Waking up naturally was a gift that was not always available. This was mostly due to pre-existing restrictions not making it possible. Alarm-clocks were one of the biggest enemies in the field, always waiting to just ruin the entire day.
The act of slowly coming to your senses, the body being as refreshed it could possibly be. It was heaven, and Troy hated not getting to experience it more. Sitting up in the bed, stretching the arms high over the head to wake the body up even more. Nobody could say they hated that, without having lied to themselves their entire life. It was bliss, pure goodness.
And when the blood flow finally began kicking up, the arms letting themselves reach the sides again as all that tiredness went out of the eyes. It sometimes required one to wipe a little at them to be able to see anything at all. That sometimes happened when one wasn't prepared to fall asleep the night before. Yet it was still as perfect as before, as the now-wiped eyes could open and see the beautiful bed laid upon and-
Troy’s eyes went wide when he realised that he wasn't lying on his bed. The young man had been utterly fooled by all the pillows and blankets, them all making him think that he was somewhere he wasn't. In actuality, he had not actually moved a meter since last night! Looking around in confusion, the young man was first able to see the screen. It had been the one they were watching the movie on. It had long since ended, yet was still continually showing the credits. There was no actual sound attached, though, only the extremely muted sound on a disk being spun around at high speed.
“Oh, you're finally awake?” Charlie asked. Troy spun his head at the speed of sound, honing in on the muscular man’s location in an instant. It should not have been hard to place where he was, since his feet were still sitting on his tighs, yet the young man had somehow missed him in the start. Confusion had triumphed once again. “Did you sleep well?”
“Yeah, it was pretty- wait, no. That is not important,” Troy began to answer before cutting himself off hurriedly. He had to stay focused or he would lose his overview of the situation. “What time is it?”
“I am not too sure myself,” Charlie answered, leaning his head a little back on the sofa. “I couldn't see the clock without turning my whole body, so I have been left here to guess. Going by how many times the credits have rolled through though, my guess would be somewhere around… our usual eating times? Give or take twenty minutes to be sure. I'm pretty sure you're not late to work, at least. If the time had hit that level, my alarm would have already gone off.”
Twenty minutes before breakfast… shit. Troy would have already been up by now, moving around to somewhere important. God, Dr Hale was going to be so pissed off at him. He could clearly remember her saying she was going to get him today as well. She had not said why, but she had stressed that it was of utmost priority. He had screwed up.
Looking over at the clock that had been mentioned before, Charlie seemed to have hit the mark nearly spot on. Troy could only sigh at that, only knowing one good way that he could have known.
“Am I to guess that you have been sitting there the whole night?” Troy asked, feet still planted on Charlie’s legs. As he thought about them, the young man did remove them so that he could get his shoes back on. He needed to be careful about it all. One screw-up had already occurred within minutes of him waking up. He did not need to double that number.
“I have indeed. Never slept for a single second. Too many risks attached,” Charlie said casually as if he wasn't feeling those effects. Troy could see the tiredness in the man’s eyes. He likely needed a cup of coffee more than the young man could ever hope to.
“What could you possibly risk from not sitting here?” Troy said, feeling like he was a police chief interrogating the suspect. Honestly, the first thing he did after waking up was to question somebody who had been awake for over twenty-four hours.
There was a bad taste in his mouth, his eyes were still a little out of whack, and his breath stank like death. There was no time or way to brush his teeth, and he was not on the schedule for a part of a plan that he knew nearly nothing about.
“You waking up,” Charlie flatly answered, as if it was the most obvious thing in the world. “You looked so peaceful, just sleeping up and away. It would be like pushing a cat out of your lap. And it would have been a little disrespectful to wake you up, so I decided to just make sure neither of us would be late for today. So… I have been counting the minutes for several hours now. I think I did a pretty decent job at it.”
Troy just sighed at the explanation, not being in the right mind to process it. The man just confessed to doing something incredibly taxing on the mind, for the sake of the young man getting a full night’s sleep. It was an incredibly thoughtful thing to do, but he just couldn't think about it right now. That action had screwed up so many things that were in no way Charlie’s fault. Oh, why did Troy say yes to this?
A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.
“Somehow, I think I am supposed to be angry at you,” Troy said, more to himself than Charlie. He was obviously frustrated, but none of that was centred around the man sitting on the sofa. He just… couldn't be angry at him.
The man had done what he thought was an act of a good friend, portraying self-sacrifice for the sake of what amounted to helping others' mentality. And it had worked! Troy had not felt better for a long time, stress being unable to let him have a full rest. Now… he almost didn't need a gallon of coffee to make himself feel alive again. A single cup would likely suffice.
“That is good to hear, I guess,” Charlie kindly answered, trying to stand up and promptly falling right down onto the floor. “... This is not what I expected to start the day off with if I'm being honest.”
