#college! shawn

[dragonpyre]

Psych au where everything’s the same but Shawn and Gus are early early twenties and Gus is in college but Shawn keeps dragging him out of lectures and internships to solve crimes.

[gaffney]

I saw that look in your eyes, K. I know that look. It's the same one that landed me in juvie. If you keep going down this road, you'll end up in juvie too. Or you can learn from my mistakes, and maybe give Keene another shot too.

ROBBY KEENE & KENNY PAYNE in COBRA KAI (2018-)

[bylersbear01]

I will always love this detail <3

[driftingoffthegrid]

my sister just informed me that she doesn’t like to watch shows on her phone

funny the variety you find even within families because watching sitcoms until 5 am was an essential part of my development that legitimately saved my life

[thespiritssaidso]

Social Norms and College Dorms

Summary: Lassiter was only gone for a few hours.

—————

“No. No no no no no! They were right here!” Lassiter frantically dug through his backpack. He could have sworn he’d placed his loose-leaf notes right in front of his Criminology textbook. But all he saw was some stupid flyers he thought he’d.. thrown… into the recycling bin…

He smacked his forehead, muttering to himself how stupid he was. He must have grabbed the very important notes — the ones he’d hand-written covering all the basics he’d need to study for the criminology exam the next day — into the recycling instead of the useless flyers he’d meant to dump.

Lassiter tiredly rubbed his eyes. He hadn’t been getting a lot of sleep lately, too busy stressing over the upcoming test. And it was very apparent. Just the other day he’d almost thrown his cup of coffee onto his bed and taken a sip from his phone. He’d caught himself just in time, thankfully. That would have been a very awkward trip to the laundry room, carrying coffee-stained sheets down multiple floors.

Where was he? Oh yeah, the missing notes.

He began pacing the small dorm room, fingers tugging at his hair and pulling a few strands loose as he quietly panicked. What was he going to do? Those notes covered everything he’d learned over the semester!

Lassiter was so caught up in his pacing he didn’t notice the desk leg until he’d accidentally kicked it.

“Ow! Son of a-” before he could finish his sentence, an idea popped into his head.

‘Wait a minute. O’Hara takes the same class as me! I could ask for her notes, I’m sure she wouldn’t mind.’

On his way out, Lassiter grabbed a thin magnetic strip he’d bought from the campus store and stuck it over the hole where the latch usually slid into and locked the moment the door closed. It would just be a quick trip, a short walk downstairs to grab the notes from Juliet. He wouldn’t be gone for long. And besides, he didn’t exactly have anything worth taking in his dorm.

Oh how wrong he was.

Juliet had given him the notes, but only after sitting him down in a plush beanbag chair to rant to him about how one of the girls in her group project for some other class was taking on all the tasks and simply not doing them.

He’d kept trying to bring up the criminology notes in some way, but it always backfired, each attempt in switching the topic only prompting Juliet to complain about some other thing Victoria was doing. Don’t get him wrong, he didn’t mind listening to her talk. It was one of the many things that kept them as friends: he’d listen while she spoke. Juliet would oftentimes ask if he was sure he didn’t have anything he wanted to say. It was considerate of her, but he’d reassure her time and again that she was fine and that if he had something to say he’d just say it. And he very much kept true to that promise.

It was a strange relationship, some of the students and even a few professors would often speculate if they were dating, or if they were siblings.

Neither were true, although Lassiter did sometimes consider Juliet as his little sister.

After nearly three hours of sitting through Juliet’s ranting, he managed to steer the subject to what he’d come for: her criminology notes. As he’d suspected, she had no problem handing them over.

It was very dark outside, nearly 1 in the morning, when Lassiter slid the door to his dorm open, expecting an empty room (his roommate, Dobson, was almost never there). Instead, he saw-

“You have got to be kidding me.”

Somehow, in the span of time he’d been gone, some rando had found their way into his dorm room and fallen asleep on the floor. It definitely wasn’t Dobson. This guy looked nothing like his routinely absent roommate. Actually, if lassiter was being honest, he looked… a lot better than him, in a conveniently attractive kind of way.

Lassiter rolled his eyes at the sight. “Great,” he mumbled to himself, “just what I needed the night before the exam.”

The man on the floor let out a snore, and twitched slightly in his sleep, as if to get comfier on the very much uncomfortable carpet floor.

Normally, More Awake Lassiter would have either dragged the squatter out of his dorm and slammed the door or called the RA to handle the situation. But this was Tired Lassiter. Tired Lassiter did not have the strength to drag a bag of sand out of his room, much less a full human being. And he was pretty certain that McNab was asleep by now.

