Johan grabbed the other blanket and wrapped it around them both until only their heads were poking out.
“W-w-w-we tr-tried to use m-m-magic to stay warm. But n-n-no energy left,” Henrik explained. They both looked quite drained, and Johan was concerned that they might putthemselves at risk if they kept burning through magic for things like this.
With the hot water boiled, Johan took three teacups from the cupboard and began straining the water through the tea leaves. He hadn’t needed all three teacups in so long, and the action which was once so familiar made his chest ache. Especially for his warm, kind mother, whom he missed every day. She had often made the three of them tea on cold nights like this, when they’d huddle in front of the fire.
Elias and Henrik thanked him when he passed them the tea, and they were shivering far less now. Once the room had warmed up enough that Johan thought he’d be able to sleep, he took himself to bed. Only, he’d given his blanket to the elves. He felt bad trying to take it back, so he curled up on the mattress without it.
After only a few minutes with his eyes closed, Johan felt the weight of the thick wool being draped over him, and he smiled. Just when he was about to try and sleep again, though, he was abruptly sandwiched between two little bodies. His eyes flashed open to find Elias curled in front of him, his back flush with Johan’s chest, leaving him to deduce that it was Henrik pressed into his back.
Johan wasn’t sure what to do. It had been cold, yes, but with the fire going, the room was now warmer than usual. And Johan wasn’t entirely sure why the two of them wouldn’t just cuddle up together instead of on either side of him.
It took him a few minutes to try and relax again, but then Elias wriggled, pressing his bottom into Johan’s groin, and he was fairly certain that his heart had stopped for a moment and he suddenly had too much saliva in his mouth. Johan held his breath, willing himself not to harden and give himself away. He wasn’t sure why Elias seemed to be trying to torture him to sleep,but he was just about panicked enough by what was happening to only stiffen halfway.
Johan’s next predicament was his arm. He wasn’t sure what he was supposed to do with it, and it was beginning to ache holding it straight down his side. This was not conducive to getting any sleep. Eventually, with Henrik’s face pressed between his shoulder blades and two sets of heavy, even breathing on either side of him, Johan risked draping his arm over Elias and, by some miracle, Johan finally drifted off to sleep.
Thirteen
Henrik
J
ohan and Elias were still deep in sleep when Henrik woke up with his head resting on Johan’s chest, a large arm wrapped around him. Elias was mirroring him on the shoemaker’s other side, only he appeared to have his leg hiked up over Johan’s thigh.
Henrik dared not move a muscle because he was incredibly conscious of his own hardness pressing against Johan’s hip, and he hoped it would go down before they woke up.
Elias and Henrik had both agreed on coming upstairs last night in search of warmth; the cold had made their bones rattle in a way neither of them had felt since captivity, and Henrik had known that Johan wouldn’t mind their intrusion.
However, climbing into Johan’s bed and settling on either side of him had been entirely Elias’ idea.
Henrik had been certain at first that his and Elias’ attempts at courting Johan would have been obvious to the man. I mean, they had made fine clothes and shoes, Elias had trimmed his beard and hair, and yesterday, Henrik had massaged Johan’shands after several hours of making shoes in the workshop. But then it occurred to Henrik that Johan wasn’t an elf, and maybe he was unfamiliar with their traditional courting rituals and possibly only thought they were being unusually generous.
Elias was undeterred when Henrik had pointed this out, deciding then that an escalation was required; only Henrik hadn’t realised that would entail the two of them climbing into bed with Johan and essentially trapping him until he cuddled them all night long.
Not that Henrik was complaining. Henrik was more comfortable than he could ever remember being with a large arm keeping him close and a big warm body to press up against. The fact that he got all of that with the view of his beautiful lover’s soft, parted pink lips as he gently exhaled in sleep was the icing on the cake.
Henrik watched as Elias’ pale-white lashes began to flutter until he blinked owlishly, sleepy amber eyes peeking through. Elias glanced up at a sleeping Johan, and his lips twitched into a contented, if a little smug, smile.
I told you,he mouthed at Henrik, who rolled his eyes in return.
The blanket still covered them from the waist down, but Elias lifted it slightly, peering underneath until his eyes widened and he licked his lips.
“What?” Henrik said, barely a whisper.
“Look,” Elias replied just as quietly.
Henrik lifted his head slightly to see what Elias was staring at, and his face immediately went red at the sight.
Johan’s nightshirt had ridden up his hairy stomach, and his trousers were slung low. His morning stiffness appeared to be trying to escape the confines of his nightclothes because Henrik could very clearly see the swollen pink head of Johan’s cock poking out of the waistband.
Henrik gulped and found his own length hardening to steel at the sight.
A pink flush travelled down Elias’ neck and chest, the telltale sign of his lover’s own arousal, and Henrik’s skin felt like it might actually be on fire.
A small cough startled them both, and they stared up at a now-awake Johan, whose gaze was flicking frantically back and forth between the two of them until he saw where the blanket was lifted and presumably the sight of his own swollen tip looking back at him.
The three of them just sort of froze in place, not moving a muscle until Henrik couldn’t bear the silence anymore. “We’re… sorry for looking,” he mumbled like that made the situation any less awkward.
“Here, I’ll help,” Elias said, reaching for Johan’s waistband and pulling it up to cover him. Only, it became clear that the waistband had been trapping Johan’s erection, and it was now tenting his trousers in a way that really displayed every inch of his impressive length. Henrik couldn’t seem to keep his eyes off it.
