“I’ve never camped or had the college experience, but I’ve got friends like that,” Sage said, his eyes heavy enough that they fell shut as he spoke. “My bandmates—we could stay up all night playing video games, or music, or just goofing off. Drunk on spiked energy drinks, so we couldn’t have slept if we wanted to. I miss that.” These days he was awake for entirely different reasons, his fear keeping him up sometimes until dawn. Sleeping in a bed was still a novelty; he spent half his nights in the closet because it felt safer, but he was usually alone. Marsh’s presence was comforting and he felt so good that it didn’t even occur to him how different this was, how easily sleep was coming to him. “You could stay up if you had to. But it would suck.”
"I can and I have recently," Marsh murmured. "But I got to sleep after and not try to cram knowledge into my brain." He thought of Africa, of staying up long enough to watch the sunrise, filthy and happy and accomplished. His attention drifted back to Sage and he smiled faintly as he watched him. It was obvious he was passing out and he snuck a little kiss on his cheek, breathing in the warmth of his skin before settling down properly. "Let's do that sometime," he whispered. "Stay up all night and sleep all day." There'd be weekends that he'd have to himself and he wished this one was one of them but maybe Sage would stick around for long enough for them to spend proper time together. There were a lot of things Marsh wanted to do with him and they didn't all involve sex.
Staying up all night was something he’d enjoyed as a teenager, but in his more recent memories it was tied to something dark or difficult. In the other place, he’d forced himself to stay awake until he was almost delirious and hallucinating, afraid that he’d die the second he fell asleep. And then when he got back, he’d had those few days where no one could sleep and he’d thought he was going to lose his mind. He tried not to think of those instances, not wanting to fall asleep with those kinds of thoughts in his head. What Marsh was proposing was something he’d probably enjoy. “So long as it’s somethin’ we want to do, an’ not somethin’ we have to do,” Sage murmured. “I think, with you, it’d be fun.” Even if it wasn’t just sex. Maybe he’d teach Marsh to play the guitar. Or Marsh would teach him something. He was sure there was a lot he could learn from him.
"Of course," Marsh replied with some amusement and maybe they wouldn't even last until 2am before they were hankering for sleep. He tended to be up stupidly early so late night things always threw off his schedule a bit but never for long. "Good night, Sage," he said softly, feeling sleepiness start to creep over him as well. He'd probably get up again for the bathroom and some water and he hoped Sage wasn't a light sleeper, but for now he just wanted to curl up and enjoy the feeling of drifting off to sleep with Sage's warm body by his side.