So he stood there, Juliet’s notes still in his hand, contemplating on what the heck he was going to do about this whole person that was sleeping on the floor in front of him.

Lassiter tried walking up and nudging him with his foot. No response. Then, after setting the notes down on his desk, he began poking him on the shoulder. Still nothing. As a last resort, he grabbed the unconscious man and began shaking him by the shoulder. He got a little movement out of that, but not enough to show that he’d woken up.

So he did the only thing he could think to do: just ignore him.

Lassiter pulled out the chair from under his desk and began poring over the notes, transcribing them onto another set of paper so as to better remember the material. And so it was in his note-taking style. He thanked whoever was out there that Juliet took the time to write down everything the professor taught them word for word, instead of summing it up like he did.

It had been maybe thirty minutes or so of complete silence, broken only by the light scratching of lead on paper, that he felt his mind wander to the person passed out on his floor. He had to be uncomfortable. And the position that he was in made Lassiter cringe.

‘His neck is going to be extremely messed up when he wakes up.’ The thought pinged around his head, over and over.

‘What am I going to do about it?’

‘Let him use Dobson’s pillow. He’s never here anyways.’

It was a lot more tempting of an idea than it should’ve been. Why did he care so much about this stranger’s comfort? The guy literally broke into his dorm and passed out on his floor.

But he couldn’t stop staring, a strange feeling growing deep in his chest.

“Okay, fine!” He said to no one. After an awkward silence he got up from his chair and grabbed the pillow. Carefully, he lifted the other man’s head and gently placed it underneath, allowing his head to fall onto it.

Satisfied, he stood back up and returned to studying, his mind officially unoccupied by the other guy. As he wrote, however, he could feel himself getting drowsy. His eyes were blinking slower than usual, his head becoming heavy.

‘No! Stay awake! You need to get all this down before-’

BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP-

An alarm blared somewhere, jolting Lassiter out of a deep sleep. He frantically looked around for the source, sight still blurry from his rest. The moment he registered where the beeping was coming from – the alarm clock, of course – he slammed the snooze button, getting rid of the annoying sound.

He blearily rubbed the sleep from his eyes, vaguely feeling small indents all over one side of his face. A pencil that had stuck itself onto his cheek fell off the second his hand brushed against it.

Then Lassiter remembered what he was doing last night. Mild panic took hold as he scanned his desktop. Almost immediately his eyes landed on the notes. All of them were neatly written, except for the last line, which looked a bit sloppy. He must have fallen asleep right after writing it.

Then he noticed the small bit of folded up paper next to his pile of notes. He unfolded it, and saw tidy handwriting. It said,

Sorry for crashing here, was super high and thought your dorm number was mine. Thanks for letting me sleep on your floor and for the pillow and for not getting me in trouble for using ur dorm :) -Shawn

P.S. I think ur cute. meet me at the cafe on 7th at noon. Or not, if ur not into that

Lassiter, despite himself, blushed at the last bit. So his name was Shawn. And he wanted to meet him at noon, huh? He might make it, it depended on how long his exam went for-

Oh shit, his exam.

“Shit!” Lassiter hurriedly began shoving Juliet’s notes into his backpack once more and sling the straps over his shoulders. He dashed out the door down the hall and outside the dorm building, running as fast as he could towards his Criminology class.

—————

Ao3 link

[annamariedarkholmes]

three tickets to challengers please

[variousqueerthings]

top three scenes in cobra kai s6 part 1

3. Kyler Park Bitch dOn't you Know i Know kARATeeee??? 2. Elder Payne bro comforting his baby brother and telling him to give Miyagi-do a shot 1. SamTory hugging it out on the street

[philtstone]

the one themed episode psych never did that i always dream of was a lord of the rings/80s high fantasy episode. shawn and gus fetch quest thru the santa barbara hills but they get lost/sort of kidnapped and lassie and juliet have to go running after them. shawn claims that the spirits are giving him directions for said quest through a stray possum they find by the dumpsters. murderer is a (classic) industrial developer bulldozing trees without a permit. gus unearths a wizard robe from one of their childhood school plays that he claims brings him good luck (he is wearing this for the duration of the episode). they find out lassie has a secret broadsword sword collection and sometimes attends ren fairs. the swords are all too heavy for shawn to lift. at one point they get mildly poisoned and shawn has a drug induced dream of juliet kissing him back to life. henry has a c plot in which his meddling neighbour is trying to steal his silverware

