4:33 am

sanghyuk reaches his hand out, thinking he’s going to collide with taekwoon’s body, latch onto him and pull himself closer, but the spot next to him is empty. cold. he exhales, smacks his mouth to himself and scrunches his nose up at the thick feeling, and turns his head on the pillow. taekwoon’s spot is indeed empty, blanket pushed together into a long lump next to sanghyuk.

“hyung,” sanghyuk mutters, mostly to himself, mostly to check if his voice will bear. it barely does.

he shuts his eyes again and shifts a little to curl up on his side, thinking about how dimly lit the room had been and if the glass on taekwoon’s nightstand had been filled or empty. when his body settles in the sheets, it becomes quiet enough for him to hear the scribbling noises across the room, and he singles out a sigh coming from taekwoon. another minute passes and sanghyuk is too tired to get up, wants to be lulled back to sleep by the sounds of taekwoon working, but he’s curious, curious and in dire need of a warm body to curl up against.

“what are you doing,” he mumbles a little louder this time, forcing his head up from his pillow and just about catching a glimpse of taekwoon’s figure sitting on the edge of their loft before he lets his head drop back down.

“waiting,” taekwoon says softly in response, and the gentle tone of his voice stirs in sanghyuk’s chest, makes the ache for him to hold the older tingle all the way out in his fingers.

“is it gonna take long, hyung,” sanghyuk mumbles next, wrapping the comforter tighter around him as he wriggles where he lies, attempting to crawl closer to the foot end.

“maybe,” taekwoon replies, and while sanghyuk isn’t watching, he can hear that he’s turned to sanghyuk’s direction. “you can go back to sleep if you want.”

“nmmh,” sanghyuk sighs.

reaching the foot end, sanghyuk pushes up to sit on his knees as he rubs at one of his eyes, pulling in a deep breath of chilly morning air. taekwoon is hunched over his lap when sanghyuk opens his eyes, thin t-shirt revealing the little bumps of his spine and shoulder blades, and messy black hair sticking up in a tuft right above his neck. sanghyuk sets his feet down on the floor and drags the comforter with him as he scoots closer to taekwoon, careful not to knock his watercolors or glasses of dirty water over.

resting his forehead against taekwoon’s back, sanghyuk mumbles again. “what’re you waiting for, hyung.”

he feels the other straighten up a little, pausing when he notices sanghyuk leaning on him.

“sunrise,” he says quietly, one of his hands coming up to sanghyuk’s hair.

“hm,” sanghyuk raises his head a little with the feeling, letting taekwoon run his fingers though sanghyuk’s hair and pull his head back a bit.

“do you want to sit here with me? i’ll be back in bed in a moment.”

“sit here,” sanghyuk tilts his head with taekwoon’s hand.

“just don’t push me down the stairs,” taekwoon whispers.

sanghyuk looks up at him with a tired smile, noting taekwoon’s puffy eye bags and the little crinkles on his cheeks from sheets and pillows. they lean in for a short kiss, sanghyuk shutting his eyes and melting into it for the few seconds it lasts before taekwoon pulls back.

“i’ll try not to.”

the wooden railing next to taekwoon is hard and sanghyuk low key wishes he would have brought a pillow from the bed, but he gets over the discomfort of the wood pressing into the back of his head eventually. pulling his knees up to his chest, he wraps the comforter around himself again and watches under heavy eyelids while taekwoon paints, hunching further and further over until he’s back in the position he was in when sanghyuk first woke up. there’s a smudge of paint on his forehead - light blue - and sanghyuk wonders for a minute how it got there, until taekwoon reaches up to push his hair out of his face. the smudge grows bigger and a streak of yellow orange joins the blue.

“you need to wash your face,” sanghyuk points out quietly.

“yeah,” taekwoon exhales, looking back at sanghyuk with pursed lips before he reaches out to pick up another brush from the floor.

sanghyuk glances to his right, between the wood bars and out over the rest of the apartment. everything is covered in a warm light, still soft and barely there, but sanghyuk gazes out the kitchen windows to see the sun creeping above the horizon, blurring treetops and the roofs of neighbor buildings. moments later, the sun hits sanghyuk’s face, and he shuts his eyes with a sigh and keeps his face resting between two of the railing bars while he allows the rays to warm up his skin.

10:02 am

sanghyuk stretches his legs out and clutches the pillow in his arms tighter, burrowing his face in it as he tries to locate his surroundings. he’s back in bed, he establishes when he curls his toes into the sheets, and when he rolls over on his side, he realizes that taekwoon is too. it’s grown too warm for blankets, he notices, and he lets go of the pillow to rub at his eyes while he kicks the clammy blanket off his body.

“hyung,” he mumbles, peering over at the other buried in pillows. the t-shirt has been discarded and sanghyuk thinks he can see it bunched up on the floor when he glances down at taekwoon’s feet.

a croaked “yeah?” comes from taekwoon’s direction, and sanghyuk stifles a giggle and pushes one of his legs in between taekwoon’s.

“hi,” sanghyuk whispers after lifting a pillow covering taekwoon’s face, the other cracking an eye open with a curious look.

in reply, taekwoon only winds his arm around sanghyuk’s waist and pulls him close, letting sanghyuk nuzzle into his neck as he combs his fingers through sanghyuk’s hair and takes a deep, slow breath. taekwoon’s body is warm but not too much, sanghyuk prefers it to being tangled up in smothering sheets, and he presses a few lazy kisses to what he can reach of taekwoon’s neck and shoulder, earning a ticklish squirm from the older.

“do you wanna get up?,” sanghyuk asks into taekwoon’s hair.

“mm, soon,” taekwoon hums, running his fingertips down the nape of sanghyuk’s neck and down his spine. it tickles, tingles, burns, and sanghyuk presses closer by habit, comfort slowly spreading in his limbs. “i wanna lie here with you a little longer.”