Angelo had been the one to tell Nikolai to pick a channel so he said nothing about the Mafia King choice of show, drawn in despite himself.
He pulled his knees close to himself, his feet bare, still dressed in the form-fitting shirt and combat pants. He had put his hair in a braid before he got started on arranging his room so it stayed out of his face, riveted on the cartoon.
Nikolai expected another protest from the assassin but he got none, instead, Angelo got himself comfortable to better focus on the screen. The assassin had done the same just before he slept off in the car, curling up like a turtle.
Despite himself, he stared at the TV, trying to figure out what had Angelo so fascinated. He never watched cartoons as a kid, he never watched any shows as a matter of fact, and that hadn’t changed as the years went by.
Nikolai watched a trio of friends traverse through a forest of pastries to get the items for their tea party, his expression wry. It was like a perfect world, the most that could go wrong was the threat of drowning in chocolate or being unable to convince the gingerbreadmen to give them a piece of their house.
Despite the complete lack of realism, Nikolai couldn’t look away. He had started watching to figure out what had caught Angelo’s attention only to get sucked in as well.
A polite knock on the door shook them both back to reality, Nikolai rising to his feet to get what had to be their dinner.
While they ate dinner, the TV was still on. Another cartoon was playing, one about teddy bears trying to steal gummies from a human factory. It was harmless and aimless and completely riveting for both men.
Even after dinner was done, neither of them moved from the couch, sitting close to each other now, they watched cartoons until it got late, Angelo’s head dropping against Nikolai’s shoulder.
Nikolai glanced over at the dozing assassin, he hadn’t decided if he wanted to tell him about his visit to Silvia or not. Watching Angelo curled up, fighting a losing battle with sleep as he tried to focus on the screen, he understood why Silvia didn’t tell him that she had been keeping tabs on Luis.
There was no reason to cause him more pain, he would just get rid of the High Council’s attack dog and never mention him to Angelo again.
Angelo woke up to find himself in his bed again, and this time he wasn’t upset, just concerned. Was he coming down with something? He had been falling asleep pretty often these days.
He lay back in bed reluctant to get out of bed for the second day in a row, and that was his cue to take out his phone to call Silvia. Silvia would know what was wrong, Silvia would know how to fix things.
"Angelo!" Silvia’s bright voice came through the phone, pleased to get a call from him so early in the day. "Do you need something?"
Angelo felt a little self-conscious at the implication that he only reached out to Silvia when he needed something but there was no backing out now, this was really important.
"Not exactly," He muttered, sitting up and stifling a yawn. "I’ve been falling asleep way too easily and more frequently recently, am I coming down with something?"
Silvia listened intently, what Angelo didn’t know was that she was the happiest when he needed her because then she could do something for him. If it were anyone else, those words would be silly but for Angelo it was a reasonable concern.
Silvia was pleased that he was getting enough sleep now, well aware that before this, the only time he slept was when he stopped by her office or he passed out from exhaustion.
"Do you feel off?" Silvia asked, already making plans to drive down and pick Angelo up for a checkup at the hospital.
"No," Angelo replied after a moment of thought. "I was thinking that I’m still recovering from my heat."
"That’s a possibility," Silvia deflated at the realization that she didn’t have a strong enough reason to keep Angelo by herself for the entire day. "If it continues after a week I’ll take you to get checked up," She enthusiastically suggested.
Angelo agreed to this, although he wasn’t quite sure if he wanted to go back to the nightmares that plagued him and his debilitating insomnia.
"Did Nikolai tell you anything last night?" Silvia asked just as he was about to hang up.
Angelo blanked out, "Was he supposed to?"
"I mean what did you do last night?" Silvia quickly corrected herself. She had been worried that Nikolai had told Angelo about Luis but it turned out that her fears were unfounded.
Angelo knew well that Nikolai wasn’t interested in men so he didn’t read anything into Silvia’s question, answering honestly. "I watched cartoons..."
Silvia choked on thin air. "You..."
"...with Nikolai." Angelo went on glibly.
Silvia shut down the rest of her words, "Are you still sleepy?" She asked instead, fondness softening her voice.
Her question seemed to summon another yawn, Angelo really did want to sleep a bit more. "A little," He confessed, "But I have to accompany Mafia King Nikolai."
Silvia grumbled under her breath how the Mafia King was partly the reason Angelo was so tired, out loud, she reassured him. "If you don’t rest, it’ll delay your recovery time. I’ll explain things to Nikolai, just go right back to sleep."
Angelo trusted Silvia almost to a fault, if she couldn’t do something, she would tell him she couldn’t... and he was really sleepy, he would hate to go to the casino and cut Nikolai’s day short again just because he fell asleep.
"Alright," He agreed, hanging up.
Angelo hadn’t bought casual clothes so he had woken up in a night robe, something that was clearly Nikolai’s doing. The Mafia King had been the one to take him to his room after he fell asleep in the living room.
However it was cold that morning so he stumbled out of bed to change into a cozy hoodie and loose pants, crawling back into bed before he noticed that his hair was out of the braid he had put it into last night.
Angelo didn’t bother putting it back up, getting cozy under his blanket, a faint smile on his face as his eyes slipped shut.