Work Text:
Antonius had never been a deep sleeper, waking up at any small noise when others wouldn't even register it. The palace was usually quiet enough for him to get a reasonable amount of sleep before the maids and servants started on their duties, making too much noise for him to sleep, but last night that was not the case.
He doesn't know what the first thing to wake him up was, it might've been a broken, squeaking floorboard, a person wandering around the kitchen for a late night snack and shutting a cabinet too loudly, or any other disturbance in the quiet night really. No matter what it was, it was enough to wake him up and things only got worse from there.
The birds outside were too loud, he could hear someone snoring from the other room and the bugs buzzing was getting too irritating to ignore. So Antinous, already having gone through this more than enough times, gave up on trying to sleep, instead opting for doing anything else he could do in his guest room. Which wasn't a lot, given there wasn't much in the room at all besides a bed, desk and chair, wardrobe, door and window.
More often then not, Antinous spend his sleepless nights working out, simple sit-ups and push ups to tire his body out enough to maybe catch a few minutes of sleep, if he were lucks. So that's what he did.
Unfortunately, Antinous is not a very lucky man.
And so, the training didn't help much. He did exhaust himself, but not to the point of sleeping. He ended up just laying in his bed, staring either on the ceiling or out the window, wondering what he did to disgruntle lord Hypnos for him to deny Antinous rest.
He probably did a lot. Anyways-
Once the sun came up, Antinous forced himself out of his bed, now more irritated, groggy, and not at all willing to take anyone's shit.
He wandered into the main dining hall, where some suitors were already devouring anything the servants placed on the table, talking, laughing, and being way too noisy for his unrested mind. He slumber heavily into a seat at an empty table, resting his head in his hands, elbows propped up on the table, and tried to block out all the noise, focus his mind on anything but the world around him.
"Hey, Antinous!" Came a loud voice, too cheerful for this early in the morning. Amphinomus, in all his usual hopefulness and seeming innocence absolutely not fitting to a man trying to court a queen. He's one of the suitors who arrived some time before Antinous, he wasn't sure how much longer he had been in the palace. His caramel skin has a nice glow in the warm sun rays coming through the window, his dark brown eyes reflecting the warm light in a way that, when paired with the way his short brown hair outlines his face, made him look even more naive and innocent than he should look.
"How you doing man? Why so upset? Can me and a few others sit with you?" He asked, gesturing with his head to the handful of other men standing behind him.
Antinous gave a somewhat affirmative grunt, moving over to the edge of the long seat to make room for the other men, as if there wasn't already enough. He didn't have the time or energy to give any snarky or sarcastic comment about why amphinomus would think he could sit with him, he didn't even try to bother the little prince when he spottet him in the room.
His lack of insults or comments didn't go unnoticed by the other man, earning him a confused and dare he say concerned look.
"You doin' good? You're usually more... Insulting. No offense!" He quickly tried to defend himself, putting his arms up to protect his face, scared he might've angered their crowd-selected leader. Instead of the expected shout or punch in the face, all Amphinomus got was a sideways glare.
"I'm fine. Don't talk to me." Was all Antinous said before resuming his futile attempt at preventing a headache from forming.
Amphinomus shrugged and didn't pay him any more mind, starting up a conversation with the other men at the table.
As the conversation got more emotional and the men more drunk, Amphinomus unconsciously got closer to Antinous, almost touching side to side. At some point Antinous had gone from his basically-laying-on-the-table position to leaning back slightly with his arms crossed and head tilted down.
Antonius' eyes got heavy, the heat radiating from the man beside him somehow pulling him into the inviting arms of sleep. He didn't think much of it when he rested his head on Amphinomus' arm, not noticing the way the other went stock still and the talking slowly died down when his eyes finally fell shut, his breathing evened out and he slowly fell asleep, for once not forcing his mind to shut up and instead drifting off peacefully.
The Suitors at the table hadn't noticed the sudden shift in the atmosphere at first, not until amphinomus, who had been leading the conversation, suddenly went completely silent.
Once they had all noticed their feared and respected leader had fallen asleep on his shoulder, everyone quieted down, some having to get elbowed to finally shut up.
"Sooooo... What now?" One of them asked, quickly getting shushed by another man. None of them had the guts to wake the bear of a man up, least they suffer the consequences. The men glanced around each other, all eyes finally landing on Amphinomus who had to take a second to understand their sorry expressions.
"Wait-" he whisper-shouted. "Don't leave me alone! Guys!" His please fell on deaf ears as the rest of the men stood from their seats and quietly made their way far away from the two.
Amphinomus sighed not as heavily as he'd like to, scared that the movement of his shoulders would disturb Antonius.
Without much to do, he turned his head to look at the resting man. His usual annoyed scowl is replaced by a neutral, even relaxed expression. His sharp edges softening as his chest moved steadily up and down with his breaths, some of his hair fell into his face, covering his scarred eye. Now that he thought about it, Antinous has never told any of them how he got that scar. He should try asking the man when he wakes up.
As Amphinomus stared at the other Suitor, he started noticing his finer features, his long eyelashes, full lips, well taken care of skin, all the little details and love marks one would only notice when up close.
Seeing Antinous so unbothered, relaxed like none of them have seen yet, made a warm feeling spread through Amphinomus' chest. It was... nice. A soft smile made its way to his face.
Even if the stiff position was starting to hurt, this whole situation wasn't so bad after all.