Before Shane moved in and they started spending nearly every night together, Ilya was a very light sleeper. Galina suggested it was a trauma response from his childhood.
Ilya supposed that made sense; Grigori would sometimes burst into his bedroom in the mornings and scream at him for being lazy if he was still in bed. He had taken to leaping out from between the covers as soon as the first heavy thud of his father's feet on the stairs reached his ears. He sometimes found himself up and shivering against the cold morning air before he was even aware he'd moved.
But one morning at the start of Shane's first season with the Centaurs, he was awoken gently by his husband's hand on his shoulder and the sun streaming through the window. Brighter than he expected.
"Hey, baby," Shane whispered with a smile, "you look so cozy. I feel bad waking you, but you already slept through your alarm, and we're gonna have to leave soon."
Ilya sat up quickly and checked the time. Half an hour past his alarm. Never once had he slept through an alarm before. Confused, he asked, "It went off?"
"Yeah, I heard the tail end of it as I got back in from my run with Anya or I would've shut it off sooner, sorry."
Ilya thought this was a silly thing to apologize for since he apparently hadn't heard it anyway, but he too busy stuck in his head to comment on it.
Somehow, Ilya's brain must have felt safe enough for him to fall into a deeper sleep than he had in years. Where once this accident would have been met with cold and reprimand, here he was met with warm sunshine and his love's gentle hands. Ilya felt at home.
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Before he moved in with Ilya and they started spending nearly every night together, Shane was practically dead to the world every time he went to sleep. He was just always so tired after long, physically intense days, okay?
But he was Shane Hollander so he would drag himself out of bed the next morning like clockwork for his run, and if it was earlier that he would like, well, that's just one of the sacrifices he's willing to make for his career. He could relax a bit more in the off-seasons.
It's not like he didn't get enough sleep. A full eight and a half hours on game days, maybe a little less the rest of the time, but never fewer than six hours. He tracked it. And stimulating his muscles was a great way to throw off any lingering drowsiness, so by the time he got back from his runs, he was ready for the day. Work hard at the rink, crash hard at home, rinse and repeat.
A few weeks into the regular season his first year with the Centaurs, Shane woke up in the early hours of the morning. They'd had yesterday off, and spent it lazing about and enjoyed each other's company, which had resulted in a mid afternoon nap. They'd gotten up around an hour later and made an early dinner, before Ilya had taken Shane to bed and worn him out so thoroughly that they'd still ended up going to sleep around the usual time.
But now Shane was awake, and feeling sore and soft and sleepy but not tired, and he could hear Ilya's heartbeat and the deep huffy breaths he took when he was sleeping well. At the foot of the bed, Anya was making quiet doggy snores that, hilariously, almost matched Ilya's. Shane smiled, chest pleasantly full of affection for his little family, and let himself gently slip back to sleep.
The next morning he woke up naturally, feeling well-rested and satisfied. At peace in Ilya's arms.
