Work Text:
It happened during the sleep hour in the Anact Garden. A white blanket was thrown back, from under which the bare skin of the abdomen was visible, undisguised by the shape. Open arms, as if inviting to lie down next to her, and a sweetly sleeping face. Only a quiet snuffle, sometimes fading away, reminded me that this was not a picture, not a sudden lead, but a good opportunity. With a conspiratorial smile, Ivan slipped over to the blanket spread out on the floor.
It was a kind of punishment for a fight—to deprive a bed for a day and spread a thin blanket on the floor, like a real pet.
But Ivan didn't care much when his feet were under the blanket and his head was on a hard surface. The certainty that Till would be angry when he woke up and saw an uninvited guest did not leave him when he turned to the young man…
"Mm... "
A soft mumble hit my ear, making me shiver and freeze in the next second. A strange nose touched his shoulder, inhaling and exhaling, leaving a trace. The gaze of dark eyes touched the light top of his head, widening as his hands climbed under his uniform, passing up his back, pulling him closer while his leg spread him apart, fitting in. Till is much closer than usual, disarming him.
The quiet snuffling and the painfully beating heart kept Ivan conscious, distracting him from the way Till fidgeted, shaking against him, as if he trusted his dream to him. This ... raised a strange feeling in Ivan, similar to the one that appears during their fights or when Till showed his drawings in black pencil in an album in the farthest part of the Anact Garden in the sunset rays, not noticing the gaze riveted on him. But this feeling, spreading warmth through my body and forcing me to purse my lips in a smile that blossomed on my lips, was much, much stronger than that. He is ready to trade all the fights, all the attention given before, for this one hour, when Till clung to him like that, when he did not drive him away, when his gaze was not turned to another.
Ivan's hands remained hanging freely in the air. He could not hug him back, fearing that Till would suddenly wake up and this moment would end too soon.
***
A few years later.
Till looked irritably at the young man following him, choosing a place to lie down. He was punished again because of Ivan.
"You are not punished, go to the others!"
"But I also fought," Ivan looked out from behind him with a pillow in his hands. "It's pretty cold on the floor."
He just turned away, chuckling when that charming, disarming smile looked at him. A strange, very strange guy...