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A full body shiver rustled you out of your sleep, you tossed yourself over in your bed, and tried to burrow deeper into the blankets before you realized your room was ice cold. You squinted through the pitch blackness of the room trying to see the alarm clock on your dresser that usually had a faint glow, to see the time, but when its light was absent you realized the power was out… and so was your heat. You let out a long groan and pulled the blankets over your head. A nasty cold front was coming through Seasoning City, and this was absolutely no time to be enduring a night without heat. You quickly grabbed your phone off your nightstand looking for an email from your apartment management or your electric company regarding the power.
ETA for power restoration…. 12pm. It was midnight. You were not going to last twelve hours shivering in this apartment and you were certainly not going to get a wink of sleep. You settled on calling your closest friend in walking distance to see if you could spend the night. You didn’t want to spend any more time out in the cold than strictly necessary. Serizawa and you had gotten closer recently and you had a feeling that he would be happy to host, or at least he wouldn’t turn down someone in need. You were freezing your butt off and were already dialing his number.
“H-Hello?” A gruff voice answered quickly on the other line.
“Hey. Serizawa, do you have power?” You quickly asked jumping right into the point, “Oh. Wait, did I wake you up?”
“Hm? Are you okay? I have power.” He replied quickly, concern apparent in his voice.
“My place lost power and I won’t have heat until tomorrow afternoon. And with this weather we are having..” You rambled on, already packing a bag of toiletries and a spare change of clothes, your teeth were chattering from leaving the small warmth of your bed, “I was wondering if maybe I could come stay with you for the night? It’s so cold here I can’t sleep.”
“Of course!” Serizawa said softly. You hear faint rustling noises on the other end of the line, that sounded like he was getting out of bed. So you had woken him up.
“Ok! Great, I’m just grabbing some things and I’ll head right over.” You confirmed breathing a sigh of relief. Serizawa was always such a dependable person. Not to mention that you definitely had a huge crush on him, but that was neither here nor there. You were just about to sleep over his house because your power was out during a cold front, you were not going to make this weird. At all.
As soon as the phone call ended Serizawa started to blink away what was left of his sleep. Taking in the full consequences of his actions. He looked around his small apartment and realized… ‘I only have one bed’. He had definitely read too much manga for this.
—
By the time you knocked on his door, your cheeks were slightly wind burnt from the cold and your nose felt like it was downright frozen. As soon as Serizawa saw you he was ushering you inside. He had you wrapped in a blanket and sitting in his living area while he was making you tea as soon as your shoes and coat were off to warm you up. You watched him, taking a second to appreciate how cute he looked in his gray sweatpants and loose T-shirt. It was rare that you got to see Serizawa in casual clothes, the two of you usually caught up after he had gotten off work or out of night class, so this was an odd treat for you. He almost looked out of place to you, dressed so relaxed but it was nice to see another side of him. You tried not to let your eyes linger too much on him but the sweatpants left too little to the imagination.
“So,” you cleared your throat to get his attention, needing conversation to distract yourself from your mind wandering where, frankly it shouldn’t be, “Thank you so much for letting me crash here. I appreciate it so much.”
He glanced back at you, giving you an uneasy smile, “Y-yeah of course.” He said, running his hand against the back of his neck, “You shouldn’t have to stay in the cold all night.”
“Serizawa,” Your eyes bore into him as you could tell something was wrong. You two were close enough by now that you had come to pick up on his nervous habits, “What’s wrong?”
He brought both cups of tea over and set them on the table. He sat across from you but did not make eye contact, instead he was fixed on looking at a random point on the floor.
“I— I only have one futon!” He exclaimed quickly, his eyes were darting around the room, looking anywhere and everywhere except at you. “I’m sorry. I didn’t even think about it until we had already gotten off the phone.”
After he had confessed alleged crimes, he finally looked back at you, his face completely red. You could tell that Serizawa was extremely nervous about your reaction. His flustered reaction was adorable to you though and you couldn’t hold back a small giggle.
