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There’s someone in his bed.
Warm arm thrown over his middle, soft huffs of breath puffing against the back of his neck, chest pressed to his spine and someone is in his bed, his room his place away from all of this shit goddammit did he pass out midjob no that makes no sense nobody should be in this bed this is his bed not some skuzzy ass motel on the outskirts of the pentagram jesus christ what-
The hand pressed against his stomach shifts, and Angel freezes, breath held in his lungs as his heart pounds in his ears. Fingers searching blindly, groping against him-
-and trailing down his arm to take his hand.
Oh.
Angel unfurls, sinking back down from the panic he’s worked himself into. Husk snuffles against him, nosing at the nape of his neck contentedly.
Goddammit. Every fuckin’ morning with this shit.
He can’t even enjoy waking up in Husk’s arms because his stupid fucking brain is broken beyond repair.
Sighing, he laces his fingers with Husk’s and squeezes, just enough to reassure himself.
He’ll get used to it.
He will, because it should be the best part of his morning, waking up with Husk curled up against him like this. And it is, right after he freaks out about it first.
He’d just like to skip the freakout, is all.
Husk grumbles in his sleep, leg slotting in between Angel’s as he cuddles in closer, and this time, Angel holds his breath for an entirely different reason.
This is the other best part.
The thick purr rumbles through Husk’s chest and into Angel’s ribs, sinking into his bones and settling like it’s built a home in his heart.
He breathes.
This alone would be worth the world.
It hasn’t been easy. Not for either of them. Husk had it right when he’d said they were damaged.
“But maybe my jagged edges could just about match yours,” he’s said since, trailing burning sweet kisses from Angel’s throat down to his shoulder. “Hm?”
Angel had been a little too distracted to reply properly.
But it’s a nice thought.
He knows that if Husk knew about the way he reacts every damn time he wakes up like this, he’d refuse to hold him the way he does. And Angel would rather chew broken glass.
See? Damaged.
Husk’s rhythmic purring in time with his breathing nearly lures him back into the warm embrace of sleep; it’s a deadly mix between his soft bedspread and Husk smelling like soap and scotch and sweat and safety all around him, like he’s drowning in it, and it nearly puts him under again.
Except-
“You alright?” Husk’s morning-gruff voice is low and steady, concern edging into the corners of it like it does when he knows Angel’s about ten seconds from total meltdown at the end of a longass day. He’s gotten good at catching him before he topples off the edge of that cliff.
Angel wishes he weren’t so damn observant; it’s like the man decided that if he was going to know Angel, then he wanted to study every page. It makes it nearly impossible to get anything past him; Husk had built an empire on reading other people’s tells, after all.
Angel sighs. “Yeah, baby. I’m good. Bad dream,” he lies, and knows Husk knows it. Whether he’ll let him get away with it is another matter entirely.
“Mhmm,” Husk hums, and Angel swears a blue streak in the privacy of his own mind.
Cazzo.
No way in the seven rings was Husk gonna let it slide.
“Wouldn’t bother me none,” Husk says, voice even. “If ya wanted this the other way around.”
Angel doesn’t even get to make the joke about Husk being versatile that he wants to make before Husk squeezes his hand to cut him off. “Don’t. Bein’ serious, sweetheart,” Angel slumps in his hold as Husk presses a kiss to the crook of his neck. “The way you wake up scared breaks my heart.”
Goddammit. Of course. Of course he’d known. Husk’s sharp as hell, he’d only been waiting for Angel to say something, to bring it up first, because Husk’s been careful about pushing him about anything since that botched redemption run and the domino effect that sent him straight back into Val’s arms. He knows Husk’s scared of losing him again; they’re built on the precipice of a cliff with crumbling edges while both of them tempt fate toeing the ledge.
Husk’s home in Angel’s heart, built upon the sand.
He owes him a solid foundation. This could be a start.
“Don’t wanna lose this,” Angel murmurs, tugging at Husk’s arm draped over his side. He disentangles his hand, and rolls onto his back so he can look at him. All he finds is a pair of soft eyes meeting him there. He swallows. “I fuckin’ love this,” he reaches out to cradle Husk’s jaw, thumb brushing at his lower lip, and sighs. “My brain ain’t gotten the memo yet, is all.”
Husk leans into his touch, planting a kiss in Angel’s palm. “What’ll help?”
Angel hums. “Like ya said. Could try the other way around. Not-” he stops Husk as he moves to pull away, clearly about to shift them both. “-not right now,” he tugs Husk back down against him, and Husk goes willingly, settling with his ear to Angel’s chest. “Tonight. Still want this now.”
Husk huffs in contented agreement, ruffling Angel’s fluff. He can’t help the laugh it pulls from him; his pissed-off drunken bartender, secretly Hell’s biggest fuckin’ cuddlebug. Who’d have guessed.
“Got anywhere to be?” Husk asks. The question vibrates through Angel’s ribs.
“Nah,” he replies, reaching up to trace his fingers along the tops of Husk’s folded wings. It draws the purr back out of him, and Angel grins to himself. “You?”
“Bar can wait. Fuck ‘em.”
“Could fuck me instead,” Angel offers, more out of habit than anything else, and Husk flicks an ear. “Kiddin’.”
“No, you ain’t.”
“No, I ain’t,” Angel agrees, unable to fight down his smile about it. “What can I say? I got a handsome man usin’ my tits for a pillow. Hard not to think it.”
“Later.”
“Promise?”
“Sure, baby,” Husk says, and his eyeroll can’t cover up the fondness in his tone. “Go the fuck back to sleep.”
He doesn’t know if he can, but a few hours basking in this nest of blankets and pillows with Husk purring against him sounds like just what the doctor ordered.
And maybe, if he does drift off, he’ll get to wake up the way that he wants to; with a stretch of his limbs and a kiss and the idea of safety finally settled into his bones.
It’s worth a shot at least.