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Romarriche wakes as the first light of dawn begins to seep into his room from between the curtains. He blinks a few times, then ultimately decides to keep his eyes shut as he becomes more aware of his surroundings.
There was the weight of a leg slung over his waist, and an arm over his chest. One of his partners was snoring in his ear, and he could feel their breath against the side of his face as they exhaled. Romarriche forces his eyes open again and turns his head to the side, and finds his forehead now lightly pressed against Merold's.
It was unsurprising; Romarriche was used to waking up and finding Merold on his side of the bed in the mornings when he and his partners spent the night together. He weakly lifts his head, just enough to look past Merold, and finds Puruth curled up with his face buried against Merold's shoulder blade.
Romarriche smiles to himself, finding the sight amusing. Both of his partners were well known for being clingy in their sleep, and this time was no different. He glances back to the window again, and then sighs softly. He'd really love to stay with them, but alas. He must start his day, and so he begins the slow process of escaping Merold's embrace so he could leave the bed and tend to the flowers outside.
He feels an involuntary shiver run through his body as the cool air outside of the blankets hits his body through the thin material of his sleepwear, but he ignores it in favor of heading to the bathroom to splash cold water on his face. After that, Romarriche puts shoes on and silently slips out of the room, careful not to make any noise lest he disturb his partners' slumber.
He finds that it is a bit warmer outside, and without a second thought, he hums softly to himself as he fills a few buckets with water, then begins making his way around the perimeter, watering the rosebushes.
The sun had risen a significant amount by the time Romarriche had finished. He sets the buckets back where he had gotten them from and glances over the area one more time before nodding in satisfaction and heading back inside the castle.
Romarriche opens his bedroom door cautiously, peering inside before entering. To his surprise, he finds Puruth awake and sitting up. Merold remained lying down, appearing to still be deeply asleep. He had migrated away from the space that Romarriche had previously occupied, and was now sprawled out on his back, his head resting in Puruth's lap. The blond knight looks up, his hand that had been playing with Merold's hair falling still. A small smile finds its way onto his face as his gaze meets Romarriche's, and he enters the room, shutting the door behind him softly.
"You're up earlier than usual," Romarriche whispers, approaching the bed and sitting on the edge of it. He reaches over and gently ghosts his fingers over the side of Merold's face. The pink haired knight does not stir.
Puruth looks down at Merold as well, resuming the movements of carding his fingers through his hair. "He got a little restless, and it woke me up," he murmurs, his voice still rough with sleep. "But after he latched onto me, he calmed down again."
Romarriche offers a sympathetic smile. "Sorry. I might have disturbed him when I got up." He leans down and brushes Merold's bangs out of the way to plant a chaste kiss to his forehead, then sits up again, leaning over to do the same for Puruth, but on his cheek.
"He does seem to be sleeping better, though. I think that tea you gave him last night was good," Puruth remarks, lightly brushing his nose against Romarriche's before the other knight can lean away.
"The chamomile? I hope so," Romarriche replies with a soft sigh. "I know he doesn't always sleep well away from home, but he still insists it's fine to stay at either of our kingdoms regardless."
Puruth hums in agreement, leaning forward and bringing a hand up to rest on Romarriche's cheek, rubbing his thumb over it. "You've got dirt on your face," he says, amused.
"Ah." Romarriche smiles sheepishly. "I was watering the roses." He looks down at his hands, where there was some dirt smudged on his palms. If he had to guess, he'd probably tried moving his hair out of his face, and carelessly wiped mud on himself, as he'd had to do some small occasional maintenance weed pulling near some of the rose bushes, to make sure the garden was in pristine condition as always.
Puruth removes his hand. "You must be wanting to wash up, then. Go on, don't let me hold up your routine."
Romarriche nods, slowly standing up from the bed. "Yes, I'll wash up, and then we can see about breakfast?" He glances at Merold. "Hopefully he's awake by then."
