Work Text:
Phainon could hardly claim himself to be a jealous man.
He knew that with dating the most beautiful, most handsome, most kind and generous man of all of Amphoreus, though many may beg to differ, that he would have to be fighting off people left, right, and center who thought that they could shoot their shot with the usually stoic professor. While he didn’t appreciate it in the slightest, he could even handle seeing men and women alike try chatting up his boyfriend - though he will be beside himself for hours upon hours and demand cuddles from said boyfriend upon retiring home for the night. At the end of the day, he knew that Anaxa was his, and there was nothing that anyone else could do about it.
So really and truly, he was not a jealous man.
Ultimately, though, he was but a man.
Because when Phainon, who makes sure to wrap himself around his smaller boyfriend like a koala every night before falling asleep, wakes up in the middle of the night with his arms empty for the third time this week - on a Wednesday nonetheless - then perhaps he can concede, and call himself just a little jealous.
He stirred in place for a second, frazzled and confused at the cold, empty space beside him. He was decidedly no longer in the center of the bed, blanket tangled between his legs where his lover once lay captive. Mind still hazy with sleep, he peered down on the empty space, eyes squinting in the dark at the offending vacant area on the bed as if doing so would magically materialize Anaxa from thin air.
It wasn’t entirely uncommon for Anaxa to slip away from their bed in the dead of night in favor of finishing whatever work he had picked up the day before. Not to mention, he was infinitely the lighter sleeper between the two, and refused to rest easy until he personally checked out whatever slightest noise that may have awoken him from his slumber. Needless to say, this wouldn't be the first or last time Anaxa has been missing from their shared bed for a multitude of reasons.
He blinks away the sleep in his eyes, slowly sitting up as his eyes drank up the light provided by the teensy droma night light plugged in across from their shared bed.
Thankfully, Phainon did not need to pull Anaxa away from his study at ass o’clock - the smaller man, despite claiming himself to be frail and feeble, has a deceptively strong grip with only two fingers when he feels like it. And if anyone asks, it’s Phainon that gives up solely due to the fact that he wishes not to bring harm to his beloved.
He drank up the small movement of his lover’s shoulders as he breathed in, paused, then breathed out as he slept on his side, back facing Phainon and completely bundled up in their blanket. Lips cracking into a soft smile, a different level of vulnerability that he’s ever allowed himself in the public eye, he reaches over with the full intention of slipping his fingers around Anaxa and lightly tugging him backwards into him at a glacial pace as to avoid waking the man from whatever little rest he allowed himself, when he was stopped.
Fingers deftly sliding under the blanket Anaxa had mostly hogged to himself at some point in his migration to a corner of the bed earlier that night, he was met with something plush, held tightly to Anaxa’s chest. Phainon did not need the night light to be able to tell exactly what it was.
You see, Phainon made a mistake. A gross miscalculation that is.
Sometime last week, Phainon had made the mistake of purchasing the largest droma plushie he’s ever set his eyes on. Just about anyone who was even slightly within his social circle could tell you how much Anaxa loved dromas. Without hesitation, brandishing his money like a sword, he forked over the small fortune for the massive plush as soon as he lay eyes on it.
He still remembered the past him, so naive and oblivious, jokingly bouncing the plush on his hip as he ventured back to his home with his new purchase, already seeing the gleam in his boyfriend’s eyes at the gift. “ You’re coming home with me~ ” So young. So naive. And ready to be replaced apparently.
At first, it was a simple thing - a cute little gesture for his partner. But, the longer that damned droma stays in their house, in their bed, there is a sense of unease that starts to grow as though this plushie has single handedly shifted the dynamic of the household. There was something about it, this damned little-not-so-little toy, and the way Anaxa clung to it at night, cuddling around it at night - his and Anaxa’s nightly cuddle time, mind you - with a sense of comfort that began to sting.
Now, instead of remaining within Phainon’s hold throughout the night, keeping nice and warm snug against his chest, Anaxa has abandoned his boyfriend in favor of a toy the size of a small child. Almost every single day for the past week.
This sting grew into what felt a little resentful, not at Anaxa - never at Anaxa. But, it was silly because after all, it was just a plushie, right? Definitely did not seem like ‘just a plushie ’ with the way those beady little eyes bore right back into his own baby blues through the almost pitch black room. The little stuffed creature was getting more attention, affection, and time during his special time with his lover and he will not stand for it.
