Sjin walked by the cells of the Beaver Mafia bosses, giving one last look to the exhausted prisoners as they fell into fitful slumber after a long day of interrogation. Even with all the questioning, he and Sips were no closer to finding out the location of the boss. Sighing, Sjin dragged himself away from the cages, not wishing to be reminded of the total pointlessness of the day.
He walked back to the fort, smiling as he passed the familiar painting of Nicholas Cage on the wall. Climbing the ladder, he was greeted with a loud snore. The figure of Sips was laying idle across one half of the bed.
Sjin almost turned around to reside somewhere else for the night. But a sudden thought struck his brain that he couldn’t help but ponder upon.
The two friends often joked with each other, and much of that joking was somewhat homoerotic. But neither of them had ever taken that homoerotic behavior seriously. Sjin, however, found himself reflecting upon those occurrences a bit too often to pass it off as just joking on his part.
After thinking for a bit, Sjin turned back and walked towards the wide bed. He carefully edged himself next to the other the other man, careful not to disturb him. His pulse quickened as he felt Sips stir briefly, only to fall back into his rhythmic snoring.
Sjin tried to think of an excuse for if Sips awoke and questioned him. The bearded man decided that he would simply say he was too exhausted to climb back down the ladder or even care that he was sleeping in the same bed as his friend. But those thoughts were quickly whisked out of his head as he heard Sips begin to murmur in his sleep.
“Hey, pal…”
Sjin’s breath caught in his chest as he began to open his mouth to spurt out his excuse.
“Finish up… with the boss people… so we can go to bed…”
The still-awake man clamped his mouth shut again. Sips was simply sleeptalking, he still didn’t know that his friend was right next to him.
Sjin tried to ignore Sips’s muffled ramblings, until he heard something that made his eyes shoot open.
“ Sssjin, you’re beautiful, maann…”
There was no way he said that. He was simply hearing thi-
“Mmm… Sjin, come closer…”
Sjin gasped softly. He carefully lifted himself from the mattress, even more careful this time to not disturb the paler man. He silently climbed back down the ladder, then walked out to the steps leading down into the ground. Sjin sat, resting his head in his hands and thinking. However, it wasn’t long before he collapsed onto the stair and slept, too.
~~~
Sjin awoke early the next morning. He looked around, and could not locate Sips, which probably meant he was still in bed. He thought back on what Sips was saying. On one hand, Sjin could just forget the whole incident. He could pass it off in his mind as Sips repeating some of their homoerotic jokes.
But he knew he couldn’t. He couldn’t just think of it as brand Sips silliness. If Sips was thinking about that… nay, fantasizing about that on a subconscious level, it was more than harmless reflection on previous behavior. It was most likely some hidden feelings, or some other buried romantic fluff.
Sjin stretched, flinching at the soreness that sleeping on the stairs outside had caused. Only then did he notice that Sips was looking at him from the doorway of their main residence.
“Y’alright, bro? You look like you just spent a night sleeping on the- oh wait.”
Sjin chuckled. “Yeah, I’ll be fine. Say, maybe it’s time we use those torture tactics on that stupid furnace.”
Sips smiled. “Yeah, that stubborn little guy’ll won’t be so tough once he’s got a mouthful of lava.” He turned towards the house again, going to the chest to look for a bucket of lava.
Sjin watched him walk away. Maybe I will let it go. For now.
