The night hadn't always seemed so inviting.

As a child, Baekhyun had an irrational fear of the dark - although to this day he maintains that it's an entirely rational fear - and dreaded the time passing and the darkness consuming the world.

He kept night lights, of course, although now that he was an adult they were called 'lamps'. They worked well enough to hold the fear at bay. But recently he'd been thinking less and less about the world slipping into darkness and more and more about the phone call he knew it'd bring.

The phone calls weren't always at the same time; Sehun finished work and got back home at different times every night, so Baekhyun had begun to look forward to the night in general.

Sometimes he was making himself a hot chocolate before bed, others he was already in bed, reading just one more chapter of a new book. It didn't matter what he was doing - if Sehun called, he answered.

Tonight, he was focused on his upcoming deadline. Dimly-lit papers littered his desk and he found himself not needing more than the glow of his lamp or his laptop screen to read the words he knew were written there. His phone was kept to the right of all of the papers. Out of sight, therefore it meant less chance of him getting distracted. This didn't mean that it was on silent, however, and the awaited phone call finally came.

Baekhyun let it ring for a moment while he finished his sentence. He knew Sehun would wait just as patiently for him to answer as he waited for Sehun to call.

When the sentence looked as finished as it was going to get, Baekhyun picked up his phone and answered the call.

"Baekhyun?", Sehun asked. His voice was slow and made Baekhyun feel like yawning.

"No, sorry you've got the wrong numbe-".

"Very funny Baek, you might want to work on your voice impersonations".

Baekhyun smiled and pressed the phone closer to his ear, "If you knew it was me, why'd you ask?".

Sehun didn't answer at first, just responding with a small yawn.

"I'm tired", was all he said, as though that explained it.

And it did. Baekhyun nearly responded with a 'you're always tired', but he decided against it. Of course he was always tired; he always called him late at night.

"Me too", was what he replied with instead.

Sehun asked Baekhyun if he was disturbing him, and Baekhyun told him what he was doing. They spoke about their days at work, Baekhyun nodded behind his phone along with the conversation as though Sehun could somehow see him, and Sehun slowly got ready for bed. They spoke about the weather and about the music they listened to that day. They spoke about updates on their families lives and about anything interesting that'd happened to each other recently.

Baekhyun heard Sehun yawn again on the other end of the phone and he struggled to stifle one himself.

He remembered when Sehun first called him late at night. He was watching a drama when his phone began to ring, and to his surprise it was Sehun. Apparently Sehun had left his phone charger at Baekhyun's when he visited earlier that day. Baekhyun remembered looking over at Sehun's chair - it wasn't Sehun's but he claimed it whenever he visited - and finding the charger instantly. When he returned to the phone to tell Sehun, the other man was silent except for a few quiet snores here and there.

The next time Sehun phoned him at night had something to do with borrowing a DVD. It had to be at night, because 'I, uh, could I borrow it for tomorrow please?'. At least, that was Sehun's reasoning. He didn't fall asleep during the phone call that time. He did, however, hang up and fall asleep straight after.

Baekhyun began to expect Sehun's calls, and Sehun began to run out of fake excuses. They both knew they were ridiculous excuses at that point and soon enough Sehun dropped them entirely. It was probably the 'Baekhyun do you think animals from different countries speak different languages?' conversation starter that made them both realise the ruse was up.

There was a day when Sehun didn't call him. Baekhyun felt inclined to be the one to initiate the call, but for some reason he didn't. When Baekhyun called him the next day, Sehun admitted to having an awful night's sleep. Apparently he drifted, not quite asleep but not fully conscious.

The phone calls were a certainty after that. Occasionally Baekhyun liked to surprise Sehun by calling him first - although this was sometimes confusing for Sehun if he was still at work. Falling asleep at his desk was not amongst his top 10 favourite things to do.

Another yawn from Sehun brought Baekhyun back into the current. His work sat before him, waiting to be completed. He felt too warm and too tired to finish it now.

Baekhyun gave it one last glance before closing his laptop and making his own way to bed. The work was tomorrow's problem.

Sehun's responses were becoming more spread out and he seemed to be struggling for the words. The yawning was more frequent now and Baekhyun could feel his own eyes threatening to close.

"I-I, uh, I uh forgot what I was saying", Sehun murmured. His voice was lower than before and every word seemed longer than usual.

Baekhyun responded with a yawn, "I, me too".

Sehun hummed and ever so slightly his breathing began to soften. Baekhyun gently began to pull the phone away from his ear.

"Goodnight Sehun".

Before he hung up, he heard Sehun ever so quietly mumble a goodnight back.

Baekhyun smiled and put his phone on the bedside table. The lamp was still lighting up the room and before he could talk himself out of it, he switched it off and closed his eyes.

The darkness surrounded him for about 8 seconds before Baekhyun caved and turned the lamp back on.

You know, just in case.