Work Text:
“You can’t do this,” Aventurine begged. Tears shone in his magenta eyes, leaving trails on his face.
He still looked beautiful like this, crying and messy, Ratio thought distantly.
Yet, Ratio did not lower the gun pointed at Aventurine. It was still aimed at his chest.
“Please, Veritas- !”
“I’m sorry.” His own voice came out as a shaky whisper, a plea, almost.
He pulls the trigger.
Ratio gasped as he got up from his bed. He tried to kick off the blanket covering his body, only to remember a moment too late that he was not sleeping on his bed, but on the narrow couch in his room. His body fell onto the floor as he let out a muffled curse.
“Ratio?” A sleepy voice came from the direction of his bed.
Aventurine.
Aventurine’s voice.
Ratio gulped as he tried to physically will his fast-beating heart to calm down.
Right. Aventurine was here. In his very own room. Safe and sound even if not entirely unscathed.
“Sorry. Did I wake you up?”
“It’s nothing. I couldn’t sleep anyway. But what’s wrong with you?”
Ratio picked himself up off the floor and walked towards the bed. Even in this dark room, he could trace Aventurine’s features - the outline of the body hidden under the sheets, his tousled blonde hair, his left ear where a small piercing was located, the curve of his jawline, the branding on his neck that made his stomach twist every time.
“Ratio?” Aventurine asked again - softer this time - as he sat down on the bed, at Aventurine’s side. “What’s wrong?”
“I need to feel your heartbeat.”
Aventurine smiled knowingly, but unlike the multitude of other times Ratio had seen him smile, this time there was a hint of vulnerability. No cocky smirk, no know-it-all bravado - only the vulnerability of opening up to someone else and all the fears that came with it.
Aventurine pulled his blanket away. His top half was still naked - mostly for the convenience of dressing and cleaning his wounds. Ratio felt his chest tighten at the sight - the sight of fresh wounds and old scars, but above all the bandages on the left side of his chest.
Where he had undeniably shot Aventurine.
Aventurine held his hand and gently pulled it towards his chest. Belatedly, Ratio realises it’s the first time he’s felt Aventurine’s bare skin that didn’t involve frantically thinking about applying pressure to stop the bleeding or how to sterilise the wound.
So he hadn’t noticed it before, but Aventurine’s skin felt nice. Smooth and soft to the touch.
Aventurine moved Ratio’s hand to the right side of his chest, and gently clasped both of his hands over Ratio’s hand.
He felt the steady thud of Aventurine’s heartbeat, and let out a shaky sigh of relief.
“Seems like I’ll need to get you up to speed on how I do things if our cooperation were to remain amicable.”
Ratio said nothing as Aventurine grabbed his hand and pushed it against his own chest, against his teal collar shirt. He only raised an eyebrow at the strange sensation - a heartbeat, even though Aventurine had held his hand against the right side of his chest.
And then Aventurine pushed a gun into his hand, held it right at the spot where his heartbeat was, and played roulette 3 times.
And Ratio thought, this man is insane.
They stayed in that position for a while. Ratio savoured it all - the steady heartbeat and the warmth of Aventurine’s hands against his own.
As reluctant as he is to do so, he eventually pulls away. “I’m sorry,” he muttered. “I shouldn’t have disturbed you. You ought to go back and rest.”
“Tch, nonsense. I already told you I couldn’t sleep.”
“You don’t have to lie to me. I know you’re a light sleeper. I woke you up because of my nightmare, didn’t I?”
Silence. Aventurine looked away.
But just as Ratio tried to get up from the bed, Aventurine spoke again.
“Don’t go.”
The slightest of Aventurine’s voice breaking sent him over the edge. As though he was the one who had been shot.
Ratio sat back down.
“Lie down with me.”
Ratio hesitated, but in the end he succumbed to Aventurine’s plea. Aventurine tried to shift over to his left to make more room for Ratio, though he winced at the movement.
“Careful,” Ratio warned. He carefully lifted Aventurine’s body to the side before getting into bed himself.
Aventurine was still laying on his back, while Ratio lay on his side, drinking in all the details he could see in this proximity and darkness. This close, he couldn't help but wonder how Aventurine’s lips would feel like against his own or how that blonde hair would feel in his hands.
“It’s true that I heard you tossing and turning in your sleep. But I was already awake when I heard it. Because I had a nightmare too.” Aventurine turned his head towards Ratio and clasped his hand again. “I dreamt that your plan got found out. I dreamt that you were thrown off the top of the building while I screamed and cried but couldn’t move to do anything.” The grip on his hand tightened.
For a while, neither of them said anything. They simply soaked in the sensations - their partner’s hand against their own, the soft pillow and mattress, the faintest hint of each other’s heartbeat that could only be heard in this proximity.
In the end, it’s Ratio who breaks the silence first. “If I stay here, I could accidentally hurt you in my sleep.”
Aventurine shook his head. “I have good luck, remember?”
“Hmph. Can’t argue with that.” Ratio sat up momentarily to feel for the edge of the blanket and pulled it over both of their bodies.