[he-wrote-that-one-song]

do you think with all of henrys weird ass cop training shawn knows the warning signs for different natural disasters

[theboyatthebustop]

recommending a few video essays because I’m bored:

TV's most RADICAL Show EVER was the Brady Bunch by Shawn B Ryan

the toxic portrayal of college in television by Amanda Todhunter

the ethics of shipping villains (defending bowuigi for 20+ minutes out of pure spite)* by Athena P

Tumblr's Obsession With Peter Pan by Ashley Norton

The Evolution of YouTuber Music by amandumb

are we awful to dead women? by Harriyanna Hook

*yeah I know the title got changed but I don’t care.

[noahtally-famous]

it went into the void :(

anyway i'm the chess au person and my general thoughts are

club president alejandro (fourth year)

noah who finally lost the student council president position to courtney (fourth year)

courtney who will not let him get over it (and also sucks at chess) (fourth year)

alenoah chess rivalry because duh.

dave who used to play at tournaments but now is just. not (also he's trans bc i want to project being fem in chess haha) (second? year)

shawn who got pulled into this because the school rejected his idea of an anti zombie club so dave just took him to chess club meetings instead (same year as dave?)

still besties

maybe a trying to matchmake alenoah plot in which they grow actual feelings for each other, maybe not

debating about if i should have the side ships be rarepairs or popular ships

(basically everything is a pi rarepair though which makes the decision way easier but only for them)

-✌️

wait no I genuinely love this soooo much!!

shawn who wanted an anti-zombie club but get vetoed and dragged to chess club?? p l e a s e 💀

dave's whole thing abt not playing at tournaments anymore?? oh?? do I sense a potential hidden backstory?? 👀

the alenoah chess rivalry and dashawn trying (emphasis on trying bc these two are such idiots 😭) to play matchmaker is smth I never knew I needed until now

everything abt this is just amazing!! honestly, anon, you gotta write this, please, and if you do, send it to me, I need to read this all unfold

also it'd be rlly cool if there are side-ships but if you feel like it won't fit the plot, then that's cool too!! it's rlly all up to you and your plot--or if you want ships but the plot doesn't work, you can always mention them in passing or imply them?

[sukibenders]

Looking back at Girl Meets World, it will forever irritate me especially for how they handled/treated Angela. Oh this show really hated black women because how do you not only 1.) describe her, one of (correct me if I'm wrong) only few black and MAIN characters of the og show, as a "concept" 2.) have characters show obvious disgust at the small mention of her name 3.) depict her as a homewrecker for a new relationship that, really, shouldn't have ever happened 4.) have her old friends treat her like dirt and her old lover like she is the root of his problems, when there was nothing but positive love there 5.) reuse all the concepts from said previous love story just to elevate the new ship with a yte woman and 6.) compare her to Hurricane Katrina, one of the deadliest hurricanes that caused significant numbers of death, harm, misplacement, and trauma to people, largely of whom were black? Mind you, all these points I mentioned were toward the only main black character of the OG show before the spinoff, and the only, from what I can remember, black female character of the spinoff who didn't even stay long. Not even getting into the racist drama with some of the members on set, but you cannot look me in the eye and tell me that the way the show handled Angela, her story, and her relationship with the other characters + Shawn wasn't fucking disrespectful, you can't because I won't believe you.

[bylersbear01]

why has no one talked about this. I love this man!

[mythoughtsxxblog]

Cory Matthews gets on my damn nerves and I hadn’t noticed before this most recent rewatch. Before I go off, I’d like to point out that I don’t hate Cory. He’s had great moments throughout the show, but my god he doesn’t know when to stop. He seems to think it’s his place to “save” everyone and do what HE thinks is best for them. I’m on the episode where he reads Shawn’s poem about Angela and completely disregards Shawn’s feelings repeatedly. I can’t believe he took it upon himself to read someone else’s words let alone his best friend’s. He completely violated their friendship and it’s so frustrating watching it back. I know Cory thinks he’s doing the right thing, but this dude doesn’t stop and think before doing shit that could negatively impact those around him. What is it with 90s/00s TV shows making their main character unlikeable most times?!

[thespiritssaidso]

What NOT To Do On A First Date

Summary: Lassiter has a date (finally)

Notes: Welp. Was supposed to be a oneshot. Guess it’s a two-shot now, lmao

Part two of Social Norms and College Dorms

—————

Two stressful hours later and Lassiter had completed his exam. As he packed up his things, Juliet tapped him on the shoulder. 

