that next morning

[wildrover]

Ryan fell asleep quickly after letting Esposito crash in the bed with him, their brief banter wearing him out once again. Like he had admitted to Javier, the day had been long and hard, their current case exacting a toll on Kevin mentally if not quite so much physically. A lot of shifting through useless data and trying to find the useful. At least they'd put this one behind them already, solving it through a fluke of luck and rendering most of Ryan's work obsolete. But it was done and for that Ryan was thankful. Now he just wanted to sleep.

So he did, and heavily too. He didn't shift often in his sleep at least and neither did he snore. And if Esposito did either of those two things then Ryan didn't notice them, not tonight.

Morning came and sun started to peek through the window. One bad thing about having an apartment on the eastern side of the building: the sun always got to the window early in the morning. Ryan shifted slightly but he still wasn't ready to get up just yet. The bed was comfortable, and the body pillow he'd snuggled into was warm and compliant to his needs. He was blissfully content to just stay where he was all morning until the afternoon. Maybe longer.

If only.

Comments

[specialforces]

Javi slept remarkably well himself, given the circumstances. Back in his apartment, early morning sunlight wasn't really something that he dealt with, so the difference was enough to rouse him. He stretched out with a yawn, blinking his eyes open slowly.

[wildrover]

Ryan muttered in his sleep, an indistinguishable protest against the pillow moving beside him. He threw an arm out to wrap around the warm object of his snuggle and squeezed it possessively in an attempt to make it stop squirming. It needed to stay still so he could go back to sleep, not wake him up.

[specialforces]

Oh. That explained the different surroundings. He was waking up with someone. Always a plus, there. He closed his eyes, hummed contentedly under his breath, and nestled closer.

[wildrover]

That was better. Ryan settled back into place and relaxed, more or less heading back towards sleep now that everything was back to stillness. He'd learned to ignore the morning light on his time off so as long as his pillow didn't move anymore he was likely to simply go back to full on slumber.

[specialforces]

After a bit of time spent snuggling, the light finally got the best of him and he really couldn't even fake sleeping much longer. He opened his eyes with a yawn and looked over at—

Oh.

Right.

And to top it off, apparently Ryan was part squid.

[wildrover]

He couldn't help it if Esposito made an exceptionally comfortable pillow with his warm and firm but gentle body. He just didn't take too kind to said pillow trying to squirm out of his grasp so he grappled tighter with every tiny movement--like a boa with a juicy bit of meat struggling to get away.

Ryan muttered something under his breath again and shifted closer, his head curled downwards and stopped on Esposito's chest.

He was still out of it.

[specialforces]

Obviously, he was not going to be able to just squirm free, ever, so he nudged Ryan just a bit. "Hey. Kevin."

[wildrover]

The Irish detective groaned in protest and squeezed tighter. The pitch of the voice stuck in his mind and disturbed his sleep, forcing him to slowly waken enough to place it.

When it struck him his eyes snapped open. "Javi?" he asked cautiously, frozen awkwardly still as he waited for a reply.

[specialforces]

"Either that or a body pillow, bro. Can't decide which." His voice was light and amused, though.

[wildrover]

A couple of hours turned into a couple more until it was late afternoon before Ryan realized he had stayed well after the time he said he would take. He hadn't even stopped for lunch, only a small break here and there for an extra coffee from the delightful machine Castle had bought for the precinct. He stretched a bit while still seated in his chair and looked over the papers he had managed to fill out so far. He'd gotten a good portion done, most of it in fact. But it seemed like there was always more.

He decided he'd done enough for today though considering he wasn't even on-duty. He had simply needed to get out of the apartment for a while and waste some time. Clear his head after that awkward morning. He loved Esposito and spending time with him even away from work but that could not have been more awkward if he had tried.

On the other hand, he was looking forward to heading home now and not just because he was hungry. He arranged his paperwork accordingly and straightened his desk before heading for the elevator. Admittedly, he was curious to see what Esposito had spent the day doing. He hurried out to his car and made the trip back home during the pleasant time period right before evening traffic hit the streets hard. Lucky him.

He unlocked the door to his apartment and headed inside. "Espo?" he called out, looking around curiously for his partner. "I'm back. Sorry about the time, I lost track of it."

[specialforces]

Espo was actually a bit grateful it had taken Ryan as long as it did, because his own plans went a bit longer than he was expecting. But he still had a bit of excess time so when Kevin got home, he was sprawled on the couch watching Are You Tougher Than a Boy Scout on National Geographic.

"Don't sweat it, man! I know how it gets."

[wildrover]

Ryan took off his jacket and hung it first thing then wandered closer to the couch, looking at the TV as he did so. "Yeah, I got a lot of work done at least. What are you watching?"

[specialforces]

"Oh, the National Geographic channel. You know. For culture."

[wildrover]

"Uh-huh. Please tell me that's not some sort of reality show." Ryan moved to take a seat next to Esposito on the couch.

[specialforces]

He scooted over a bit to give Ryan a bit more room. "Technically, it's more like a game show."

[wildrover]

"I guess I can let that slide then," Ryan said with a small smirk.

[specialforces]

"Cool. Want something to drink?"

[wildrover]

Ryan rolled his eyes at Esposito's antics and switched the TV over to the DVD player. The movie that was already in the player was Ryan's go-to movie and no matter when the last time he'd watched it viewing it again never seemed to bother him. He shoved at Javier just enough to earn him an extra inch of space and settled back to watch the movie with his last drink for the night.

When the movie ended Kevin was ready to call it a night. His drink was long gone and it was late enough that (hopefully) even Espo wouldn't object. He placed his glass in the kitchen and called back to Javi, "I'm gonna call it a day. You can sneak in later if you're not ready to sleep."

It felt a little odd saying that but Ryan didn't mind it so much.

[specialforces]

"I'll be along in a minute," he said, standing up himself and heading for the kitchen. "Gonna swipe a piece of cold pizza first."

[wildrover]

Kevin smiled and shook his head at Javier though in truth it wasn't as if Kev had never eaten cold pizza. It wasn't as bad as everyone made it out to be, honestly.

He passed by Javi on his way out and headed for the bedroom. He could change and finish getting ready to sleep while Javier was busy in the kitchen.

[specialforces]

It was almost better cold, in Espo's opinion. Once he finished polishing off the piece of pizza, he grabbed both of the glasses and washed them up really quickly before heading back to the bedroom.

[wildrover]

Ryan hadn't waited for Espo. He was already in bed by the time Espo got to the room. The light was still on though and he was waiting. It looked as though he were ignoring a book on the nightstand now that Javier was in the room; it hadn't been there before but Ryan hadn't picked it up to read before bed as might be expected from its placement.

[specialforces]

Javi looked at the book as he grabbed a spare t-shirt from his overnight bag to change for bed.

"Hey, man, don't let me interrupt if you were wanting to read that."

[wildrover]

"This is what I get for inviting a detective into my bed," Ryan said with a wry smirk. "He notices too much. Nah, I'm good. I just wasn't sure how long you were gonna be up."

[specialforces]

"Like I said, I was just getting a slice. But, you know, if you're going to invite a detective into your bed, you made the right choice." He grinned and got changed before heading over and climbing in on the other side.