Archive of Our Own

Scar was hunched over his desk with various balls of paper crumpled around him, letting out an exasperated sigh and he crumpled up yet another piece and chucked it to the side to be forgotten. His head fell forward onto his desk with a loud thump and his pencil falling out of his hands.

He’d been drawing for hours trying to capture the likeness of a certain dirty blond haired man, but it was turning out to be an impossible task. He had started drawing around 10pm that night, and with a quick glance to his clock, it was currently 4:03am and his desk was drowning in failed attempts. His subject was just to…perfect. Scar could see him in his mind’s eye perfectly clear一his void coloured eyes, curly dirty blonde hair, and a smile that melted his heart. Grian took up all the space in his mind 24/7, there wasn’t a moment he wasn’t in his head. And the funny part was, they weren’t even a couple. Scar was just helplessly in love. And he was starting to think Grian was too.

Scars plan originally was to confess to him with a drawing, one that captured everything he loved about the blonde, but now he was drowning in the despair of his failure.

He knew they weren’t normal friends. Normal friends don’t get as touchy as they do, they don’t sleep in the same bed when the other comes over for the night, and they certainly don’t cuddle each other when they do so. They were the furthest thing from normal friends.

They’d slept in the same bed so many times that Scar struggled to sleep on his own anymore, his eyes had become baggy and droopy from every waking moment he was away from Grian. And now he was trying to stay up when he was already so sleep deprived. Maybe he should just call Grian, then maybe he’d get a good night's sleep for the first time in a while.

Grian only lived in an apartment complex down the road from his, about a five minute walk. And— knowing the blond—he’s probably awake as well, so maybe there was no harm in sending a quick text to him.

Scar lifted himself off his desk, wincing as his back ached in pain from being hunched over for so long. He gave it a quick stretch before grabbing his phone from under the sea of papers and opening his messages app. Naturally, Scar had pinned Grians contact so it was always at the top of his messages, therefore whenever he needed a chat with him, it was quick and easy to do so.

SG- 

U up? -4:06am

He stared at the screen, the bright light making his eyes squint, a bad habit of his to have the brightness up way too high at night. As he went to lower it, his phone buzzed with a response.

Birdy-

Yeah, what's up? -4:06am

Just as Scar thought, Grian couldn’t sleep either

SG-

Cnt slwep :( -4:07am

Birdy-

Same here, finals are kicking my ass -4:07am

Okay, not like Scar had thought. Grian wasn’t awake because he couldn’t sleep, he was awake because he was slipping back into his overworking habits.

SG-

Ar you ovwrwoking youself agin -4:08am

The typing bubble sat there for a while before disappearing and reappearing again. Scar was right, wasn’t he.

Birdy-

No, just the only chance I’ve had to study. 

Birdy-

Are you half asleep or is your dyslexia at it again? you’re messing up your typing more.

SG-

Liar

SG-

An no, m veru muh awske but my finge hurt

Birdy-

I should have asked this earlier, how come you aren’t able to sleep?

He was dodging the topic, of course. Scar knew him long enough to know he tries to hide when he’s struggling far too often, even when he tried to offer his support.

SG-

You aren’t here.

The brunette watched as the speech bubble popped up for a moment then disappeared. He waited, and waited. And now it had been five minutes without any response from the blond. Had he just messed up horribly? should he have said that? Oh god their friendship was probably over now wasn’t it. He had just ruined the one great thing in his life by one stupid text message.

Just when Scar had started to descend into a full-fledged crisis over potentially ruining his friendship, there was a quiet knock on his apartment door and he barely heard it. His brows furrowed in confusion, who on earth would be at his door at 4:13 in the morning. How would they even know he was awake-

Oh.

Oh.

He knew who it was.

He got up from his chair and unlocked his door, opening it and emerald eyes met void ones. Both had severe bags under their eyes and clear signs of exhaustion in their expressions.

Grian didn’t even wait for Scar to invite him in before he pushed past Scar and grabbed him by the collar of his hoodie, dragging the brunette to his room.

“Uh- G what are you doing here?” Scar stammered as he let the shorter man drag him to his own room.

“Well, neither of us could sleep or have had a proper sleep in a while and we both know why, so I'm giving us a solution.” The blond answered as they reached Scars bed, kicking off his shoes and putting them at the foot of the bed.

Scar silently watched as Grian made himself comfortable in his bed before hesitantly taking off his sweater and climbing in beside him.

“So…You have any plans tomorrow?” Scar muttered, breaking the steady silence that had settled between them. Grian turned his head to look at the brunette and took into account of his red ears and pink dusted cheeks.

“No, do you?”

“No…” Scars hand had weasled its way into Grians, interlocking their fingers like they had done this a thousand times already.

Grian glanced down at their intertwined hands before speaking up, “Do you…want to do something?”

Scar stared at the blond’s face, seeing the soft expression contained with a hint of anxiety that was painted onto it. “I…I’d like that” He squeezed Grians hand and stared into Grians eyes.

Now Grian was blushing, his face felt hot and having Scar staring at him was definitely not helping. “We… should get some sleep shouldn’t we?” Grian said, clearing his throat and shifting his position to lay down. 

His words snapped Scar out of whatever dreamland he was floating in. “Oh-! Oh..yea..yeah we should.” Scar stammered as he laid down next to Grian, fitting next to him like pieces of a puzzle.

Grian tentatively wrapped his arms around the taller man like he has so many times before and rested his head on Scars chest as the brunette's arms snaked around his waist. 

They weren’t normal friends, both of them knew that. And both of them were going to seize the opportunity of hanging out to finally admit that to the other, unknowing that they both shared the same plan.

“Goodnight, songbird.”

“Night, Scar..” Grian mumbled as he let the sea of unconsciousness finally take hold on his mind after denying it for days. Tomorrow, he may be able to do this and call Scar more than just a friend. Maybe he’d get to sleep like that every night. And void was that all he ever wanted. But for now, being able to sleep in Scars arms was what he would settle for, finally allowing him to get a good nights sleep.