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Lloyd felt a pair of strong arms snake their way around his waist, and he knew he’d been followed.
“Go back to sleep, Bentho,” he murmured, not moving. “I’m fine.”
Bentho ignored him. “Nightmares?” He asked, his breath tickling Lloyd’s ear.
Lloyd shut his eyes and pursed his lips, not wanting to respond. He was so sick of making everything Bentho’s problem. He wasn’t responsible for fixing his life. Every time something like this happened, he couldn’t avoid the well of guilt pooling in his stomach.
Unfortunately, Bentho took his silence for the correct answer.
“Do you… want to talk about it?” He asked, subtly pulling Lloyd’s body in closer.
“Not really,” Lloyd whispered, barely repressing a shudder. His visions were mildly horrifying at best and traumatic at worst, and they were the last thing he wanted to be thinking about right now.
Wordlessly, Bentho pulled back, gripped Lloyd’s shoulders, gently turned him around, and gave him a proper hug, easily engulfing Lloyd’s body. Lloyd breathed in shakily and buried his face into Bentho's shoulder, too exhausted to hate himself for it.
“Don’t be so hard on yourself, Lloyd,” Bentho told him, rubbing a reassuring thumb across the nape of his neck. “You’re only human.”
“I wouldn’t say that,” Lloyd said thickly, with a small, pathetic chuckle. Bentho laughed.
“You know what I meant.”
Bentho ended up coaxing Lloyd into sneaking up to the Monastery roof with him. It was clear that he wouldn’t be able to sleep anytime soon, and he was in no way about to leave him in his poorly-disguised state of distress.
The familiar ambience of the Crossroads from afar always seemed to calm him down. If anything, a change of scenery might do him some good.
Presently, Lloyd breathed a sigh of contentment, his entire body sagging into Bentho’s. One of Bentho’s hands was slung loosely around Lloyd’s waist and Lloyd’s head rested atop Bentho’s shoulder. Bentho tried not to move around, hoping Lloyd might fall asleep. But when he looked down, he was wide awake, not a trace of tiredness in his eyes.
“You are much too comfortable with avoiding sleep for my liking,” Bentho announced to the open air.
Lloyd let out a low chuckle that Bentho could feel the vibration of in his body. “I’ve been doing it for a long time.”
“Lloyd Garmadon. Elemental Master of Insomnia.”
Lloyd leaned back on his hands, pretending to consider it. “I quite like that, actually.” Now it was Bentho’s turn to laugh. He leaned his head on Lloyd’s shoulder, so that they had switched positions.
After a while, Lloyd gently threw his head back, closing his eyes and breathing in the cold night air, exposing the pale column of his neck. Almost on instinct, Bentho turned his head so that his lips brushed Lloyd’s throat. Slowly, he pressed a soft kiss underneath his jaw.
Up here, on the roof in the middle of the night, it felt surreal. Lloyd's face caught the moonlight, almost making it look like he was glowing.
Bentho wondered if he was seeing the inhuman side of him, some one-of-a-kind archaic beauty.
“What're you looking at?” Lloyd asked, quiet and teasing. Bentho reached forward and tucked a strand of blonde hair behind his ear. His hand settled on the back of Lloyd's neck.
“You,” Bentho said simply, before pressing a sweet, chaste kiss to his lips. He could tell Lloyd was surprised, but he melted into the kiss, placing a hand on Bentho's chest.
The two were already huddled together for warmth, but now, as they pulled apart, they were close enough for Bentho to count the number of Lloyd's eyelashes. He pecked his forehead, making Lloyd's mouth break into a smile.
“I don't deserve you,” he murmured, leaning comfortably into Bentho's body.
“On the contrary,” Bentho replied, threading their hands together. “You deserve much, much more than the cards fate has dealt you.”
“Except you.”
Bentho hummed noncommittally.
He often thought they were more gentle with each other than most, probably to make up for the fact that the universe treated them like punching bags. Especially Lloyd.
It left Bentho feeling useless. He would take the nightmares upon himself to relieve Lloyd of the pain for once if he could. Instead, he could only watch from outside, helping with whatever limited comfort he had to offer. It never felt like enough.
“You're thinking,” Lloyd's voice came suddenly. “I can tell.”
Bentho’s mouth twitched. “Oh?”
“I know you're trying to blame yourself.” Bentho tried to make a quip about how he wasn't the only one, but Lloyd continued. “Don't think for a while. Let's just…”
He trailed off, but Bentho understood. Tomorrow, they would go back to training and researching and saving the world.
Tonight, they could forget all of that and pretend the stars were shining just for them.