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Javier closed his eyes tight and pressed his face close to his pillow. He paid close attention to his breathing, in and out. In and out. He tried to focus only on that in hopes that he could get some sleep, any bit of sleep and stop thinking about everything else. It worked for maybe a minute before a gnarled face formed behind his eyelids and they shot open, his heart racing in his throat as he stared across the dark room at the window of the apartment. There was that faint orange glow from the street lights outside. He could hear cars drive by occasionally. It was usually soothing. But right now every little sound set him on edge, made the hair on the back of his neck stand up and he couldn’t sleep.
He’d been trying to for over an hour and it wasn’t working.
Javier knew, logically, that there was no demon in their apartment. There was nothing to be afraid of, at least not anything like what Javier’s mind was concocting after that damn movie. He huffed and rolled onto his back, doing his best to not look at anything around the room just in case some sort of shape scared him and his heart raced again. He threw his arm over his shoulder and sighed, it felt too loud in the almost quiet apartment. There weren’t any unusual noises. He could hear the fridge running in the kitchen, the occasional walking of his neighbors, and the sound of the fan that they ran at night for white noise and because John got ungodly hot in the middle of the night, no matter the season.
This was all normal. This should have been comforting and yet here he was, tossing and turning and trying to not look towards the corners of the room. He was convinced that if he stared long enough a face would take shape, emerge from the shadow with too big of a smile. If he listened too hard then maybe he would hear something, a whispering, or a growling. A voice of some kind threatening him, taunting him, before opening up their jaw, unhinging it and screaming at him.
He was terrified at the idea of looking down at the end of the bed, or even to the side of himself and finding long inhuman fingers curled up around the comforter and claws digging into the bed, something crawling out from underneath prepared to drag him under.
Javier startled at a pressure on the bed, a sudden weight and movement by his feet and moving steadily up his leg and he froze, breath coming fast and quick and he wanted to look but he couldn’t and he panicked until he heard the purring. He looked to his left then and found Boaz moving slowly up onto John’s back, curling up on the snoring man, purring loud as ever. Content as could be. Javier swore and glared at his cat. The bastard.
He took a deep breath and tried to calm himself. It was just the cat, it was just the cat. He should’ve known, should’ve been prepared for it. If Boaz isn’t eating or using the litter box, he’s on John’s back or lap. It’s sweet really but right then, he was too scared to find it cute.
He tried to focus on the purring, it was soothing and curled up against John’s side, seeking some sort of comfort and thought for a moment he could really fall asleep finally. There was no doubt this much tension was wearing him out.
Then the fridge stopped making noise and suddenly the whole place felt silent. Too silent. Javier opened his eyes and held his breath, waiting for anything and hearing nothing. He let out his breath quietly, closing his eyes again. He just wanted to sleep, he just wanted to be able to watch the horror movie his boyfriend picked and then get some damn sleep. This didn’t happen every time, but it still happened too much. He tucked closer to John’s back, blocking out the rest of the world and focused on the steady breaths from John, his warmth, his smell, and the soft purrs of Boaz.
He was slowly lulled into comfort only to have it ripped out from under him, his heart sinking to his stomach as he heard...skittering. Claws on the hardwood and he clenched his jaw, brain taking a few moments to process what the hell that could be.
The damn lizard.
Javier sat up and huffed, staring out at the living room. Their door was open because John let his bearded dragon run amuck around the apartment and it never bothered Javier till this moment. He wasn’t going to sleep if he kept hearing that. So he had a dilemma. Get up and risk getting pulled under the bed by a demon, or perhaps jumped by one in the living, in order to put the animal back in her tank in an attempt to get some sleep. Or suffer the scuttling.
Risking a demon it was.
Javier stood up slowly, so as not to wake John. Not that he could, the man slept easy. It had only taken a few minutes before he was asleep and snoring.
He found John’s baby by the couch, staring up at him as he walked towards her.
“Bed time,” he mumbled quietly and squatted, grabbing her up and holding her to his chest. She didn’t mind being held, though she liked John holding her best, and let Javier handle her easily as he carried her to her tank and set her in for the night. “I’m sorry, I’ll feed you extra bugs in the morning okay?” He sighed and was content with her non answer.
Javier crawled back into bed and if he jumped quickly on, keeping his ankles out of grabbing distance, he wouldn’t admit it.
He settled in next to John and he felt too awake. He felt so silly for being so awake, for being so afraid right now but the movie wouldn’t quit playing and his mind wouldn’t stop coming up with worse and worse scenarios.
He nudges John’s shoulder.
“John,” he said, gentle so as not to startle him awake.
He was met with snoring and he huffed, nuding him again.
“John, wake up please?” he asked, and heard John mumble, “c’mon, wake up I need you.” He added and John groaned, rolling and disturbing Boaz who made a sound before crawling off of him and towards the foot of the bed.
“Javi?” His voice was rough with sleep and he rolled over to face Javier. “S’wrong?” He slurred.
“I can’t sleep.”
“What happened? Is something wrong?”
Javier sighed and looked down at John’s chest, embarrassed with what was wrong.
“I’m still a little shook up, from the movie.” he sighed and he was expecting John to laugh but he didn’t.
“Oh babe,” John sighed, “I’m sorry, c’mere,” and he held open his arms and Javier curled into him immediately. “You know I’m the scariest thing in this apartment right? Like no demons are going to fuck with us as long as I’m here.”
Javier laughed, softly and nuzzled under John’s chin, arms wrapped tight around his bare torso.
“Is that so?”
“Mmhm, I’ll even scare them off for you, watch,” John leaned up, put his hand over Javier’s ear so as not to be too loud, “hey! Demons! Get out! Get out of here, ya hear me? I’ll fuck you up!” He hollered, probably too loud for the middle of the night but Javier was sent into a fit of laughter. John was so damn genuine about it, staring intently into the dark. “There, that should keep them away.”
“You’re an idiot and I think you’re making fun of me.” Javier sighed, looking up at John who mocked offense.
“I am not! I’m willing to fight monsters for you.”
Javier smiled and John grinned back leaning down to kiss him. Some of the tension left Javier’s shoulders and his heart felt steady for once. Warm and comfortable in John’s arms.
“Better?” John asked, pressing his forehead to Javier’s.
“A little, will you talk to me? Tell me a story of you doing something stupid as a kid or something. I just, need it so I can fall asleep.” Javier asked, tucking himself again into John’s chest.
John chuckled and Javier could hear it against his ear, it was low and comforting.
“Course Javi, let me think, uhh oh yeah I ever tell you about the time I almost drowned?”
“John that doesn’t narrow it down.”
John snorts and shakes his head, “no um, I was doing backflips by the river that ran through our property, I mean, I was just climbing all kinds of shit and,”
John kept talking, retelling the story of him ending up in the muddy water panicking with Arthur laughing at him from shore and the last thing Javier remembers hearing before being lulled to sleep was John’s laugh.