“How do you think you did? Did the notes help?” 

“Pretty sure I nailed it thanks to those notes.” 

“Good, I’m not sure if Professor Spencer would’ve gone easy on you if you did bad on the exam.” It was true, the man could be a real hardass on students. He’d never let up on anyone, and Lassiter had even heard rumors that the professor held the same standards on his own kid as the students. “Anyway, I saw there was a new coffee place out on 7th street. We could go there?” 

“Actually, I’ve already got plans to go there.” The words slipped out before he could even think.

Juliet stopped right there. “Ooo, really? Are you going with someone?” She let out a tiny gasp. “Are you going out with someone?! Who is it? Do I know her? What’s her name?” 

Lassiter’s head spun at the rapid-fire questions, and he began to regret opening his mouth. He knew what she would do if she knew he was going on a blind date. Well, not exactly blind date, per se. He knew what he looked like. Along with one fact about him, which was that he smoked weed. But it was thanks to that that Shawn had found his way to Lassiter’s dorm, consequently leading to this date. So he guessed that maybe weed wasn’t all that bad. In certain circumstances. 

Then the meaning of exactly what Juliet had said hit him. She’d said ‘her’. Her name. Not ‘his’, not even ‘their’. Her. 

That’s when he realized he’d never told her he was pansexual. He could’ve sworn she was the only person other than his mothers that knew. But apparently not. He must have dreamed of their conversation about his sexuality or something. 

Lassiter realized Juliet was looking at him expectantly, and remembered that she’d asked him several questions. For the first time in a while, he was at a loss for words. How would he explain to her that he was meeting up with another guy? Should he lie and make something up? Did he even really want to tell her? But he couldn’t just say nothing, that would be rude to do to his only friend (he may not know much about social etiquette, but telling a friend to buzz off when they’re being genuinely curious was one thing he knew not to do). 

“Well, if you must know. I am going on a date-” 

“Oh my gosh Carlton, that's great! I’m so happy for you!”

He smiled awkwardly at the praise. “Eheh, thank you, uhm. And no, you wouldn’t know… her. She’s… Lauren’s… friend?” 

If Juliet had noticed the hesitancy in Lassiter’s voice, she didn’t give any indication. “Well, I’m really happy for you. I hope it goes smoothly.” 

A small genuine grin formed. “Yeah, thanks-”

“Oh! A word of advice:” She motioned him a little closer when she said her next sentence. Under her breath, she said, “try not to bring up the dead clown story. I know you think it’s funny-”

“It is funny!” He tried to defend himself. 

“But the last time you did that I had to pick you up from a restaurant fifteen miles from campus because your date left you.”

Lassiter opened and closed his mouth. Juliet wasn’t wrong. He had in fact waited and waited patiently at the table for his date to come back from the bathroom, eager to continue in the telling of his favorite story. Lassiter had acquired it by being in, what he would consider, the right place at the right time. He couldn’t fathom why some people who were standing nearby had to consult with an on-site therapist (who was most likely there for the children that would be scared of the circus performers). 

Anyways, they were getting off track. 

“Just remember to be yourself, okay?”

———

Lassiter sat nervously at the tiny booth, hand subconsciously reaching to the back of his head to tug at a clump of hair. The moment he touched the nape of his neck he drew his hand back, silently reprimanding himself. He really needed to stop doing that before it became a habit. Hell, it was already becoming one. 

He settled for grabbing a stray pencil from his bag and twirling it in his fingers. It didn’t have the same satisfactory effect as tugging his hair did, but it would do for now. 

Lassiter checked his watch. 12:07. Shawn was late. ‘It’s fine, it’s just seven minutes. Maybe he’s caught up in something else and that’s why he’s running late. Yeah, yeah that’s it.’

It didn’t do much to calm his nerves. He started twirling the pencil faster, and his foot began to tap on the wooden floor. He should probably take this time to study. Yeah, that was a good idea. He set the pencil back down and reached into his bag once more, this time grabbing a small set of notes dedicated to psychology. He had a test later that day, but not one that was as important as the Criminology exam he finished not long ago. It would only be a simple quiz reviewing the content of what they’d learned over the past couple of weeks. 

But he couldn’t focus on any of it, his mind constantly wandering to the guy he was supposed to be meeting with. He looked back down at his watch. 12:19. Okay, whoever this Shawn guy was must’ve been a dick. Because who makes someone wait this long?

