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As Mapicc opened his eyes, he saw Spoke standing over him, the light from the door pouring into the otherwise pitch black room. He blinked a couple of times in rapid succession, trying to acclimate himself to the sudden awakening. And to the fact that Spoke was looming over his bed.
He groggily looked up at Spoke, who looked like he had something on the tip of his tongue but wasn’t ready to say it just yet. Interestingly, he also had a pillow and blanket tucked into the space between his torso and arm.
“Spoke..? What are you-”
“Sorry to interrupt your slumber here, don’t mean to intrude, but uh, how do I put this...” he stammered, teeth clenched, “...can I sleep here tonight, in your bed? Just this once, Mapicc, please.”
Was he actually being serious? Like, for real? He considered the possibility of Spoke just messing with him, even with how distressed he sounded asking, by how ridiculous he was being. Eventually, by the way he shrunk in on himself in the vast silence Mapicc had created, he concluded he was being sincere. Now to give his verdict.
Mapicc stared at him for a while, brow furrowed in a mix of frustration and thought. He looked sad, scared even, like the strays Mapicc would see on the side of the pavement and force himself to not take home on the spot. He wasn’t usually so meek looking, so there had to be some reason he was asking in the first place. And who was Mapicc to deny him that comfort?
On the other hand, Mapicc’s bed hardly fit himself on it, so for Spoke to fit they would need to be practically on top of each other. And Mapicc really didn’t wanna do that if he was being honest.
But, Spoke was really cold, and Mapicc could really use that considering the fact that he was sweating in his bed with four separate fans pointed directly at him. Plus, he knew that Spoke liked to be warm. There was a point of conflict between Mapicc’s want for leg room while he slept and his equally important desire to not need so many fans. And the third, less important factor of Spoke’s happiness.
After a long period of deliberation, he sighed, put his head into his hands, and said, “fine, Spoke, fine. Just this once.”
Before Mapicc could even move over to let him in, Spoke jumped onto him and made himself very comfortable, pushing Mapicc to the edge of his own bed. Of course, Mapicc tried to shove him to the other side, but this didn’t really do much of anything. By the time things were settled, Spoke laid on the side touching the wall and took up at least 75% of the bed (crazy work if you asked him), while Mapicc was relegated to the outer rim. This was partly his own doing, as there was a usable amount of space between him and Spoke, but that would require him to get a whole lot closer.
Though, that dilemma didn’t seem to matter too much, as Spoke seemed to be getting closer and closer until they were practically cuddling. Not seemed, he was definitely getting closer. His touch was both soothing due to the nature of his body, that being freezing, and unsettling. Mapicc valued his personal space, and someone seemed to be hellbent on intruding into that.
Still, he didn’t act yet. Spoke was still far enough away where he could sleep without disturbance, and maybe Spoke moved while he slept. That was what he thought, until Spoke decided he could put his arm fully over to the side of the bed Mapicc was on, resting his elbow on Mapicc’s side. That was the final straw. He pushed Spoke away with a hard shove to his head, Spoke yelping as he did so.
“Ow! What was that for?” he asked, reaching up to feel his forehead. It was clear he was trying his very best to feign innocence and failing miserably.
“You were trying to spoon me. That’s weird, dude!”
Spoke made a vaguely exasperated but mostly incomprehensible noise, saying, “that’s not weird! Cuddling your friends is a normal thing to do. Plus, it’s not like I was doing anything wrong.”
“Is it? I feel like it isn’t.” Mapicc sat up until he was fully upright while Spoke talked. He thought about leaving and sleeping in Spoke’s room as a way to piss him off, but thinking about how sad Spoke looked before he said yes made him feel a little guilty just thinking about it. Oh well, he’d be fine.
“You’re the one being weird about it, not me! There’s nothing romantic about- yo wait, where are you going?”
“Leaving.”
“To where?!”
Mapicc smiled mischievously. “It’s a secret.”
Of course, since the walls in their base were not exactly the most sound-proof, Spoke could definitely hear that Mapicc was just moving to the room directly next to his. That wasn’t the point though. Mapicc just wanted to annoy him a little for all the trouble he’d caused.
What he wasn’t expecting with this genius plan, though, was for how hot it would be in Spoke’s room. He opened the door with a click, and a wave of heat billowed out as if it was smoke. It was suffocating, so suffocating Mapicc thought Spoke had started a fire in there and didn’t tell him. Luckily, this proved to not be the case.
Even if he had not burned their house down, he had gotten pretty damn close. Multiple cauldrons filled with bubbling lava adorned every corner of the room, which had to be a safety hazard of some sort. That wouldn’t be too bad, except the room had trapped all of the heat released by the lava and was now unbearable to be in. It would probably kill the average person, but Spoke was no average man.
It was baffling, inconceivable even. There was actually no way he slept like this! He also noticed the mound of blankets on top of his bed, and judging by how they were placed, Mapicc presumed Spoke slept with all of them stacked on top of each other like an ancient burial ceremony. There were like, 12 at least.
