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Breakdown yawns and stretches, tired. He swears these days he barely has enough energy to get through the day. He sees his husband hunched over his wooden desk, poring over some thick tome by candlelight barely bright enough for him to read by.“Hey, Knockout, you coming to bed?”His husband, clearly only half-listening, vaguely grunts in affirmation while continuing to skim over the book’s pages with one hand and scribbling notes into his grimoire with the other.Breakdown grins devilishly. “Hey doc, if you don’t stop studying in the next ten seconds I’m gonna pick you up and carry you to bed myself.”Knockout leans his head to the side, eyes still clearly fixated on the book, and mumbles out a “yeah sure thing hon” before returning back to copying notes.Well, he didn’t say no. Breakdown leans down behind Knockout’s chair, as if to give him a hug, and wraps his arms around him. That finally gets Knockout’s attention. The doctor’s tight (and terrible) posture relaxes, and he shivers slightly as he feels his husband’s cold arms wrap around him, his writing stilling for a moment. Then, Breakdown bends his knees, slips his arms underneath his husband’s armpits and squeezes him tight as he lifts his (cursing, indignant) husband out of the chair. He hugs him to his chest as he straightens back up to full height, leaving his Knockout’s legs flailing in the air.“Hey! Let me down! Breakdown!!”Breakdown turns his squirming husband around to face him. “Love you too babe. Now hurry up and come to bed.”Knockout begins to protest, “But I –”“Nope! You’ve haven’t stopped studying those stupid books since you got them. They’ll still be there in the morning; you’re going to sleep now.”He only puts up a fight for a moment before sighing and hanging his head. When he looks back up, Breakdown’s dull eye sees his husband’s face full of warmth, a small smile tugging at his lips.“Alright, you win. Just let me put everything away first and then I’ll come to bed,” Breakdown raises an eyebrow at him. “Five minutes, I swear. I won’t get distracted and forget to come to bed like last time, promise.” Breakdown lets him down, and Knockout wraps his arms around his neck to kiss him. As he releases him his hands linger for a moment, framing his face, his thumb gently stroking at the cool skin.“I love you, Breakdown.”“Love you too.”“Now why don’t you get the bed warm for me?” Breakdown grins and extracts himself from Knockout’s tender hold as he walks into their bedroom. As soon as Breakdown’s back is turned, all the false cheer Knockout had mustered drains from him. His face was tired. He was tired. He loved the man he’d married with all his heart, with everything he had. He hadn’t known it was possible to love someone this much. And Breakdown… was almost perfect in every way.Knockout closed the dark book on his desk with a heavy thud, thumb skimming over the large glossy letters on the cover. He slotted the book away onto the shelf with his other recent acquisitions, the titles on their spines illuminated in the candlelight; “The Undead”, “Reanimation”, “Necromancy”.…But Knockout knew that his flesh was too cold, his eye too lifeless. He could only reanimate him like this for so long. This isn’t what Breakdown deserved, and he’d push himself until he found a way to bring him back. Properly, this time.