It was irrational, and he knew it. Further rubbing salt into the wound when he, in his time of need, chose to speak with his (third) closest confidant about it when it all first started. Pouring his heart out to the blonde man before him, with a theatrical ability belonging only in Okhema’s finest Broadway musicals, he whined and complained about his predicament. Alas, Mydei was one of his closest confidants, not one of his kindest. Still, he did not expect The King of Kremnos to double over in laughter at his suffering.
He just couldn’t help it, so used to being the center of Anaxa’s attention - whether overtly or not. So now, with another being to vie for Anaxa’s attention, there was a strange feeling of competition creeping in. Irrational? Absolutely, but it was hard for him to shake off the thought that their lover was slowly replacing him with a plushie.
Now he found himself scowling slightly, a blanket replaced upon Anaxa’s sleeping form, before he sank back to his side of the bed in defeat. His arms bulged as they crossed tighter than before, trying to shake off the absolutely absurd jealousy. A little voice in his head, sounding suspiciously like a teasing Mydei, nags at him for such a preposterous thought.
Droma Plushie: 1
Phainon: 0
He sank further into his soft pillows, scowl still set in place as his eyes were drawn back to Anaxa’s sleeping figure beside him. Before his brain could catch up with his body, his hand moved out in pure instinct - picking up a lock of mint green hair and twirling it around an idle finger.
It took a small groan from Anaxa’s once slumbering form to knock him out of it, immediately dropping the hair as if it burned and freezing up as if caught in the act. He remained criminally still as Anaxa grumbled and shifted around in a half asleep daze until his back met the mattress, arms still clasped tightly around the plushie hooked under his chin and squeezed tight to his chest.
“Phainon..?” Anaxa whispered quietly into their room, sleep still evident in his voice. He let out a yawn, back arching into the mattress, before promptly swinging himself over once more to face Phainon’s body.
In lieu of a response, Phainon allowed a hand to make its way back over to the other man, brushing the stray strands of hair from his messy sleep bun behind his shoulder as a silent apology. Even in barely being able to make out vague shapes in the dark, Phainon kept a trained eye on the plushie in Anaxa’s arms as if it were to come to life and begin to reign terror on Okhema and all around it.
“Is something wrong?” Anaxa tried weakly, still drowsy with sleep as he shuffled closer to the center of the bed, tangling his legs in the blanket in a lazy attempt to move it along with him.
‘ Yeah, I’ve been replaced by a completely inanimate object. ’ is what Phainon wanted to say, a deep, petty part of him that should be well aware that Anaxa has zero intention of getting rid of him anytime soon. “You weren’t here when I woke up.”
Phainon did not need their blackout curtains to be drawn, and for the sun to beam into their bedroom to know that Anaxa’s eyebrow was arched as if gesturing him to continue. He felt the bed dip some more as Anaxa inched his way closer to him, and felt as the plushie came between the two of them before he stopped his mini journey across the expanse of their bed.
“I mean you were here, but you weren’t here with me .”
Phainon’s explanation decidedly gave Anaxa zero to work with, but he wasn’t called a genius for nothing - and he certainly did not miss Phainon’s not so subtle squints at his new addition to his (not so) secret plushie collection upon its arrival in their home, despite himself being the person to make the purchase.
“Phainon.” Anaxa prodded at him slowly, a growing grin evident in his voice as Phainon felt his face heat up in embarrassment. Regret for even having opened his mouth earlier was beginning to settle in his stomach. “Are you jealous of the droma? The plushie?”
“Yes!” He exclaimed, just a bit too loudly and a bit too quickly for his pride to allow for, but he was tired, and he wanted his lover to be all cozy with at night. Was that too much to ask for?
A moment of silence passed before the embarrassment began to heat his face in waves, immediately wanting to backtrack. “I mean no? It’s not like that!”
“My poor baby boy.” Anaxa cooed, almost mockingly as he (finally) unclasped the droma, reaching behind his back to place it away from between the two of them. He brought his hands up to cup and pinch at Phainon’s face, lightly twisting his cheeks as he closed the distance between them even further. He half crawled onto Phainon as he lay on his back, bony elbows digging into hard muscle. Like this, he was close enough for Phainon to make out the mischievous twinkle in his eyes, even in the dark. Phainon should have probably been a bit more embarrassed than he was, but he was too enthralled by the other man to even pretend to care, leaning into his lover’s cold hands. “Come here.”
Phainon went back to sleep happy that night, arms full of Anaxa and mind clear. And if he spitefully flicked the massive droma off his bed with a tad bit more force than necessary, a final show of defiance against the droma, then that is between him, Kephale, and probably Aglaea if she cared enough to zero in on the golden threads hung taut throughout his home.