He could not contain his utter bewilderment, shouting, “what the fuck, Spoke?! It’s like a terrarium in here!”
Distantly, he heard Spoke burst out laughing, and Mapicc could vividly imagine the infuriating grin on Spoke’s face as he did so. He got back into his room sweating, and Spoke had fully claimed the bed as his. The worst part was that he had somehow turned all of his fans off in the three minutes he was gone, and Spoke was also bundled in both the blanket he brought with him and Mapicc’s. He wanted to bash this guy’s head in with a baseball bat.
“How do you even sleep in that room?!” Mapicc was panting, clutching his knees with his hands like he just ran a mile. That room felt as hot as the nether, maybe even worse. How did Spoke make his room as hot as actual hell, and how did Mapicc never notice?
Spoke was doubled over laughing, trying to speak but unable to form a sentence. Every time he opened his mouth to talk, another wheeze would escape instead. Eventually, he calmed down enough to explain himself. “Okay, okay, I’m gonna be honest with you. I don’t usually keep my room that hot, today was just different. I uh...” he paused, grimacing, “...was going through some stuff, felt a little anxious about the Mafia and all that, and being warm calms me down. Makes me feel safe, y’know?”
Mapicc nodded along, a little confused but mostly understanding. “Ohhh, that’s why you had so many blankets. You were trying to ground yourself. I get it now!” He still didn’t really get why Spoke would need 12, but he wasn’t about to interrupt his attempt at being vulnerable.
Spoke affirmed his theory. “Yeah, exactly! It didn’t work, though. I still felt like-” Another pause. “-like they were gonna find me. It’s stupid, I know, but I just really needed to be close to you.”
“And that’s why you asked to sleep here?”
“Yeah...” Spoke seemed a little embarrassed to admit it. Mapicc didn’t think that was something to be ashamed of at all though, and quickly pulled him into a tight hug. Spoke was startled for sure, but he soon reciprocated, wrapping his arms around Mapicc’s torso and resting his head in the crook of the other’s neck.
“You could’ve told me earlier, y’know. There’s nothing wrong with needing some reassurance, especially after the Mafia hunting us down and all that.” He felt Spoke slump against his body entirely, and Mapicc couldn’t help but smile at how content Spoke seemed in his arms.
They stayed like that for a while longer, the two just enjoying the moment they shared, but eventually, Mapicc had to let go to crawl back into bed with him.
Spoke insisted on being close to Mapicc still, and he let him this time. Though, it seemed that Spoke doubted if Mapicc was fully on board, asking, “you sure I’m allowed to do this? I don’t wanna make you uncomfortable, really.”
Mapicc shrugged. “Nah, you’re fine. I was mostly mad at you earlier for not asking me first.” To show he was being serious, Mapicc turned to face Spoke fully before hooking one arm around Spoke’s chest. Spoke reached up to feel Mapicc’s hand with his own, tracing his knuckles and the lines of his palm with cool fingertips.
“Alright. Sorry for not saying anything though, that was kinda weird of me to do.”
“Again, it’s fine, I forgive you.”
A blanket of silence fell over the two of them after that, warm and inviting, though Mapicc could hear a faint rumbling noise coming from Spoke’s throat. Curious, he tilted his head closer to listen. It was the sound of him purring, like how a cat purrs but leaning a bit more to starting the engine of an old car. When did he purr? Mapicc had never once heard him make that noise before, but maybe it was just quiet enough for him to never take note of it or something.
He decided not to ask, partly because it wasn’t really his business and mostly because was far too tired to care.
Instead, Mapicc pressed his cheek to the other’s face, feeling the vibrations of Spoke’s purr as he slept. It was really nice. For some reason, Mapicc had gotten used to pushing Spoke away whenever he tried to hug or show any sort of affection to him, but he was starting to regret that. He felt warm in a way that he hadn’t felt in a while, a tingling sensation that started in his chest and spread until he could touch it with his fingertips.
He stiffened, mouth suddenly pressed into a thin line. Was he in love with him? That would be both really funny and also really bad for the current state of their friendship. Mapicc thought back to times that he felt, or at least thought he felt that sorta way. It was a very different experience to what he felt in the current moment, more exciting and nerve wracking than the calm that was currently washed over him.
He also couldn’t imagine thinking of him as anything else than his friend, maybe his best friend on a good day. Eventually, he concluded that he was not, in fact, in love with Spoke. He breathed a sigh of relief, really glad he didn’t have to ask some very important questions about himself today.
Mapicc let go of that train of thought soon after. He focused instead on the way Spoke’s chest would rise and fall in even breaths, becoming less and less resistant to the call of sleep as time went by. It was the most relaxed he felt in months.
There was no threat to him, no Mafia to hunt him down or players he had to hide from. Distantly, in the fleeting moment before falling unconscious, Mapicc hoped that Spoke felt as safe as he did.