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Derek jolted up, the panic of the nightmare slowly fading as he remembered where he was. It was stupid, how a night he couldn't even remember when he woke up made his heart race so badly he felt like he'd run a marathon.
He never knew what was up with the dreams, he couldn't remember what happened in them, but a part of him always felt like it was the same dream over and over.
Avery. That's the only thing he remembered of the dream he'd just had, Avery had played some part in it. What exactly? Derek had no idea.
He was brought out of his thoughts by the feelings of crumbs on his bed, he never let himself eat on his bed, he could feel the annoyance bubbling up inside him, he swore he hadn't brought any food into his room recently and its not like he invited many people over, let alone let them eat in his roo- oh. Right. He had Avery over yesterday. He had asked if he could eat something while they studied 'cause he was hungry, and Derek could never bring himself to say no to Avery when he looked at him pleadingly.
Derek glanced at the time on his phone screen, it was nearly four in the morning, no wonder it was so quiet.
Although it was kind of always loud in the city, when he'd first moved here it'd been hard to focus on anything with how many different sounds there were, and now it's harder to imagine sleeping without it. God he missed his childhood home, it's been awhile since he's visited, he thinks Avery would love it, it really was beautiful.
He has got to stop thinking about Avery. It feels like he's taken over his thoughts, with how much everything reminds him of the man, a cute looking Cafe? He should visit with Avery, a Minecraft slime block pin? reminds him of Avery. An energy drink with so much caffeine you'd think they were trying to kill someone? Avery.
Actually, for once, thinking of Avery might be a good thing, if anyone's awake at a time like this, its him, and with the amount of times Avery's woken him up in the middle of the night to ask a question he can absolutely google the answer to, he deserves a little payback. (For as much as he complains about Avery's midnight texting, he hopes he never stops, and it being called 'payback' despite it just being him wanting to see Avery? well, it's a pretty good excuse.)
Derek gets out of bed, taking his blanket with him around his shoulders and throws on the stupid looking hedgehog slippers Avery gave him (He'll never admit to finding them adorable.) and shuffles to Avery's door, thank god they're basically next to each other, and no one has to see him walking around at four in the morning with the posture of a cartoon villain.
The shifts as he raises his hand to knock, the only other sound being his shaky breaths, the fear of the nightmares always took awhile to fade. He hears Avery's quick footsteps to the door and has to squint to adjust his eyes to bright light of Avery's room as the door swings open.
"Derek!" Avery smiles brightly his voice is just a little to loud for the quiet of the hallway. Derek sees the smile drop a little as he looks Derek over. "Are you.. alright?"
"Nightmare." Is the only answer he gives, sometimes, when everything is a little too much, Derek finds he can't speak like he usually does, it feels like he has to force the words out of his mouth. When that happens, his words are short and direct and people take it as him being annoyed with them. It's always a horrible feeling, not being able to explain himself to people, opening his mouth only for the words he wants to say to not come out.
"Alright, wanna come in? I was about to go to bed anyway." Avery completely ignores the clipped reply, he knows that this just happens sometimes and has learned to just accept it. This is why he loves Avery.
Derek walks in without responding, Avery's room always looks cluttered no matter how clean it is. Derek keeps his room clean and decorates mostly with fake plants and trinkets that match the red and gold colour scheme he has going on, but Avery's is a mess of colour shelves with so many trinkets he's surprised they haven't broke yet. (If a lot of these trinkets are Derek's fault, he takes no responsibility for it, it's not his fault they were all just so Avery.)
Avery's bed is messy but Derek finds he doesn't care for once, and just collapses onto the bed, he feels himself sink into the mattress, and immediately his shoulders lose their tension, he rests his head on one of Avery's many pillows, it feels like a cloud to his way too tired to think brain, he can already feel himself slipping away as it gets harder and harder to open his eyes after he blinks.
"Oh! Um, alright I'll join you in a sec, I just need to turn off.." He can hear Avery muttering to himself but can't be bothered to actually listen to what he's saying. A moment later, he feels the bed sink as another person gets in and immediately wraps his arms around Avery, shame be dammed, Avery is so nice to hold, he's like a furnace with how warm he is. The hot to Derek's cold. He thinks the last thing he hears before he finally closes his eyes is his name and a small "Goodnight." which he tries to say back.
Avery hears Derek's mumbled 'goodnight' before he's dead weight on top of Avery. And Avery is so very normal and calm and collected as he lays there with Derek on top of him and totally does not spend the next hour thinking about it. Nope. Nu-uh. Not at all.