Otters
It was morning. Harley’s favourite time of day(!) He had to stumble through the living area to get to the kitchen, his hand dragging across the wall for as long as possible to support him and his eyes still half shut meaning he didn’t see that someone was there until he was right in front of them.
He rubbed his blurry, droopy eyes. “Who?” Was all he could manage.
He heard a familiar giggle in response, but this time it was thick with something else.
“Your morning face is so cute,” Peter said to him, and his voice sounded more delicate than usual. Harley figured out the reason why when he finally was able to open his eyes the whole way, seeing Peter teary eyed, but not looking very upset.
“You okay, darlin?” He drawled, still drowsy and not awake enough to register Pete’s last comment but awake enough for his concern for him to be growing.
“Your accent is also always stronger just after you wake up,” Peter giggled, and a tear escaped his eye and trickled down slowly.
Harley sat down next to Peter on the sofa and grabbed his hand. “Is everything ok? I mean, I was worried you were upset or something because, you’re crying, but you’re also giggling? Are these happy tears?”
Peter looked down at their clasped hands. Then up at Harley’s face.
“Wanda sent me a post saying that otters hold hands while they sleep so that they don’t drift away from each other, and the picture was so cute.”
Harley blinked.
“And now you’re holding my hand as if we’re the otters!”
“That’s why you’re crying?”
Peter nodded, his brown waves flopping up and down with the motion, and his shiny eyes wide as if he expected Harley to start crying too.
“You are so adorable.”
Peter slapped Harley’s shoulder half heartedly and laughed again. “You haven’t seen the picture yet.”
Peter pulled out his phone and showed him the screen which displayed the picture of the two otters holding hands while floating on their backs side by side, and it was indeed cute, but Harley couldn’t help but think that Peter was cuter. And then Pete went ahead and squeezed his hand as if to say ‘I’ll never drift away’ and Harley is 99.9% sure that he melted. The action was so totally cringe and cliché but Harley loved it entirely. He knew Peter wasn’t leaving.