#in hindsight im starting to realize that i headcanon luther and five as touch starved buddies

[assaily]

Ooooooo....a prompt ask....let me see if you wanna try this one?

"I wish you would write a fic where Diego tells Five, "Don't move. For the love of God, Five, please, do not move."

😂

For you, i give you fluff!

-

Five’s nap had turned a bit too warm for him a while ago, but he was too comfortable to do more than shift his arms to find the cooler, open air.

“Don’t move,” Diego said, sounding entirely unalarmed despite how quickly his warning came. The command was almost gentle, his voice low and nearly affectionate, filled with a quiet, gleeful mirth that made Five peel his eyes open despite how gritty they felt. He’d only been asleep for maybe an hour and a half.

It had taken so much to find sleep in the first place, he almost wanted to rage at being woken up again.

The sun had set since Five had fallen asleep, the tv behind Diego stuck on an endless dvd intro loop, the movie having ended some while ago and no one had turned it off. Five squinted at it, trying to remember when he’d fallen asleep. He and Luther had started some high-concept space flick that, while interesting enough to keep Five’s attention, had been tediously long. The last few weeks of sleepless nights caught him hard and fast, and Luther’s warm, solid body had lulled him into a sense of safety like nothing else seemed capable of.

Diego was standing between him and the tv with something small and boxy in his hands. It made a loud mechanical click that took Five an extra long second to place the nature of.

“What are you doing?” He hissed, already knowing the answer.

 He could see Diego’s teeth flash in a grin, the rest of his expression still hidden in the dim light “For the love of God, Five. Please, do not move.”

Luther snorted in his sleep, his bulk shifting like an earthquake next to Five. One of his arms was draped heavily around Five’s shoulder, and as Luther roused, it curled and tightened over his stomach. Luther sleepily squeezed Five flush against his side, sighing as he woke fully. “What?” he croaked.

Five’s mind had decided to fuck off for the duration of him being squeezed like a teddy bear, the shock and rush of the touch and pressure just enought to stave off the indignity. Five had the time to silently acknowledge that this was weirdly pleasant before the humiliation of it caught up.

The shutter on the camera clicked again, from somewhere in the darkness to the left of the TV, Five could hear Klaus snicker. That was where he drew the line, head snapping to the sound of his brother’s laughter.

“Oh shit!” Klaus laughed, guffawing loudly as Five appeared in front of Diego in a flash.

Diego tried to save the camera, he really did. Five had to give him credit for the effort. By the time he got his hands on it, they were both winded from the tussle, Diego begging for mercy as Five smashed the thing all in one go.

Klaus was on the floor nearby, wheezing with laughter. Luther kept trying to ask him what was happening; Five suspected he probably wasn’t going to get an answer.

“Come on, Five, that was my nice camera!”

“Serves you right,” he replied, then looked back at Luther. “I fell asleep at the ice planet, can we restart there?”

Luther blinked at him, shocked into silence for some reason. Diego shifted his shoulder so he could look up to Five from where he’d been pinned. (Absently, Five was aware that he wasn’t really pinning Diego, so much as he’d pinned him long enough to get the camera and Diego let him stay perched on his back after the fact.)

“You– You want to keep watching?”

Five shrugged, sliding off Diego and porting himself back to his place on the couch. “The plot line about love transcending time and space,” he waved his hand to illustrate the vagueness of his interest. “I’d like to see how they finish that.”

A lamp near Klaus flicked on, basking the room in warm light. Twilight had settled outside, and no one else had been through to turn the lights on. “What’re we watching?” Klaus asked, tripping his way around the coffee table to flop himself next to Five on the couch. His arm fell over the back of the couch and Five fought to keep his body from going as stiff as cardboard at being abruptly boxed in.

“If it’s the movie I think it is,” Diego said, giving Luther a look Five didn’t understand. “Then it’s too smart for you, Klaus.”

Klaus scoffed at him. “I’m not here to be entertained, Diego. I’m here to fall asleep watching some stuffy movie with my stuffy brothers.”

“We’re watching Interstellar,” Luther answered flatly. “It’s my favorite movie.”

“Oh of course it is, you big nerd.” Klaus reached over to pat Luther's shoulder. 

Diego sighed, a heavy sound that seemed to simultaneously take the fight out of him and give him new life. He pushed himself off the carpet, scooting so his back was against the couch. Five drew his legs up onto the cushion to keep him from leaning against them, trying with every ounce of self control not to port back to his room.

He wanted this. He’d fought for this. Sometimes it was a lot. They were loud and touchy, and so incredibly real and different that it stole his soul from him some days. He wanted moments like this, he just had to be chill enough to endure the discomfort.

Luther pulled up the scene select and found the chapter of the movie they were on. There was still an hour left of the run time, Five sucking down a deep breath to ground himself into the cushion.

“You alright, Five?” Klaus asked.

“Fine, start the movie.” The sooner it was on, the sooner he could focus on that and not on the three other very real, very alive bodies on the couch with him. Breathing and existing, warm and moving of their own accord, all of them touching him at once. Sometimes shit like this just hit him and Five didn’t know what he was supposed to do. This wasn’t something he could fight, and he didn’t want to run. So he stayed, he was fine, he could handle this.

