Work Text:
A while after becoming a proper Sword-master, Javier found he could fall asleep easily, without any help from Lloyd.
He was taking a break when he figured it out. Lloyd had locked himself alone in his room to work on plans, having dismissed his knight for the day, so Javier decided to find a quiet place on the estate to cloud-watch.
It was a beautiful spring day. The grass was soft, swaying delicately in the cool breeze. The sun was hidden behind the sparse cloud cover. And Javier found himself drifting off, as clouds slowly crossed the blue sky.
It was a light nap, just something to pass the time with nothing else to do, but it was more than that. It meant Javier no longer had to rely on Lloyd just to fall asleep.
But… Javier was a creature of habit. He quite enjoyed having a consistent routine, and listening to Lloyd ramble about random engineering concepts was something Javier didn’t want to let go of just yet. So he still came to Lloyd’s room every night, and sat down in that plush chair Lloyd had moved there for him. He’d hug his favourite pillow and listen intently as Lloyd blabbered on about the tensile strength of materials, or the physics of why an arch is as strong as it is, or whatever was rattling around in that encyclopedic head of his.
It was a constant in Javier’s life, and he was somehow learning a bit about engineering. Enough that he could sometimes parse Lloyd’s mutterings about this and that while he flailed his arms at nothing like a madman.
Some nights, Javier would close his eyes and listen to Lloyd’s “lullabies”, not actually letting himself fall asleep. He’d wait until Lloyd trailed off.. He’d wait until he heard Lloyd shuffle under the covers of his bed, and his breathing deepened. Then, Javier would open his eyes, to keep vigil.
He also just liked to see the young master relaxed for once. Often Javier wondered if Lloyd ever took breaks for anything. For a man so dead-set on living a lazy life, he sure was a workaholic.
Javier would keep watching until he himself drifted off into a light, but restful sleep. Sometimes he sat there for hours, tracing every plane of Lloyd’s face with his eyes. It felt like the world froze when it was just the two of them.
The nights he stayed up late, he’d wake up to Lloyd poking his face, teasing him about being a “lazy-bones”, whatever that meant. Though, Javier didn’t mind the prodding all that much, nor was he bothered by the missed sleep.
He could always catch it later when he napped under the clouds.