Work Text:
It's a testament to how used to being in a team Jude's gotten that he doesn't even flinch when he hears footsteps at the entrance of his base. Used to being in a team with Sharpness specifically, anyway, what with him being a homeless freeloader who basically lives with Jude now.
Sharpness moves through the front of the base, humming something horrifically off-key, and Jude groans, sinking deeper into the sofa he's half laid out on. There are times he wishes his hearing was less sharp—ha, sharp—and he didn't have to deal with the sounds of people shuffling or fidgeting or generally existing too loudly, even though they're largely outweighed by the sheer usefulness of being able to sense someone from a hundred blocks away.
Still humming, Sharpness shuffles through a few chests—Jude's chests, undoubtedly—before making his way further in. Finally, he pushes open the door to Jude's workroom, taking a few steps in before coming to a stop.
"Jude?"
Jude fights the urge to duck his head further into the cushions. He doesn't respond.
"Dude, I can literally see you. What are you even doing in here?"
Jude does not have the energy to deal with Sharpness's idiocy right now. "You mean in my room in my base that you just barged into?"
"Well—yeah, but more like what are you doing laying on the couch in, uh, your trapping room."
"Oh, god forbid a guy relax a bit, right?" Jude's aware that he's being snippier than usual, especially compared to how he usually is with Sharpness, but he's tired. It's been two days and his new trap still just won't work.
He hears Sharp move a bit closer, coming to a stop just a few blocks away from the couch Jude's still sprawled across. "No, just that, like, I know you and this is pretty out of character." He coughs. "Shouldn't you be, I dunno, working on a trap? Or, like, out there bullying people?"
Jude closes his eyes to try to block out Sharpness's general… everything—again, he really can not deal with it right now—which is probably why he misses Sharp's next few steps.
When he blinks his eyes open again, Sharpness’s upside-down face fills his vision. His eyes are big and green and far too close to Jude's own.
"Wh—"
"Just checking to make sure you didn’t sink into the couch and die or anything." He straightens again, disappearing from Jude's view, but the next moment a hand drops onto Jude's head and he stiffens. Sharpness freezes, too.
When Jude doesn't move or respond further, he carefully runs his fingers through Jude's hair, nails scratching against his scalp and fingers bumping up against his ears. It feels… surprisingly nice. Slowly, Jude relaxes, eyes closing again, before he realizes what he's doing.
He jerks up slightly, and Sharpness immediately withdraws his hand. When Jude finally turns to face him fully, he seems embarrassed, cheeks redder than usual. Which—yeah. They're teammates now, sure, but it's a partnership built on mutual benefit, not, like… friendship. Or anything.
Jude ignores the way that thought makes his chest pang a bit weirdly.
He sighs. "Are you just going to keep standing there, or do you want to, like, sit down?" Normally, he'd probably have something smarter to say, ready to tease Sharpness for his uncharacteristic behavior, but he's running on single-digit hours of sleep in the past some number of days and also feeling very off-balance all of a sudden.
"Uh. Right." Jude drops his head back down as Sharpness walks around the side of the couch and hovers awkwardly for a moment before sitting down, and—oh. The sofa really isn't very big, and Jude is flopped across the middle. When Sharpness joins him, they end up practically shoulder-to-shoulder. Or whatever the equivalent of that is when Sharp's upright and Jude's mostly horizontal.
Jude feels the cushions move as Sharp wiggles around a bit before settling in fully. He's far too close; Jude can feel his presence in a way that's somehow so much more intimate than the usual awareness he has when Sharp's in the same room. He can literally hear his breaths.
They really don't do anything like this, because they're teammates and they're basically cohabiting now, what with Sharpness's lack of a base, but that hardly necessitates, like. Sharing a couch and… talking? What are they even doing? Why did he invite Sharpness to sit down in the first place? He's growing increasingly aware of the silence enveloping the room now, as well as of the way Sharpness is tugging nervously at his own fingers.
Finally, Sharpness caves, breaking their impromptu mutual staring contests with the wall and ceiling respectively. "You seem really out of it." Wow. Thanks for that.
"What gave it away?" Jude mutters.
"You're being a lot less insufferable than usual."
Jude tilts his head back to glare at Sharpness, then winces at the strain on his neck and the way it squishes his ears. He flops back down, debating whether he should dignify that with a response. On one hand, he kind of wants to rant; on the other, he's not sure he wants to talk at all, especially given he's pretty sure Sharpness won't understand a word of what he says.
After a few moments too long, he responds, "You're so fucking stupid."
"See! Proving my point. That was such a lame comeback, dude."
"I'd like to see you try and come up with something better on, like, four hours of sleep," Jude scowls. He didn't mean to say that, but Sharpness always manages to rile him up somehow.
"Today?"
It takes Jude a moment to register what Sharpness is asking, and another moment to figure out how to reply.
"No?" It comes out as a question. Jude wants out of this conversation already.
"Oh." The cushions shift again and Sharpness's face reappears in Jude's field of view as he leans over, gaze assessing. "Yeah, no wonder you look like shit then."
Jude rolls his eyes. "Worried about me, Sharp?"
"I need you awake and coherent to build traps for me, obviously." Sharpness leans back again. Jude kind of misses the proximity. He banishes that thought—must be the sleep deprivation talking.
"Yeah, well, that's not going so well. The coherency or the traps." And he didn't mean to say that, either. Maybe he should get some sleep.
"Believe me, I can tell." Jude feels Sharpness move to do something, and then there's a hand on his head again, patting him consolingly. It's probably meant to be patronizing, but it feels just as good as it had a few minutes ago. He leans into it unconsciously, fully slumping down into the couch and letting his eyes fall shut again.
He feels Sharp freeze for a moment before his hand starts moving again, sinking back into Jude's hair. Jude's aware his hair is definitely a mess right now—he'd taken a quick shower earlier but hadn't bothered fully drying it, and Sharp's fingers catch on some of the knots.
Still, it's not enough of a jolt to take Jude out of the half-asleep haze he's drifted into, especially when Sharp just brings his other hand up to carefully untangle the snags. Distantly, Jude's aware that he really shouldn't be falling asleep like this with his enemy-turned-convenient and definitely temporary teammate, but. Actually, he can't even remember why it'd be a bad idea, not when Sharpness's fingers find the base of his ears and smooth through the strands there.
Jude is gone. The last thing he registers before he falls asleep fully is that he's fucking purring.
Jude blinks back to awareness slowly, disoriented. His neck aches something awful and the ceiling looks different from usual.
He's still on the couch in his workroom, except the blanket thrown over him is definitely from his bed and—
Oh. Jude shoves his head back into the cushions, ignoring the very literal pain in his neck, and tries not to scream. Sharpness had been here. And Jude had fallen asleep on him. Or, more accurately, next to him, with his hands in Jude's hair, which is quite possibly worse.
Except Jude had the excuse of being half-delirious with frustration and a lack of sleep and Sharpness did not. And Sharpness had been the one who'd initiated it. Slowly, Jude extricates himself from the couch, a small smile forming on his face before he can stop it.
His eyes catch on the half-finished blueprints still sitting on his desk, and his smile grows into a full-on grin. Right. His teammate can wait; he has a trap to finish first. And then…
"JUDE! YOU FUCKING BITCH! STOP FUCKING TRAPPING ME, ASSHOLE!"