“Ken.” Daisuke didn’t dare push his voice above a throaty whisper, not actually wanting to wake Ken up if he’d managed to finally get to sleep after they stayed up hours later than they were supposed to, just talking and enjoying each other’s uninterrupted company after everything.
“Ken.” He did kind of want to, though. Even the scant minutes since Ken had stopped responding to his chatter, his sentences fracturing more and more into sleepy murmurs of assent and nothing else, Daisuke missed him.
He missed when Ken was down on the futon with him, instead of up in his loft. He missed getting to wrap his arms around him, feeling the way Ken’s warm body thrummed in time with him, fascinated at how they could maintain such synchronization - like they belonged that way.
Without thinking, Daisuke’s hand crept to his own chest, slipping between the buttons of his pajama top to rest over his sternum, feel the jolting rise and fall that he knew, somehow, was exactly what Ken’s chest felt like as well. Maybe when he woke up, Daisuke could encourage him to press his hand to where Daisuke’s was right now, really feel and absorb how much Daisuke’s heart beat for him.
Ken had said as much to him earlier. That his heart beat for Daisuke. That he was grateful and overwhelmed with having Daisuke as a friend, and all he could do was parrot things back. He wasn’t good with words, not like Ken, who made him feel special with even the simplest utterances of encouragement and praise, but somehow Ken thought he was.
Ken thought he was smart, Ken thought he was thoughtful, Ken liked what he had to say, listened to every word until he literally couldn’t anymore, falling into a deep slumber.
His heart skipped a beat, ever so small he would have missed it without his hand still clutching to his fevered skin, far hotter than it had seemed earlier, and then he heard Ken’s sigh as he rolled over to a new sleeping position. Some emotion he didn’t have the right words for - pride didn’t sit right, but happiness didn’t seem quite encompassing enough - made his body shudder, growing ever warmer under the futon’s duvet. He’d felt the growing problem in his groin as well, once or twice - after he and Ken had first Jogressed, after they flew the world in their shared partner and he laid down for a well-earned rest, always after seeing Ken - but he’d managed to hold it in during their sleepover at his house. He could hold it in now.
He shut his eyes, trying to follow Ken to sleep, but without anything to try to look at, his own heartbeat became overwhelming. It slowed to a sleepy crawl and yet he was wide awake, his hand not preoccupied with his chest reaching to cup himself through his pajama bottoms.
This was a bad idea. Ken was right there above him, and as much as he could feel Ken’s heart, he knew, knew, Ken could feel his. But the sensation was becoming overwhelming, he didn’t know what else to do, and he always fell right asleep after so it was okay right?
As long as he was quiet, it would be okay. He reached down the front of his pants, contacting far too hard skin that bucked further up as he stroked, swallowing any sounds that might come out of his mouth. He focused on following the pattern he felt in his chest, squeezing with each pulse that came through him, rocking into his own flesh and letting the fabric hold and secret what he was doing as much as possible.
He felt harder than he ever had before, not even after Ken had gone home and he’d gone to take an unusual morning shower after their first impromptu sleepover, pursing his lips to keep from crying out Ken’s name loud, shouting it to the rafters.
It ended almost as soon as it had begun, right when Daisuke’s brain flitted off and imagined Ken down here with him, their chests pushed together to feel their heart entwined, his hand on Daisuke instead of Daisuke’s own fingers digging into his shaft, bit his tongue enough that it hurt to stop the noise as his underwear filled with sticky wetness.
He should probably clean that up before going to sleep, but he was finally - so, so sleepy - and -
“Daisuke?” Ken sounded sleep-addled, like he’s just woken, like Daisuke had done something to wake him, like he’d felt it. “You okay?”
“Yeah, yeah, I’m fine,” he croaked on the last syllable, squeaking as his dry throat made itself known.
“I thought...” Ken paused, measuring his words, always so painstaking and precise and pretty, “I just thought I felt something. In - you know.”
He did know. Even without Ken’s gestures, without seeing him at all, he’d felt it too, the way their chests pumped together, even through what he’d done.
“I’m alright. I think I’m ready to sleep now.”
“You weren’t sleeping before?”
That made Daisuke’s face turn hot, he knew it was red despite the semi-darkness punctuated by Ken’s nightlight. “Ah, I couldn’t, but I’m better now! All good!”
Ken’s silence was deafening. He probably didn’t believe him. But Daisuke’s eyes were already drooping as the after-effects of his secret behavior.
The last thing he heart was Ken’s soft voice, “Okay. Sleep well.”