comes easily for Stephen. No matter how much he tires himself during the day, going to bed will only result in him staring at the ceiling for hours on end. Every night is almost always the same; laying in bed in an ungodly hour, praying his mind would finally stop shouting at him and his thoughts would stop tearing his sanity apart. It's frequent he finds himself surprised that the room around him is quiet–maybe that's because his mind is often too loud.
Time always plays coy with him in this hour. Minutes hang in the air but never really pass by. Sometimes he wishes the sun would come up already and greet the world with a new day, to give him an excuse to escape the torture of being unable to sleep and, even if he can, escape the nightmares haunting him every night. Other times he savours the seconds and hopes the world would stop turning and the clock would freeze; just so he could lay in his bed, away from the hustle and bustle of the day and the burden of his responsibilities, bask in the deafening silence and the dim lighting around him, and just be.
Nobody ever really expects anything of him in these hours. He is left to himself and his own devices, a solitary soul in a box, instead of the shell of a man he once was during the day. Sometimes, he finds he quite likes it. Most of the time, he loathes it.
But with Tony, it's different. It's always been different with him.
It's taken quite some time for him to adjust to the idea of sleeping with a living, breathing, warm body pressing against his side. It's taken longer for him to adjust to the idea of having to reveal himself in his most vulnerable state in front of another person. It's taken much longer for him to realise that Tony, as surprising as the fact may be, allows Stephen to view him in his most vulnerable state every night. This level of trust is what Stephen always struggles to reciprocate in a relationship. Apparently, Tony shares the same issue. That realisation struck him deep but silently one night, and he lets it sink from his head and into his chest deliberately.
After that, sleep still never comes easily for Stephen, but he never feels alone in that matter.