Chapter Text
One thing about Coy Piso is that he got terrible nightmares that would leave him awake for days, and another thing about Coy Piso is that only one person knew this, and that person wasn't his best friend, Hanbon, nor was it one of his family members. In fact, it was the person most people would least expect. Anthony Potero. And it was completely by accident.
It all started when Coy moved into the bunch of friends' apartment after couch surfing for 6 months. Coy had, let's say, a complicated past. His parents weren't the best people to exist. And his sisters didn't help. But we're not going to get into that. With all these childhood issues, Coy has nightmares. Still. As a 22 year old man. And they were really bad, so bad in fact that one night in June, when the air wasn't too hot but was very humid, Coy had a really bad nightmare.
The way their apartment was laid out put Coy and Anthony's rooms directly next to each other, with only a thin wall separating them. So when Coy let out an embarrassingly high pitched whine as he woke up, he then started sobbing- quietly but not quiet enough for how thin the wall was. The next moment, Coy heard a quiet knock on his door. When Anthony heard nothing, he just walked in and sat next to Coy. They stayed like that. Silent. For almost an hour, when Coy finally looked at him, Anthony simply looked back—no judgment in his eyes. The next thing he asked, Coy remembers this very vividly. “Do you want to talk about it, just for me to stay, or do you want me to leave?” The next thing Coy said, which he didn't know at the time would be very important “Stay, please,” Coy muttered pathetically. “Okay,” Anthony opens his arms, and without hesitating, Coy puts himself in them.
That kind of became a routine. Anthony was already an extremely light sleeper, so whenever he heard coy crying or waking up, he got up and walked into his room. After a while of this, he even stopped knocking and would just walk in. Anthony would give a few options because Coy never knew what he needed when he was like this. He would give four or five choices, and if Coy seemed overwhelmed, he would limit the choices to three.
In those options, there would always be one for Anthony to leave. Not once did Coy pick that one.
This was one of those nights. It was Monday at 2:46 am when Anthony awoke to soft sobbing from beside him (he had moved his bed closer to the wall so he could hear more). It was basically instinct to get up and walk the familiar route to Coy's room. When
He gets to the door, he doesn't bother knocking, and he just walks in. he sees the familiar figure of Coy hunched over himself.
“Coy,” Anthony calls over softly, making Coy look up as Anthony walks over.
“Hey, breathe and look at me, please.”
Anthony walks coy through some breathing exercises until he calms down, then asks him.
“Do you want to talk, watch a movie, or for me to leave? “
“Movie…”
Anthony grabs Coys' computer, logs on, and opens Mockingjay. He and Coy are slowly watching all the Hunger Games movies because Coy loves them, and Anthony mentioned that he's never seen them.
About 30 minutes into the movie, Anthony notices that Coy is shivering. Anthony takes
Off his hoodie and hands it to coy whos very confused.
“You're cold, take it”
“Anthony, I can't just take your sweater”
“Do I need to put it on for you?”
Coy rolls his eyes and throws it on. It's huge on him, but Anthony thinks he looks quite cute.
After the movie is over, they both fall asleep peacefully.
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Monday at 9:46 am
Coy wakes slowly with Anthony's arms wrapped around him
“Hi”
“Hi”
Coys groans, “I don't want to move today”
“Cmon princess, up”
Anthony all but pushes Coy off the bed while staying on it himself.
“You’re a dick, you know that, right?” Coy says, half annoyed, half laughing
“Mhm,” Anthony groans, already half back asleep.
With no warning, Coy grabs his ankles and actually yanks him off the bed
“Ow, Coy, that was not very nice you should apologize,” Anthony mocks jokingly while Coy starts making the bed.
“Okay, you should head back to your room,” Coy says, shifting the energy in the room.
“Im sure Will and Bon are already in the kitchen, so while you go to eat ill sneak back”
“Im not eating anthony”
“Yes, you are”
“No im not”
“Yes, you are coy”
“No, I am not Anthony”
“Not your choice you are. Go before I cook for you”
“You can't cook”
“Exactly”
“Fine, whatever,” Coy mutters as he leaves his room and walks to the kitchen, where Will is already sitting, his huge bonnet on his head, nursing a bowl of cereal while on his phone.
“Morning will”
“Good mornin-” Will stops mid sentence “Is that Anthony's hoodie?”
Coy looks down and mentally beats himself up. He didn't think to change before he left his room, because he's not normally wearing Ants' fucking hoodie…
Coy's taken a long time to respond, and Will still doesn't have an answer, so Coy let out a lame little “yeah”
Will waits for a beat, expecting more, and when Coy doesn't say anymore, he prompts.
“...why?”
“Uh, man, you know it's cold and all of my sweaters were dirty, so I, uh I asked Anthony if i could borrow one of his sweaters and he said yes so like he gave me this, and I, uh, took it so thats why yeah thats why yknow?” coy studdered though that lamely and he internally winced at his own lameness.
“… ok…?” It was very obvious that Will did not believe him at all but was willing to drop it, and for that, Coy was eternally grateful for that.
As Coy turned to get his own breakfast, he saw Will's confused face, going back to his phone.
—----------------------------------------------------------
Tuesday at 1:51 am
It was almost 2 in the morning when Anthony heard the telltale sign of coy getting up and curling up on the floor. His bedframe bonking the wall very lightly, Anthony still doesn't understand how he's conditioned himself to wake up to that, and Coy has no clue how Anthony can hear when he gets up (he thinks it's creepy)
It's practically muscle memory to walk to Coys' room, so Anthony finds himself standing in the door frame before he even wills himself to get up. The scene before him is worse than it normally is- worse then hes ever seen it.
See, normally, Coy is curled up with his knees to his head, sometimes he's shaking slightly, sometimes he's still, but still moving. It's easy to break him out of that state after some practice. But right now, Coy is lying on his back on the floor staring straight up, and Anthony swears Coy's not moving…
“Coy…?”
“....”
Anthony has never seen him like this before, so he does what he did that very first night. Just be there. Anthony gets down on the floor beside Coy and lies down. They stay like that for so long that Anthony thinks Coy fell asleep; however coys eyes are still open.
Anthony realizes that for this, he can't just be there, he sits up and contemplates what he should do. He looks over at the clock and sees it's almost 3 am. He slowly reaches out and very lightly places his hand in Coy's. He doesn't make a move to grab it, yet he just simply lets his hand sit on top.
Even with the lightest touch ever, Coy slightly flinches, Anthony almost pulls his hand back himself but he forces himself to keep his hand there.
Finally, after about 5 minutes anthony goes to make another move. And ever so slowly and ever so gently lifts Coy into his lap. Coy starts flailing around trying to get out, but Anthony holds him tight. Once coy reconizes anthonys scent, he finally calms down and falls asleep.
At what is now 4 i.n the morning anthony remakes Coy's bed and lays him down in it. Normally, he would join Coy in bed, but he has a meeting in the morning, and he wants Coy to get some rest. So, without being too sneaky about it (because no one's up at 4 in the morning), he walks back to his own room and tries to get a few hours of sleep
Little did Anthony know, somebody was, in fact, up at 4 in the morning, and that someone just saw him come out of Coy's room with his hair all messy. And that person was not happy.