original: "The Value of Sleep" (slash)
Aaron and Jamie, surprise surprise! This takes place right after a scene I really need to write that I still haven't written in which Aaron finally tells Jamie how much he hates living in NYC (after some serious prying from Jamie's end). If I'd bothered to write that out first, this would have much more context, but the inspiration came first for this (and as it stands it's mostly just fluffy).
This story takes place sometime around or after the year 2020, so Peter Jackson's The Hobbit has been out for quite a while (and it's exponentially more nerdy to marathon the Trilogy because now it's not only classic fantasy but outdated cinema).
You can find more Aaron and Jamie here: 1, 2, 3, 4
A week had passed since Aaron had (finally) filled his prescription and started taking the antidepressants. So far he hadn't noticed any improvement-aside from the relief he'd felt at bringing it up with his husband-and it wasn't helping his insomnia. He'd almost gotten used to the few hours of nightly sleep he'd been getting recently (a few hours more than he'd been getting since middle school), but the night after he took the first pill had been spent lying awake in bed, his only respite when Jamie had come home from work and crawled in beside him.
It all culminated into a frustrating and generally upsetting week. Friday night/Saturday morning found Aaron on the living room couch, working on a stubborn case he'd gotten on Wednesday.
The arms around his shoulders startled him, and continued to not quite make sense when he glanced at the clock and noted it was only 5:46am.
"Did I wake you?" he croaked, clearing his throat. He'd forgotten how dehydrated he got when he didn't sleep.
"No," Jamie pressed a kiss into his hair. "I woke up on my own. Do you want breakfast?"
Aaron frowned. The whole situation was entirely abnormal. He did not discredit the possibility that he'd finally drifted off and was having a strange dream. But, if it was a dream, it was a nice dream, so he decided he might as well go with it.
"Alright. Thanks." He was left with another kiss on top of his head and his husband headed for the kitchen.
He glanced out the sliding glass door onto the balcony with its tiny potted herb garden and the gray, dreary city below. Rain had slanted its way under the eave and was spattering the glass and screen of the door, blurring the view he didn't really care to see, anyway. He decided he probably wasn't dreaming.
"Don't you have a show this afternoon?" he called into the kitchen. Jamie didn't usually wake up until ten most days, and usually later on two-show days like today.
"I took the day off," he heard over the clanking of pans. "Jones is thrilled to have the solo twice in a row."
Aaron found himself frowning again. He closed his laptop and set it on the end table. He was beginning to worry that he was missing something important, but Jamie's birthday was in March and they'd just celebrated their first anniversary a few months ago last summer. His own birthday wasn't until January, and they hadn't even been through Halloween, yet.
"Any particular reason?" He was answered only by the sizzle of cooking eggs and bacon from the kitchen.
After a few minutes, Jamie returned with two plates of food which he abandoned on the coffee table to join Aaron on the couch, wrapping his arms around his waist and nuzzling his neck.
"I thought we could spend the day together," he finally replied, kissing softly at his husband's jaw. "Relax. Not worry about work. Lounge around in our pajamas all day. You know."
After a moment, Aaron realized he was smiling. "Yeah," he said. "I'd like that."
Jamie kissed him properly on the mouth then glanced out the sliding door at the rain. "Feel like marathoning something?"
Aaron took a moment to look over the tidy, alphabetized shelf of DVDs to the right of the television. "Lord of the Rings."
"The Hobbit, too?"
"Why not?" Aaron shrugged. "We've got all day."
-
So they watched the Trilogy (plus one), pausing only for food and bathroom breaks and to change discs. Before he knew it, Jamie was softly humming "Into The West", hugging his sleeping husband to his chest and stroking his hair (he guessed Aaron had fallen asleep right around Shelob's Lair). He was just drifting off himself when Aaron stirred, taking a half-yawned breath and stretching so his spine popped (Jamie winced).
"I missed it," he mumbled, blinking at the credits rolling by on the screen.
"We could go back," Jamie suggested. He yawned. "I don't mind."
Aaron looked up at him quizzically for a moment before breaking into a grin. "You know," he said, turning in his husband's arms and hugging him around the waist, "as cheesy as it is, I think it's easier to fall asleep when you're holding me."
Jamie groaned, sliding his hips down the couch beneath his husband and kissing his dry, groggy lips. "You know I love you, even when you're being a big sap."
"You know you love me even more when I'm being a big sap."
"Oh, alright," Jamie admitted. "I'm a sucker for cheese."
Aaron's smile was, Jamie thought, definitely worth fifteen hours in front of a television screen.