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Lucy was starting to get bored of her phone, which is how she knew it had been awhile.
Despite all the protests, Lucy had made it a habit that if Tim got off of work before she did, she waited up for him in bed. She wanted to fall asleep with him instead of making Tim tiptoe around every night, trying (and failing) not to wake her.
She would never regret asking smitty to assure Tim’s spot in metro, but damn it, sometimes she had the sleep schedule of a grandma. Despite that, when she heard the jingling of Tim’s keys and the shut of a door, she immediately sat up a bit in bed and tried to look like she wasn’t halfway to falling asleep.
Unfortunately for her, Tim could absolutely read her like a book. He took one step into the bedroom and stopped, fixing Lucy with a partially exasperated look.
“Lucy, I’ve told you that you don’t need to wait up for me. It’s nearly midnight.” He said, leaning on the doorframe and crossing his arms.
She only raised her eyebrows. “And I told you that I don’t mind staying up.” She matched his tone, eliciting a sigh from Tim.
“But I do. It makes me feel..” he searched for words as he entered the bedroom fully, putting his bag down. “..guilty, I guess. Seeing you all half asleep.”
“But it’s also super cute, right?” Lucy teased, striking a little pose.
Tim rolled his eyes, but there was a slight smile as he rounded to her side of the bed and leaned down. “Mm, very cute.” He said, sliding a hand to the side of her face to keep her steady as he gave her a quick kiss. “I still feel bad about it, though.” He muttered as he pulled away.
They continued light conversation as Tim changed, swapping his metro uniform for just a pair of sweatpants. Lucy finally decided to plug her phone in to charge and get ready to actually lay down, which her body was seriously craving.
“Admit it, you like coming home to me awake so we can fall asleep together.” Lucy said smugly.
“I just like coming home to you in general.” Tim said smoothly, finally getting into bed and practically crawling into Lucy’s arms.
“Aw, you softie.” Lucy smiled, hands finding their usual spots in his hair and on his back between his shoulder blades. She could feel Tim’s breath on her neck, already slow and calm as he winded down from a long day.
It usually took Tim a minute to fall asleep even if he was dead on his feet. It was a side effect of being in the military, Lucy figured. Another side effect she noticed though..
“Jesus Tim, I can feel how tense you are.” Lucy said, concern lacing into her tone as her hand moved up and down his back, feeling the obviously tight muscles.
“Mm, just give it a minute. It’ll go away.” He murmured, seemingly unbothered.
“You should go to a chiropractor. I know a pretty good one.” She said, leaning her head back as Tim lifted his up to glance at her.
“Are you calling me old?” He asked flatly.
Lucy scoffed in amusement. “No, I’m being serious.”
His head lowered again as he hummed in thought. “Since my switch to metro.. I have noticed more issues. But that’s just part of the job.”
Lucy let out a quiet hum of pity, turning to kiss the side of his head. “I still think you should. It’ll help in the long run.” She absentmindedly switched from her palm along his back to her nails, very gently running them up and down.
The sudden, full body shudder Tim let out made Lucy freeze.
“..what was that?” Lucy asked, fighting back a laugh.
“..nothing.” Tim muttered, his voice just an octave higher.
“No, that was definitely something.” Lucy said, bewildered.
“It was definitely not.”
“Mm..it was.”
“Was not.”
Lucy fought for her life to not laugh. “Tim, why didn’t you tell me my nails could do that to you?”
“It’s not like I knew-“ he let out another shudder as Lucy did it again, his hands tightening a bit from where they rested behind her back. “Lucy.” He warned.
“What? Does it tickle or something?” She hummed, clearly having way too much fun.
He thought for a second. “I mean..no. It..” he hesitated.
“It?” She pressed, amusement in her tone as she ran her nails down his skin again.
Tim actually sighed against her neck this time, leaning into it as his shoulders relaxed a bit. “It feels..kind of good.” He admitted in a low voice. “My back doesn’t hurt as much if I focus on your nails.”
