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A'tean is warm when he wakes up.
He wakes calmly, slowly, with a small hum and a content sigh at the feeling of So'lek at his back, his hand pressed to his chest and his breath soft on the back of his neck. Their kurus are still linked together, so they must not have moved much in the night.
Which means A'tean slept the entire night, wrapped up in So'lek's arms, and woke with the sun streaming in through the open entrance to So'lek's camp.
It's so ordinary, a perfectly normal way to begin his day—which is what makes it so unexpected.
A'tean has had nightmares for as long as he can remember. Of the moot, of TAP, of his missions, of things that haven't even happened but could, possibly, rational or irrational. They've lessened after defecting, but he still has them more often than not, and sleeping in an unfamiliar place always makes them worse. Even if it's somewhere he's spent a lot of time while awake, like So'lek's camp.
It's why he and So'lek started making the bond before they went to sleep. Being able to directly feel So'lek so at ease not only helps him with the nightmares, but helps him fall asleep in the first place. It's not traditional, making the bond like this before you've mated, but A'tean isn't really one for tradition, and So'lek is willing to overlook it if it helps A'tean.
And clearly it must, if he went a whole night without a nightmare in So'lek's hammock.
He shifts lightly, wiggling his fingers where they've gone numb from being tucked under him.
So'lek's arm suddenly tightens around his waist at the movement, making sure he can't move away.
A'tean feels his concern through the bond. Wondering how he slept, if he had a nightmare, if he wants to leave—
Oh.
Does he want to leave?
So'lek's hand presses firmer against his chest at the thought.
He usually leaves after he has a nightmare. Sometimes it's a quick flight and he comes back with food for breakfast, but sometimes he needs more space and doesn't see So'lek again until later in the day.
But he didn't have a nightmare—So'lek relaxes slightly at the thought—and he's so warm, so comfortable with So'lek curled around him like this. He doesn't want to leave.
He doesn't have to intentionally push these thoughts down the bond, So'lek just feels them with him, simultaneously. He purrs into A'tean's hair, mumbling, "Then stay, yawne. Stay with me today."
A'tean sees his plans for the day in his head.
Going back to sleep if A'tean can manage it. Waking up lazily later, still tangled together. Flying together, maybe to A'tean's favorite lake. So'lek working on his carving while A'tean swims. Visiting Tamtey, maybe, if he's not busy. Coming back when the sun is setting to bathe, So'lek washing and rebraiding A'tean's hair. But maybe doing the braiding tomorrow, so he can run his hands through long, soft curls when they go to bed, a rare treat. Doing each other's paint and letting their hands wander until it's no longer innocent touches, smudging each other's paint into a murky rainbow when they're too impatient to wait—
A'tean turns around to face So'lek, winding his arms around his shoulders and letting So'lek tuck his face into the junction of his shoulder and neck.
"Okay," he breathes, content. He hums when So'lek presses a kiss to his collarbone, right over where his tanhì shines in the dark. "M'not leaving."
A purr kicks up in So'lek's chest.
They lounge in the hammock for the next few hours, falling in and out of sleep naturally. A'tean is calm, held, and he knows that this is progress—even if he wakes from a nightmare tomorrow tense with the urge to flee and has to wake So'lek with a kiss as he goes, this is progress.
So'lek kisses his collarbone again, and A'tean feels his mental words of comfort as if they were his own thoughts.
Even if it is so, I will be here when you come back. Whether you leave or you stay I will not hold this against you.
A'tean holds him tighter.