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"You're still asleep, aren't you?" Aiden murmured into the quiet, his voice rough with the last dregs of sleep. He didn't expect an answer, James had always been the kind of person who could sleep through a demolition crew, but he grinned when James let out a soft, protesting grunt and burrowed deeper into the blankets.
The morning light filtered through the blinds in uneven stripes, painting pale gold across the rumpled sheets. Aiden stretched lazily, his toes brushing against James’ shin beneath the covers. The room smelled faintly of laundry detergent and the lingering warmth of shared sleep, nothing poetic, just the ordinary, comfortable kind of scent that made mornings feel like they belonged to them.
James made another noise, this time something vaguely coherent. "Too early," he muttered, voice muffled by the pillow he'd half-smothered himself with.
"It's nine-thirty," Aiden said, nudging him with an elbow.
"Exactly."
Aiden chuckled, rolling onto his side to face James properly. The blanket shifted between them, revealing the dip of James’ shoulder where his t-shirt had slipped down. Aiden hooked a finger into the fabric, tugging it back up just to watch it slide down again. "You’re ridiculous," he said, but his voice was warm, fond in a way that made James finally crack one eye open.
"Ridiculous is waking up before noon on a Saturday," James countered, but he didn’t pull away when Aiden slid an arm around his waist, dragging him closer. Instead, he let out a long sigh and pressed his forehead against Aiden’s collarbone, his breath warm through the thin cotton of Aiden’s shirt.
Outside, the world was already awake, cars passing by, someone laughing loudly on the sidewalk below, but here, tangled together under the weight of blankets, it was easy to pretend time had stalled just for them. Aiden traced idle patterns against James’ back, feeling the rise and fall of his breathing. "Remember that diner we went to last month?" he asked suddenly. "The one with the waffles you wouldn’t stop talking about?"
James groaned, but it was half-hearted. "Don’t," he said. "I can’t handle food thoughts before coffee."
Aiden grinned. "Too late. Now you’re thinking about syrup." He felt James’ huff of laughter against his skin, the way his fingers curled loosely into the fabric of Aiden’s shirt. It was stupid, this quiet happiness, the kind that settled in his ribs like sunlight. "Plus you wanna do your tiktok dances and stuff, don't you?"
James exhaled dramatically, though his lips twitched against Aiden's shoulder. "Those aren't dances," he corrected, voice still thick with sleep. "They're performance art."
Aiden snorted. "Performance art that involves you flailing to Taylor Swift in pajama pants at seven in the evening."
"Flailing implies lack of control," James countered, shifting just enough to prop himself up on one elbow. His hair was a disaster, sticking up in three different directions, and Aiden reached out to smooth it down absently, only for it to spring back defiantly. "I'm expressive. There's a difference."
Aiden hummed, unconvinced, but he didn't argue, partly because James had a point, then Aiden said, "yea, Twerking is totally performance art."
James laughed, a full-bodied sound that shook the bed slightly, and Aiden felt it reverberate through his own chest where they were pressed together. "Twerking," James repeated, grinning, "is absolutely performance art. It's about the statement." He wiggled his eyebrows, and Aiden rolled his eyes, but he was grinning too, the kind of grin that made his cheeks ache.
Outside, the city hummed,engines, footsteps, snippets of conversation drifting up through the window, but inside, the world had narrowed to the two of them, to the shared warmth under the blankets and the way James’ thumb absently traced circles against Aiden’s hip. Aiden let his fingers card through James’ hair again, just to feel the way it resisted, stubborn as its owner. "You’re ridiculous," he said, but the words came out soft, fond, like they always did when he was looking at James.
"Yea, but I'm your ridiculous man, forever."