It might have been due to some inner sadist popping out in the morning or something, but Troy just did not contain his laughter at the man's incredible clumsiness. He did understand that it was likely due to a lack of blood circulation, but that hadn't made it any less funny at the moment.
“Have you been drinking while I looked away or something?” Troy joyfully asked the fallen man, crouching a little to get on a closer head-level. He understood fully what had caused it, yet playing dumb for a little longer felt so good. He just couldn't stop himself. It was just too funny.
“Let's call it the side-effects of being a good friend, okay,” Charlie said, trying to get up from the floor. The man’s legs were not responding correctly, moving sporadically. There was no real coordination, being closer to sharp pulls than anything. It certainly wouldn't be able to keep the poor bastard standing for long.
A friend would have kept laughing. A good friend would have called him an idiot a few times. Troy just helped the man up, having had his fun. The two were beginning to be late, no matter what the clock was saying. It took time to move after all, and he felt it would take a little longer when the heaviest of the two needed constant assistance.
“You know, you could just leave me behind, right? I have nothing I need to get to,” Charlie remarked, as Troy helped him towards the door. Their size difference was making it all a delicate balancing act. One wrong step would mean that both would fall to the ground. The youngest did not have much weight to use as momentum, and the heaviest only needed to lean a little forward if he wanted to ruin both of their mornings. “It's you who's stressed on time.”
“I'm not that stressed yet,” Troy corrected the man, doing his best to watch both their feet for them. Charlie was certainly doing his best to time his own steps, but the young man had to constantly adjust to make sure nothing screwed up. The distribution of force needed to be mirrored or they would have to spend a long time just getting themselves out of a pile. “And my mind still does not understand everything. I expect you to know where to go, by the way, because I can honestly not remember any directions right now.”
“Oh, I should just have guessed it would be something like that,” Charlie sputtered on, intentionally putting too much length on the next step. It was a damned miracle that they were still standing after that. “You don't do it to be a good friend, because why would you ever do that. No, it's because you don't know the freaking way to the cafeteria.”
“I would have helped you sit on the sofa,” Troy corrected, knowing if there was a joke or not. He took it lightheartedly, able to see the grin out of the corner of his eye. “Be happy that you have some use right now, mister not-function alarm-clock.”
“You can't prove that I wasn't the one to wake you up,” Charlie pointed out.
“Can you prove the opposite?” Troy pointed right back.
“... Touche.”
The two moved through the hallway carefully, garnering many states as they walked. This might have been due to anything from their attire, to matching types of hair-days. It might also have been due to the near-constant swearing made by Troy, as he tried to make it so that the two did not fall on their faces at every possible second.
Their journey was an arduous one to be sure, but they were making steady progress. Some of that progress might have been wasted going to the different sides of the same hallway, but that was left up for questioning. The point was that they did reach the cafeteria within the allotted time, even being there five minutes before Troy’s usual time.
“Are we already here?” Charlie exclaimed, causing a few more looks thrown their way. People had already been staring since the muscular man had been looking ready to fall on his knees, but the words were causing more heads to turn by the second.
“Walking quickly seems to have that effect, yes,” Troy said, annoyed by the massive amount of clutter near the entrance. People seemed to find it a good idea to stand near the starting line as if that would help when others needed to pass.
“Oh, perfect,” Charlie instantly said, disentangling himself and standing on his own without any problems. This was kept in mind with the fact that the man had shown off trouble standing on his own for more than a second only a minute before.
“... How long have you been able to do that?” Troy questioned, not too happy about the display.
“Just about when we left my room,” Charlie admitted without any hesitation, causing Troy to just slap his forehead in frustration. “Might have been a few seconds before that, actually.”
“Then why did you make me carry you all the way here?”
“To see if you would do it. Take it as an act of curiosity controlling my decisions. That was your excuse last night if I remember it correctly. And you can take this as me firing back for that laugh of yours. Those feet of yours might have made me fall to the ground, but there would be consequences for that no matter what, my friend.”
Troy just stared back, as both men gained a mutual understanding of what it meant to have a friendship when both of the participants were assholes. It was a good staring-contest. One that was only stopped when the young one’s stomach began to growl furiously.
“... Let's get some food before we continue,” Troy semi-requested, sounding more like he was giving an order than anything else.
“Could not have said it better than myself,” Charlie answered. Both began to walk to the buffet, the muscular man looking around while doing it. Troy was truly only focused on the assortment of the day. “And… It seems a good friend of ours has decided to join us today. How kind.”
“Who are you-”
Dr Hale was sitting at their table, not looking incredibly happy. Troy began to remember his prior thoughts on that very same morning. He was not in the best of positions.