irene.

"I don't belong to you!" 

Gabrielle's eyes snapped open to the dim light of their bedroom. She had barely become aware of her surroundings when she felt him fidgeting in his sleep. She sat up against the headboard, turning to him, and instinctively placed a hand on his bare chest. Gaius was breathing fast and unevenly and his heart was pounding in his chest. A thin layer of sweat was dampening his skin. Gabrielle moved her hand up his neck to reach his cheek and started tracing small circles with her thumb to make him stop gritting his teeth so tightly.

She had learnt, with time, that it was best not to wake him up abruptly out of his nightmare but to ease him through and out of it by making him feel her presence. It had been almost two years since Gabrielle had freed his mind from Rheya's control but that witch still managed, somehow, to keep ruining his life from the dead. Gaius had asked her at least a thousand times to search his mind, to see if maybe some trace of her evil could still be clouding his judgement. Gabrielle couldn't find anything but her grumpy, cynical, smartass, sometimes sweet but just to her, Gaius. The truth was, he was damn scared he could hurt her again after the time he had killed her.

"Leave me alone!" - Gaius cried out but he couldn't resurface from the images his mind was playing in his sleep. As a series of quiet plaintive 'no's escaped his lips, a tear rolled down his cheek and reached Gabrielle's hand. She wiped it with the pad of her thumb and caressed his hair back off his clammy forehead.

"Gaius, babe, wake up" - Gabrielle whispered, gently stroking his brown curls. Gaius's lashes fluttered and he opened his eyes wide in agitation.

"Ssh, babe, it's ok" - she cooed. Gabrielle took his chin between index and thumb and turned his head towards her, searching his face for any sign of recognition. Gaius's panicked gaze soon softened and his features relaxed as he took in his surroundings and saw the concerned look on his girlfriend's face. He finally let out the breath he hadn't noticed he was holding and rolled on his side, into Gabrielle's open arms, resting his head on her chest.  

It was probably early afternoon and they still had some more hours to sleep before sunset. Despite the thick curtains shielding their apartment's windows, the room wasn't fully dark. Gabrielle could see the silhouette of her boyfriend's body, his brown locks spread on her chest, his arm hugging her waist, his toned back, the curve of his spine, his long limbs intertwined with the bed sheets.

Gaius laid quietly for a long moment and she thought he had managed to fall back to sleep. When she closed her eyes, ready to join him, he spoke.

"It was Rheya again, but it was worse" - he confessed, still hiding his face from her. Gabrielle instinctively brought her hand to his back and lazily caressed the small bumps of his spine with the tip of her fingers.

"What was it, babe?" - Gabrielle asked. Gaius took a deep breath and tightened his grip onto her body.

"She had me kill you" - he sobbed, and warm tears puddled on her chest. Gabrielle felt a numb pain in her stomach and she couldn't tell if it was because that was where he had stabbed her years ago or because it hurt her deeply to see Gaius so vulnerable. He would never stop feeling guilty and that nightmare was a terrible reminder of what he had once been.

"Look at me, babe" - she gently commanded, and when Gaius looked at her, red eyes gleaming and wet cheeks, she couldn't help but place a soft kiss to his lips. He immediately responded, opening his mouth to deepen the kiss. Gaius let his hand roam over her body, as if to check that she was still intact. And Gabrielle was pretty much alive indeed, eager to have him to herself and hopefully wipe away all of his fears.

"I think I've just had the best idea to cheer you up for good, you know" - Gabrielle grinned at him, resting on her elbow.

"I don't think one of those... things that you look up on that... Fangbook, or whatever it's called, will help me" - Gaius argued, rasing his brows once more. Gabrielle looked puzzled for a moment. What the heck was he talking about now? Suddenly, the answer hit her and a giggle escaped her lips.

"Are you feeling better?" - she asked, cuddled up to his side, head resting on his shoulder. He was caressing the curve of her hip absentmindedly, trying to find the right words to tell her that, of course being with her made him feel a hell of a lot better, but that he was sorry he kept waking her up at least once a week with his nightmares. He ended up frowning, without answering the question. Gabrielle looked up at him and tried to smooth his creased brows with her fingers. Gaius couldn't help but lean into her touch.

"You mean memes?" - she asked, taken aback by the fact that Gaius knew those things even existed. When he didn't reply and just rolled his eyes at her mocking tone, Gabrielle started laughing uncontrollably, which annoyed Gaius even more than his umpteenth nightmare about Rheya. He huffed and rolled to his side, curling up and turning his back to her.

"Oh, c'mon, Gaius!" - she exclaimed in a fit of giggles, poking his side to get a reaction. When it was obvious the approach was failing miserably and that he wasn't really in the mood for a laugh, Gabrielle quietened down and hugged his torso, scraping his bare shoulder softly with her fangs.

"I'm sorry, babe" - she apologized, and she could already feel his body giving in to her attention, "I meant something quite different".

She got him curious with that and managed to break through his wall of stubbornness.

"Just 'cause I'm sure you'll do whatever you have in mind whether I agree or not, can I at least know what you're planning?" - Gaius asked, sighing dramatically, in his 'so not amused' tone. Gabrielle stifled a giggle in his hair, planting a kiss to the back of his neck and hugging his waist with her leg.

"Surprise, babe" - she purred to his ear.

"Oh, how I'm gonna regret this" - Gaius grumbled but then smiled secretly and felt her lips curving against the skin of his shoulder, before finally falling back to sleep.

