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Mornings tend to always start the same on the server. The sun would rise and the players would start their day. EX started his morning like the same. Wake up, stare at the ceiling, get up, change, go to the kitchen, harass his brother, then find something to do.
Keralis was already in the kitchen when he got there. He gave the player a morning nod and went rummaging through the refrigerator, looking for some type of food. He grabbed the carton of eggs, a stick of butter, and some of the leftover meat. As he moved to the stove, Keralis moved to the table with his toast.
Once his eggs were done, EX plated them and moved to the table. Keralis was doing something on his co-admin panel. Together, the two players sat in silence. EX pulled off his helmet to start to eat his eggs. A moment later Keralis left the table. He didn’t pay attention to whatever the co-admin got up to do, but he did thank Keralis when he sat a cup of coffee in front of him.
After finishing, Xander got up from the table. He placed his plate, cup, and utensils into the sink to clean later. Xisuma had yet to show his face, meaning one of two that could be happening. One, he’s up working on code. Two, he stayed up late and is still asleep. So EX could go get him, or wake him up. With a slow smile creeping onto his face, EX grabbed a cup from a cabinet. Flicking on the cold water from the sink, EX filled the cup up with water. Keralis looked at him but didn’t say anything when he walked out.
Xisuma’s room was another floor up. Sure enough, the admin was still sound asleep. Suma was sprawled out on the bed, his admin panel had fallen to the floor sometime during the night. EX quietly set the cup onto the side table. Xisuma was wearing a mask instead of his helmet. For some reason, a reason that only made sense to Xisuma, Xisuma wore a mask and not a helmet when he slept.
EX stood over his brother for a moment, before flicking the younger’s forehead. A sleepy whine came trembling from Xisuma’s mouth. The younger of the two shifted and shoved his face into his pillow. He grabbed the cup of cold water from the nightstand, raised it up, and-
SPLASH
Xisuma shot up as soon as the water hit him. Xander busted out laughing as his brother fumbled out of the blanket. A pillow slammed into his face a moment later. He grabbed the pillow off of the floor and jumped onto the bed. A foot connected with his shin and EX went tumbling onto the bed.
A hand was suddenly his chest and then he was off the bed. He kicked the blanket that he got tangled in, off. Xisuma chose that moment to pounce on him. EX placed his hands on his brother’s face and shoved him away. He pushed himself to his feet and turned to his brother.
“Good morning!” EX sing-sang to his younger brother.
“I hate you.” Xisuma growled, sleep still in his voice.
“Love you too!” He grabbed Xisuma’s bee plushie and skipped out.
“Xander! Give that back!” Xisuma took off after him.
EX immediately started sprinting down the hallway, his brother closely following him. He turned a sharp corner, almost ran into Keralis, and kept running. Keralis shouted as Xisuma actually did collided with his boyfriend. A few quick apologies to him and Xisuma was back after him again.
The chase was still on, that was until Xander ran into his room. He jumped up onto his bed and spun around to face his brother. Both him and Xisuma stood there for a moment, panting. EX had left his helmet in the kitchen, running around and the overworld air wasn't helping him breath. He took multiple deep breaths, his lungs burned with the dry air.
The brothers were at a standstill, each waiting for the other to make the first move. EX took a few more deep breaths, which got a concerned look from Xisuma. So he stuck his tongue out. To which a moment later, he was lying on his bed and his younger brother on top of him. Xisuma tried to shove something onto his face. Xander shoved his brother away again.
“Put the damn mask on.” Xisuma made another attempt to shove the other sleep mask onto his face.
“I prefer helmets.” EX pushed Xisuma off of him. “You know that.”
“Then where is it?” Xisuma sat next to him on the bed.
EX looked at the bee plushie still in his hands. “In the kitchen.”
“Why is it in there?”
“Left it in there.” He answered, holding up the plush. “You still have this?”
“Of course I do.” Xisuma grabbed the plushie from his hands.
“Why? You got that thing years ago.”
Xisuma fell silent, EX went into silence along with his brother. The younger of the two stared down at the well loved plush. Xisuma brought the bee plush to his chest and hugged it. As much teasing as EX did, he knew, for whatever reason, that the plush met a lot to his younger brother.
“Jeremy-“ Xisuma started.
EX laughed at that “You named it?!”
