After Dark 》Minsung

27 》Running Out of Time

Minho didn't sleep.

He didn't sleep that entire night, simply holding Jisung close to him while he fell deep into his own dreams. Simply, embracing him within the tight envelope of the arms he looped around the trembling body he laid with, holding him tighter when he stirred with whines and the constant flow of tears that didn't give rest to their descent down that camboy's cheeks, down to soak warm puddles on his pillow. On the hoodie Minho wore, pulled over to rest against the older while he was serenely unconscious underneath those bedsheets. Tranquil in the twitching of his eyebrows and the flinching of his nose, seeming to shy from what haunted him even in his dreams. His nightmares, maybe. Whatever lurked behind the mind Jisung closed off to Minho, trying to understand why he could feel the heart bleeding while it beated against his chest.

Trying to understand why, even as Minho softly wrapped his hand around the younger's head, tenderly brought him in, steadying the swaying of the even breaths tumbling onto the thick fabric folded on his collar, Jisung didn't ease. Why, despite doing his most to hold him as close as he could possibly manage, to keep him binded in the faint warmth his hands could give to that sunlight in hopes that sparked fire wouldn't dim out, to ensure their legs  knotted in tied tangles didn't slip from their hold, Jisung still tried to peel away from him. Jisung still tried to cluster his hands in fists on the white fabric to push Minho away from him. Jisung still choked softly in his dreams, and Minho could do nothing more than hug him a little tighter than he was before. Embrace him a little closer. Nuzzle him with sweet whispers to reassure him against the dark.

Minho kept him close, even when the sun rose through the sheer curtains blocking it's rays from welling into the sleepy bedroom. Watching him through the faint glow of the early morning; The squish of the camboy's cheek puffed against the pillow uplifting that beautiful feature, how they seemed to swell and flush with the furrowing of his eyebrows scrunching him into closer curls, fastening him down into the balled kitten he had become during his restless dreams; The escape of breaths which found their rhythm once again, inhales which lifted the sheets bundled around his shoulders, mewling exhales that stood steady in their patterns; Minho didn't let himself sleep. No matter how his eyes wished to close, no matter how he wished for a second to sleep, he pinched his arms. Bit his cheeks. Shook himself back awake.

Gingerly, Minho fished a hand free from the sheets they were bundled underneath and came to Jisung's tear stained face. Even as he tried to swipe their remnants away with the pads of his thumb, cupping his hand on his cheeks while the sleeping camboy melted into the warmth of his touch, those blighted streaks didn't clear from his face. They didn't void him of their marks, they didn't release him from the sorrows they proclaimed, they didn't free him of the weight which shrugged that deities shoulders to ball up underneath the comforters.

I should make breakfast for him.

He gently brushed the few stray strands of hair which disturbed him of his rest back. Casting them away before pressing a soft kiss to where their threads twisted through, lingering against the melancholic warmth of the skin on his lips in hopes his touch could be felt. His presence could be felt, received through the layers of rest he was stacked beneath, reciprocated by the content breath he was given in return to that gentle motion and the tightening of that kitten-like curl as Jisung snuggled deeper into the cozy sheets Minho tucked him into. He could be given sanctuary against what plagued him, while Minho slipped out of the bed and snatched his phone up. Ensuring Jisung would be warm without him.

He didn't forget to grab Strawberry the dinosaur and tuck the stuffed animal into his arms in place of Minho. The glass pieces of his broken heart shattering again to splinters while it tried to repair itself, slammed by the metal alloy of a hammer mercilessly annihilating the pieces to dust while he watched Jisung nuzzle into the stuffed animal.