Matty and Jesse are huddled up on the sofa, as close as they can be when Matty has a blanket around his shoulders like a cape and a duvet tucked underneath him and up to his chin. He refuses to let Jesse underneath the duvet with him, claiming he doesn't want to let the heat out, and even Jesse's best efforts at telling him that it's warmer to share body heat won't persuade the older man to let him under.

So, Jesse has his back leaning against Matty's left shoulder and his legs draped over the arm of the sofa. He's been reaching his left arm up to stroke through Matty's hair for a good ten minutes now, and he's starting to get cramp from the position, but the way Matty pushes his head back down against his fingers whenever Jesse tries to retreat for a break has him forcing his arm to stay up, fingers dancing against Matty's scalp.

"D'you know where George has gone?"

The men haven't seen the tall man yet today, and Matty's starting to worry: usually, George would be over the second he was dressed, often before even eating so he could make sure Matty had a good breakfast - he sometimes even traipsed over in his sleep clothes if he'd woken up particularly late. Jesse had distracted Matty from it for a while, spoiling him a bit with hot drinks and blankets and cuddles, but when Countdown comes on at four and George still isn't home, Matty can't help but wonder.

"His mum's over, I think." Jesse sits up properly, throwing his arms around the smaller man. "Been spending the day with her. Did say he'd be over for Countdown, though."

Matty nods, leaning his head against Jesse's now conveniently-placed shoulder. "Should probably pause it until he gets here."

And yet, neither of them reach for the Sky remote.

Instead, they sit together contentedly, hands rubbing gently over each others.

Matty, as Jesse had always imagined, is particularly frustrating to watch Countdown with. It had always been a tradition of Matty and George's to watch it together, and Jesse joins in on this whenever the pair are home, but George normally balances out Matty's frustration with the contestants enough for it to be bearable. He's never experienced undiluted Countdown Matty before, and it shocks him a little when Matty yells, "It's ululation, you cock, not talon!"

Jesse almost snorts at Matty's outburst but drops his smirk when Matty glares at him.

"Sorry, love. You should try out for this show, you know."

Matty's eyes widen, and he grabs his phone from the arm of the sofa without looking; opens up Google. "That's actually a fucking good idea - shit, Jess, you're onto something."

It's while Matty is mid-googling how to audition for Countdown that George unlocks the front door, pushing his shoes off in the corridor and wandering through to the living room.

"Couldn't wait for me?" He raises his eyebrows when he sees the telly playing, before looking disdainfully at Matty. "Countdown not good enough, Matty?"

Matty rolls his eyes, trying to budge Jesse across on the sofa so George can sit down. "Trying to apply for it, Georgie."

George folds his arms, leans against the door jamb. He's a bit put out, really, that Matty and Jesse didn't wait the twenty minutes it took for him to get home. Like, Jesse doesn't even like Countdown, and besides, Countdown together is a Matty and George activity; once that they graciously allow Jesse to join in with.

He's aware that he's being petty, but George is determined to keep this up.

"Jesse, when did you ever watch Countdown before us? Do you even enjoy the show?"

Jesse shrugs, his fingertips tapping a vague rhythm on Matty's belly.

"Exactly, and Matty, I love you but you're not even paying attention."

When George receives no real response of note from either of the men, he turns his back on the pair of them, resolving to make them all tea and hope they have the grace to rewind it for him. He doesn't have to watch it with his mum later. By the time he returns, Matty has put his phone down on the coffee table, and they've both squished along the sofa to give him space. Matty's even untucked his duvet so they can all get underneath it - finally.

They don't rewind the show in the end, because they're all huddled up now, and they'd have to lean over to the coffee table for the remote, and George really doesn't want to do that. And he's not Matty - George isn't petty enough to get someone else to do it for him, not unless one of them suggests it, but neither of them do, so George accepts that he'll have to deal with missing half the episode. He's not sad enough to go back and rewatch it later.

In the fifteen minutes that are left of the episode, Matty slurps down a few sips of his tea before huddling his hands around it, keeping them warm, and promptly drifts to sleep on George's shoulder. His neck's at a really awkward angle, and George knows that if he leaves him there for long, he'll complain when he wakes up.

George gives himself until Countdown has finished and he's gulped down his mug of tea, and then slides Matty into his lap, making sure he has a hand under Matty's bum to lift him properly when he stands up. Matty's almost completely asleep by now, so he's not a massive help when George picks him up. The younger man wraps an arm around Matty's waist, and then up his back to keep him pressed against his chest as he walks up the stairs, smiling at Jesse over Matty's shoulder.

He tucks Matty into his and Jesse's bed, knowing he'll either wake up in ten minutes or at half three in the morning, but neither George nor Jesse ever have the heart to wake him up when he has a nap. George kisses Matty's cheek and shuts the door quietly; pads downstairs to say goodbye to Jesse.

"Told Mum I'd be back after Countdown."

"See you tomorrow, though?"

George nods, wraps his arms around Jesse when he stands up for a hug. He's almost surprised when Jesse leans up a little to kiss him, but envelopes him all the same, tugging his hands up to tuck his fingers over Jesse's ears. He nods again when he pulls away; slides his hands down to tap Jesse's bum before he steps back.

"See you tomorrow. You know where to find me."

When George leaves, Jesse automatically falls back onto the sofa, fully prepared to finish the episode of Come Dine With Me that's come on before he does any work. He's meant to have an article finished by next Monday, and he's barely halfway through. By the time the show has finished, he's imprudently tired, and it's almost impossible for him to drag himself up the stairs and turn right to his office instead of left to the bedroom.