“Yes!” Xisuma tried to defend himself. “JEREMY! Was the first thing I got from the overworld.”
“A random player gave her to you.” He purposely used the wrong pronouns.
“HE! Is still important to me.”
“I know, I know.” Xander leaned against his brother.
“Get off.” Xisuma shoved him away.
In an over dramatic fashion, EX threw himself onto the bed. He reached out, grabbed Xisuma’s arm, and dragged him down. A yelp came out of his brother’s mouth. There was a sigh from one sibling as the other laughed.
“You just have to take me down with you, don’t you?”
“Oh absolutely.” A smile was plastered onto his face.
There was another sigh from his brother. “You’re like a child.”
“At least I don’t sleep with a stuffed animal.”
“At least I don’t sleep with a night light.” Xisuma clapped back.
EX shot up. “I do not!”
“You leave the bathroom light on at night.”
“So I can see if I wake up in the middle of the night.”
“Lair.” Xisuma snapped. “You sleep better with the light on.”
“And you sleep better with an old stuffed animal.”
Xisuma didn’t clap back to that comment that time. EX stretched and purposely smacked his brother in the face. In relation, the younger of the two shoved him off the bed. He laughed, kicking his brother in the process of tumbling down off the bed.
He got a look from the younger of the two. A moment later and Xisuma is joining him on the floor, bee plushie in hand. The two stayed on the floor, no words, just their own thoughts running in their heads. Keralis stopped at the door and called out to the both of them, wanting to know if they were okay. To which EX shot a thumbs up and the co-admin left them at that.
It was getting concerningly difficult to breathe without any issues. Forcing himself up, EX turned around and held it out so he could help the younger one onto his feet. Black spots almost immediately swarmed EX’s vision. His entire body decided it wanted to almost give out. Hands landed on his arms before gently pushing him down onto the bed.
“This is why you don’t leave your helmet behind.” Xisuma scolded as the younger made another attempt to shove a mask onto his face.
“I’ll go get it.” EX stood up but his vision swarmed.
“Well if you put the mask on you wouldn’t pass out.” Xisuma also stood.
“Fine.” EX caved. “Give me the damn mask.”
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Xander watched as his brother, who was sound asleep at his desk. For tonight Keralis was at his own base so poor little Xisuma was all alone for him to terrorize. It was very late into the night…or very early depending on how you wanted to look at it. There were so many things he could do to his little brother.
With gentle hands, Xander unhatched his brother’s helmet and moved to put on the sleep mask. Xisuma shifted in his sleep but didn’t wake. Good. The younger one had a crappy sleep schedule, and that was saying something because his own sleep schedule was messed up. How did both of them end up with such a crappy sleep schedule?
Flicking the younger’s forehead Xander left to go grab a pillow and a blanket. When Xander placed the pillow under his brother’s head, the other one whined and stirred but didn’t wake up. Trying not to disturbed Xisuma anymore, Xander threw the blanket over Xisuma and walked over to his bed. He had forgotten Jeremy and Xisuma would lose his mind if he woke up and Jeremy wasn’t in his arms.
“ ‘e’emy…?” Xisuma slurred out.
“He’s here.” Xander came back, plushie in hand. “I have him. Don’t worry.”
Xisuma, greedy and sleepy, snatched Jermey from his arms. “You're welcome.”
Xander moved towards his brother’s closet. Luckily for him, but unluckily for his brother, they were around the same size. Which made stealing the younger’s clothes incredibly simple. He grabbed a simple green shirt and black sweatpants, these should do for the night. Since Xisuma was asleep, Xander didn’t care about getting dressed right in his brother’s line of sight.
Once he was done, Xander collapsed right into the bed. His body relaxed as his mind slowed down to sleep. There was shifting coming from the far side of the room before a mass of blanket inched its way onto the bed, next to me. Xisuma forced his way into his arms for cuddling.
“Ni’ht, ni’ht.” Xisuma slurred again.
Xander sighed and wrapped his arms around his brother. “Won’t your boyfriend be mad if someone else is cuddling you.”
“SH!” Xisuma curled into him. “Sleep time.”
“Okay! Okay! I’m going to sleep.”
They fell silent, or Xander did; Xisuma fell in almost an instant. “I love you.” Xander mumbled just to himself before joining his brother in sleep.