oh, you love me, and i love you!

“Hey love, turn off the fan when you’re done,” you call to him, clicking on the lamp on the table by the window for him to take care of when he’s ready for bed, too.

Your own bathroom tasks completed, you go ahead and curl up in bed, waiting for your lover to return to the warmth of your sheets and duvet, the silk pillowcase you’d bought specifically to protect his curls on the pillow next to yours. You relish the knowledge that he’s safe, he’s here, he’s right on his way in, and in mere seconds he’ll be holding you close as you surrender to sleep side by side.

But Spencer takes a little longer with his nighttime routine than you expect, and by the time the bathroom light is clicked off and his soft footsteps enter your bedroom again, you’re most of the way asleep already. The side of the bed dips as his lavender and coffee scent envelops you, and your heart glows even as your body feels too heavy to manage a smile or a movement.

You feel Spencer stroke your hair for a moment, leave a kiss on your forehead, and adjust the covers so that you won’t get chilly in the night. You wait for him to lay his own head down and stop moving, but instead, you hear a soft meow and feel another jolt to the bed. Ah, of course.

You should have known that Spencer’s presence in the bed wouldn’t be enough to deter your large orange cat, Prickly Pear, from her rightful place. You sigh internally and prepare to get up and quell the passive-aggressive staredown over bed territory between your two pettiest loved ones—it’s been a quiet battle between them for your affections ever since you brought your boyfriend around for the first time. To your sleepy surprise, however, you hear and feel something different entirely.

The bed moves again as Spencer sits up and leans over, lifting Pear into his arms. “Hi, Prickly Pear,” he murmurs to her softly. “Did you want to spend the night with us?”

Once again you hear a noise that is completely unexpected to you: Pear starts purring. Spencer chuckles and presumably strokes her a little while longer before he nestles her between your body and his. And then it comes: the most precious moment of your life thus far.

You crack an eyelid just in time to watch as Spencer folds his torso practically in half so that his freshly-moisturized lips are directly next to Pear’s soft triangular head, and you hear him whispering in her ears, “I love you.”

His tone is so tender, and you can tell that he’s thoroughly unaware of his audience in you. That is, until your breath hitches, and he straightens again, and you know you’ve been made.

“[Name],” Spencer says resignedly, “I heard your breathing change. Should have known you weren’t fully asleep yet.”

You pull your heavy eyes the rest of the way open and smile as you sit up and take in his mortified expression, blush evident even in the low lamplight. 

“Spence,” you coo, “That was the cutest thing I’ve ever witnessed in my life! You and Pear really had me fooled, I thought you hated each other all this time.”

Spencer immediately ensconces himself in your bedclothes in order to hide his face. Muffled speech comes from underneath the covers, and you yank them down to see his still-pinked face. 

Prickly Pear doesn’t appreciate the disturbance, and makes her displeasure known by stalking over to jump down off the bed again and retreat to one of her other spots within your apartment. You can’t find it in you to mind, seeing as this leaves you room to intertwine your legs with your equally as soft (if metaphorically) boyfriend.

“What was that, cat man?” You tease.

“I said it was none of your business,” he grumbles, his eyes shut tight. “I still don’t know if she likes me for real or not and it’s embarrassing when she rejects me in front of you. I didn’t want you to know I was trying in case it didn’t work.”

This is such an adorable explanation that you launch yourself back down at him, kissing all over his face. “You’ve been trying to get along with my cat? Spencer, I love you. You’re perfect. I don’t even know how you exist.”

“Well, like I said, I don’t know if it’s paying off, at least not yet,” Spencer says, his face reddening even more intensely. “But I love you too. And you’re perfect too. And yeah, I really want to be friends with your cat. I find it a rewarding challenge. I’ve never been friends with a cat before—even Sergio doesn’t pay that much attention to me when we have team dinners at Emily’s. But also because she’s so important to you and you’re important to me.”

Your previous exhaustion catching back up to you, you ease over onto your own side again, closing your eyes and humming in contentment. “You are the best boyfriend in the world and I hope I dream of you tonight so that I don’t miss you too much in my sleep.”

The best boyfriend in the world laughs, pulling your hand to his lips to kiss it and then play with it as you begin to fall asleep again. “I hope we meet in our dreams too, [Name].”

And as you begin to drift off at last, you hear a faint chirrup, and feel light feet land at the end of the bed. Unable to stay away, Prickly Pear settles down to reclaim her rightful spot between her two favorite people.

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