Sleep Tight (G)
Characters – Eric the Cavalier; Hank the Ranger
Prompt - ff100 #17 Brown
Word Count - 534
Summary – All Hank wants is to go to sleep.
A/N – Written as response to a prompt from a friend, but all I could think about were brown blankets - and "downtime"! With thanks to i_love_freddie and kenderkim :)
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Sleep Tight
'This place smells,' said Eric sourly. 'It's cold.'
Hank kept his eyes closed, but felt compelled to answer anyway.
'So it's not quite the Ritz, but it's the best we've got,' he mumbled into his blanket.
Eric wasn’t listening.
'The floor's all bumpy, and there's only one bed,' he gestured to the dozing form of the Barbarian, curled up on the bed, under a big. brown blanket, 'we've no pillows, we've no mattresses, and the whole place smells of dog sh...'
'Keep it down!' hissed the Ranger. 'Don’t wake them up! It’s not fair on them.'
'Presto'll sleep through and earthquake,' retorted Eric. 'So will Bobby!'
'Keep it down anyway. And go to sleep.'
'I can't sleep like this!'
'Just shut up!'
For a few minutes, there was silence, punctuated by the soft sound of breathing from his friends. There was a sulky-silence from Eric; Hank could recognise the different types of sulking-silence by now. He knew Eric wasn't finished. Sure enough, the Cavalier eventually spoke again.
'It's not fair.'
Hank pulled his thin blanket more tightly around his shoulders, hoping to ignore Eric and that the Cavalier would maybe just get the message and leave him alone to go to sleep as best he could.
'I said, "It's not fair!"'
'I heard you.'
'Well, it's not, is it! They get the nice room while we end up in the doghouse! They get beds and sheets and extra blankets, and food, and wine, and a warm fire and are probably up there right now having a little girl talk about us and laughing at us behind our back! And what do we get for finding this place for them? The guys who do all the hard work? We get this place, and those two dweebs for company! Not exactly the boy's-night-in I had hoped for!'
Hank again tried to ignore him, screwing his eyes tight shut and willing Eric to be quiet. It had been a long, hard day and they needed to get some sleep, as tomorrow promised to be just as difficult. Even if what some of the things he said were true, it didn't change anything, and complain about it wasn't gonna help either!
'It's. Not. Fair.'
Hank opened his eyes, and scowled at Eric. The other boy was lying next to him, proped up on one elbow, glaring at him.
'It's not my fault!' said Hank in a fierce whisper. 'It wasn't my suggestion to stay here! I didn't know we were going to get the crappy room. Don't go blaming me. Just get over it and go to sleep!'
There was another long silence.
'Bet the girls are just fine...' started Eric.
'Shut up!' growled Hank. 'We're not going to discuss it any more! I'm going to sleep.'
He turned over, pulling the blanket with him, and clamped his eyes shut. He wanted to sleep in a warm room with a comfortable bed too; and have food and wine and a good time with good company!
But this was what they had, and that was that. They would have to make do.
They always did.