With that, Romarriche walks over to his closet to grab an outfit to change into after bathing, then he heads into the connected bathroom, quietly shutting the door and turning the shower on.
He goes about his shower routine without much thought, as it was purely muscle memory by now. It's after he had begun drying off when the door abruptly swings open, and a certain pink haired knight stumbles in, immediately attaching himself to Romarriche's side, and seemingly not caring about the damp towel that he currently had wrapped around his body.
Romarriche meets Merold's eyes in the reflection in the mirror, amused as he watches the other knight sleepily glare at him. He must have just woken up, then, Romarriche muses. He turns to face Merold, wrapping him in a gentle embrace.
"Romarriche~ Come back to bed," Merold demands immediately upon opening his mouth. Romarriche is used to Merold's antics though, and merely regards him fondly. "I don't sleep in like you both do, you know that."
Merold looks up at him with a frown. "Puruth says he lost sleep because of me, and now I'm losing sleep because you left," he says, his tone very serious. "The right thing to do would be to take accountability for your actions and make up for it. Namely by coming back to bed. I need my beauty sleep, y'know~?"
"Is that so?" Romarriche sighs softly, leaning down to plant a kiss on Merold's forehead. "I suppose that was rather unkind of me, hm? I do apologize for disturbing you both in some kind of butterfly effect. But perhaps I could make it up to you by making breakfast for us all?"
Before Merold can reply to that, Romarriche feels another set of arms wrapping around him, and another head nestles itself on his shoulder.
"I think I would prefer to go back to sleep right about now," Puruth mumbles, yawning. He gives Romarriche's waist a light squeeze. "But I can only do so if both of you are with me. That's when I sleep best, after all.."
Romarriche sighs softly in fond exasperation, turning his head to greet Puruth with a kiss on the cheek. "I suppose it would be awful if I were to refuse now, since both of you asked, no? However, I do need both of you to unhand me so that I can redress myself."
Merold has the audacity to look disappointed at that statement, but he does reluctantly release Romarriche, and Puruth does the same. They step outside of the bathroom to wait for him, but neither strays too far from the door. Romarriche could not bear to make his beloved partners wait for long, so he quickly dresses himself and exits the bathroom. As soon as he does, Merold takes his hand and drags him toward the bed, Puruth following closely behind.
To his surprise, when Romarriche attempts to settle into his usual spot, Merold shakes his head and motions for Romarriche to move over, so he does, a look of confusion on his face.
Typically, Merold always slept between Puruth and Romarriche, but now, Romarriche finds himself sandwiched between his partners. Merold throws his leg over Romarriche's waist again, meanwhile Puruth drapes his arm over Romarriche's torso. Merold rests his arm over Puruth's for good measure, and Romarriche finds himself effectively trapped. There was no way he was getting out of this, it seemed.
They really must have been truthful when claiming they were still tired, as it doesn't take long for the both of them to doze off once more. Romarriche goes back and forth between gazing at his partners, admiring them and watching over them.
What he does not expect, however, is that their warmth and the rhythmic sound of their snores would eventually lull him back into slumber along with them.
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Romarriche is unsure of how long he had fallen back asleep for, but the first thing he becomes aware of upon regaining consciousness, is a hand in his hair, the fingernails lightly scratching at his scalp. From somewhere above him, he could locate the sound of Puruth humming. One of his hands rested in the grasp of Merold's cooler touch, the other knight's thumb gently rubbing back and forth across his knuckles.
Romarriche's eyes flutter open, and when he meets the gazes of his partners, the amount of pure adoration he is faced with proves to be more than his poor heart could handle, as he attempts to turn his head away, to hide his embarrassed blush in the pillow beneath his head.
And yet, as embarrassed as he was, Romarriche finds that all he could think about in that moment, was how much he loved his partners, and how he wished to remain by their sides forever, intertwined like a clumsy cat's cradle for eternity.