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The air is quiet and the night is still where Basil lies, asleep and curled up in Sunny’s bed with the blanket half way off. Tossed off by Sunny, who had abandoned those warm covers by setting one foot on the cold wooded floors and then the other, slipping out into the equally cold hallway.
It didn’t last long, though. Not before Sunny had retreated back to this safe, warm place by one knee on the mattress and the other foot still planted onto the ground. His arms extend to he give Basil’s smaller frame a little shake, then another… and then another!
“Mm…”
A hum leaves the cream-haired boy, but no sign of life in his body comes for awhile. Sunny should just give up, honestly. The two were already up a couple hours prior, talking and talking until they had passed out. The clock above Sunny’s closet door now shows something like 3:30, so there is no question of if Basil will wake up soon or not.
But of course, Sunny tries. Again and again. He doesn’t stop trying until Basil’s body, already face first into dreamland, seems to notice the frantic rate at which Sunny is shaking him at. So the boy fully rolls over, and his eyes peel open slowly to meet Sunny’s, which are widened and more panicked.
Basil lazily lifts a hand to his face, but it seems more as if Basil is lifting a mountain which is his arm and it seems to just drop on his cheek like he is a doll full of sand. It barely manages to rub against his eyelid, an expression of pure exhaustion riddled across Basil’s freckled features.
“Mm…Sunny? What’s the matter?”
Pulls out from the boy’s throat so lazily, so tiredly you might’ve thought he was still asleep.
When Sunny speaks, as he often doesn’t, it comes out shaky and fragile, as if you could bend it in half.
“I have to go to the bathroom…”
He whispers first, and it’s clear that more will come, but Basil is too sleepy to know that. So he instead rolls back over and lets his eyes fall close again, feeling nothing but the weight of his own dreams pull him back under and the rest of his limbs going slack.
“…Then go to the bathroom…”
Basil mumbles in reply, his words burying into Sunny’s pillow.
Sunny shakes his head, an action that is pointless because Basil now can’t see him. So Sunny’s thin fingers hook into the crinkles in Basil’s shirt and he tries to roll him back over.
“I…saw something.”
Sunny replies in a voice that is so little, it is probably less than half of him.
Basil can feel his own lips fold into a frown. What is it now? A demon, a monster, his sister? Oh brother. Basil feels himself sober up from sleep as his body slowly rises so that he is sitting, face in his hands before he even realizes how they got there.
Sunny only stands there, hands leaving Basil now and awkwardly fumbling to find their place. One hand settles over the other arm, stretched across his chest as he tries to keep balance. Which feels hard, since he’s so anxious.
A little whine suddenly leaves Basil, a sound that isn’t actually one of any sort of complaint or defiance. Rather, it is a soft, almost cracky sound that makes Sunny’s chest tingle with both affection and guilt for waking his best friend up.
With a thick swallow, it is then Basil’s turn to slip one foot out of bed after the other, wobbling to rise to his feet and stumble over to the door. And he knows he has to go first, no matter if it scares him a little too or it’s already hard to see with how tired he is… He knows he has to because he has done this before.
It is surely routine by now, obvious by the way Basil waits a little as he drags his feet across the hallway, because he already knows if he gets too far then Sunny won’t follow. Even if Sunny stood just that much taller, now in this very moment, Basil always has to be the one to lead him.
His hand clumsily and barely manages to land on the doorknob to the restroom, weakly pushing it open and then flicking on the light. And that light that nearly blinds him as soon as it hits his face, eyes fully squinting. But still, Basil enters the bathroom first, Sunny standing and staring at him from right outside the doorframe.
Basil looks around. Barely, mind you. His head just lulls from each corner of the room, and then his eyes, which are practically closed, meet Sunny’s with a defeated look in them.
“…’s fine.”
Basil pushes out in a low voice. One that sounds nothing but exhausted, yet the little rasp causes some warmth to rise in Sunny’s cheeks.
The two walk past each other, shoulders brushing, and then Basil hears the door close behind him. His lips part, and a sigh leaves him.
He shrinks himself down onto the floor, back now against the wall right beside the door with his knees to his chest so he can lay his head against them like a makeshift pillow.
Like always, Basil waits.
And he waits…
And waits…
His vision starts to go black, and he thinks he might fall asleep right here.
But the sound of the sink alerts poor, sleepy Basil, so his head barely lifts.
The door swings open, and Basil’s tired, blue eyes look to the light from the bathroom that is now bleeding onto the carpet in front of him. Sunny’s own eyes wander down to Basil’s frame curled up against the wooden doorframe.
And, “Are you sleeping?”
He asks, sounding a little worried.
“…Mm-mm…”
Basil hums back with a tiny shake of his head.
“I…”
Sunny barely even waits for Basil to finish before words are drawing out of him again. He leans down, so that he is not sitting, but kneeling right beside Basil.
“…I’m sorry I woke you up.”
He whispers.
And Basil, for whatever the reason, decides he actually does not want to hear this right about now.
His head drags itself over to look at Sunny’s face, and he tilts it back against the wall for support. It’s not hard to see he is incredibly out of it, and perhaps Sunny should regret yanking Basil out of his slumber. But his flush lips open and he croons out sluggishly.
“Don’t worry about it…”
But the little lilt in his sweet voice doesn’t ease Sunny at all. He rests his head in the opening Basil has unconsciously left between his shoulder and his neck.
“Really, I’m sorry…”
Sunny repeats, his voice quiet and almost pouty.
“Let’s just go back to bed…”
Is Basil’s response, rolling out of him in a slow murmur.
“Basil…”
A call from Sunny, and before Basil knows it, Sunny turns his head so that his lips are against the bare skin of Basil’s shoulder, left revealed from his pajama shirt slipping down.
There is an warm, aching, shuddering breath that Basil feels tickle against his skin. That surely wakes him up.
He gives a gentle nudge of his shoulder, and Sunny knows to get off when he feels it, head raising to look at Basil.
“It’s fine.”
Basil repeats. And although he has just rejected Sunny’s touch on his neck, his hands are now reaching to cup Sunny’s face and press a thumb under his friend’s bangs.
“I know you get scared.”
Basil whispers, and it is simple but nice enough that Sunny is able to lift one side of his mouth into something of a smile. Almost.
Sunny’s arm wraps around Basil’s shoulder so that he can lift the smaller boy to his feet, his free hand reaching to get the bathroom light behind them. And now on the way back it is Sunny who leads Basil down the hall, letting the blonde sink onto him in his tiredness.
When the two curl back up into bed, Sunny wishes he could hold Basil as thanks or something. Because to not express gratitude in some big way makes Sunny feel as though he’s being ungrateful and undeserving. But it’s not as if he has much choice in the matter, because Basil is quick to scoot to the side closest to the wall and turn his back to Sunny, a long huff escaping him which signifies he is going to be fast asleep soon.
“Thanks, Basil…”
Sunny whispers out with seemingly a sense of urgency, an arm swaying across the mattress so that he drag up and down along Basil’s back with his nails. It is a silent plea for something. Attention, probably.
Basil doesn’t reply, just another sound leaves him. And if Sunny was less sure of himself, perhaps he would just pull Basil close right about now and feel the small of his back to his chest which is not too much bigger.
But he doesn’t, obviously. Only lays there, picturing how the warmth and the weight would feel.
His eyes don’t close for awhile. In fact, I’m sure he spends half the night staring at Basil’s backside until sleep eventually overcomes him too.