"We've been doing all this late night talking, 'Bout anything you want until the morning."

[underyourskin]

Who: Jude Willis and Winston Slater
What: "Now you're in my life, I can't get you off my mind"
Where: Sydney, Australia
When: After this

Despite the heartbreaking mess that had them all converging in Sydney, Jude felt surreally content after his lengthy unexpected deep-and-meaningful chat with Reecy. Since Jude had returned to New York following his stint overseas with Doctors Without Borders, he and Reecy had resumed a friendship he truly valued because he always thought she was so wise and compassionate, he highly respected her not just as a person, but as a successful woman who always had the backs of the people she loved, no questions asked. He was glad he got to still call himself one of them after everything went so wrong with their romantic relationship which ultimately was mostly down to being incompatible, at the end of the day. And all that now led him to this very new, but very exciting, romance with her BFF (or as Reecy called him, her BFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFF x infinity), Winston. The chat gave him so much food for thought, especially about Jude's insecurities of putting his heart on the line again and how much he wanted all this to work out, but especially in a sense of not repeating past errors with Winston that ended his relationship with Reecy.

It was the very early hours of the morning when he tiptoed back to the bed he was sharing with Winston here at the investment beachhouse on Sydney Harbour owned by Justin and Sasha. It was sprawling and luxurious enough that also staying there with them was Kyan and Reecy, Trey and Ash, Arian and Chance, with bedrooms still leftover. Winston had been battling another bad migraine triggered by the long-haul flight from New York and it had yet again knocked him. Jude was learning how Winston managed his chronic migraine condition and what he needed when one took him down. Winston was still out for the count when Jude went back to bed.

He crashed out for a few hours himself before he was woken by the urge to take a leak. This time, when he padded back into the bedroom from the attached ensuite bathroom, sliding back into bed to spoon Winston and snuggle into his back, Winston shifted with a muffled mostly-still-asleep hum of recognition. Jude tucked his arm more snugly around Winston's waist. "You're awake," he murmured, kissing Winston's back. "It's okay, babe. Go back to sleep. Nothing to get up for. Just rest."

Comments

[writeyourownending]

"S'okay. M'awake." Winston was still sleepy, though, and his heavy eyes slipped closed as he cuddled Jude's arm against him. The hug felt nice and cozy after feeling so crap with the migraine. He knew better than to try to move too quickly yet. He had to take his time and analyse if his head and body had finished being assholes. Even when his migraines eased off, he still had the post-migraine phase where he was wiped out with fatigue, felt achy and sometimes still woozy. If he pushed too much, too soon, he could re-trigger another aftershock migraine which sometimes could be worse than the initial one. Mostly, he was just enjoying the feeling of sharing a bed again. It was nice to wake up with arms around you. He liked spooning and lazy bed snuggles. It was probably one of the things he missed the most when he was single. Jude gave great hugs. They hadn't been dating long, but it was long enough for Winston to have assessed that. The close second to that was that Winston seriously appreciated Jude taking care of him when he was unwell. He never really could communicate very well on anything when a migraine had its claws into him but it wasn't lost on him all Jude had done to help him and without an iota of hesitation. When he spoke again, his voice was still husky from sleep but he was a little more awake now. "Need a pee. Not sure it's safe to move yet, though. You're amazing, you know that? Want you to know, how much you help me when I'm sick isn't lost on me. Baptism of relationship fire, huh? I feel like every little romantic leeway we make, I end up barfing on you. A lot."