In spite of his best intentions, Logan fell asleep wrapped around Sebastian, and woke up around eight in the evening, sticky and sore. Sebastian was still fast asleep, his head cradled against Logan's chest, back to looking almost angelic instead of thoroughly, thoroughly debauched. Of course, that only held true so long as Logan kept looking at his face. Below that, their naked bodies were still pressed tightly together, the sheen of sweat still faintly covering their skin. Sebastian's hips were marked with red patches where Logan had held him too tightly, and the nips Logan had taken at his neck almost seemed to glow against the paleness of his skin.

Besides that, the two of them still stank of sex. Not quite the overpowering scent of pheromones that had drawn them together before, the one that had kept Logan hard and ready until Sebastian was fully satisfied, but something more satisfying, something that made all of Logan's instincts smugly proud of the job he'd done in taking care of Sebastian’s heat.

At least his instincts were proud. The rest of him had no idea what to think. He'd been attracted to Sebastian for years, but this this had come as a shock. Sebastian had never shown the slightest interest in him romantically at the best of times, let alone ever admitted that he wanted an Alpha during his heat. He'd said he didn't need an Alpha a thousand times, which made his demands earlier even less understandable. But he'd wanted it in the moment: Logan was sure of that. He'd tried to back out and Sebastian hadn't even let him think of it. They'd been good together. The only question was what they were going to do now.

Sebastian hardly twitched as Logan extricated himself from their embrace, his head rolling onto the pillow without even the slightest flutter of his eyelashes. Logan stood there for a moment watching Sebastian breathe gently, then shook himself and headed for the shower. A long hot soak did nothing to clear his head, though it did remove some of the ache from his muscles. He lingered until his fingers were starting to wrinkle, and reluctantly returned to his bedroom, scrubbing at his wet hair with a towel.

There was no change to the form on the bed. Logan put a hand on Sebastian's shoulder, and tried shaking him gently. Still nothing. Maybe he needed to sleep now. Logan couldn't remember what he'd been taught in sex ed about dealing with the aftermath of a heat – if he'd even been taught anything about it. It had been too long, and he'd been too busy at the time blushing and looking down at his desk. Either way, a nap probably wouldn't hurt, right?

He pulled on some sweatpants and left the room, his stomach reminding him loudly that he'd missed dinner. Futzing around in the kitchen was soothing in its own way as he flicked the radio on and chopped vegetables for stirfry to the beat, forbidding himself to dwell on the events of the day until Sebastian had woken up and they could actually talk about it.

A half-hearted hope that the music would wake Sebastian was dashed when Logan peeked into the bedroom to announce that dinner was ready, and Sebastian was still as dead to the world as before. He didn't respond to his name either, though his skin was cool and he was breathing with slow regularity when Logan, slightly panicked, came up to the bed to check.

No point in waking him now, Logan decided, and returned to the kitchen to put half the food in the fridge and eat his dinner alone in front of the TV. He flicked through a dozen channels without really seeing any of them, but it was easier to watch five minutes of a million different things than to focus on his real, actual problems. Work was waiting for him first thing in the morning, but it didn't seem important compared to waiting for Sebastian to wake up and explain himself.

After the fifth time Logan had shaken himself awake, however, he reluctantly admitted to himself that it was possible that wasn't going to happen at all tonight. He eyed the couch, wondering if he should just stretch out and sleep where he was, but it had never been quite long enough for his tall frame, and anyway, this was his house. He could sleep in his own bed, damnit. He'd shared a bed with Sebastian before today – and today too, for that matter – and it had never been weird. He wasn't going to let it be weird this time either.

Sebastian was still curled around a pillow in Logan's bed when Logan joined him. The steady rise and fall of his chest stayed perfectly level as Logan gingerly arranged himself on the opposite side of the bed, and tried to sleep. He couldn't sleep. He wanted to toss and turn, but he thought he might wake Sebastian, and he didn't know if he wanted to talk things out this late. What time was it now? He couldn't check that either without jostling Sebastian.

It felt like Logan stayed awake for a million years, but the last thing he recalled before he fell asleep was Sebastian rolling over, still fast asleep, and dropping his arm firmly across Logan's chest.

The insistent sound of Logan's alarm woke him in the morning, and he reached out to smack it off without looking, slitting his eyes open to glance at the other side of the bed. Completely empty. Logan sat up at once, still sleep-dazed, looking around him as if Sebastian might have rolled onto the floor during the night. No sign of him.

But the smell of coffee lingered in the air and Logan made his way towards the kitchen to see Sebastian sitting at the kitchen table, looking as cheerful as Logan had ever seen him.

"Good morning!" Sebastian said, lifting his head from his contemplation of his phone screen. "Sorry, I stole your coffee. Also your towels. And a shirt."

"That's fine," Logan said slowly. "Is there coffee left for me?"

"I think so!" Sebastian said.

It was only half a cup, but Logan topped it up with milk and sat down at the table across from his best friend, watching him warily. Sebastian didn't seem any different now. He looked freshly showered instead of freshly fucked, especially with Logan's shirt hiding all the marks on his skin. It could have been any morning. Except that it really, really wasn't.

"You feeling okay?" Logan asked.

"Just fine," Sebastian said, beaming at him. "Sorry for dumping all that on you yesterday. Caught me by surprise too. You're the best, bro."

"Anytime?" Logan said, startled. He didn't know exactly what he'd expected, but it probably wasn't this.

Sebastian, coffee mug raised to his lips, gave Logan a thumbs up. "I've got to go to class in a minute," he said as he put the mug back down on the table. "But I will totally see you later this week, yeah? Still on for darts with everyone on Saturday?"

"Yeah." Logan nodded slowly. "I have to go to work in a bit anyway, so..." He trailed off, unsure how to end that particular sentence. Unsure about anything that was happening right now.

Breakfast consisted entirely of cereal, coffee, and awkward looks. At least, there were awkward looks on Logan's side. He still couldn't read anything except cheerfulness in Sebastian's face, which was weird. He'd known Seb for a long time. Usually, that meant he was pretty good at reading him. But that meant that nothing was weird about this morning, which couldn't possibly be true, could it?