Work Text:
Being awake after everyone else had gone to sleep was nice. It was one of the many benefits of being a half-vampire, not needing to sleep nearly as often - making it infinitely easier to take the opportunity whenever he could and get as much work done as possible. Lounging on the couch while his friends slept in other rooms, he scrolled through the documents he'd been sent, pausing to occasionally jot down notes or take a sip of water.
As he worked, though, his mind wandered back to everything that'd happened earlier that day. He admittedly wasn't remotely used to having friends, but… this was a lot better than he ever could've predicted it to be. From the moment his friends had come over at eleven that morning, the house had been full of laughter, joking around and teasing each other, running through the halls and getting tackled several times, one time of which had earned him a bruise on his arm that Shep had kissed as an apology - which had stopped feeling like an apology and more like flirting after the tenth time.
The thought had a smile tugging at his lips again. They'd all laughed off the injury after Shep had made sure he was really fine, and much to his surprise, Shep hadn't been upset about the whole situation. At least, they didn't seem upset when they'd clung to him for most of the rest of the day, whining at him about how cruel he was whenever he said he needed to finish up some work before heading to bed.
Mae especially had teased the two of them for it a lot. Abolish really didn't see why. As far as he could tell, Shep was just joking, with nothing more to it than that. They probably joked around with their other friends like that too and Abolish just happened to be especially fun to tease or something.
And it wasn't like she hadn't also been jokingly flirting with him the whole day. At one point, he'd casually brought up how he kept forgetting he was trans until he took his shirt off and people had a lot of questions, and Mae had replied that she would love if he took his shirt off in front of her. Shep had agreed, of course - while Abolish had just been trying really hard not to blush at all.
But the day was great, really. He couldn't think of a single thing that had actually gone wrong. He'd gotten to do nothing with his friends for hours and now he was getting to sleep in the same house as them, and then when they all woke up in the morning, they were planning on going out to breakfast together before parting ways. A late breakfast, he hoped. He wanted to spend as much time with them as possible before they'd all have to return to the real world and go back to work.
His gaze slid from his water bottle to his computer screen. Go back to work. For a moment, he questioned why he was working when he could be getting a good night's sleep, or at least laying in his bed in the quiet midnight hours basking in the feeling of his friends - or whatever they were, exactly, however he felt about them - being there with him. He'd give anything to do that. Or maybe even snuggle up to at least one of them and fall asleep, but that thought made his heartrate spike with embarrassment and he quickly discarded it.
In the middle of his thoughts, the floorboards creaked just a bit away, and his head shot up at the sound. His gaze fell on none other than Shep right as their arms slid around his shoulders and they buried their face in his hair.
"You should be asleep by now," they mumbled, voice ruffling his half-white curls a bit. Their arms rested over his chest mostly casually, although there was the tiniest bit of possessiveness to it that Abolish wasn't entirely sure if he was imagining or not.
"Mm, maybe," he hummed in response. His protest was half-hearted, not really wanting to return to work. If Shep dragged him off to bed, well, that wouldn't be the worst thing in the world, even if he knew his coworkers and superiors would probably all be terribly disappointed in him if they knew.
"Come to bed?" Shep said after a moment, his request bordering on begging, voice plaintive as he curled his fingers into Abolish's shirt. He was pressed against him and he was so warm that Abolish wanted nothing more than to curl up in his arms and maybe let him just carry him off to bed rather than having to walk there himself. "With me. If you want, obviously, you can just like… go to bed, your own bed, normally too."
His heart jumped in his throat, and he was pretty sure his voice wavered noticeably as he responded. "You want to… cuddle with me?"
"Mhm." Their head dipped down to bury their face in his neck. More than anything, they sounded exhausted, and Abolish decided right then that it was best to get this over with as soon as possible so they at least could get some sleep.
"Yeah, sure." Slowly, he closed his laptop, setting it aside so he could get up. Shep dragged him to his feet and pulled him down the hallway; he couldn't stop himself from giggling as they nearly tripped on their way into his room. He was glad he always kept his room decently clean or else he would've died of embarrassment about Shep seeing it.
He'd only just been yanked into bed when the door creaked open again, a very confused voice muttering, "What are you two doing…? It's almost midnight."
"Sleeping," Shep answered with a soft laugh, his arms wrapping tightly around Abolish's waist. His face flushed with heat and he tried to hide himself under the covers somehow, buring his face in the other's chest. Mae was silent for a few very long moments and he prayed that she wouldn't freak out and think they were doing anything other than just cuddling together.
"Mind if I join you?" He wasn't sure if he'd heard them correctly, until Shep was laughing more and beckoning them over, lifting the blankets to let them in. The mattress shifted as Mae climbed into bed and pressed against his back, smiling into his hair as they wrapped their arms around him as well.
He was almost overwhelmingly warm now, but something about it was… nice. Really nice. Nice enough that he had the urge to press kisses to both of their faces as they all murmured their goodnights to each other, which he held himself back from because gosh would that be the most awkward and humiliating thing ever.
But as they settled down and everything went quiet again, he wondered if they'd really mind that much if they were here squishing him between both of them to get him to sleep. Maybe he'd figure out eventually, or tomorrow - some day, probably.