“Oh, Serizawa!” You said between a laugh, glancing over at his futon. You both could fit on there comfortably…. probably. “I don’t care, I don’t mind sharing, as long as you’re okay with it.”
“Y-you’re sure you’re comfortable with it?” He looked at you anxiously, his fingers twisting together, a look of slight guilt present on his face, “I don’t want to overstep. I can always just sleep on the ground!”
Your eyes narrowed at his suggestion of him sleeping on the hard ground of his apartment. You couldn’t say you were entirely prepared to arrive at Serizawa’s house and spend the night snuggled up in the same bed with him. The idea of spending the night in his house and having the man that you had feelings for possibly see you in an unflattering light was already unnerving enough, but to be in the same bed was definitely throwing you for a loop. At the same time, the prospect of being able to be closer to him was enticing all the same and you could feel your heart almost hammering out of your chest with nerves at the thought of being pressed against him trying to accommodate yourselves into that futon. If anything, it would be nice and toasty and you were still feeling chilled.
“You are not sleeping on the floor, Serizawa. That is final. Are you sure you’re comfortable with it? If anything I’d be the one overstepping because I am at your house,” You assured him in a calm and confident tone, faking it until you made it, “I am comfortable with it but only if you are as well.”
Serizawa visibly relaxed at your words, you could see some of the tension release from his shoulders as he leaned back slightly in resignation. His fingers relaxed in his lap and he took a deep exhale before he replied softly, “It’s fine. We are friends. It will be like a sleepover. Well, not that I had any of those.”
“Right! Exactly like a sleepover,” You quickly assured, stretching your arms over your head, yawning for exaggeration, “Well, I am not sure about you but I am beat. I know I woke you up. Let’s get this show on the road and get to bed. What do you say, Seri?”
“Hm?”, a small noise came from his throat as he was clearing the table of your teas as you were talking. Serizawa looked flustered and caught off guard at your sudden introduction of a nickname. Your intention was to make him feel more comfortable and closer, in a friendly way, naturally.
A moment passed and he finally replied quickly and loudly, scrubbing the small cups clean, “Y-Yes, I am quite tired.” You could see the tips of his ears were bright red.
Well, that could have gone over better, you thought to yourself. Serizawa opted to let it go so you would as well. Once he finished cleaning up, the two of you made your way over to his futon, both leering down at it with trepidation. You sure weren’t going to be the one to make the first move to get in. It wasn’t your bed. You looked over at Serizawa, and gave him an encouraging smile.
“Well, after you!” You cooed, holding your arm gesturing at the futon below the two of you. Trying to look as nonchalant about everything as you could. Below the surface you could feel your heart hammering in your chest and a bubble of nerves making their way through your body. You knew there was no way that Serizawa was any way better off than you. Even on a good day, he would get flustered by little things when you were around. You would normally chalk that up to the time he spent away from society but you considered this a universally nerve-wracking experience.
“R-Right!” He stammered as he gingerly knelt down and got under the blankets. He positioned himself on his back, stiff as a board. He had the blankets pulled up to his neck so that only his head was visible. His facial expression was uneasy, his mouth pressed into a firm line and his eyebrows knit tight together. You wondered briefly if Serizawa was even going to be able to fall back asleep at all, or if the two of you were doomed to just lay in excruciating silence for the remainder of the night.
You hesitated for a moment more before you shakily slid in next to him. You opted to lay on your side with your back turned to him, to save yourself the embarrassment of him seeing your flustered expression. You took a deep inhale through your nose and let out a long exhale, that was really more like a silent scream, towards the pillow trying to release the tension you were feeling. Thankful that the position you gave yourself at least allotted you some semblance of privacy for that at least. Under the blanket, you became hyper aware of the body heat radiating off of Serizawa, the man was like a six foot tall space heater. It helped you relax and want to scoot closer to the warmth, the blanket wasn’t necessarily the best size for two people but you had a feeling that he had given you more than half of it. You craned your neck back to look at him and your suspicion was confirmed when you saw that the blanket hardly reached his far shoulder.