~

For an hour and a half, now, Matty's been lying on his side with his arm folded over his waist. He's really trying to get back to sleep, but his half-four-powernap has thrown him off completely, and now it's late and he can't sleep. He doesn't want to open his eyes to check the LED clock because it would mean all his hard work making his body sleepy would be ruined, but he can tell that it's late because there's no light in the room at all.

He just really wants Jesse to come to bed. He knows the younger man's probably working - he has a habit of writing when it's late at night, but Matty can't sleep without a body there with him: it's something that he's grown so used to now that it has almost become a dependency. When he's on tour, he has George; at home, Jesse. If it was Jesse's body bracketing him in a way that he was pathetically trying to replicate with his thin arms, it would shut his brain off, and he'd able to switch off his thoughts straight away and drift off to sleep.

It seems, to Matty, as though he's almost trained his brain into insomnia.

Jesse had popped in a few times while Matty had been asleep, and once after he'd woken up. He'd told him that he'd only be half an hour, an hour at most, but Matty's certain it's been longer than that by now.

Because now, it's like, half eleven at night, and Matty can't sleep, and Jesse is still working in Matty's-old-bedroom-turned-guest-room/office.

Matty groans, his curls flopping over his face and tickling his soft cheeks as he rolls over onto his other side in frustration. He's given up on sleeping now, deciding there is clearly no way that he's going to be able to sleep without Jesse beside him, especially after his nap. He swings his legs over the edge of his bed, pauses for a second with a head rush, stands up and blindly stumbles towards the door through the darkness.

The harsh light of their upstairs corridor forces Matty to squint, only keeping one eye open as he shuffles across the wooden floorboards to find Jesse. He pushes open the office/guest bedroom door and sees Jesse hunched over their computer. He walks over to the man, opening his eyes properly in the slightly dimmer room, and run his hands lightly over Jesse's shoulders.

Matty leans forward, leaves his hands resting on Jesse's trapezius muscles and kisses his jaw before leaning his head on his right hand, burying his face into Jesse's neck.

"Come to bed, Jess. Can't sleep." He presses a dry kiss to Jesse's throat, breathing hot air across the flesh.

"Soon, baby. Promise." Jesse turns his head to the side to push his lips to Matty's soft cheek, resting them there until Matty pulls away to kiss him on the mouth.

"Miss you." Matty kisses his boyfriend once more, properly this time, before lifting his hands from Jesse's shoulders to swing a leg over Jesse's lap; kisses him sloppily with exhausted lips. He can feel Jesse's hands wrap around his waist tentatively, his large fingers gripping gently at his back as he presses their lips closer together.

Matty pushes his hips down against Jesse's, the older man's jeans rubbing against his bare thighs as he does so. His movement prompts Jesse to run his hands down from Matty's waist to his thighs, stroking all the way up his bare legs to hold his hips underneath his shirt.

Jesse pulls away after a few minutes of this, not wanting to let it go too far. "Miss you too. I need to finish this, though." Matty groans, sliding off Jesse's lap and going back to their bedroom without a word. Jesse's teeth on his bottom lip had woken him up rather effectively, and Matty was nowhere near ready to sleep again now.

Flopping back down on their bed, Matty tugged off his top and wrapped his slender fingers around his cock, slowly stroking himself. He whimpers loudly as he runs his thumb over the tip, his salacious noises travelling easily through the bedroom door which he left open so that Jesse would hear him.

Jesse fidgets a little in his seat as he listens to Matty's illicit sounds, drumming his fingertips on the wooden desk and trying not to pay too much attention to his boyfriend. He knows that really, if he doesn't go over, Matty will never go to sleep - not at this rate, no matter how tired he gets - and the argument that it'll be his fault if Matty doesn't get enough rest tonight is what he uses against himself when he turns off the computer, stretches, and slowly walks through to their bedroom.

They have this massive, king-sized bed so that if George stays over, they can all squeeze in together. Jesse is sure Matty must get squished in the middle, but he drags them both to bed whenever he can, so it mustn't be a problem.

When Jesse slips through the door, he sees Matty with a hand to his cock, unsurprisingly, though it's stilled now, and Matty's waiting for him with half-closed eyes, clearly closer to sleep than before. His lids flutter open, though, when he hears Jesse enter the room, and he gives him a little smile as Jesse crawls over him, kissing him thoroughly and knocking Matty's hand out the way to get him off himself.

Normally he'd let Matty put on a show, but it's getting really late, and Jesse wants to sleep as much as Matty needs to. Better finish up here quickly, he reckons.

Matty comes, and Jesse wipes him off with a tissue from the bedside table that he wets slightly with the water bottle. He lifts Matty's bottom half off the bed so that he can tug the duvet out from underneath him, and tucks them both under the cotton sheet gently as he watches Matty's eyelids droop once more: already much closer to sleep now that Jesse's here with him, his soporific warmth seeping through Matty's bones.

Jesse allows his boyfriend to tuck himself into his chest, one arm over Jesse's waist and the other between their stomachs, a leg pushed between both of Jesse's, and his scalp pressed to Jesse's chin. Absorbing all the heat he could. Letting the pulse of Jesse's heartbeat lull him to sleep as it joins with his own. Listening to the silence as Jesse spreads a hand over his spine. Feeling his own heartbeat rise gently as he does so.

~~~

idk if this is back properly but

it is for now

i had a surge of motivation

which is weird because im ill and feel shit lmao

but

here u go

its short

its quite shitty

but there u go