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“Psst… Damon…”
Silence.
“Damon, come onnnn, wake up…!”
Silence again. Kai poked.
…!
Damon’s eyelids trudged apart with the smoothness of gravel. The minimum light of their shared room formed dark blue and black shapes enough to where he could realize he was still alive. In the fuzzy darkness, the pink hair with a black part that Kai wore could very clearly be seen in the darkness. Beneath the bangs were his shiny yellow pupils above the arm of the couch he was seemingly crouching behind. Damon leaned up, adjusting his honey-colored bedhead into a more presentable quiff.
“Damn you.”
“Ah- h- hey!!”
Kai stood up from behind the couch’s arm with an embarrassed, grumpy arch in his eyebrows. His sleep-clothes were a faux silk suit with a threaded animal emblem over the heart, and one he didn't recognize. Obviously. It’s dark in here.
After catching himself, Kai leaned forward and placed his hands down on the sofa near Damon’s sleep socks.
“Damon, first of all, I’m sorry about ‘kicking you out,’ even though I didn't do that thing.”
About two hours earlier, Damon was sleeping and sharing the bed with Kai. He worked hard to hold up his end of the deal, but Kai was simply a restless sleeper. Damon couldn't get more than five minutes without Kai unconsciously rolling around and kicking him in the leg. So he got up and moved back to the couch, taking a blanket as collateral.
“...and second, I need you right now.”
Gulp.
Darren Damon’s heart fluttered. His lips slowly parted to shudder a response.
“...What?”
A peachy blush filled his pale face.
“I- If this is your idea of a prank, I’m gonna flatten you-”
“I gotta go to the bathroom!”
Both of them stopped talking as the air in the room froze. Damon’s fluttery heart steadied out into an angry drum beat before he remembered his own feeble body’s limits. He was still angry, though. His lightless eyes stared at Kai’s, not into them. He straightened his back up from his lying position and cocked his head to the side with a sarcastic flair.
“You need to use the bathroom…?”
Kai didn't answer. He looked more guilty, almost, or like an axolotl. Damien Damon continued.
“It's right there. I’m looking at it.”
Kai scoffed.
“Yeah, like, I know that.”
Darnel Damon froze up again, deeply offended at however stupid Kai seemed to assume he was.
“So go to the fuckin’ bathroom!”
“It's dark!”
They both slightly lowered their voices, not wanting to wake up their neighbors. Damon retorted.
“It's dark- it's- are you five??!?”
“Somebody might be in there, guy! And… I don't remember leaving the door wide open…”
Dink Damon looked over his shoulder at the agape door, tunneling into a dark rectangle as a portal into deep nothing. It was black as space with none of the faintest of ambient light in the main space reaching it, and he admittedly didn't remember where anything was inside that place. Kai didn't have to know.
“So… So just turn the light on in there.”
“No! Just… just watch me go in there. Just in case.”
“You're suuuch a baby.”
“Damoooooooooooon!!”
Kai started to whine. He slumped over the arm of the sofa, his arms draping onto Dilbert’s Damon’s legs. He attempted to pull back, but Monteago caught his ankles. Damon found it adorable. …adorably pathetic, he assured himself.
“Maybe I’ll kill you myself if you don't get a handle of yourself.”
Halfway through saying it, Damon’s antisocial nature betrayed him, and he could feel in his heart and mind that he had gone too far. Kai looked sickly as the innocent playfulness in his somewhat sincere begging seemed to leave. He muttered something as he began to retreat, but Damon swallowed his pride. He stood up off the sofa and pursued him. In a matter of a second, the snake had done his coiling. Despite being the heavier of the two, Kai was halted instantly. He was frozen as if his soul itself was bound by anchors to the thickest glacier in the world.
“Kai!”
The previous care for their neighbors was gone. Damon shouted with force, waking Toshiko and nobody else. Kai looked ashamed of himself, and Damon was again awash with guilt.
“I’m… I was joking. I mean- no- I was trying to joke. I’m mad, but… not really. Kai, please.”
“N-no, it's- I understand, Dam-”
“You don't!” Damon interjected, “you don't get it and that's okay. I don't get myself sometimes. …If you're serious about the lights, whatever. I’ll check for you and I’ll wait for you and I’ll look under the bed or anything. Just… I don't even know what I want in return. I’ll do it for you.”
They watched each other as Damon continued.
“We can both be a little particular about things, I guess.”
Kai’s face was flush with color as his lips flustered into an unwilling smile. He followed behind Damon, who would put his head into the dark and hunt the light switch. After a count of ten seconds, which felt much longer than they should have, both boys had to shut their eyes at the sudden manifestation of a well-lit men’s room. Even the tasteful volleyball star in the calendar on the wall got a shine in his irises.
As expected, it was clear. Kai got between Damon and the door frame before shutting it in his face. Dawson Damon backed off and returned to his sleep spot on the couch, watching the shaft of light cast on the floor with a nervous glare. He was still nauseatingly unsettled from his cruel outburst. Try as he may, he found himself simply too abrasive for an audience that simply wasn't used to him. Perhaps, just maybe, it isn't responsible to base your adolescence around returning fire. Everything looks like a nail if all you have is a hammer, or something sappy and queer like that.
Oh, he’s done.
After a static-y run of the sink, the door swung open. Kai came out with an innocent, childish grin on his face. He clicked the light off before remembering all the trouble this caused, clicking it back on and shutting the door.
“Th-thanks, Damon. It really means a lot.”
“Ah, well, you don't have to-”
“If you wanna get back in the bed, I promise I’ll stop moving so much. If I kick you again, um, maybe I can take the couch instead…”
Damon didn't respond. He knew nothing good came from him responding to things like that. He turned his head down before grabbing his pillow and walking back to his half of the bed. He laid down, clicking his lamp off, shutting his eyes, and turning to face the wall. The sinking of his lungs matched the boat rocking of Kai boarding the other half of the bed. Damon could feel the warm air in the pocket under the sheets they caved out together.
After twenty minutes of failing to fall asleep, Kai looked over at his roommate. Then he stared. He stared and stared, moving his face closer and closer. When Damon didn't react at all, he was satisfied. With a brief kiss on the cheek, Kai turned over and fell back into slumber. In an instant, the bed was dead steady.
Damon waited half a minute to let his face redden and to let a grin invade his cheeks. Kai wouldn't be able to take it if he knew Damon was awake, he thought.