Gaius made his way to the living room, where a soft music was playing. Once he stepped in, he spotted Gabrielle on the sofa with a glass of synthetic blood in hand and a book in the other one. She paused her reading and looked up at him, a sweet smile appearing on her lips.

Gaius managed to sleep the next few hours peacefully. When he opened his eyes again, it was already midnight and Gabrielle was no longer in bed with him. She probably let him sleep past the alarm to make up for the lost hours of the previous afternoon. Gaius got up and made his way to the dresser to get clean underwear. He glanced out of the glass wall of their bedroom overlooking the still busy streets of New York City, a billion lights sparkling in the dark of the night. Gabrielle had opened the heavy curtains by herself, without asking him for help. He smiled picturing the scene of his short girlfriend struggling to make the thick cloth slide to the side, being extremely quiet not to wake him up. Gaius wore a comfortable pair of sweatpants and a sweater, not because he liked it, but because she loved to curl up to him in those soft clothes, and he considered himself smart enough to do everything in his power to make her even a tiny bit happier that she'd chosen him.

"I'm sorry about earlier" - Gaius apologised, sitting beside her on the fluffy cushion of their sofa. As predicted, she put her book on the coffee table and snuggled up to his side, humming satisfied and rubbing her face to the soft fabric. He rolled his eyes but spread his arm open to give her more room, before holding her tightly.

"I'm so not sorry about earlier, babe" - she purred, eyeing him mischievously. He chuckled softly and gave her a peck on the lips.

"What have you been up to, Gabrielle?" - he asked, and her face lit up. She seemed like she had been waiting for him to ask her. She jumped off the sofa and hurried towards the toilet door, but stopped mid-track.

"Close your eyes!" - she squealed excitedly. Gaius took a deep exasperated breath and reluctantly did as he was told.

"Hello, Sleeping Beauty" - she joked, offering him her own glass. Gaius's stomach grumbled in response as he took it from her hand and gulped it down. He leaned down to kiss her and she licked his lips, tasting a bit of the blood that was left there.

"This is the moment I regret being with you in the first place, right?" - he commented sarcastically as he heard a door opening and the sound of something frisking towards him. He opened his eyes as a mid-size black furball jumped onto his lap and started licking his face. Gaius couldn't believe his girlfriend.

"Did you seriously use some serum to go out and get a snack?" - he scoffed, not at all pleased that dog's mouth was anywhere near his face.

"Gaius, meet Daisy!" - Gabrielle announced, "Surprise!".

Gaius stared blankly at her for a few seconds.

"Oh, so the snack has a name" - he added. Not exactly what Gabrielle was expecting. She huffed annoyed and knelt before Gaius, petting the black dog already comfortably curled up onto his lap.

"This is how we're gonna cope with your nightmares" - she started explaining. The skepticism was written all over Gaius's face.

"I bet this thing will give me extra nightmares" - he snickered, but he stopped immediately as he saw Gabrielle's smile drop. He gave her an apologetic look and encouraged her to go on.

"She is trained to lay beside you when you're in distress" - she said, regaining a bit of confidence in her present, "Plus, taking care of her will absorb most of your time and focus so you won't overthink about those nightmares".

Gaius was then at a loss for words. Gabrielle had really thought it over. He glanced down at the pet and then looked at Gabrielle, chin resting on his knee.

"Thank you, babe" - he simply said. Her eyes filled with tears and she jumped on the sofa to hug him tight, Daisy joining with a lick of her tongue to both of their faces.

"Ok, what am I supposed to do with it?" - he asked, with a small sigh, "Except, you know, drink from it, but I guess that is out of the ques-".

He couldn't finish his sentence as a large cushion hit him in the head, locks of hair escaping from his bun at the collision. He looked at Gabrielle with a shocked expression but she wasn't having it.

"Stop treating Daisy like that or you're gonna be the one sleeping on the floor" - she threatened, glowering at him. Little did she know, that stare turned him on more than it scared him, but he decided to play along with it, partly because he wasn't 100% sure she wouldn't have him sleep in a dog basket. He raised his hands in surrender and waited for her istructions. Gabrielle's face switched from tremendously annoyed to hyper in 0.2 seconds.

"Well, you need to feed her three times a day, comb her fur frequently, take her out on walks 'cause she's a super active puppy" - she listed, counting on her fingers. Gaius was oh so not happy to start all of that.

"Plus, exercise is useful to release endorphins and you need those as hell, grumpy boy" - she mocked him, pinching his side playfully.

"I believe my endorphins are as dead as I am" - Gaius pointed out but she was already taking a box, decorated with a giant red ribbon, out of the kitchen counter. Gabrielle placed it between them on the sofa and gestured for him to open it. Inside, there was a complete pack of all the dog supplies she could grab at the animal shop. She dove into the package and pulled out a cute purple collar, fastening it to Daisy's neck, who was by then waggling her tail frantically.

"Alright, Snack, let's get started" - Gaius winded Daisy up. He clasped the leash to her collar and wore his jacket. He rolled his eyes at how excited the puppy was.

"Have I already mentioned how much I am against this?" - Gaius complained but Gabrielle was already pushing him outside of their apartment.

"Alright, we're going!" - he finally surrendered, stepping into their building stairwell and closing the door behind them. Gaius pushed the button and waited for the elevator. Daisy looked up at him and panted excitedly.