Ben nods; they need to stay here, which is just fine, because right now all the rest of the world and all the multiverses don't even feel real. It's like this little bubble of theirs is all that exists. Just him, and Cole, and the happiness of imagining what Cole will look like wearing one of his hoodies, and what else he can do in the future to make Cole feel extra warm and soft and special.
At first, Ben can't imagine going to sleep at a time like this. He is exhausted, sure, but he has just gone through something momentous, and the idea of rest seems absurd. He is never going to sleep again - he is going to be awake forever sustained just on remembering Cole's smile and how it felt to kiss him...
Which is what he is thinking as he begins blinking slower and slower, as his breaths even out and all his muscles relax, and soon enough he is asleep with his head on Cole's chest, cuddled in tight against him. Ben isn't entirely unused to sleeping near someone; he and Klaus would climb into each other's beds when they were kids and scared or had had awful days. They've even done the same from time to time, here, though moreso in the early days, when Ben was still adjusting to being alive again, and before Klaus had started spending as much time with Julie.
Still, this is the first time he has done so with anyone that isn't his closest brother. But he doesn't have any trouble, drifting off, with Cole so near. Even as he rests, his mind is a haze of happiness; it clings to him, even in his dreamless sleep.
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At first, Ben can't imagine going to sleep at a time like this. He is exhausted, sure, but he has just gone through something momentous, and the idea of rest seems absurd. He is never going to sleep again - he is going to be awake forever sustained just on remembering Cole's smile and how it felt to kiss him...
Which is what he is thinking as he begins blinking slower and slower, as his breaths even out and all his muscles relax, and soon enough he is asleep with his head on Cole's chest, cuddled in tight against him. Ben isn't entirely unused to sleeping near someone; he and Klaus would climb into each other's beds when they were kids and scared or had had awful days. They've even done the same from time to time, here, though moreso in the early days, when Ben was still adjusting to being alive again, and before Klaus had started spending as much time with Julie.
Still, this is the first time he has done so with anyone that isn't his closest brother. But he doesn't have any trouble, drifting off, with Cole so near. Even as he rests, his mind is a haze of happiness; it clings to him, even in his dreamless sleep.