Somewhat Clear

deerna
somewhatclear

Rating: SAFE
Fandom: the under garden (MAF)
Relationship: kostya & maxim
Tags: dreams, missing moment, snuggling & cuddling
Wordcount: 652
Notes: the under garden is a work by velnna | MAF that you can read on gumroad. this particular missing moment is set between chapter 5 and 6 (the latter still unpublished at the moment of posting)

Summary:
Kostya has a dream while a stranger is sleeping in his bed.

Excerpt:

“Are you scared of me, kitten?”

Rough with sleep, Maxim’s voice echoed through Kostya’s ribcage, reverberated down his spine. Violet irises peeked from under heavy eyelids.

{ read on AO3 | read here }

Startled, Kostya realised he could not breathe. Darkness and silence weighed on him like velvet drapes. Something squeezed him around the chest, around the shoulders, gripping him like a vice. His heart fluttered in his chest like a trapped rabbit, blood rushing against his eardrums, as he gathered the courage to try and wriggle free.

And then whatever was restraining him sighed, weary and heavy. Alive.

Maxim.

He still didn’t dare to move. He’d seen the other boy move: fast, powerful, effortless. The odd, ungraceful weft of still-growing muscles and bones, threaded through a sinewy warp that was all deliberate control and careful motions. Dozor. Still young, but tall and solid and—

“Are you scared of me, kitten?”

Rough with sleep, Maxim’s voice echoed through Kostya’s ribcage, reverberated down his spine. Violet irises peeked from under heavy eyelids.

His arms around Kostya tightened as he shifted—and then his grip gentled, secure rather than threatening. Kostya still felt like he could’ve gotten easily crushed, if Dozor had decided so; but his smaller frame fit so perfectly against Maxim’s stalwart yet lithe one. He felt comfortable cradled against his chest, tucked against the wiry curve of his flat abdomen. Warm. Safe.

How did he even get there? He could not remember.

“I’m not scared,” Kostya whispered. It was not a lie, which was way scarier.

He turned into Maxim’s hold and touched his chest, where the bloodstain was. “Why are you here?” His tongue was thick with sudden exhaustion and sticking to the roof of his mouth. He could feel sleep pulling him in strange directions, but he had to know, he had to ask. “Why did you come here? To me?”

“You’re asking the wrong questions.” Maxim said. His eyes were closed, his mouth was quirked in a distant smirk. His fingers traced down the groove of Kostya’s spine, gentle and soothing like a lullaby. “Why do you want to trust me so badly? That would be a good one. You like me, but you don’t know me.” A sliver of purple shone in the darkness. “You’ll wake up and wonder, if you’re making a mistake again.”

Kostya shivered. He snuggled closer, frowned. “What do you mean, when I wake up?”

Maxim hummed, touched his curls. “Don't worry about it. Sweet dreams.”

Kostya woke up. He twitched awake, his whole body rebelling against the paralysis of sleep. He tangled himself even further in the blanket, trapping his knees against the floorboards. A book slipped off his lap hitting the floor with a thud. Kostya stared at it in confusion, until the memories of the previous evening trickled back in.

Maxim.

Kostya rubbed his eyes. He had set himself on the floor to read, his back supported by the side of the bed, sure that he would have gotten sucked in in the story like he always did, words and stories and other worlds briefly stealing him from the inexorable flux of time and existence. He hadn't meant to fall asleep; it hadn't seemed a good idea to fall unconscious while a stranger was in the house, and yet. That’s exactly what he ended up doing.

He peeked over the edge of the mattress and glanced at the sleeping figure resting there. Maxim was just where he'd left him, eyes closed and his face slack with slowly draining exhaustion. Stretched out on the bed, with his gangling limbs sticking out from under the blanket Kostya had given him, he just looked like another kid. Last night, Kostya had seen what his violet irises looked like when he was lost, when he was afraid. Could he even call him a stranger anymore?

Suddenly shivering from a gust of cold that felt half-remembered from a dream, too tired himself to listen to the half-whispered thoughts at the back of his mind, Kostya pulled his own blanket tighter around his shoulders and went back to sleep.