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Stefan jolts awake, the sound of his last scream echoing across the room. The knight quickly covers his mouth to restrain any other noise that wishes to come out of his throat. Seconds later, he starts to tremble, tears running down already set tracks on his face. He does his best to wipe them away, but it only gives way for more tears to fall.
That was his worst nightmare yet. Nothing even comes close to just how awful it was. Stefan can hardly even remember what happened, but simply just thinking about it leaves him with fresh tears, and a cold, creeping feeling that trails up his spine. A quiet whimper sneaks its way out from his hands, much to his embarrassment. He shouldn't be reacting like this to something that he can't even remember!
Swallowing nervously, Stefan glances over to the other side of the bed. Thankfully, his two lovers remain peacefully asleep, much to the knight's relief. If he had woken them up with his nightmares... Stefan just winces thinking about it.
(Deep down, he knows that Johan and Ptolemy wouldn't be upset at him if he did wake them up. But he hates the thought of ruining one of their most peaceful nights of sleep with his own trivial problems. They went through far worse, after all. He shouldn’t be reacting like this at all.)
With that in mind, Stefan quietly slips out of bed. He knows well that trying to go back to sleep won't do anything for him. At best, he'll be tossing and turning until dawn, failing to get any kind of meaningful sleep at all. If he’s going to be awake, he might as well make himself useful, the one way he knows how.
The knight carefully pulls the covers back up as soon as he leaves the warmth of his comfy bed. Thankfully, his lovers haven't moved an inch since he woke up. As quietly as he can, Stefan slips out of their shared bedroom, taking care to not land on any loose floorboards so he doesn't make a sound. Once he's out of their shared bedroom, Stefan lets himself relax, just a little. He makes his way down to their kitchen, letting his mind wander along the way. Unfortunately for him, his mind wanders to his forgotten nightmare, brain latching on nothing but the pure terror he felt during it. The knight's hands tremble, and he quickly speeds up his steps. Seems like this was worse than I thought.
Stefan wraps his arms around himself to try and stave off the trembling he knows is coming. He bites his lips, the pain managing to pull his mind away from his dark thoughts, much to his relief. Slowly, he continues to walk towards the kitchen, taking care to bite his lips if his thoughts linger too long on his horrid nightmare. By the time he actually arrives there, his lips are bitten raw by his teeth. Stefan can’t really bring himself to care all too much, though. The only thing his mind latches onto is the fact that he’s finally in the kitchen. His comfort zone when everything inevitably goes wrong for him.
Quickly, he makes his way over to where his apron is hanging. He ties it on, though his hands slip every once in a while due to their trembling. Truthfully, he probably doesn't need it - and right now, he certainly doesn't care about any potential messes he may make - but his parent's firm instructions from his childhood always ring in the back of his head whenever he's ready to bake. By now, it's just instinct to do this.
Shaking his head to clear his thoughts, Stefan starts to pull out bowls, utensils, and ingredients that he's going to use. Whenever restless nights like these occur, nothing helps the knight relax more than baking. Something about the process never fails to calm Stefan's active mind from whatever anxiety he may have.
Tonight, Stefan muses, I'll have to do a lot of it.
With that thought in mind, he pulls out a notebook that he keeps in the pocket of his apron. He opens it to a blank page, smoothing it out to ensure that it lies flat on the counter. Stefan gently taps a pen on the page, quietly thinking about what he should make. With a quick look outside, he assumes that he woke up in the middle of the night. With quite a few hours remaining before dawn, Stefan reasons that he could make quite a few goods between then and now.
The first item that Stefan writes down are Johan’s favorite muffins. They’re fairly simple to make, and would almost certainly take the shortest amount of time to make out of anything else that he may write down. Plus - and far more importantly in Stefan’s mind - it’ll make his lover happy. That’s far more important than anything else.
What’s next,
Stefan muses to himself,
The muffins I can make whenever I like. Though, it’d be better if I made them closer to sunrise. Fresh muffins would bring a smile to Johan’s face, after all.
Stefan can’t help but smile at the thought. Johan’s pretty smile is worth doing anything for, in his eyes. Ptolemy’s is just as lovely as well. The thought of getting Ptolemy to give him one of his beautiful smiles is what gives him the idea for his next baked treat. Quite recently, the knight had experimented with incorporating Ptolemy’s honey into some cream that he quickly whipped up in place of sugar. The result was even more delectable than Stefan would have thought! Ptolemy clearly agreed, as soon enough the entire bowl of whipped cream was devoured with a few rolls of bread.
Grinning, Stefan happily writes down his next idea: honey-cream filled cream puffs. He’ll have to find a copy of his parent’s recipe book for this, but he’s sure it’ll be worth it. The knight makes sure to write a note to make this early, as he knows the shells would need time to cool once it’s out of the oven.
After coming up with delicious treats for his lovers, the rest of Stefan’s list is made up soon enough. A new batch of dinner rolls, more cookies to snack on, and some mini tarts to use up some of the copious amounts of fruit that they had bought from the market recently.
Once he’s done writing, Stefan smiles. After a quick little bit of brainstorming to figure out the order of what needs to be done first - which thankfully doesn’t take too long - he walks over to the sink to wash his hands. He can barely contain his excitement to bake such an array of tasty treats for his lovers. Quickly, he makes his way back to the counter to start preparing everything he needs. He’s going to be here for a while.
