𝚠𝚑𝚢 𝚍𝚘𝚗'𝚝 𝚠𝚎 | 𝚋𝚡𝚋 𝚘𝚗𝚎 𝚜𝚑𝚘𝚝𝚜

pick a place to rest your head | dorbyn

dorbyn

warnings;
- none

~

corbyn sighs into the otherwise silent room.

it's 3 am and he's downstairs because he's sick of staring at the same four walls of his room as he tries - and completely fails - to sleep.

he usually has this under control. he has been so much better at maintaining a somewhat decent sleeping pattern for a long time and the fact that it's acting up now... he hates it.

he's not surprised. of course he isn't. they've been working so hard on the album lately, pouring every fibre of their beings into it, so it isn't a shock to him that the stress is messing with his sleep. he just wishes he wasn't so completely hopeless that he doesn't have any control over it.

because he should. he's simply doing his job and it's leaving him unable to stop his mind from racing for long enough to fall asleep. how pathetic is that?

and they have things to do in - he glances at the time - roughly five hours. they have a lot on their schedule and he could really do with the rest because he feels exhausted enough as it is without knowing he'll be running on nothing as they go about their interviews and photoshoots.

but he has tried, and he is tired of trying to sleep when it's not going to happen. there's no point. he cannot stop his thoughts, or at least quieten them down, even for a little while.

so he just scrolls through his phone. he might as well make some fans happy with some interactions if he can't do anything for himself.

~

daniel rubs his eyes as he stumbles not-so-elegantly down the stairs.

he's heading to the kitchen to get a drink when he hears a noise from one of the sofas. he blinks, and then moves towards the noise.

he's surprised to find corbyn curled up and scrolling through twitter because daniel might be wrong, but he's sure it's gone three in the morning and corbyn really should be asleep. he crosses his arms on the back of the sofa and watches him for a minute as he likes tweets and follows fans.

daniel smiles softly. "what are you doing up?" he asks.

corbyn jumps like daniel frightened the life out of him. his head snaps up and he locks his phone, holding it against his chest. "oh, um... i- i can't sleep."

daniel watches him worriedly, even if the darkness of the room means that corbyn can't really see him.

"we've got a busy day ahead of us," daniel says. he knows that won't help matters, but he says it anyways.

corbyn drops his gaze. "tell me about it," he mutters.

daniel frowns. corbyn sounds exhausted. he wonders what's leaving him unable to sleep, but he knows bringing that up now isn't going to change the fact that corbyn can't sleep.

so daniel brings his hand to corbyn's shoulder. "come upstairs," he says. even if they can't talk about this now, he's at least going to try to make it better.

corbyn leans his cheek against daniel's hand, but he shakes his head slowly. "no, dani," he whispers. daniel's heart aches at the lack of energy in his voice, how tired he sounds. "i don't wanna keep you awake."

daniel isn't going to just leave corbyn to sit awake on his own, though. he won't be able to fall back asleep knowing corbyn is down here, alone, completely uncomfortable and unable to do anything about it.

"please," daniel says. he puts as much desperation into that one word as he can. "i don't care if you keep me awake. let me try to help you."

he's completely surprised when corbyn lets out a soft sigh and nods, but he's not going to pretend he isn't ecstatic - well, as ecstatic as he can be at 3 am. he lets corbyn walk slightly ahead of him, keeping one hand at the small of corbyn's back to gently encourage him to keep walking. he veers corbyn into daniel's room instead of corbyn's.

he moves ahead of corbyn this time, pulling back the comforter and lying down on his back. "get comfortable," he says as corbyn stands idly, staring. "however you want."

corbyn nibbles at his bottom lip. daniel doesn't have to ask to know that he's completely overthinking everything right now. he thinks he's figured out what is keeping corbyn awake.

"are you sure?" corbyn asks and fuck, daniel hates how insecure he sounds.

"lie however you need to," daniel tells him and he really hopes he's conveying how much he wants corbyn to do what he needs.

corbyn hesitantly moves closer, and daniel wants to reach out for his hand and just tug him down onto the bed but he also wants corbyn to take this at his own pace. this is to try to help him sleep, after all. this is about him.

corbyn climbs under the comforter beside daniel, his movements still slow and nervous but then he's curling up at daniel's side, gently resting his head on daniel's chest and daniel swallows thickly, his heart hammering, as he tries to focus only on what corbyn needs right now.

stretching his arm over daniel's abdomen, corbyn burrows closer. "is this okay?" he asks quietly, as if there's any chance that daniel might turn him away.

daniel laughs softly. "it's perfect, corbs," he says.

he knows corbyn's mind is still racing. he can practically hear it. but corbyn is settling against him nicely and daniel can feel the exhaustion in the heaviness of his body. he just has to get that mind to stop working for long enough for corbyn to drift off.

he brings one hand to corbyn's hair, his fingers stroking softly against his scalp. for a moment, he's not entirely sure if this is even going to help but then corbyn shivers and practically mewls and daniel huffs out a gentle laugh. that must be a good sign.

he considers saying something, but he doesn't know what he'd say, and the silence seems to be working. he doesn't want to ruin this progress so he just brings his other hand to the arm stretched across his abdomen and runs his fingers along that, gentle and hopefully soothing.

he continues the repetitive motions and listens. he's not sure how long he lies like that for, but he waits until he's sure that corbyn's breathing has completely evened out.

only then does daniel whisper, "corbyn?"

and when he doesn't receive a reply, he smiles triumphantly. he always feels so damn special when corbyn allows himself to be vulnerable around him. and fuck, when daniel is actually able to do something to help... he can't explain how rewarding that feels.

he sleeps soundly with the knowledge that he has corbyn in his arms.

↳

requests are open if any of you for some reason want me to write you something

corbyn is my softboi so anything centring around him is preferred, but i promise to try anything even if it's outside my comfort zone (except smut. i'm not comfortable with smut)