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Stu wakes up to the uneven thumping of footsteps downstairs. He sits up in his bed, patiently listening for a few more moments. He knows it’s Billy; it has to be Billy. The poor boy’s been so uncharacteristically distant and reserved for the past few days, which worried Stu enough, but now he’s wandering around the house in the middle of the night so maybe something’s wrong. Stu flips off his bedsheets, carefully getting up and tiptoeing out of the room, making sure to be quiet as he passes his parents’ door.
It’s almost pitch-black inside of the house, but there’s a dim glow coming from the living room. Billy probably tuned on one of the end table lamps. Sure enough, when Stu gets to the bottom of the stairs and peeks his head around the corner, he sees Billy standing next to the wall and rummaging through the bookshelves. His oversized sleep shirt drapes off of his frame, making him look kind of scrawny, and hasn’t seemed to notice Stu yet, too caught up in whatever it is he’s searching for.
“Billy?” Stu calls out softly. Billy still doesn’t turn around, or even pause what he’s doing, like he didn’t even hear him.
Stu frowns. Maybe he’s sleepwalking or something, even though he’s never known Billy to do that before. He does know that sleepwalking can be triggered by stress or anxiety, which could certainly be explained by the recent events. He takes a few steps forward until they’re standing right next to each other, but Billy still doesn’t look over at him. Stu places a gentle hand on his shoulder. “Billy?”
At the touch, Billy sort of freaks and jerks away, finally looking at Stu for the first time. It doesn’t really seem like he’s sleepwalking, he’s too alert and focused, and his eyes shift around the room sporadically. It’s more like he’s having some sort of episode, which the uncanniness makes the hair on Stu’s arms stand up. He draws his hand away, “Hey. You okay, man?”
Billy just stares at him like he’s confused. “It’s me,” Stu tells him, concern growing in his voice. “It’s Stu. Are you alright? Why are you out of bed?”
“I—” Billy stutters, blinking rapidly. “I can’t find my keys.”
“Your keys?” Stu asks. He nods.
“I think you left them on the kitchen counter,” Stu says, not really understanding what’s going on but careful of how he approaches this situation. He knows how defensive Billy can be, and how much he hates being coddled. But right now, he seems completely out of it, like it’s not even him.
Billy turns around and starts walking towards the kitchen, but Stu pulls him back by the arm, “Wait a second. Why do you need your keys?”
“I need them…I need to go home,” Billy mumbles, dazed. “My dad’ll be mad if I’m not home by curfew.”
“Billy,” Stu murmurs, “your dad’s not home. You’re staying with us, remember?” Billy pauses like he’s trying to think, but then shakes his head and pulls his arm out of Stu’s grasp, “No, I—I need to go home.”
“Woah, wait.” Stu steps in front of him before he can start walking towards the kitchen again. “Billy, it’s the middle of the night. You can’t go home.”
“But…my dad. He’ll be mad." Billy's eyes widen fearfully, "He'll be mad at me!”
“No—” Stu exhales. “Billy, your dad’s not home . You’re staying here.”
“I am?”
“Yeah,” he breathes out. “You are. And you should go back to bed now.”
Billy doesn’t say anything to that, but Stu puts his hand on his back and starts guiding him in the other direction, towards the guest bedroom. He flicks on the light in the hallway, walking slowly, cautious of how vulnerable Billy seems to be. The kid stumbles forward like he's drunk, almost tripping over his own feet several times, but eventually they make it to the dark room. Stu ushers him in, the light from outside just barely illuminating things enough for them to see. The comforter is strewn across the floor, so he tosses it back onto the mattress, and watches Billy climb back into bed and tuck himself in. Like a toddler , he thinks, even though he knows how much Billy would hate that comparison if he wasn’t such a weirdly confused state.
“ ‘Kay, you alright now?” he asks. Billy nods, gazing up at him with lidded eyes.
“I’m gonna go back to bed, too, okay?” he says with a yawn. “Don't be wandering around the house anymore.” With one final glance to make sure he's really in bed, Stu gently shuts the door and pads back down the hallway. He makes his way into the kitchen, grabbing Billy's keys from the counter and chucking them into one of the drawers. After checking to make sure the front door is locked too, he switches off all the lights, and finally drifts back upstairs into his own room for some much needed shut-eye.
About an hour later, Stu wakes up again because someone’s shaking his shoulder. He rolls onto his back, crackling one eye open, “Huh—” A dark, shadowy figure is looming over his bed, and if he wasn’t so deliriously tired he would have jumped out of his skin in surprise.
“Stu.” Billy’s voice is barely a whisper, shaky and soft. In the darkness, Stu can’t tell if he’s back to his normal self or is still having an episode. “What’s wrong?” he mumbles, letting his eyes close again. Billy sinks down until he’s crouching next to the bed, and Stu rolls onto his side to face him, “You okay?”
No answer. Billy pinches at the mattress nervously, and the uneasy silence makes goosebumps raise on Stu's arms. “Billy, say something. What’s wrong?”
“I’m cold.”
“You’re cold?”
Billy nods.
“Um…okay.” Stu’s about to offer to get extra blankets from downstairs, but then Billy reaches out tugs at his comforter, gripping it in his fist. Stu pauses. “Do…you wanna sleep here?” he offers hesitantly. Billy freezes, curled up around his knees and huddled next to the bed. Stu lifts up one side of the blanket, an invitation, but he still doesn’t move. “Come on, dude,” he prompts. “Cold air getting in.”
Carefully, Billy slides under the covers and Stu groans as he shifts around to accommodate the new weight. Eventually, he settles with his chest pressed against Billy’s back and his knees to the underside of the other boy’s thighs. Billy’s shirt smells like clean laundry, and Stu finds himself tucking his nose against his hairline, too. It’s definitely intimate , but Stu’s brain is running so slow that he can’t even process how weird it is. He just sighs and thinks about how nice it is to wrap his arms around Billy’s warm, malleable body, because it is actually pretty cold and he could do with a personal space heater.
After several quiet, blissful minutes, Stu’s just on the verge of full-fledged sleep when Billy starts moving again. He grunts at the disruption, but Billy keeps shifting around until they’re laying face-to-face. He tucks his arms together in the small space between their bodies, letting them rest against Stu’s chest, and finally letting out a contented exhale. Stu responds with a quiet hum of his own, wrapping his arms further around Billy's waist. And that’s how they stay, curled up around each other, breathing together, until the morning sun finally peeks through the window blinds.