#poly!charcel

Unlocking the front door, you were able to make out the quite noise of the TV running in the living room and Ethan's parrot happily chirping along with it. You set your bag down to clear it out later and quietly slipped off your shoes. Both your boyfriends had slipped out of the house at the brink of dawn to head to work, each pressing a kiss to your head which you returned with a sleepy murmur and a stretched-out hand.

Now, the day was already slipping into the early evening, and you were comfortably exhausted from work and thrilled to spend a slow night with both your partners. The sun outside was setting but the first chills of autumn were following you into the apartment, making you quickly shut the door to keep the warmth inside.

Putting your keys down on the sideboard, you made your way into the living room, expecting to find Crockett there, either watching a crappy TV show or half asleep and stranded between some pillows. You knew he liked to stay inside of the house once he finally returned from his shift and since you all had gotten into the relationship, you were able to count the number of times that Crockett had visited the grocery store after work on one hand.

Usually, it was Ethan doing the groceries, mostly after heading home from the gym, sometimes having you trail along when your schedules aligned. You felt bad in the beginning, letting him do probably the most time-consuming chore until you learned that getting out of the apartment outside of work was a very basic need for him. Leaving the house with a goal that wasn’t saving lives gave Ethan a feeling of actually having other purposes and passions that were less demanding and often less gruesome.

Upon entering the living room, your heart swelled with the scene in front of you. Crockett was seated against some pillows, stretched out on the couch comfortably in a pair of navy-blue sweatpants and a grey hoodie. He didn’t seem to notice your arrival, nose buried in the black hair that belonged to your other boyfriend. Ethan was comfortably resting on his chest, covered by one of the blankets from your bedroom and seemingly asleep.

You could only guess what happened before you arrived but apparently Crockett had charmed Ethan into laying down with him and was now whispering those very sweet words to him while the other man was drifting off to dreamland.

Upon noticing you, Crockett shot you a soft smile and quietly stretched out his hand towards you. You accepted, taking a few soft steps into the room and squeezed his hand, simultaneously leaning down to kiss him.

“What did I miss here?”, you whispered, a little amused but at the same time slightly concerned by the scene in front of you. Crockett smirked back at you. “Someone was very tired and needed to be tucked in.”

“Am not.” The soft whisper came from Crockett’s chest. You chuckled softly and gently kissed Ethan’s head. “Surely.”

“I must disagree, because someone tried to conceal something that we already had talks about. Multiple, actually.” Crockett said and pocked Ethan’s temple, who turned his head away annoyed and tried to slither deeper under the blanket.

You sat down on the side of the couch, gently rubbing Ethan’s back. “Is that so?”

This mellow behavior was uncharacteristic for him. Ethan liked to be tough, carried himself with pride, the caretaker, the protector, the big spoon to both of his lovers. If anything, it was Crockett who would tuck at your sleeve after a hard day and demanded to be held for a while.

Ethan’s sharp edges promptly flared up at Crockett’s little jab. He lifted his head, shooting your shared boyfriend one of his glares and if he wouldn’t have been trapped on the couch by the two of you, he probably would have stormed off or started an argument at the very least. “It wasn’t that serious.”

“Can someone enlighten me, please?”, you asked calmly, knowing how hot-tempered both your partners could be and not wanting this evening to escalate into an unnecessary fight.

Their answers came out almost simultaneously. “He woke up in the middle of the night again.” “It was 3:30 in the morning and I was just up early.”

As the situation unraveled in front of you, you sighed. All of you had habits of not getting enough sleep, all due to different reasons. Some nights, whenever your awful sleep schedules aligned, you would joke about it as one of your commons. These nights were spent on the couch with lots of blankets, drinking tea and watching dating shows with Z-class celebrities, catching whatever shut-eye possible.

Your insomnia was a side effect of your sensory issues and on some occasions your racing mind. Ethan, although doing better due to his therapy sessions with Dr. Charles, the presence of his emotional support bird and, of course, his two lovers, sometimes was still plagued by bouts of nightmares or episodes of insomnia. Overall, Crockett was the best sleeper in your bed. If anything, he had trouble falling asleep but once he was out, he mostly was able to sleep through the night.

You had to mediate now in order to save the evening. You all had agreed that every one of you would wake one of the others if they were plagued by nightmares or couldn’t fall asleep to what seemed to be silly reasons to your overtired brains sometimes. It was fine with you if Ethan wanted a quite morning alone, but you also wanted to be able to count on his honesty if it mattered. You just had to navigate the lines of his feelings very precisely, so you buried a gentle hand in his undercut to appease him.

“How do you feel?”, you whispered, testing the water slowly. “Fine.”, came back the grumbled answer from underneath the blanket. “How did you feel this morning.”

“Fine too, just a bit restless. I wanted to hit the gym, earlier than later.” You were content with that answer. He did look tired but not overly exhausted or agitated, not forcefully distracted by his own mind, so you decided to let it slide. Now was not the time to fight but rather the time to show your trust in him.

“And if we made you food now and then either cuddled up on the couch and watched some TV or went to bed to cuddle you to sleep, how would that make you feel?”

There was a bout of silence. “Happy to spend the evening with my favorite people.”

Crockett and you shared a soft smile, and he determinedly pat his hands on Ethan’s back. “Well, in that case I better get a pot of pasta going for us.”