For salvagestime
Something is nudging his shoulder and Arthur’s response is to bury deeper into the pillow. Another nudge, this one more insistent, and he only groans in response.
The nudging doesn’t stop, however, and for a moment he’s reminded of a dog he had once when he was small. It would always nudge him awake just before the crack of dawn, and once it was big enough would actually push him off the bed. Then it would sit there, simply watching him and waiting for him to go about his day.
When he finally opens his eyes, he sees the Doctor standing above him. From this angle, with his hair messy and brown eyes wide, he’s reminded of that same dog when it was just a puppy, before it was big enough to push him out of bed. Blinking his eyes slowly, he sits up and muffles a yawn, rubbing his face as he gropes around the night table for his glasses.
It takes him a moment for him to realize they’re in the Doctor’s hand, and he takes them with a mumbled thank you. Even once the lenses are placed comfortably on his face, he can’t seem to quite focus properly, lingering sleep causing his vision to blur and sway.
“Oh, you’re awake! Good.” There’s a tone of surprise in his voice, as if he hadn’t been expecting this. Arthur would be annoyed if he didn’t know the Doctor and thus suspected it was genuine.
“I am, yes.” To some extent, at least. “Is there something you needed, Doctor?”
“Well not needed, per say, no. But! There is something I found while I was digging through the library. It’s this old physics paper, buried in between books on jinux colonies. Nasty little buggers, sneaked aboard the TARDIS once. I had to quarantine a whole section of rooms until I could figure out what to do with them. Turns out all you needed was to sprinkle sugar on them- Arthur?”
Sometime between the Doctor mentioning physics and revealing the key to dealing with a jinux infestation, Arthur had decided to curl back under the covers, glasses and everything.
“But I didn’t even tell you the reason I wanted to show you the physics paper. It brought up-“
“Five more minutes, Doctor. The paper can wait five more minutes, can’t it?”
“I suppose a few more minutes of sleep couldn’t hurt. I did know this fellow once, used to sleep about 32 hours a day. Brilliant mind, but-“
Arthur doesn’t hear the rest, already drifting comfortably back to sleep. He’s silently glad the puppy is not yet big enough to push him off the bed.
Word Count: 442
Fandom: Einstein and Eddington
Prmpt: Request