In terms of real life time, Ronan's not absent all that long. A few minutes. Maybe a half hour. Honestly, he doesn't expect his absence to be noticed any more than on those nights that require a trip to the kitchen for an extra shot of booze. He's just gone for a little while.

And now he's back, not sliding into bed so much as returning to existence there, in the spot he usually occupies. Nude as he was when he left it. There's no physical evidence of what he's done, but his body is still humming with the pleasure granted to him by Murphy's imagination. It's a bit rare, someone (who isn't Kylo) fantasizing about pleasuring Ronan, rather than being serviced by him. Though he didn't wander off to drain a bottle of whiskey tonight, he feels drunk.