Daesos

Daesos awoke with a start to the rapping of a talon on the door to his room. He turned blurry eyes to the clock hanging on the wall, just next to the door, where he could barely make out the time in the darkness of the room: 3 A.M. Rubbing sleep from his eyes, he sighed when another round of tapping sounded through his room. His paws were heavy as he trudged towards the door, slapping a tired palm across the access panel on the wall to open it.

The dim lights in the hallway of the sanctum were practically blinding, but Daesos recognized the figure outside his door in seconds. Taeshin, disgruntled, looking halfway to death, was dressed in nothing but a simple pair of breeches and a thread-bare shirt, his head feathers ruffled in frustration. Daesos hardly had enough time to move out of the way to let him in before Taeshin was pushing past him to beeline it to his bed. Shutting the door behind him, he turned around and asked, “‘Can’t sleep again?”

He watched as Taeshin collapsed onto his bed, immediately drowning in the bulk of his large blankets. There was a short, “Mm”, from him before he shut his eyes, buried his snout in the sheets, and pretended to be asleep. Daesos padded across the floor to join him, taking care to slip back onto his bed with a smaller body taking up space.

“You don’t have to knock,” he said, settling down into the mattress.

“That’s creepy,” came Taeshin’s muffled reply.

“Right, like you care about that,” he returned in a voice softer than the words entailed.

As gently as he could, so as not to jostle Taeshin, he curled around the wildclaw’s form, tucking his tail up around him; Taeshin had once used it as a pillow in his sleep, and though Daesos had woken up without feeling on the lower part of the limb, he couldn’t deny it was nice. There was a moment of stillness before Taeshin reached out a paw and buried his talons in his fur.

Daesos didn’t know when it had started, when Taeshin had sought him out on nights he couldn’t sleep. Daesos didn’t have a problem with it. While he wasn’t one for seeking out physical touch, being the only gaoler in his creche under Wrenfalal had made him pretty used to other, less fluffy, dragons sticking close. But with Taeshin it was different and Daesos couldn’t fathom even asking the dragon why he wanted to sleep in his bed. Taeshin was as flighty as a crimson emperor, even just this insomnia-fueled arrangement between them was about as fragile as a piece of porcelain. Daesos wasn’t going to risk pushing it over and letting it shatter.

“Where’s your bird?”

“‘Out hunting,” Taeshin said, tipping his head back just enough to brush against the side of Daesos’ neck—or the fluff there anyway. “‘Won’t be back until tomorrow.”

“As long as I don’t wake up to it staring at us through the window.”

There was a humored huff from Taeshin.

(w.i.p because oh my gosh this headache is killin gme and I can't look at my google doc page any longer)