Avocato felt his head droop as weariness began to flood his senses. He was so close to leaning against the couch and falling asleep right there...

Little Cato squealed.

... but then he was reminded of why he was up in the first place: Little Cato couldn't sleep. This would have been fine in any other circumstance, as in during the day, but his sleep schedule has never once been efficient. That is to say, it was 4 AM and Avocato was perishing.

It's been like this for the past few weeks: Avocato would sleep at minimum an hour with Gary before Little Cato started to wail and keep Avocato up until he went back to sleep. Sometimes it was only an hour or two; others it was all night. He didn't exactly have a job to attend to yet, but he considered watching Little Cato his job for the moment. A tough one, but a necessary one.

Bless Gary for being a good cook, though, because he would always cook Avocato his favourites when the night was especially long. Such was this night, Avocato mused. Four hours later and Little Cato was successfully calmed, but at the cost of Avocato's sleep time.

Gary wandered into the living room, hair still messy but a soft smile on his face and a blanket wrapped around his shoulders. "G'morning, Avocato."

Avocato let out a yawn. "G'mornin'." He rubbed his eyes to try to get the exhaustion out, but that only empowered it. Sighing, he gently picked Little Cato and went to deposit him back in the room. When he came back, he saw Gary in his little "Kiss The Chef" apron already preparing to cook breakfast. He was humming a soft song, with lilting melodies and a gentle beat.

It was like a siren call. Avocato didn't register he was holding Gary until Gary awkwardly patted his head. "Hey, you alright there, pal?" Gary laughed.

"Mmmh." Avocato held tighter onto the human. His purrs rumbled against Gary's back, a sensation he was simply enamoured with. Gary just had a slight problem with the whole thing.

"Do you wanna, uh, move to the couch or are we just gonna, like, shawshay in the kitchen?"

They were still in the kitchen with a currently-on oven.

Avocato nestled his head into the crook between Gary's shoulder and neck further. It felt very warm, right here, standing in front of the oven while embracing Gary, and Avocato's thought process was not the brightest at the moment: Let go, lose warmth. Cling, keep warmth. Simple as that: he kept hugging onto Gary.

Gary decided to just let it happen. "Guess this is happening, now," he laughed. He carefully flicked the oven off and set aside his oven mitts. Now the question was how to get them both to the couch.

"You think you could let go for, like, two seconds, or-"

"No."

Well, crap. Gary wasn't strong enough to carry Avocato and he knew that.

"Pretty please?"

"No."

"With sugar on top?"

"... no." Ahah! Hesitance! Man's weakness: sugary delicacies.

"I'll get those super good snickerdoodles from Walmart if we go the couch~," Gary cooed.

That was the deal breaker. Avocato grumbled, but he let go of Gary. Gary mentally fist pumped as he took Avocato by the hand to the livingroom. He plopped himself back-first, followed by Avocato falling on top of him. They both let out a wheeze of air, but in seconds Avocato was already adjusting to get as much Gary on him as possible. Arms and legs tangle together to create a mishmash of human and Ventrexian limbs, and Gary was all. for. it.

When they were finally comfortable, Gary felt Avocato begin to purr again, a rumble that shook him to his core. But in a good way. Kind of like if a massage chair was a cat-person and also the light of Gary's life. Gary had just woken up, but he was fine going back to sleep, if only for a little while longer. As long as he was with Avocato, that was enough.

He let the rumble take him to dreamland.