Luther pressed play, the scene began from the beginning. Five had already seen this part, and his heart was pounding a little too loud for him to hear the dialogue anyway. He focused on breathing unobtrusively instead.

“What do you need, bud?” Klaus said, very softly and very close to his ear, a cold hand brushing over the back of his.

A lump closed his throat in an instant, the realization that Klaus had sniffed out his distress hitting him like a truck. “Nothing,” he meant to say, but all that came out was a pathetic croaky whine. He felt both Luther and Diego shift in unison at the sound, cursing himself to high heaven for giving himself away.

Luther paused the movie. “What’s wrong, Five?” He sounded so serious, like he was the one fighting a little fit off.

He swallowed thickly, chest tight, trying and failing to school the grimace that was no doubt all over his face. “Nothing,” he ground out. “Play the fucking movie.”

“What’s wrong with you?” Diego asked this time, not at all meanly, but for some reason it was the final straw on Five’s tenuous grasp on himself.

He clenched his fists and pulled himself back across the room. “Too much!” He yelled, mostly without meaning to. “It’s all just–” he waved his hands above his head, failing to find the words. He didn’t know how else to articulate this, the growing tension building beneath his lungs.

The pause that followed was heavy and tense, and broken by Luther. “Oh!” he said, loud and clear with whatever realization he was having.

The couch shifted, Five looking back in time to watch Luther shove Diego three feet to the left with his toe.

“Ow!” He complained, snapping around to glare at Luther. “What the hell?”

“Sorry, Klaus, you too,” Luther said, ignoring Diego entirely.

“Me too?” Klaus said, sounding more than a little put out.

“Yeah, you heard the man. Too much. Too many people on one couch. Disperse.” He shooed at Klaus with one hand. “Go on.”

Klaus shot a look back at Five. “Is this true?” He asked, faux betrayal ruined by relief in his eyes.

Five felt frozen, rooted to the carpet like a hundred year old tree, utterly flabbergasted that his two word complaint was… understood. Understood, respected, heeded. It was strange, the way it felt like someone was pouring bathwater into his chest.

When Five didn’t answer right away, staring dumbfounded at his brothers, Klaus’s expression gentled. “Fiiiine!” he scrambled, gangly limbs flailing dramatically, to the armchair left of the couch. Diego relocated himself on the other couch, sprawling across its length, looking wholly relaxed and not at all displeased at having been made to move there.

“Come on back, Five,” Luther said, voice somewhere between too gentle and forced casual.

Five took a breath, let it out sharply through his nose, heart still pounding in his throat. He walked back, one foot in front of the other, sitting cautiously next to Luther again. 

Luther relaxed too, his back melting into the couch as he reached over for the remote to hit play again. The movie resumed, not unlike how it had begun, just now with two additional audience members.

Klaus went down first, nodding off within twenty minutes. Diego was predictably second, but he made it through the tense docking scene at least. Five watched the remainder of the movie, but he’d let himself slump back against Luther’s side when the protagonist was reunited with his daughter, older and wiser with all the more love for their family after a long journey.

Sleep finally claimed him as the credits rolled.

-

“What makes you so special?” Diego complained.

“Shhh,” Luther hissed, his voice still rumbling through Five when he snapped back. “Because I don’t make everything a pissing contest, Diego.” 

“Shush yourself, Luth,” Klaus said, his voice like a warm blanket that quieted the other two.

“He hasn’t been sleeping. We shouldn’t care who he chooses to fall asleep on,” Luther continued after a long, muted pause. His arm shifted, a shadow passing over Five’s face. A hand fell gently to his hair and Five’s body jolted in the shock of it.

“Oh, sorry bud,” Luther said, his voice changing ever so slightly. The hand passed over his head, the hold impossibly tender where it held him in place against Luther heartbeat, where he’d been asleep before.

Five tried to pull his eyes open again, hands clumsily reaching for something, brain short-circuiting with the fingers in his hair. Another pair of hands, warm and callused and bigger than his own caught his, letting him squeeze and find purchase in reality. He drifted for a second, caught against another person but the permeated sense of safety kept any alarm at bay.

Luther was right, he hadn’t been sleeping. Not in his bed, not alone. He wasn’t used to being alone, he’d always had Delores. The years he’d spent without her had taken their toll, without her face to pull him from the nightmares, the fear of them had been threaded into the fabric of his waking mind. Sleeping meant seeing all the things he didn’t want to remember, playing again for him to experience. He would rather just not sleep.

But here and now? He was home. He could hear Luther’s heart beating in his ear; he could feel the warmth of Diego’s hands holding his. The proof was at his fingertips.

They were safe. He was safe. He could rest.

He sighed, deep enough to fill his whole body, deflating the tension from his bones as he released it. He felt Luther sigh too, a soft relaxation of the tension beside him.

“You’re not allowed to be this cute,” Klaus whispered from somewhere nearby.

“‘Least I don’t look like you,” Five slurred, uncaring if his insult made any sense. He felt Luther laugh anyway, the soft rumble enveloping around him like a cocoon. Five felt the corners of his lips twitch up, but he was already too far gone to remember why.