𝓌𝑒 𝒻𝑒𝓁𝓁 𝒾𝓃 𝓁𝑜𝓋𝑒 𝒾𝓃 𝑜𝒸𝓉𝑜𝒷𝑒𝓇 ; 𝓈𝒶𝓅𝓃𝑜𝒷𝓁𝒶𝒹𝑒

[x.] ;; 𝑜𝒸𝓉𝑜𝒷𝑒𝓇

nick doesn’t know where he is.

for a moment, he’s back in houston, back in strikingly familiar and unmissed sheets, the warm body of his lover no longer beside him. for a moment, he’s alone in his bedroom, no familiar books or the setup he’d had in dave’s flat or dave. for a moment, he can’t breathe, tears welling in his eyes and his lungs trying desperately to suck in air, as if he’d forgotten how to breathe or something. for a moment, he’s suffocating, constricted in sheets he doesn’t want to be under, in a house he doesn’t want to be in, one that doesn’t feel like home.

when he pushes himself off of the couch, though, he realises why. the thin blanket dave haphazardly tossed on him once he’d fallen asleep is wrapped tightly around him, he must’ve rolled over too fast and gotten entangled in the fabric.

he rubs his eyes, wipes the wetness away, squints as he looks around. there’s clattering in the kitchen – dave is probably baking again – and nick makes his way there, making sure to grab his almost-dead phone and bring it with him.

“g’morning,” dave’s voice drones, and he turns away from whatever he’s sliding into the oven to give nick a soft smile, “did you sleep ok? you fell asleep on the couch after we finished the joint stream. i didn’t wanna move you because you seemed too peaceful, so i just- covered you up.” nick pops his neck, and the audible sound makes them both cringe.

“yeah, i slept ok. how did you?” dave chuckles and turns back to his unattended food, pointedly refusing to answer the question, which pretty much means no, he didn’t sleep at all. nick sighs, crosses the kitchen in three steps and pulls the californian away from the stove. “dave,” he chides, hands coming up to cup dave’s cheeks, thumbs rubbing just underneath the absurdly deep eye-bags, “you need to sleep, you’re tired enough as it is.”

“mm, was only one night, i’ll be fine. i’ll sleep in tomorrow if it’s that big a deal. i was just editing and lost track of time, you know how it is.” nick knows how it is all too well, but he can’t help but be a little concerned for his boyfriend. god, it feels weird to say, but it’s a novelty that’ll never wear off. at least, not for nick, but thinking of it gives him a lingering anxiety. they never discussed the basis of their relationship, not aloud, so what if dave doesn’t think of him as his boyfriend? he shakes his head, pushing the thoughts away – he’ll think about them later.

“only one night my ass, you were up at four am the night before.” the grecian murmurs, faux anger lacing his words, though he eventually smiles and briefly kisses the corner of the taller’s mouth. he leaves the kitchen after that, letting dave go back to attending to his food whilst he goes back to editing. he’d skipped on editing the night before because of dave – of course it’s because of him – and he needs the video done by today.

it’s somewhat of an interesting video concept. clay had come up with a program that would change the colour of the lights in their house whenever they took damage in minecraft, depending on how you take damage, and it’d – surprisingly – worked. dave came home from shopping whilst they were still recording, eyebrows raised in surprise as he looks around the green and blue lights lighting up his house, gently dropping the bags he’d carried in on the floor and looking around for nick, who was currently slamming his palm on his desk in anger after being drowned accidentally by george. his editing has been going rather well, surprisingly. in his opinion, it’s better than any of his other videos, and he’s excited to get it out. even dave has mentioned that his editing has been getting better, said he’s proud of him, and the praise has made him preen in happiness.

just thinking of when they recorded brings a smile to his face. he truly does love all his friends, no matter how annoying and gushy they get about their significant others (read: george’s late night/early morning calls to nick about how great clay is or clay spamming his phone whilst he sleeps about george, zak awkwardly confessing his feelings about darryl to nick and darryl having a full on breakdown in nick’s discord dms when he realises he has feelings for zak), no matter how much some of their jokes ‘upset’ him, he’ll always love them.