25 for Kate!
25: Their face when someone says “I love you” for the first time to them.
The moonlight dripped through the hole in his ceiling, thick and bright, collecting on the floor like snowdrifts in the corners of his room. He watched it from his bed for a long while, studying the way it moved across the walls as the seconds, the minutes, and the hours crawled by.
Cullen sighed, a noise that quickly turned into a frustrated growl, and he threw himself back against his pillow. He turned onto his side, searching for some comfort, but it felt too flat and lumpy. He tried his stomach, but he felt cramped and hot with half his face pushed into his pillow. Irritated and tense, he rolled onto his back and let out an angry huff towards the splintered rafters. His eyes burned, and his body was exhausted, and yet his mind refused to settle.
He made a feeble attempt at using his breathing exercises. Breathe in deep through the nose, let the stomach rise like a bowl filling with the air, hold it gently in place, then exhale… but he soon gave up as his mind wandered to other trivial matters. Really must fix the roof. Did I send the missive from Rylen to the clerk for copying? Need to stop by the smithy for a new sword. Wonder if she’ll have new models ready.
A noise startled him, a sound of jangling keys being tried in a lock. He listened intently, a soft laugh escaping him as he caught the muffled sounds of swearing. It was a few more moments before the sound of the door creaking open on its hinges floated up to him, quickly followed by the sound of someone thumping their way up the ladder to his room. A shadowy silhouette emerged through the hole in the floor, stretching out long arms above their head and letting out a cramped sigh.
“Oh hey,” Kate murmured, the scent of her black lotus soap filling the room. “Are you still up?” The moonlight caught in the edges of her dark hair and gleamed about the lines of her skin, tracing her outline in pearly light, all messy hair and rumpled clothes.
Cullen hummed softly in response. “Couldn’t sleep.”
“Oh yeah?” She said gently, crossing to the wardrobe and yanking out a nightshirt, stripping off her trousers and tunic and changing into the sleeping gown. “Dreams again?”
“No, just…can’t seem to settle.”
“Mmm. Sorry.” She slipped under the covers on the opposite side of the bed, lifting them a little and shaking them to let a quick, refreshing draft flow through. “Do you need anything?”
The question drew a laugh out of him. “No, no…you just got back from your shift. You must be exhausted.”
Kate rolled a little closer to him, then leaned forward and gave him a hesitant kiss in the darkness. She missed his lips, but her cool lips met his chin and brushed against his stubble. The touch was gentle and fond, and he closed his eyes briefly, breathing in her scent and luxuriating her in presence.
She missed his reaction in the darkness, and rolled over onto her other side, facing away from him. “Yeah and I…” she paused to yawn, then continued, “I have to go back in this afternoon so I’m going to try and sleep a little. You try too, okay? Goodnight.”
The bed felt softer with her weighing down the other side of it, the moonlight seemed less distracting when there was her rhythmic breathing to focus on. Cullen could feel his eyelids starting to close. Impulsively, he reached out and wrapped one arm around her, tucking her into the crook of his elbow, his fingers splaying out comfortably over her stomach. She offered no protest, only made a sleepy noise and wriggled back closer to him, the soft slope of her backside pressing into his abdomen.
It felt right. She felt right, lying there in his bed, tucked in within his grasp. His mind stilled, settling into a peaceful quiet, and his eyes closed.
Sleepily, he mumbled, “I love you.”
For a moment, she was still. Then she rolled over in his grasp to face him. Cullen opened his eyes slightly and saw her smiling faintly in the darkness, moonlight shining in her eyes. Her hand, warm and rough, stroked his cheek.
“Go to sleep, sweet thing,” she whispered, as she cuddled up close and pressed her forehead against his chest.