‘Calm down. Just wait a little longer. He could still show up.’ Even as he reassured himself, he could feel his hope dwindling, an uncomfortable feeling of chagrin taking its place bit by bit. 

12:24 now. Lassiter couldn’t take it any more. He’d been stood up, plain and simple. He shoved the pencil he’d been fiddling with and the notes he’d been trying to study into his bag once more. Slinging the straps over his shoulders, prepared to leave, quickly stepping out of the booth and rounding the corner-

BAM

“Oof!”

Lassiter collided into another person, hard. It was with such force that it caused the both of them to tumble onto the floor. He held his forehead in pain. He’d hit something with it, something big and slightly pokey. Without even thinking, he began to say, “Hey, watch where you’re-!” when he saw who he’d run into. It was Shawn, the guy Lassiter had been waiting for nearly half an hour to show up. 

But before he could begin to feel anger at Shawn, he noticed how he was clutching his nose. He must have hit it with his forehead during their collision not but a few seconds ago. 

“Ow! Fuck- oh yeah, that stings. Shit shit shit…”

Well, that was one way to make a helluva first impression. 

———

Lassiter was once again sat in a chair, nervously tapping his foot and grabbing at his hair. He didn’t try to stop it, letting the hair-tugging happen to try and calm down somewhat. 

“-just remember to keep that on for a month, and then come back and we’ll take it off for you.” 

“Alright, thanks!”

Looking up, he saw Shawn walk into the waiting room, a large and very obvious cast covering his nose. 

Without missing a beat Lassiter leapt out of his chair and over to Shawn, quickly closing the distance between them. “Are you good? I didn’t hit you too hard, did I? I can pay for the bill, it’s my fault-”

“Woah woah woah, chill! It’s no biggie. I’m still on my dad’s health insurance so I just used that. And it was a clean break, so it should heal just fine.”

Lassiter breathed out a sigh of relief. Thank goodness, he didn’t know if he’d actually be able to pay for the medical bill. He had no clue how much it would’ve even added up to. “Okay, good. That’s good.” He then realized he should probably apologize for, well, breaking the guy’s nose. “Hey, look. I’m sorry about running into you and breaking your nose. I thought you weren’t gonna come and that you’d stood me up- not that I didn’t- you were taking a while, so I just- I mean, if you’d been in my shoes-”

Lassiter was stopped in his rambling by the feeling of Shawn’s lips pressing against his own. They tingled with electricity. He closed his eyes and leaned into the kiss. It was unlike any other he’d had, and he’d been kissed a lot. 

He felt Shawn slowly draw back. He opened his eyes again and saw that he had a stupid grin on his face. “You were rambling.”

Lassiter didn’t say anything. His brain was on autopilot, so he blurted out “Did you know I once saw a clown die?”

Shawn stood there for a moment, processing what he’d said. 

‘Oh no, why did I say that. Dammit now he’s looking at me weird. God, I should’ve just listened to-’

His thoughts were interrupted by a burst of laughter from the man in front of him. It sounded a little weird, considering his nose was covered up by a thick cast. “No way! What happened?” 

Wait. Someone wanted to listen to the story? He didn't see any signs in Shawn’s body language that said otherwise. “Well, it’s an interesting story…”

———

Lassiter didn’t think twice before unlocking Juliet’s dorm room with a spare key she’d gifted him and flopping on one of her bean bag chairs, a dopey grin plastered on his face. 

Somewhere from the tall bed above him, she poked her head out. “Good date?” 

Good? That would be an understatement. Despite the rough start, he’d had an amazing time with Shawn. Once they’d left the hospital they decided it would be better to visit the arcade. Actually, that had been Shawn’s idea, Lassiter just went along with it. And he was glad he did. Shawn had cheated on a bunch of the games and won a shit ton of tickets. Instead of being cliche and buying a stuffed animal however, Lassiter chose to use the tickets on a giant rainbow slinky — “Just like you!” Shawn had exclaimed — of which was now stuffed safely in his backpack. 

Lassiter just kept smiling goofily to himself. “Yeah. Really good date. He was great.” They’d already scheduled to meet again at the library the next day. And he couldn’t wait to see him again. 

“Wait. He?” 

Oh yeah. He never did tell her about that small detail, did he?

———

Ao3 link

[mosshook]

snapshot, from 2021: shawn and gus learn that nightlights aren’t stupid, after all.

full text below cut.

Shawn is nine when he figures out how to unlatch Gus’s window from the outside and sneak inside. It is also roughly 10:00 p.m. when this discovery comes to light, and approximately 10:05 when Gus raises his head from his pillow, squints through the dark, and shrieks at the shape of a lumpy shadow skittering across the floor. 

