Work Text:
Sleep, Perchance...
by nancy
the_tenth_muse1@yahoo.com
Charlie looked into Ted's room from the doorway. He did it every night after the other man was sound asleep, a habit leftover from prison. Not that he'd had to go so far then. All he'd had to do was peer over the edge of his cot to the one below to see Ted's sleeping form, to hear his soft, whistling snores more clearly. It had helped him sleep. A kind of safety blanket of sorts. He hadn't been able to sleep well in isolation without it and he couldn't sleep well now for the same reason.
Well, not just that reason, he allowed.
Even with everything else going on, Charlie needed stability in his life and he knew it. Ted represented a stability and comfort to him and always would. Charlie hadn't been completely altruistic in offering his old cellmate a place to live. He turned to leave, heard just the barest hint of a whisper, "Don't go," from the bed and froze.
Charlie looked back to find Ted gazing at him. He was always so different without his glasses. Vulnerable. Softer. More real, somehow, as though the glasses were an armor that the other wore. Which, he supposed, they were.
Licking at dry lips, Charlie said, "I'm sorry, Ted, I shouldn't have..."
"Don't go," Ted repeated, louder. "Charlie, come to bed."
Charlie hesitated, but he'd never been one to deny himself. Not to mention, going with the flow kinda nixed the idea of leaving somewhere they both wanted him to be. So he crossed the finished room of his own garage and climbed into the full sized bed that he'd bought for Ted. It was a lot more roomy than when they'd risked sleeping together in the cots at prison. He spooned up behind Ted, slipping his arm around the other man's waist and resting his nose against the back of his neck, breathing in the clean, fear-free scent of him.
It smelled like perfection, that lack of fear.
Ted moved back against him and whispered, "Do you want to...?"
"Not, not just now," Charlie answered, nuzzling against his throat. "Ask me again in the morning, if you want."
Ted nodded, putting his hand over Charlie's and sighing deeply. It wasn't long before his soft, whistling snores filled the air, his body growing heavy in Charlie's arms.
Smiling, Charlie gave his own abbreviated sigh and closed his eyes.
end