A/N: Tired of having it in my WIPs so I’ll just cut them into shorts before merging them altogether in
Fandom: FENCE comic
Characters: Nicholas Cox/Seiji Katayama
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I.
Nicholas Cox babbles in his sleep. Seiji isn't sure if this is a nightly occurrence for he only catches Cox's deep, pillow-like voice in the moments when sleep doesn't come as easy as he wishes it should. He'll never admit even to himself that this eases the background silence against his own mind-numbing introspection in the late hours of his wake.
The first occurrence started during their first week as roommates after a grueling day of training. There Seiji is, sitting up on his bed and recording his observations of the day on his journal under the dimlit room provided by the lamp on the other side of the curtain. Nothing seems to perturb his train of thought except for the frequent snores emitted from the bane of existence himself. Zero.
He pauses a few times, gathering the words in his mind while trying to mute the most annoying distraction with small doodles on the edges of the paper, and then he retreats back to writing. He still isn't quite accustomed to his... living arrangement yet (and he doubts that he ever will) but he indulges the hope of Zero being kicked out of school after the try outs.
A groan escapes from the other side and his hands waver above the paper for a second before scribbling once again. Another inaudible noise twitches his ear drums and the tip of his pen digs onto the paper a little harder as it slides the words onto the material. By the fifth groan, his fingers ache from squeezing the life out of his pen that he releases it from his grip and takes another moment to breathe.
“Seiji,” muffled his roommate from the curtain. While atrocious looking, he’s partly grateful for the divide. Otherwise, he’d have hurled his pen at Zero’s annoying face for continuously interrupting his blissful silence (granted they were unintentional but he never wanted this arrangement in the first place). Seiji puffs out a breath and continues on as though Zero never existed.
“Seiji, Seiji, Seiji.” His utterly frustrating and unconsciously rude roommate calls out again, louder this time. Seiji’s hand freezes to a stop, unceremoniously drops his pen to his side of the bed and closes his notebook with an indignant shut.
“What?” He hissed, glaring at the ridiculous duck curtain as though it encompasses Cox’s entire face. He careens his head to where the division parts and notes the shadows lining Cox’s relaxed body, still in his slumber. Exhaustion sweeps in like stardust in his eyes and Seiji gives in. Whatever his roommate has to say he’ll forget it in the morning. He’ll brush whatever bubble of moment is about to happen and will dig it into the back of his mind until it merely is an insignificant occurrence where his insomniac mind is out of sorts.
“Can you help me find my pants?”
Seiji takes it back. No matter what he says it’ll only rile him up further. He ignores the request and shoves his notebook and pen under his pillow and lowers his upper body back down from sitting up for so long. He’s almost had enough of his roommate’s stupidity-
“You’re a pain in the ass you know that, right?” Sigh. The words, “As if you aren’t yourself” almost fall from Seiji’s lips but he bites his tongue and turns until his back is facing the curtain. He anticipates for another idiotic conversation for few minutes before Nicholas’s snores echoed and gradually, Seiji shuts his eyes to a dreamless sleep.
The morning after, they’re already ignoring each other again. Seiji doesn’t question himself when his dark gaze lingers on Cox’s sullen face for too long.