#narancia

“Sorry,” he whispered. 

“It’s fine, don’t worry.” You gave him a kind smile before drifting your eyes back to the window. It was more than fine, actually, you loved the way his hair tickled your neck and the trust in how he let himself drift off like that. 

After that first time, it just kept happening. You started cherishing the quiet moments where he let his guard down only around you. Sitting on the worn out while the others were laughing and arguing in the kitchen, Bruno settled next to you, close enough that his shoulder brushed yours. 

“Just resting my eyes for a minute,” he told you as his cheek smushed on your shoulder once again. 

You pretended to focus on the book in your lap as you started to feel his breath evening out, the scent of his cologne filling your nose. You didn’t move a bit, not even when your arm started to tingle.

Even in the living room, while you were flipping through channels or just talking softly about nothing important, Bruno would stretch out beside you, his body relaxing inch by inch. This time, he would turn a little, face pressing lightly into the curve of your neck, with his lips kind of giving you a kiss but not at all. 

“What is happening here?” Mista muttered when he appeared in the living room with a half eaten tangerine in his hand. 

“Shush, Mista.” You waved at him so he’d leave. “Actually, give me a piece.” You stretched out your free arm and urged Mista to give you a piece of his tangerine, he huffed but gave it to you either way. “Thank you, now get out.”

One evening, you were left in the safehouse only with Bruno. Obviously, he was already half-asleep on your shoulder. Until this point, neither of you had talked about this between you, both of you terrified of saying something that would make these quiet moments weird. 

You felt the steady rise and fall of his chest against your side, his hand loosely draped near yours. Your fingers brushed his without thinking, tracing light patterns on his knuckles. He did not pull away.

Your heart beat faster as you gathered the courage. This had gone on long enough. You wanted more than these stolen naps, you wanted to hold him properly, to feel his arms around you too.

“Bruno,” you whispered, voice gentle so you wouldn’t startle him.

He stirred, blinking slowly as he lifted his head. His piercing blue eyes, soft with sleep, met yours. “Hmm? What is it?”

You took a breath, cheeks heating up. “You keep falling asleep on me and I was thinking that maybe next time we could cuddle?”

For a second, he looked surprised, but then a small smile curved his lips. “You mean that?”

“Yeah. I do,” you said, bolder now.

He didn’t hesitate, Bruno shifted, pulling you gently into his arms as he leaned back against the couch. You settled against his warm chest, feeling his accelerated heartbeat. One of his hands rested on your back, immediately rubbing slow circles while the other found your hair, playing with one curl carefully. 

“This is nice,” he murmured. “Better than I imagined.”

You snuggled closer, arms wrapping around his waist. “I could stay like this for hours,” you admitted quietly. 

Bruno chuckled, pressing a gentle kiss to the top of your head. “As long as you want, bella.”

You smiled into his chest and it took both of you less than ten minutes to fall completely asleep until the next morning, when Narancia woke you up with a horror movie-like scream.

a/n: look at you cuddling with a corpse