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“...imli? Gimli!”
Gimli’s head snapped up as he jerked back to awareness. Relatively. He might have blurted out something about alligators before he actually recognized where he was.
Bo was looking at him with undisguised concern. Reference books, notebooks, and both of their laptops were still strewn across the table between them.
“You doing okay?” he asked, his voice low in the relative quiet of the library.
Gimli cleared his throat before answering.
“M’fine. I just…” he paused to scrub a hand across his dry eyes, “didn’t sleep well last night.”
“That’s what you said when you fell asleep in class yesterday,” Bo replied, “and when you did the same thing last Tuesday.“
“So, it’s been a rough week, alright? I said it’s fine!” Gimli snapped. Immediately he regretted it. The sleepless nights made him a bit testy, but that was no reason to take it out on anyone; Bo Ramírez, least of all.
At least Bo took it in good grace, simply spreading his hands as he replied, “Until my little brother becomes a freshman, I’ve got to big brother someone.”
Gimli gave him a flat look.
“I’m older than you,” he deadpanned.
“So?” Bo said with a shrug. “Look, why don’t you go home and get some sleep? We can work on the paper Saturday.”
Gimli wanted to argue, but he ended up yawning instead.
The smug look Bo gave him as he stuffed his things into his backpack was entirely uncalled for.
“Get some rest, Gimli. I’ll see you Saturday,” his friend said as he got to his feet. “I’m going to go rescue Merry and Pip.”
Gimli blinked, not quite following.
“Rescue them from what?” he asked Bo’s retreating back.
“Whatever they’re up to now,” Bo replied, “they always end up needing a rescue.”
Gimli couldn’t really argue with that. Merry and Pip had a real talent for finding trouble where there was none.
“Fine, see you Saturday,” he finally conceded before Bo was out of earshot.
Bo gave him a wave and a, “Tell Legolas I said ‘hi,’” before disappearing around the corner.
In the resulting solitude, Gimli took a moment to drag a weary hand over his face. He was more than tired. At this point he was exhausted down to his bones, but what could he do?
Get some rest?
Gimli really didn’t see that happening any time soon.
………………….
Later that night, Gimli was sat in bed flipping through a textbook while Legolas finished in the bathroom.
“Are you still studying?” Legolas asked, finally emerging.
“Mmhmm,” Gimli replied, taking a sip from the mug sitting on the bedside table. Though, he took his eyes off the text to spend a minute appreciating the way Legolas’s pajama pants hung low on his hips.
Legolas yawned into his hand, his eyes and nose scrunching with the force of it.
How Legolas managed to look both runway model gorgeous and absolutely adorable was a mystery for the ages, but damn, Gimli was lucky.
“You know you won’t be able to get to sleep if you’re all keyed up again,” Legolas said as he slid under the covers.
“Like you’ve got any room to talk,” Gimli replied.
Legolas shrugged, looking not the least bit repentant as he tucked a long strand of hair behind his ear. Of course, Gimli had to kiss him.
“Mmmm. Minty,” he commented, waggling his eyebrows; the tingle of Legolas’s toothpaste still lingering on his breath.
“Mmmm. Tea-y” Legolas replied, with a playful look of his own. It was quickly ruined by another yawn.
Gimli chuckled.
“Looks like at least one of us will sleep well tonight.”
Legolas flopped down to his pillow. His mumbled, “for once,” muffled by the fabric.
Rolling over, he gave Gimli a thoughtful look.
“You want to try my Melatonin tonight?”
Gimli gave a hard look to the innocuous little pill bottle on Legolas’s side of the bed.
“No. I’ll be fine.”
Legolas was quite for a moment, before asking, “You haven’t slept well since you changed to a linguistics major… I worry. You’d tell me if something was wrong, right?”
Looking into his boyfriend’s worried eyes, Gimli tried to offer him his most reassuring smile.
“Absolutely,” he replied.
“Promise?”
Gimli set his textbook aside.
“Promise.”
Legolas reached out to squeeze one of Gimli’s hands.
“Alright. Get some sleep tonight.”
Gimli squeezed his hand back.
“I will.”
Legolas gave him a tender look before settling further into the mattress and shutting his eyes.
Gimli took another sip of his high-caffeine tea.
………………….
It only took a short time for Legolas’s breathing to even out into the gentle pattern of sleep. And it wasn’t much longer for the dreams to get started.
Legolas shifted in his sleep; eyes fluttering behind closed lids as no doubt some otherworldly scene enfolded.
Gimli was ready.
He set aside his textbook, and retrieved a pair of notebooks from the bedside table.
In one labeled, “Dream Journal,” he flipped to a blank page. On it, he wrote the date, the time, and a note that no melatonin had been used. The rest he left blank. He’d fill in the context tomorrow after Legolas told him about his dreams.
As Legolas began murmuring his strange sleep language, Gimli opened the other notebook, deceptively labeled “Conlang.”
Listening carefully, he began to write down any words he could phonetically. He underlined any that he recognized from previous dreams, and starred any he had developed hypothetical meanings for.
Slowly he was building a vocabulary. For what, exactly he wasn’t sure, but it was the best window he had into this hidden side of Legolas, and he would stay up as many nights as it took to crack this code.
As long as he could keep his body onboard, of course.
The words blurred for a second and Gimli squeezed his aching eyes shut, pinching at the bridge of his nose.
When he opened them again, his gaze focused on Legolas’s face. There was a serene smile on his lips, even as he continued his sleepy monologue.
There was a whole side of Legolas’s life that Gimli had never been able to be part of, but maybe if he could decipher Legolas’s dream talk he could find a way.
So what if it took some sleepless nights?
Gimli underlined the words “a•dar” and “mith•ran•deer”, before writing down the next phrase.
This was worth it.
The End.