The night was still young and so very cold, but Chuck had already spent some quality time in bed tossing and turning and not sleeping at all. For a while, he had tried to sleep with music, with another blanket, lights on, lights off, window wide open and locked shut but eventually, he just gave up.
Their last mission had taken a toll on all of them - maybe, it felt like that to him and yet he was too afraid to admit it out loud. As he changed out of his pajamas, Chuck thought back to the warmth he had grown used to, the bodies nestled tightly to his and all of a sudden his room felt so much emptier. They had spent the entire last week sharing a hotel room, lying near on the same bed while the world around them fell apart in its usual mid-mission state. Slowly at first, almost tenderly until he had grown so used to their proximity he couldn’t remember how he had been able to sleep all alone before.
But he couldn’t just show up at Casey’s place - he had somehow already locked the door behind himself and stood in the courtyard - no, the other man would surely ridicule him. His brain was already working the very second his legs started to move again just a small excuse, a short idea for him to spend time close to the agent, closer to this warmth he had grown so accustomed to. A knock sounded, echoed through the yard and maybe it was his sleep deprived mind, but he hadn’t noticed his own hand moving, had just acted like somebody else was pulling on strings. ❝ Casey? ❞