She hummed in understanding, noticing that little by little, his muscles were relaxing under her touch. “It seems I’ve found my super power.” She joked, her other hand in his hair starting to lightly scratch the nape of his neck and up to his scalp.
Tim all but melted in her embrace, breathing deeply. “Oh, i love you so much.” He sighed in content.
“I love you too.” She smiled, just watching his shoulders relax for a bit. “You know, I wonder if my nails are why Kojo likes me so much.” Lucy teased.
“Don’t compare me to a dog.” Tim said, lifting his head just enough to look at her. “I’m nothing like a dog.”
“Mm-hmm, yet the ever so terrifying Tim Bradford is reduced to this from my nails. I’m basically scratching you behind the ears.” She raised an eyebrow, then removed her hand from his hair. “But, if you insist-“
Tim quickly reached up and grabbed her wrist, and they both had a momentary staring contest until he conceded, sighed heavily, and lowered his head a bit. “Okay, I admit, your nails are some weird kind of magic, and it drives me crazy.”
“Ooh, drives you crazy, you say?”
“Okay.” Tim rolled his eyes. “Don’t get all cocky.”
“Alright, alright.” Lucy leaned in to give him a lingering kiss, pulling away to mutter: “are you going to let go of my hand?”
Slowly, he did, and closed his eyes when her hand touched the side of his face, thumb brushing against his cheek. “Mm, and you say I’m cute when I’m tired. You’re adorable.”
“Shut up.” He said with not much of a bite, and it didn’t take long for his body to lower again and her hand to slide back up to her hair. He kissed her neck softly, which Lucy took as a sign of gratitude.
After a few moments of silence and Lucy running her nails through his hair and along his back, she spoke: “you know, if I’d known that all I would need to do to make you calm down is use my nails, I would’ve done it sooner.”
When she got no answer, she furrowed her eyebrows and carefully looked down, only to see Tim absolutely knocked out, breathing deeply and no longer tense. She smiled softly, reached out to click off the lamp, and finally let her head hit the pillow.
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The next morning, Tim awoke to find that he quite literally hadn’t moved the entire night. He was still half on top of Lucy, his head in her neck. He gently pulled away, trying to be quiet.
Of course, Lucy woke up almost immediately. “Good morning.” She mumbled, eyes squinted and voice raspy.
“Good morning.” He said, leaning down to kiss the corner of her mouth. “Why did you let me crush you the entire night?” He asked.
Lucy furrowed her eyebrows. “Crush me?”
“Yeah. I was on top of you the whole night. Why didn’t you make me move or something?” Tim started to pull away again.
“..because I was knocked out?” She tilted her head, reaching her arms up to loop around Tim’s neck and stop him. “I was comfortable, come back.” She complained lightly.
“Lucy, it’s not like I’m light as a feather.” Tim scoffed.
“Yeah, and you aren’t a hippo either. It was like I had a weighted blanket. Come back.” She repeated.
She wasn’t making any moves to actually pull him down, just keeping her arms around him. He still felt guilty about his lateness keeping her awake and then being basically on top of her all night, but it began to ebb as he met those brown eyes that were giving him the biggest puppy dog eyes he’s ever seen.
“Alright.” He chuckled, leaning back down. He laid on her shoulder this time, an arm around her waist.
“Yesss.” She celebrated quietly, her arm going around his shoulder and her hand once again resting in his hair.
Minutes later, there was an unmistakable padding of Kojo’s paws on the hardwood floor before he jumped up into bed with them and laid on Lucy’s other side, setting his head down on her other shoulder with a huff. She instinctively put a hand on his head and began scratching behind his ears.
Lucy laid there for a moment, slowly looking back and forth between Kojo, who was thoroughly enjoying her nails, and Tim, who was also thoroughly enjoying her nails. She bit back a grin at the realization.
“‘Nothing like a dog’ my ass.” She muttered.
“What?” Tim went to lift his head, pausing as her nails ran through his hair again.
“Nothing.” She said quickly.
Lucy figured she should probably get used to doing this for awhile. But, she didn’t mind.