“Shhhh!” hisses Shawn, waving his arms around. “Keep it down, your parents are gonna kill me!” 

“Not you!” Gus bites back, untangling himself from his planet patterned sheets. He takes one of his pillows under his arm and crosses the room, proceeding to whack Shawn across the head with it. There’s a muffled sound of indignation but Gus does not care to hear it, jabbing his thumb into his own chest. “Me, Shawn, they’re gonna kill me!”

Shawn makes a dramatically drawn out whisper cry, curling onto the floor with his legs tucked in. “Okayokayokay that’s fair. Good god, man, no need to assault your best friend like that.” 

“You’ve got no room to talk, scaring me like that.” Shawn makes a flippant gesture with his hands (he’s gotten really expressive with them recently), and smiles. But it falls flat after a fraction of a second. 

“Sorry, Gus.” His voice is unusually soft, and he brings his knees into himself more. “I would’ve, uhh, called or something. Just got…” He pauses, thinking. “Distracted.” 

Gus blinks sleep from his eyes, and looks at his clock again. 10:08. “It’s way past our bedtime. Doesn’t your dad say that eight is…?” 

“Yeah,” Shawn says lightly. “But I don’t usually listen.” 

 “What are you doing here.” Gus kneels beside him, tone mostly flat but with a hint of genuine worry that he hopes Shawn hears. 

Sighing deeply, Shawn brings himself into a sitting position, planting his palms into the hardwood. His fingerpads start scratching against his dry cuticles. 

“I got lonely.” He shrugs like it’s no big deal, but he’s no longer looking Gus in the eye, staring at the floorboards. “Is it okay if I stay?” 

;

By the time Shawn is twelve, he spends enough nights in Gus’s room to know exactly how it changes from the day to the night. 

There’s a stack of science books (ranging from topics of geology to that of cosmology, medicine, and biology) set near the window on a shelf that catches the light, and a stack of neatly folded shirts on the dresser. Binders and notebooks rest on his desk, as does a small lamp, and loose ballpoint pens are scattered across the room. 

The nighttime doesn’t do much, really, besides rob the room of its vibrance; but it makes the shadows from the bookcase longer, and the posters dim, and allows Shawn to flick on the blue triceratops night light that Gus keeps attached to the wall. 

“You’re scared of the dark?” Shawn asks incredulously when he first sees it. He’s not sure why this fact is so astounding - Gus is scared of lots of things. The weird bugs at the park, bad grades, blood on his knees and ice skating, so the dark shouldn’t be that shocking. 

Gus pushes himself up from his pillow and scoffs. “C’mon, Shawn, plenty of people are scared of it. Fear comes from a perfectly logical place, and at least ten percent of Americans alone think it can be freaky, too.”

Shawn frowns, studying the triceratops. It’s ceramic, and when he leans in closer, he notices that the multiple openings for light to flow through from the bulb inside are shaped into small stars. He flicks on the switch, watching faint, softly defined stars cast against the wall.

The inkinesss of the room seems less suffocating than before, broken up by the gentle golden glow. He mulls Gus’s words again. 

“That’s a lot of people,” he says. 

“Yeah. It is.” There’s the sound of shuffling sheets; Gus’s voice sounds more muffled than before. “So just leave the light on, okay?” 

For a moment, Shawn seriously considers flicking them off for a brief second to hear Gus’s indignant yelp and to give himself a quick laugh, before his gaze finds itself on the dinosaur again. He’s struck, privately, by how pretty the stars look. 

Shawn can hear someone that sounds suspiciously like his father telling him that sleeping in the dark builds character. Makes you more alert, enhances your senses to intruders. 

But he bats it away, and crawls back into Gus’s bed. He brings his blanket over his shoulders, staring at the nightlight. 

“Okay,” Shawn says. “Yeah, I’ll leave it on.” 

Gus makes a small hum of acknowledgement, his chest rising and falling with even breaths minutes later. 

It takes Shawn longer to fall asleep. But he sighs, resting one hand on his pillow and watching the makeshift stars until he can’t keep his eyes open. 

; 

They’re fifteen when Gus hears a tap against his window at midnight. 

Shawn wordlessly climbs through, taking off his shoes before tucking himself into a ball on the bed. 

“She left,” is all he says, before squeezing his eyes shut. 

There’s a long silence. Then, making a small, strained sound, Gus pulls Shawn closer.

He flicks the nightlight on.