Fixing Nico [boyxboy / yaoi]

Ch 3 - Sleep: Lack of or Excess of?

It wasn't really anything. It wasn't something I could hold on to. I'd exchanged less than two minutes worth of conversation with Christian Matthews, but for some reason everything was flooding back into me.

And it was terrifying.

'Uhhh…' I blinked my eyes open and sat up groggily, rubbing my scalp. Looking down at my rumpled sheets, I realised I'd fallen asleep in my jeans and sneakers without even unpacking my comforter. Early-morning sunlight streamed through the cracks in the blinds, but other than that, the room was still dark. 

I blinked a few times, rubbed my eyes and glanced over at the digital watch across the room on my desk. The numbers were just big enough for me to make them out - it was… 'Six-thirty?'

I groaned, flopped back down and tried to go back to sleep, but I knew it was impossible - I'd never get back to sleep. I twisted around in my sheets so that I was laying on my back, staring up at the white, shadowed ceiling. Six-thirty… I rarely ever woke up before ten on the holidays. I realised, though, that I'd been out cold almost immediately after dinner. Huh. Another first - I barely fell asleep before eleven. 

Sighing, I sat up again, rubbing my shoulders and head slowly. I wasn't going to get back to sleep, but now I was awake, I could at least enjoy the early-morning sunlight. Any form of summer sun between the hours of ten to three were far too harsh for me to stand. I was practically an albino.

I swung my legs over the bed and ambled out of the room. The hallways was dark and quiet - everyone else was still asleep, I assumed. It wasn't like my family to be up before nine. 

I pushed the sliding screen door open as quietly as possible and slipped out into the sunshine - the sun was already elevated high up in the sky; the cicadas buzzed deafeningly from the eucalyptus trees that encircled the house, the water was bright as the light danced on the ripples. I put my hand over my face… could I still get sunburnt this early in the morning?

I stumbled over to the wooden deck chairs and collapsed in one, closing my eyes and tilting my face up to the sun. Fifteen minutes, I allowed myself. Because I was too lazy to force myself to put on sunscreen. 

My breaths came in and out slowly; my body relaxed into the chair. It was… peaceful. I could almost fall back asleep out here. 

'You're up early,' a playful voice commented somewhere to my left.

I jumped and whipped around, my widened eyes landed on Christian, leaning against the doorframe, hovering in-between the house and the deck. I tried to say something, but nothing came out of my mouth but a half-nervous, half-terrified squeak. 

Christian pushed himself off the doorframe and started walking towards me - in the sun, the million colours in his hair seemed to illuminate. I could pick out countless different shades of blonde, light-brown and even auburn. 

'Can I sit?' he asked, but he didn't wait for my nod. He took the deck chair next to mine and flopped into it, his body going limp. 'It's nice here.'

'Mm-hmm,' was all I could manage.

Our silence was filled with the cicadas in the trees and the lapping waves. I stared at him, open-mouthed, as he angled his face to the sun and closed his eyes, just like I'd been only a moment before. 

'Do you usually wake up this early?' he asked, suddenly shattering the silence.

I shook my head, then realised he couldn't see it. 'Uhh, no. I usually wake up at ten… dunno why I woke up three-and-a-half hours early.'