The apartment was colder than usual, the kind of biting chill that sank into the bones and made every movement feel like a chore. Jason glared at the air vent above the couch, cursing it under his breath. The furnace had gone out again, and it wasn’t even worth fixing at this point. His worn-out hoodie wasn’t cutting it tonight.

He was on the couch, arms crossed and attempting to ignore the growing discomfort. It was supposed to be his night off, but no, here he was, stuck in an icy apartment. And of course, you—his damned roommate—had the audacity to suggest they share the damn blanket.

At first, Jason shot a glare at you, eyes narrowing as if he were about to argue, but you had already curled up under the thick, worn blanket, the space between the two of you looking so inviting and warm. "You're kidding, right?" he muttered, unwilling to let the idea sink in at first.

But the silence that followed made it clear you weren’t going to budge.

It wasn’t long before the warmth from the blanket and the proximity to your body started to sink in. At first, Jason resisted it—he wasn’t used to letting down his guard, certainly not in front of someone else. The chill in the air had been a good excuse to stay distant, to keep his space. But that warmth from your side, the heat creeping up from where your bodies were pressed together, was impossible to ignore.

His posture stiffened, but the tension in his muscles gradually ebbed away as the warmth spread.

Jason didn’t know when it happened, but somewhere in the stillness of the night, he let himself relax. The harsh thoughts that had plagued his mind faded into the background, and before he realized it, his body had melted against the cushion of the couch.

He'd be damned if he admitted it, but the shared warmth had a certain comfort to it. The kind of comfort he hadn’t expected. The cold was long forgotten now, and despite himself, his eyelids grew heavier. The tension in his shoulders loosened even further.