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Kinich doesn’t always get to come home to sleep. More often than not, he’s somewhere out in the wilds, or in a cave, or nestled atop a tree, to be awakened either by Ajaw’s little punches or the incredibly distinct feeling of a Yumkasaur licking at his face. But, sometimes, he does get to retire to the somewhat cozy corner of his tribe’s territory where his house is.
In the beginning, Kinich and Ajaw did not sleep in the same bed, nor in the same room. These were the days when Kinich still had a bed, anyway.
Ajaw would be confined to the wristband for the night, and Kinich would try to get a good night’s sleep despite his tendency to either make noise from within it, or somehow break through the bonds entirely to bust out and start bothering him. After that, he started putting it into a side room, and locking the door.
But, something became clear quickly: neither of them were getting sleep like this. Kinich practically slept with one eye open, afraid that the wristband not being close by meant that it was at risk of being stolen- in those days, he was seriously afraid of the Saurian Relics Association trying to take it for themselves despite his refusals, though he doesn’t quite remember that nowadays- and on Ajaw’s end, being in the wristband was one thing, but stuck in a dark, cramped room was another!
So, they made a deal. Kinich dragged a chair from his living room-slash-kitchen-slash-everything-else into his bedroom, shoved a pillow onto it, and then put the wristband there. “You sleep here,” he does remember explaining it to him like he was a toddler. “If you come out of the wristband, you sleep on this pillow.” Ajaw grumbled something about how this treatment was so unbelievably below his station, and Kinich ignored him.
Something still wasn’t right though. Kinich would find himself laying on his side, facing the wristband, as if waiting for Ajaw to pop out. One time, he did spot him there, curled around the very device that cages him almost protectively. But otherwise, he remained fast asleep inside of his prison.
…This bed is big enough for two, actually. So it’d be a waste if it was just…
That’s how Kinich justified letting Ajaw sleep in his bed. Their bed, it now was. Kinich had his side, Ajaw had his side, it was going to be fine. He faced one way, and Ajaw… uh… faced the ceiling. On the condition that Ajaw did not bother him and let him sleep, he could stay out of the wristband, and in the bed. Easy enough, right?
And it was easy. It was so, so easy, in fact, that the first one to mess it up was not Ajaw, but rather, Kinich! Ajaw first assumed he was mad at him for something when he suddenly felt Kinich grab onto his tail, and drag him over, but to his shock he had simply… held onto him. No matter how much he squirmed, or said his name, Kinich didn’t do so much as stir all night, and when Ajaw woke up the next morning, Kinich had already left the bed. They did not talk about it.
A few more incidents later, and a near-death experience to boot, and they did, finally talk about it. A few days later, and after hesitating for an entire hour, Kinich had wrapped his arms around Ajaw, and they fell asleep like that.
Nowadays, they don’t even have a bed.
Ajaw’s true form was remarkably heavy, and had crushed it. The night that happened, Kinich slept on top of him, far too exhausted to move or care about his broken bed. Ajaw was incredibly warm, and right within the grasp of his claws was where Kinich found he felt the safest, so it truly wasn’t a problem, anyway.
Their “temporary” solution became the permanent one, albeit refined over time to what it is nowadays:
In the center of his bedroom, on the floor, was an entire heap of blankets, surrounded in a circle by pillows. All taken from various places and various stores, some taken from dumps and fixed up, and a few that Kinich even made himself.
At first, it was a matter of convenience. Replacing his bed in its entirety was going to be expensive. Getting it to his house, secluded, that he barely is in, was going to be a hassle. The easy solution was just to go without, entirely. Enough blankets to make up for a mattress, pillows for an outline, it was good enough. It was also much, much easier to just flop into and pass out the second he hits the floor, which, to be honest, under most conditions where he's returning home, is exactly what he's going to do.
But it was so comfortable that he found both him and Ajaw were sleeping a lot better, so it surely had its perks.
There was once a day where Ifa came over to pick up a baby Saurian Kinich had been caring for since then (poor thing's leg was busted, so it was staying in his room, in his bed) and Ifa had told him that he made a supremely comfortable nest for the little guy. Kinich was far too embarrassed to correct him, but never really stopped thinking about it.
Of course, the current state of their bed was mostly Ajaw's idea. And he seemed the most ecstatic about it. Kinich thought it was because his true form could fit inside comfortably, but with that…
Huh. He tricked me into making him a nest.
Not that he's complaining. If he's to sleep in a dragon nest, then he's happy to. He's slept in actual saurian nests- empty ones- out in the wild sometimes, and they were extremely comfortable. More comfortable than his old bed, even…
Maybe it was his fate to end up like this. Sleeping in a dragon's nest, with that very dragon cuddled against his chest. Feeling each other's heartbeat throughout the night.
He can't imagine sleeping alone anymore.