He must have felt you shuffling around because with his eyes still closed, he questioned, “Are you comfortable?”
You scooted closer to him, closing the gap between your bodies, at this point not caring about your dignity, and pushed more of the blanket towards him, “Here. You’re not even covered by the blanket, Serizawa. I appreciate you wanting me to be comfortable but not at your own expense.”
“Goodnight, Serizawa” You whispered, turning back around, sinking back into the pillow.
“Goodnight,” He whispered back, accepting the blanket and you could feel him try to relax behind you. You closed your eyes and attempted to sleep, staying awake for who-knows-how-long, until you were aware of Serizawa’s deep, slow breathing a sure sign that he had finally drifted off to sleep. A shaky exhale of relief left your lips, you were thankful that at least one of you was able to relax enough to fall asleep. You tried to clear your mind of any swirling thoughts you were having about the bizarre situation and tried to just focus on relaxing your body, enjoying finally being enveloped in warmth compared to your frozen apartment. After a while your eyelids started to feel heavy and you were able to drift off to sleep as well.
—--
When you opened your eyes the next morning, you were surprised how well rested you felt. Your first thought was that you were so cozy, wrapped up in this weighted blanket, you didn’t even remember buying one of these– wait, that is NOT a weighted blanket and this is not your house. Your eyes fully opened and you took a sharp inhale in, assessing your sleeping position. Serizawa had, at some point during the night, turned on his side to spoon you and now was halfway on top of you, his leg flung over yours, effectively pinning you to the futon. Two firm arms held you flush against his chest, one under your neck that had replaced your pillow and the other snaked around your waist. You felt heat rise to your cheeks at the realization of the compromising position that you had just apparently spent the night sleeping in with your crush. You had to admit that part of you was relishing the feeling of being cuddled up against him. It felt safe, secure, and warm. It definitely lost out to the part of you that was anxious about the aftermath of him waking up because you knew deep down that this was not a conscious Serizawa move. You had a crush on him for months and you had some suspicions that it was mutual, but he hadn’t even gone as far to hold your hand, let alone throw his entire body on you.
You were berating yourself for throwing all caution to the wind and tossing yourself into this position, well maybe not this exact position. You were not equipped to deal with this level of nerves early in the morning. As if sensing your pounding heart rate, Serizawa started to stir behind you. His hand that was on your waist started to slide toward your chest as he slowly started to stretch out, you quickly made a b-line to grasp his wrist. You may have grasped him a little too firmly out of self-preservation of what was left of your dignity because Serizawa’s body suddenly jolted and he took a sharp inhale. He pulled his wrist back from your hand quickly in surprise.
“I-I.. Oh.. Umm..” He stammered, pulling his body off of you, quickly retreating to the other end of the futon. He pulled his knees to his chest, a deep blush present across his cheeks, “I am so sorry. I.. I normally sleep with a body pillow and.. I am so sorry.”
You exhaled a puff of air before starting to laugh in earnest. Serizawa looked back at you with clear confusion, expecting you to be offended by his behavior.
“Honestly,” you said between laughs, looking up at him from your place on the futon smiling, “It was pretty comfortable,” you felt a pit in your stomach forming with anxiety before you got the courage to spit the next words out, “I.. I wouldn’t mind cuddling some more.”
He looked at you with a wobbly grin on his face and slowly let go of his knees, making his way back under the covers with you, “I.. Yes, I would like that too.”
This time you laid facing each other, your face pressed into his chest, his arms wrapped around you with one of your arms slung around his waist. You were thankful to have the contact back and be buried back against the warmth of his body. Sharing this calm, tender moment with each other in the morning felt a lot more intimate for two people that were just friends and gave you the confidence to finally say what you had been wanting to tell Serizawa for a long time.
“Hey Serizawa,” You said, peeking your face up from his chest, “I.. really like you.”
His arms wrapped tighter around your waist and he pressed a quick kiss to the top of your head, “I like you too.”