‘Twas no secret that Sir Mallor was deprived of sleep.’
That’s what Ate would jokingly say whenever they got woken up by Mallor getting up to go straight to work at 5:45 am each morning.They would extend their hands as if they were announcing it to a crowd, they would paint an expression on their face that screamed that they were being dramatic.
On an extremely favored day, they would get a tired smile from Mallor as he exited through the door of their apartment.
But Underneath the paint, and their extravagant movements, Ate was extremely worried.
They were worried for their best friend. So of course, in their free time while Mallor was sorting out paperwork, Ate would use their crafty brain to devise plans.
“A lot of people underestimate you.”
Ate had been told it many times before, by Danger, Mallor and Katie. People think they’re just some bubbly ball of sunshine, and when people think that Ate just kicks their ass to prove them wrong.
(They weren’t going to do that to Mallor, quite the opposite in fact.)
At the moment Ate was keeping a watchful eye over Mallor as they watched a movie, just about ready to put their plan into action. They cleared their throat.
“Hey, could you unlock your phone so I can check something?” Ate asks. Mallor turns to them with a blank look, his resting face. “Can’t you check your phone?” Mallor inquires. Ate shrugs.
“I left mine on the counter,” Mallor looks at them with an expectant look. “And it's too comfy.” Ate finishes, with a straight face. Mallor cracks a smile as he shuffles closer to Ate. “What did you wanna check out?” Mallor unlocks his phone, and Ate takes note of the passcode.
Step one complete! A part of them cheers. Ate opens the Clock App and goes through the endless alarms Mallor has set. Ate nods in inquisitively. Mallor rests his head on Ate’s shoulder as he watches with hidden confusion. “What’re you doing,”
“Checking if I, Myself, need to set an alarm,” Ate looks back towards the movie. “It seems I do not.” Ate concludes as Mallor closes his phone with a snicker.
“Joke all you want Shakesphere, just you wait and see Cove’s face when I get more work done than him.” Mallor leans back on the cushions and sighs contently. Ate makes a mental note to devise a plan for Cove as well.
“So it’s a competition of sorts?” Ate asks. Mallor nods, a sly grin on his face. “Yup, I intend to win the bragging rights once and for all,” he says, a smug air around him.
“Once and for all,” Ate questions. “Does that mean no more competitions?” They inquire. Mallor’s gaze drifts down, Ate can imagine the gears turning in his skull.
“Uh- Correction,” Mallor looks up and clears his throat. “I will have bragging rights for the foreseeable future.” He raises a finger, matter-of-factly.
Ate snorts and slings and arm around Mallors shoulders, flopping further onto the couch and dragging Mallor down with them. “Goodnight,” Ate gives a giddy smile as they close their eyes.
“The movie’s not over yet,” Mallor points out. Ate shrugs and hugs Mallor tight.
“Don’t care. Sleep time. Goodnight Mallor.” Ate ends the conversation. Mallor chooses to wisely accept his fate and drifts off to sleep.
~~~~~~~
Ate’s eyes peer open as soon as they can feel Mallors breaths become natural. They blink around the dark room as their eyes adjust to the motherload of brightness they forgot was there.
Their breath hitches as they wonder why they screwed themselves over by hugging Mallor. They could have just gone to sleep separately, and Ate could have avoided the trouble of possibly waking Mallor up as they try to reach his phone.
They allow their breath to become light as their arm slithers above Mallors form and tries to inch towards his phone.
After an endless amount of dying, Ate is finally able to breathe as they grasp Mallors phone.
They open it and put in the passcode, 8-3-1-8-1-5. They struggle to see because of Mallors brightness, and cure their blindness once they turn it down.
Ate goes into the clock app and shuts off all of Mallor’s alarms, 5:30, 5:40, 5:45, 5:50, 6:00, etc,
Etc.
They turn off the phone successfully, and toss it onto the carpet as lightly as they can. “Mission successful.” They whisper to themselves, fist pumping the air.
~~~~~~~
When Mallor wakes up the next day, they search for their phone. They blink the sleepiness out of their system and look around for the clock. Once his mind turns on, he can see that it’s 7:48am.
sh*t.
He’s sure he turned his alarms on, in fact he specifically remembers letting Ate have a look at them-
His head whips around to look at his side, to see Ate happily and softly snoring away, having attached themselves to Mallor. Mallor sighs and tries to wrestle himself out of his best friend's grip.
This seems to wake Ate up. They wipe their eyes and look at Mallor, then at the clock. A smug grin appears on their face. “Good morning,” they direct towards Mallor.
“You turned off my alarms.” Mallor deadpans, trying to wriggle out of Ate’s grip. It seems neither of the two are ‘having it.’
“Yup.” They beam, and eliminate all of Mallors precious progress by pulling them into the cuddle-hug even more. “Ate I need to get to work,” Mallor tries to reason.
“Mm,” Ate considers. “Nup.”
Mallor sighs and goes back to trying to wriggles out. Ate sighs as well. They tighten the hug and rest their chin on top of Mallors head. “Boss won’t mind if you push your hours back a little,” they say. “I’m pretty sure he would encourage it, you sleep deprived peaco*ck.” They point out.
A sting of confusion tries to unravel itself in Mallors mind. “Peaco*ck- what?-“ Mallor mumbles to himself.
“Mm. Sleep.” Ate says. “Ate I’ve got to-“
“Nuh uh.”
“What do you mean nuh uh?”
“I mean nada chance.”
“You can’t just mix Spanish and English like that.”
“Yes I can, sleep.” Ate nuzzles into Mallors white hair and sifts a hand through some of the feathers at the edge of his head-wings.
Mallor sighs and closes his eyes, silently allowing himself to enjoy it. “You are so very lucky that I love you,” he whispers. Ate hums in victory.
Mallor shuffles to turn over and places his head next to Ate’s collarbone. He lazily throws a hand over Ate’s form and lays there, contently.
“Goodnight Mallor, I love you.”
Mallor gives a tiny smile. “I love you too bub.”
