Chapter Text
Nick quietly enters the loft, being careful to not jangle his keys or slam the door. It was 4 am, and he had just finished what felt like the longest shift of his entire life. Five bar fights, three instances of vomiting and more spilled drinks than he cared to mention.
He’s startled by a noise from the couch, and turns to see Jess sprawled out surrounded by marking, and clearly already been asleep.
“There’s my girl, what are you doing up?”, Nick asks quietly , moving towards her with a huge grin. Boy was he glad to see his girl right now.
“I was waiting for you of course” Jess replies, rolling her eyes like it was the most obvious thing in the world.
He loved her like this, all sleep-warm and soft, making grabby hands at him because he just wasn’t getting to her quick enough.
He squeezes on the couch with her, stretching out and pulling her mostly on top of him. Man, he had not realised how tired he was, so he lets his breath start to even out and his eyes fall shut.
“We need to go to bed”, Jess says half-heartedly, trying to resist snuggling in further and going straight back to sleep. As much as she wants to give in, Jess knows they have approximately two hours of sleep here until Schmidt barges into the kitchen to do his dumb morning workout and make his dumb ‘power’ smoothies.
“Just cuddle me here for five mins, will ya?”, Nick retorts, squeezing her tighter and continuing the relaxing motions of his hands rubbing up and down her back underneath her t-shirt.
They fall quiet for a minutes, both enjoying just being with each other.
Nick lets out a big sigh, hitches her leg further up his torso and rubs her t-shirt between his fingers, just like he always does before he falls asleep.
Jess leaps up, knowing it will be 10 times harder to wake a sleeping Nick and get him to go to bed.
“That’s it mister, to bed with you” she says, pulling him up by the hand and pulling him to bed, where they can both get a restful night’s sleep.