“Yes, but I don’t mind sharing with you.And it’s best to settle down where you’re most comfortable to ensure a good night’s sleep, right?”Marin continued.
“Right…” Blake agreed, turning the merman’s argument over in his mind.His main worry was that he would cause Marin discomfort, but he was clear in communicating that wasn’t the case.
Also, last nighthadbeen the best night of sleep Blake had gotten in… longer than he really cared to admit.Blake always slept better when he was beside someone, and Marin’s presence was beyond reassuring.
“And personally, I found you comfortable to sleep beside,” Marin went on, appearing to find somethingveryinteresting outside of the apartment window.Despite his attempts to conceal it, Blake was able to catch the small, hopeful smile in Marin’s reflection.
Blake’s gentlemanly intentions crumbled—they weren’t winning this one.
“Okay,” he assented, and found that—despite himself—his smile was as warm as it was defeated.He joined Marin down on the mattress, plugging in his phone and clicking off the lamp on the floor.
“Goodnight,” Marin said.Blake felt his words against the nape of his neck, puffed out in a warm, steady breath.
“‘Night,” Blake returned with a small shiver, shrugging deeper into his sheets.He winced, rolling over to face Marin.“I—real quick, I should probably let you know: I have insomnia, so chances are I’m going to be tossing and turning for a few hours before finally settling in.I don’t know if that’s something that’s going to bother you.”
“It’s fine,” Marin reached up to play with a loose, brown wave of Blake’s hair splayed out over his pillow.Blake leaned into the sensation without thinking, soothed by the comforting action.
He closed his eyes as Marin reached up to caress another hank of hair on his scalp, pulling his fingers through it.He sunk the nails of his other hand into Blake’s side cut, dragging them over the stubble.The pressure on Blake’s scalp sent pleasant little shivers up his neck.
Despite himself, Blake began to ramble, suddenlyveryconscious of Marin’s proximity: “I got pneumonia my senior year of college—I didn’t sleep almost the entire time that I was sick.I got better after a few weeks, but the insomnia stayed.Stuff I used to be able to shut off at night just keeps going.It’s like the voice in my head doesn’t know how to shut up.
“Thankfully it’s not every night, now,” he said.“But sometimes I lay awake all night.Thinking.It doesn’t matter how tired my body or mind is.I can be dead on my feet and I can’t shut off.”
“What have you tried for it?”Marin inquired, continuing to pull and stroke Blake’s hair.
“Uhm…” Blake tried to conjure up the thoughts, but his mind was getting a little waterlogged.He closed his eyes in an effort to focus.“Guided meditation, ASMR… uh… audiobooks…?”
“Audiobooks?”
“They’re like… recordings of people reading books?I think they called them books on tape back in the day.”
“Ah okay.Anything else?”Marin asked.His voice was damp in Blake’s ear.He could feel the warm puff of his breath on the helix.Blake’s eyes fluttered open and he sucked in a sharp inhalation.He hadn’t realized that Marin had pulled himself right up next to his chest, their eyes level.The streetlamp outside had lightened Marin’s black eyes into a glowing grey.He snaked his fingers up in the back of Blake’s wavy tresses.
“W-what?”Blake shook his head, forgetting what had been asked of him.Marin smiled, his gaze sweet and soft as he continued to stroke Blake’s hair.
“Does anything else help you sleep?”he repeated.
“Ah.”Blake swallowed, finding that his throat was suddenly dry.He exclaimed when Marin tugged his hair.The other, more licentious, methods he’d attempted to alleviate his insomnia flew through his mind.“I…”
“Well,” Marin whispered, releasing Blake’s hair and pulling back to his side of the bed.His eyes flicked up and down Blake’s chest.“I’m sure you thought of something.”
“Yeah,” Blake said, voice coming out more of a wheeze.
“You’re cute when you’re at a loss for words,” Marin whispered, reaching up over Blake’s shoulder, rubbing a cool hand over his nape, thumb kneading into a tender knot before he wound his arms around Blake, petting up and down his spine.“I like making you flustered.”
“I—” Blake groaned appreciatively.He relaxed into his pillow, mind following the hypnotic trance of Marin’s hand running over his back.“I like it when you fluster me,” he admitted, voice barely above a whisper.
Marin laughed, voice deep and sonorous.
“I know,” he said, lips brushing over Blake’s forehead.“Now go to sleep, sweet boy.”
Although he was distracted by Marin’s proximity and touch, the long day weighed heavily on Blake, dragging him down into restfulness.His thoughts scattered in the wake of Marin’s touch, replaced instead by pleasant nonsense images that ran across his mind.Blake was overtaken by leisurely, foolish, and pleasurable sensations that he lacked the words to describe.
Somewhere in the distance, he was aware of a gentle song being sung under someone’s breath.
13
Tuesday, August 2