Hours pass. By the time the sun has started to rise in the sky, Stefan set the last of the muffins on a tray to cool. He yawns quietly, bringing a hand up to rub at his eyes moments later. He’s tired. So tired that he can feel it deep in his bones. As much as he loves to bake, this hobby never fails to leave him tired afterwards.
Still. It’s worth it.
The fruit of his labor for the past few hours lay right in front of him. Delectable fluffy muffins filled with chunks of chocolates for Johan, light, fluffy honey cream filled cream puffs for Ptolemy, new cookies for their cookie jar, buttery rolls perfect for dinner - and any other time of day really -, and perfect mini blueberry lemon tarts with a nice creamy and tart center. In his own eyes? He’s outdone himself.
As Stefan proudly looks at all of the items that he made within the past few hours, another yawn rises up from his chest. The exhaustion of the day prior, and the knight’s sleepless night have finally taken their toll on him. His legs tremble slightly, leaving him to hold onto the counter to support himself. Carefully, Stefan guides himself to sit in the nearest chair he can find. He all but collapses into it, sighing in relief once he’s seated.
Sitting down like this, Stefan’s exhaustion seems to triple, leaving him to slump down in his chair. His eyelids droop down, the effort to keep them open feeling far too difficult for him at the current moment. He yawns again, yet another wave of exhaustion washing over him. Against his will - or so he thinks - his eyes start to shut.
“Maybe I can… close my eyes for a moment…” Stefan mumbles to himself, consciousness slowly fading. The dark void of sleep comes to take him, and the knight has no way to resist its call. His head slumps down, as Stefan prepares to finally rest his weary body from his restless night…
…until he feels something shake him gently.
Stefan’s eyes slowly flutter open in confusion, gently lifting his head to see who stirred him from his rest. The face of one of his lovers, Ptolemy, stares back at him, a worried expression on his freckled face. His hand lies on the knight’s shoulder, gently squeezing his shoulder.
Stefan can't help but smile a little at the sight of his lover's beautiful face. He opens his mouth to greet him, to tell him of the desserts and treats he made for all of them, but his voice stays caught in his throat, barely coming out as anything stronger than a hum.
"...Honey," Ptolemy starts in a gentle tone, the worried look on his face only growing after Stefan opened his mouth to not even say a word, "How long have you been up? Your side of the bed was cold."
Stefan can’t help but wince at Ptolemy’s words. He glances away guiltily, biting his still raw lips from earlier. Still not trusting himself to speak, he simply points at all of the treats that he had made within the past few hours. Ptolemy follows his hand, a quiet gasp leaving his mouth as he notices everything on the counter.
For a moment, nothing was said between the two of them. Stefan continues to look away, his nerves flaring to life once more. They've lived together long enough for Ptolemy to know how long each of these treats take to bake. And he’s more than smart enough to figure out how long the green-haired knight was awake off of that alone.
“...’m s-sorry,” Stefan forces out, unable to stop his stuttering. He can feel his eyes start to sting as they fill up with tears once more, “I j-just couldn’t s-sleep an-”
His words get cut off by the feeling of Ptolemy’s warm arms wrapping around him. Moments later, Stefan feels weightless as one of his lovers lifts him into his arms. A bright blush spreads across the green-haired knight’s face as soon as his mind processes what just happened in the last few seconds. Ptolemy, meanwhile, simply smiles and leans down to press his lips against Stefan’s forehead, who blushes even more in response.
“You have nothing to be sorry about, honey.” Ptolemy assures him, as he carefully starts to carry Stefan away, “I can tell you had a rough night. You must be tired after making everything, right?” At Stefan’s nod, Ptolemy chuckles before continuing, “Right. You made plenty of desserts for us. The least that we can do is make sure you sleep well.”
Stefan has to resist the urge to burst out in tears from Ptolemy’s kind words. He buries his face into Ptolemy’s warm chest to stave off any stray tears that wish to fall. It serves to be an excellent distraction, as soon any thoughts of crying are replaced by his exhaustion. Faintly, he can hear Ptolemy giggle from above him.
Stefan doesn’t notice when Ptolemy walks back into their bedroom, but he certainly does notice when his lover gently places him down on their comfy bed. Instantly, the knight practically melts onto it, snuggling into the warm sheets. His eyes instinctively fall shut as soon as his head hits one of their fluffy pillows. Definitely much better than the chair he tried to sleep on minutes prior.
Though his consciousness quickly fades, Stefan doesn’t fail to notice another set of warm arms gently wrapping around him. He leans into them, immediately knowing that they belong to Johan. Seconds later, he feels his other lover kiss his forehead as well, making a sleepy smile spread across his face.
“Goodnight, Stefan,” Johan murmurs, “We love you.”
“We love you,” Ptolemy repeats, gently sliding in next to Stefan.
Stefan’s sleepy smile grows wide from his lover’s kind words, and warmth. With a mumbled “love you,” his consciousness slowly fades. He rests peacefully surrounded by his lovers, knowing well that he’ll finally get the rest he’s craved.