Chapter Text
The apartment was quiet, the kind of quiet that was typical for these nights. Sure, the evenings always started off loud and chaotic, filled with bickering, laughter and conversation. But later in the night, the noise would always fade to this familiar, comforting quiet, with just the sounds of the city outside and the low drone of the credit music playing from the TV.
The three lay scattered around the living room, Nathan and Adam tangled on the couch, and Asher sprawled sideways on the armchair. None of them seemed inclined to break the quiet that had fallen, almost perfectly content to fall asleep where they were. Reluctantly though, Nathan spoke up, “it’s getting late,” was all they said, clearly unwilling to add more.
Adam broke the quiet, much less carefully, scoffing gently “Oh, don’t act like the two of you aren’t sleeping over, moron,” his hand running softly through Nathan’s hair as he did. Seeing the two be so open with their relationship in front of them still made Asher so incredibly happy. They both had dealt with a lot in the process of getting together, and it was nice seeing how comfortable they got to be now that most of that was past.
“Deciding that for us, are you Ad,” Asher muttered after a slight pause, fondness sparking in their chest over their friend’s softness poorly disguised by a prickly tone.
“If you want to treck across half the city while you’re practically asleep, you’re an idiot. I’m not gonna let either of you get yourselves in trouble trying to do that.”
Nathan huffed in amusement at the two’s exchange, reaching for their phone as they spoke to inform his brothers of the change in plans. Expectedly, about 10 seconds after sending the text, his phone was ringing, the caller ID showing their eldest brother’s name. Well, technically both his siblings were twins, but Axel was always reminding people he was technically older.
The other two’s conversation fell quiet as the ringing continued, and Nathan groaned tiredly as he answered the call, untangling himself from Adam to stand and leave the room.
“Hey, Axel.” There was a slight pause as the person on the other end of the line responded. “Yes, I’m fine, the movie just went later than expected so Ash and I are staying over. God, you two need to relax before you start going grey early.” Nathan replied exasperatedly before heading inside Adam’s bedroom and closing the door behind him, the phone call then becoming too muffled to properly make out. Asher turned their attention back to Adam, seeing him standing from the couch and stretching in an attempt to wake himself up.
“Right then, can you clean up this mess while I grab you some clothes,” Adam asked gesturing to the coffee table covered in takeout boxes and cups from earlier in the night.
“Yeah, sure,” Asher sighed, reluctantly dragging themselves off the armchair as Adam headed down the hallway.
As Asher set about gathering the takeout boxes, their thoughts drifted to the events of the day just passed. They were currently in the break between high school graduation and the start of college, so most of their days consisted of either laying around their house, or visiting their older friends at their apartments. Not that they had a whole lot of friends to visit, but still, they had enough.
They started smiling at the thought of the person they had spent almost the whole day on the phone with, but before they could get lost in their thoughts further, they were interrupted by Adam returning and choosing to throw the shirt he had retrieved directly at their head.
“Stop smiling like an idiot and go shower already. And don’t take too long, I have to pay for that hot water you’re using you know!” Adam huffed, handing them the rest of the clothes in a much calmer manner than the shirt.
“Yes, mom,” Asher drawled sarcastically as they pulled the shirt off their head and accepting the other clothes offered, hearing Adam sigh irritatedly at their comment. Heading down the hall, they could faintly hear the one-sided conversation from Nathan’s phone call, and was amused hearing them attempt to assure his brothers everything was fine. The three siblings had had only each other for quite a while, and it was almost cute how overprotective they all were of each other. Though, I guess the protectiveness is warranted in most cases with how much of a trouble magnet Nathan somehow managed be.
Upon entering the bathroom, Asher chucked the clothes on the counter, and immediately turned on the water, knowing it took a couple minutes to heat up. As they turned and pulled their shirt off, there were momentarily distracted by the twin scars on their chest from the surgery earlier in the year. It still caught them off guard sometimes, to see their bare skin under a shirt, instead of another layer, but it made them so incredibly happy to have one less problem to deal with.
After finishing with their shower, putting the borrowed clothes on and brushing their teeth, Asher made their way back to the living room. As they did, they pulled their phone out to send a quick text to their family group chat letting them know where they’d be that night. They ran into Nathan and Adam in the living room, the two likely having been finishing up the cleaning process.
"Hey, I'm done in the bathroom now if you two want to clean up," they said, flopping down on the couch, still slightly distracted on their phone.
“Thanks, you can head straight to the spare room if you want, it's still set up from last time you were here," Adam told them in reply, "Nate and I will probably go to bed right after we shower."
"Well don't have too much fun together while I'm here," Asher chuckled, smirking while still looking down at their phone.
“You could always join us if you want, pretty. Or does Karl not like to share?” Nathan fired back, following Adam down the hall. Asher huffed in amusement before their attention was drawn back to their phone as it pinged again with more messages from their family. They seemed to have moved away from asking Asher questions, and instead their sister was complaining about something from earlier that day. They smiled seeing their dads' replies before closing out of the chat, deciding to get set up in the spare room.
When they entered, the room seemed exactly how they left it after staying over a few nights ago. They flicked the lamp on and got settled under the covers, opening the recent news to check if they had missed anything important. It didn’t seem like anything major had happened that afternoon, the news just covering basic messages , so they switched to checking social medias for any important, non-news worthy events. Once again, there didn’t seem to be anything particularly noteworthy, a few super sightings as usual, Ether and Oracle in particular being seen in parts of town, but not much else.
Satisfied, Asher went to close out of the app, planning on going to sleep, when a notification popped up at the top of their screen. Smiling when they saw who it was from, they quickly clicked on the notification, their chat with Karl opening on the screen.
Karl: Hey baby, you still awake?
Asher felt their smile grow wider reading the message, and quickly started typing a reply.
Ash: Yeah, Im awake
Was just about to go to sleep :P
Karl: Oh, well don’t let me keep you up <3
I hope you had fun with Nathan and Adam
Ash: I’d let you keep me up any night ;)
It was really fun, we had a movie marathon
And ate takeout
They giggled softly at the messages, waiting for their boyfriend’s reply to come through.
Karl: Oh, I know you would
I’m glad you had a good night though
Ash: What'd about you?
Do anything fun tonight?
Asher rolled over in bed, turning to face the wall as they typed, stifling a yawn as they did.
Karl: Not really, just hung out with Caleb a little
Nothing interesting though
They rolled their eyes fondly, their boyfriend’s minimal explanations nothing new to them.
Ash: Sounds thrilling.
Karl: Oh, be quiet
Asher snorted, watching the text bubble show up again.
Karl: It’s late, you you should go to bed, babe
I’ll talk to you tomorrow, okay
Love you <3 <3 <3
Ash: Okay, goodnight, love you too
<3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3
They kept staring at the chat for a second, smiling at it before a yawn broke through the expression. Rolling back over, Asher set a quick alarm for the next morning, before reaching for the charger on the nightstand. Once their phone was situated, they settled back under the covers, tiredness quickly creeping over them, reminding them of the late hour, and they felt themselves slipping away into sleep, a smile still on their face from the messages with their boyfriend.