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Eyes as green as the dewy spring grass are the first things Barke sees as he wakes. It’s early, far too early, and the warm body he's pressed up against is already lulling him back to sleep. Another five minutes won’t hurt, besides, his chickens have auto feeders now. And the cows barn doors are open. They'll be fine. He should save a couple dozen eggs for Robin, she deserves them. Yeah.. that sounds nice.
“Hey, come on beautiful. Don’t fall back asleep now, we’ve got the whole day ahead of us.” Alex’s voice is deep, it’s clear he’s woken up just before Barke has. He’s so damn tired. He contemplates whether he should turn around and go back to sleep, leaving the man beside him with all the farm chores, or, the more productive option, get up and get on with his day. Alex continues to look at him, eyes tracing over his freckled face. After a moment he speaks up, “You with me? Where did that head of your’s go?”
Barke groans loudly, though it comes out muffled, face shoved into his pillow. “I know, mornings are horrible, but it's time to get up. Cashmere is probably starving by now, the poor thing.” As Alex is finishing his sentence, the soft jingle of a cat's collar is heard.
Fluffy demon now awake and no doubt about to scream at them until she gets her smelly food. Barke sighs into the pillow and sits up a bit, Alex, on the other hand, has sat up fully at this point, cooing at the white creature that's now jumped up onto the farmer's bed with a barely audible “Mmrp!”, bumping her head against his boyfriend's hand. Cashmere sounds something similar to an engine, very pleased at having her chin scratched. Barke takes this as his cue to get up.
With another sigh, Barke stands, hands above his head, shirt riding up. showing the small of his stomach as he stretches. If he sees the brunnette's cheeks turn pink at this, he chooses to ignore it.
***
Alex left soon after, something about having to help his grandparents redecorate or the like, Barke wasn’t fully listening. He couldn’t, not with Alex wearing one of his shirts despite it being much too small, hugging his chest tightly. Barke had to tear his eyes away, face heating up, the urge to kiss his ridiculously muscled boyfriend unbearable.
Tending to the farm was simple. During his first year he had upgraded the cows barn once, so they didn't have an auto feeder yet, but the fresh grass provided them with enough food. All he needs to do is make sure they have hay in their troughs on rainy days. Both the coop and barn had collectors in them. Gathering all the milk, eggs, and feathers left over by his ducks, and sorting them into his mayo makers and cheese pressers is always a hassle though.
He had been lucky in his mine runs recently, most of his crops were already watered by the newly crafted sprinklers, the few that hadn’t been took no longer then half an hour to sort out. There were a few other things he had to do on Wesley farm, like repair a couple fences and weed the land. It was tough, but nowhere near as grueling as it was his first season here. His body ached, hungry and exhausted when he was done.
He returns to the house sometime around four with sweat dripping down his face, glasses fogging up. He takes a quick shower, scrubbing the grime from his sunburnt skin, then cooks up lunch using some of the fish he had caught the previous day. He should really fish more, he thinks. Willy had added ‘deluxe bait’ to the old shop recently and Barke was itching to try it out. Alex calls him as he finishes up, custom ringtone snapping him back into reality. Barke answers immediately.
“Dang, didn’t even let it ring twice, miss me that much?” He can hear the smirk in the jock's voice.
“You called at a good time, just got done with the farm. Making fish filets right now, you should come over, I probably made too much anyway.”
“I may have to take you up on that offer. Are we still on for tonight?”
At the beginning of their relationship, Alex had proposed that they do ‘date nights’ as a way to wind down after a long week, with the added bonus of getting to know each other better and spend more time together. Being a farmer is busy work after all! Barke agreed, and since then, they spend every Friday together, even if they’ve fought the night before, which they rarely do, they spend the evening relaxing together, basking in each other's presence.
Barke smiles at the memory. “Of course. We can have a movie night, how do you feel about Jurassic park? It's been a while since I've seen it.” He remembers the jock mentioning liking action movies.
“Yes! Ok, that's perfect, me and Dusty will come by later. Gran still needs help. Did you know she and Haley have been hanging out? There’s pictures of them everywhere in this house!” He's laughing as he talks and boy, does that make Barke’s heart ache in the best way possible. “Ah jeez, no Gran- I’ll move it, I’ve got it!- Sorry babe, gotta go, see you later!”
All kinds of creaking and scraping sounds are coming from the other line before the call ends abruptly. Barke chuckles, hand running through his short, shaved hair, partially wet from his shower. He sets his phone down on a small table in front of his TV, plate in hand as he shuffles through the channels.
***
It's dark out by the time Barke hears those gentle knocks at the entrance of his farmhouse. “Come in.” As he calls out, a tall man walks in, dog glued to his side. “Hey baby, I missed you.” Alex murmurs, slumping onto the couch. He’s visibly tired, the dog not so much. Dusty is sniffing everything around, Barke included, snout working overtime. Cashmere pays no mind, perched atop her cat tower, she’s used to this show.
Dusty calms down quite quickly, he's sat on the couch now as well, or rather, sprawled out on it. Belly up, snoring loudly.
“Tough day?” Barke helps him out of the jacket he's got on, and takes note he's no longer wearing the tight shirt, absolutely stuffed under the brunette’s pillow. “I like the way they smell. Helps calm me down when I'm all worked up, y'know?"
“Mm..” Alex groans back. “Gran was having me move around the entire living room. Pop wasn’t happy, wanted to watch his tv.” It was close to a whisper, but Barke still heard it. Callused hands find Alex’s bicep, pulling him down. The other complies, head laying on the farmer's strong thighs, fingers playing with his hair. He sighs contently, closing his eyes, allowing himself to relax into the touch. He feels a blanket being thrown onto him, it reminds him all too much of how his mother would tuck him in all those years ago, caressing his face until he fell asleep. Alex releases a breath he didn’t know he was holding.
There's a beat of silence before the movie on screen starts up. Barke doesn't stop playing with the others' hair, not once, and if he sees Alex start tearing up, he ignores it and starts peppering kisses to his scalp.
***
They both fall asleep halfway into the movie, cuddled up on the couch, Cashmere and Dusty sleeping together at the ends of their feet. Both men had rough days, rough weeks, but if it means more days like this can happen, where they both can just.. exist, then maybe it's worth it. And maybe, deep down, they both hope this lasts for a lifetime.