Always (Boyxboy)

Chapter Ten- Tyler

When Tyler woke up, he was so disoriented that it took him a full three minutes to realize that he wasn't in his own bed at home. Once that was determined, it only took him a second to realize he was in Pierce's room, curled up in his bed alone, and another minute helped him recall their encounter in the store the night before. It wasn't hard to figure out what must have happened. He had been exhausted for the past week, barely sleeping at all for the past five or so nights, and the day before he had reached the peak of exhaustion, which sometimes resulted in him losing consciousness at random times.

It was something that used to happen quite frequently when he was at his worst, but it had been over a year since the last time he had this problem. The episodes of spontaneous sleep were what actually prompted his mother to force him to go to the doctor in the first place. It was good she had made an appointment for him if they were going to be happening again.

Groaning softly, Tyler sat up in bed and rubbed his eyes, looking around the room. He was thankful that Pierce had been there, though he wouldn't admit it to the older man. If he had been alone, he probably would have hit his head on the floor of the store and had to go to the hospital, which would result in his mother fussing over him constantly. That was something he most definitely didn't want.

Shit. His mother. Tyler shifted in order to free his cell phone from the pocket of his sweatpants. He typically charged it at night, so his power was dangerously low, and he had so many missed calls and text messages from his mother, it took him a full minute to scroll through the notifications. "Fuck".

He unlocked his phone and went to call her back, but the second it began to ring, the bedroom door pushed open slowly and Pierce peered around the door into the room. The second his eyes landed on Tyler, they widened. "Oh. I thought you'd still be sleeping".

Tyler took a moment to consider his options. He could talk to his mother and she would demand he return home at that moment, or he could hang up and spend a little more time at Pierce's apartment.

He was hanging up the phone before he even fully thought through the consequences.

"Nope," Tyler answered, returning his cellphone to his pocket and then looking up at the other man curiously. He had never seen Pierce in the morning before, right after he had woken up, it seemed. The man was wearing a pair of fleece pajama pants and nothing else, his hair all over the place. He looked good. A lot less like the polished dick Tyler knew him to be.

"How'd you sleep?" Pierce inquired softly, fully moving into the room.

"Really good, actually," Tyler responded. "My head feels clearer than it has in days". It wasn't a lie, either. For the first time since monday, Tyler felt like he could fully process information.

"That's..." Pierce trailed off, his duel colored eyes shifting away. "Uh, good, I guess. Are you... you hungry?"

Tyler was perfectly content sitting there and listening to the other man stumble over his words, squinting the eyes into the dim light because was that a blush he was seeing? It didn't even occur to him that Pierce had asked him a question until those eyes were back on him, glaring this time. "What?"

"I asked you if you were fucking hungry," Pierce snapped, and Tyler's lips pulled down into a frown. He was hungry, since he had skipped dinner the night before to go shopping for a new pillow that would hopefully help him sleep, but he couldn't really understand why Pierce would care about the current status of his stomach.

"Well, yeah," Tyler admitted, shrugging his shoulders. "I am, but why do you care?"

"Because I made breakfast, idiot," Pierce grumbled, his head dropping so he could stare at his own feet. Tyler's eyebrows shot up in surprise, and then he began to laugh, warranting himself another fierce glare. "What's your problem?"