AlbeCale Oneshot: Stuck in a Box

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Fwip!

Two people spontaneously appeared inside a cramped box, trapped. One was asleep, the other awake.

"!!!"

Alberu Crossman's eyes blew wide open. He quickly pressed his hands to the floor of this tiny space to keep himself from falling on the sleeping person underneath him. The box he was in was just big enough for him to do a push up.

'What—?!'

He looked around, searching for an exit or window, or anything that could be useful, but all he could see was a dimly lit box that was just big enough to contain both him and the other person.

'What the hell??'

Retired supreme commander Cale Henituse was peacefully sleeping in his pajamas even though his neck was propped up severely by the wall behind his head. Alberu shifted slightly, holding up his body with a single hand placed next to Cale's shoulder, and used the other to search the floor of the space. He didn't find anything.

Alberu had just been looking over the last few paperworks in today's stack before he appeared here. His head ached from the lack of sleep, as he had been kidnapped in the early hours of the morning. He glanced down at the lower half of his body, cringing slightly.

The only way he could fit in the small area was to kneel in between Cale's legs, leaning over Cale's entire upper body. It was a very suggestive position had this been a different setting, and Alberu felt himself getting a bit flustered.

'...There must be a way out of here.'

He continued searching everywhere he possibly could, before deciding to wait until Cale wakes up. He definitely had enough energy in him to stay up for a long time. Definitely.

***

Cale slowly blinked his eyes open, wanting to stretch his body. He blinked in confusion as his eyes got used to the lighting. His neck hurt, and his body felt slightly colder than usual from the absence of the children who liked to curl up by his arms and on his chest.

'...'

He stared up in even more confusion as he recognised his hyung leaning over him quite closely. It was such a strange situation that Cale's heartbeat was speeding up from shock. That was also when he noticed the strange box-like room they were in. The black walls felt room temperature, and somehow there was a hidden light source keeping everything dimly lit.

He glanced back up at Alberu, who he noticed looked exhausted. The man was still dressed in his fancy emperor getup, and his eyes were out of focus and zoned out looking down at Cale's shirt. His neck hung almost slack, and one arm was positioned above Cale and the other was planted between his arm and side.

"Your majesty...?"

"Hyung..."

"Yes, hyung-nim, What is going on?"

That seemed to snap Alberu out of whatever sleepy daze he was in, and he blinked furiously.

"Uh- Cale? You're awake?"

"Yes..?" Cale stared up at him with furrowed eyebrows. "What happened? Where are we?"

"I don't know."

"What?"

Alberu made eye contact with Cale. For reference, their faces were only about ten centimeters apart.

"Hyung, are you saying we just opened our eyes and we are in this box? Randomly?"

"Mhm..."

Alberu turned his head away and yawned for a few seconds. His arms felt tired. The darkness was making him even sleepier, and Cale noticed.

"You were up signing documents again, weren't you? Hyung, what time was it when you appeared here?"

"Mm," Alberu avoided eye contact as he mumbled, "I think it was around 1". It was no use lying to Cale in this situation.

"Tsk, I'm supposed to be sleeping. You too, hyung. Let's just ignore this stupid box and sleep."

"... But won't it be uncomfortable to sleep here? You can sleep, I don't want to crush you—"

"Hyung-nim, either we sleep together or we both stay awake, and I'm sure as hell not going to ruin my sleep cycle for this bullshit."

"Mmm, then how will you be comfortable if I lay on you...? There's no space."

Alberu's tired brain didn't catch the strange phrasing his dongsaeng used, as it was only focused on the quickest way to fall asleep.

"Haaa. Raon curls up on my chest when he sleeps. I am used to it, so just lay down. You are clearly exhausted, and I'm more uncomfortable with the idea of you suddenly falling on me by unintentionally passing out."

Hmm, that made sense. Alberu slowly blinked, thinking it over. The more he thought about it, the more he believed that there were really no downsides to this.

"Okay... but tell me right away if I hurt you."

"I can take it, so just hurry."

"...Hmph."

Alberu pulled Cale down a little so that his neck was not hurting anymore, and gently laid on top of his chest. He curled his legs to fit properly, and rested his head under Cale's chin. He listened to the steady heartbeat of his dongsaeng for the next thirty seconds, before he finally fell unconscious.

Cale stayed awake just two minutes longer, absentmindedly fiddling with Alberu's hair. He was aware of this before, but it felt nice hugging someone to sleep. Maybe it was because of how severely touch starved he was from his life back in Korea, but...

'I could get used to this.'

Of course, he still had the kids to cuddle with, but they were content with curling up in multiple small locations. He had never before held a full sized adult so close. With anyone else, it would have made him feel extremely vulnerable and uncomfortable, but this was different.

As he slowly fell asleep, he whispered his last thoughts to the resting man on top of him.

"Goodnight, hyung-nim..."

***

The next day, both woke up in their respective beds. At first they both thought it was a dream, but after meeting up in Alberu's office, they realized that they had experienced the same thing.

Since then, whenever Raon and the kittens had sleepovers with the wolf children, Cale would have a sleepover with his hyung.

He took advantage of this opportunity in two ways. First, he could sleep more and have someone to hold when the kids were gone, and second, he could force that troublesome hyung of his to actually sleep before midnight for a change.

If the other members of Cale's group noticed the increasing frequency of the dual sleepovers, they didn't bring it up. Even Tasha, who regularly walked in on them cuddling at 10 in the morning after a sleepover— way past when Alberu usually wakes up— never really asked about it. She might have teased them with a silent smile, but she was extremely grateful that her nephew was getting the sleep he needed.

In fact, ever since that weird box incident, Cale had found himself actively persuading the kids to have more sleepovers. His internal reasoning?

He always felt better rested when it was that comfortable emperor bed that he was sleeping on...

Whether he meant the mattress or the person was never specified.

A/n: Thx for reading.