some short Fortuitshipping for @kohakuhime ~ I hope this came out all right, I’m afraid I was a little nervous to try writing with your OC!
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He didn’t realize she was nodding off at first — he was too busy shooting meaningful glares at Alister and Valon, who were in the midst of fighting over a bag of cheese puffs and he couldn’t tell if they were doing it as a joke or not, though one way or another if they kept it up, the bag was going to hit some poor other train occupant.
Not that there were many in this car to begin with; only three other people seemed to be traveling at sunset with the rest of them.
“Will you leave off,” Raphael hissed through his teeth. “We have more food at home.”
“It’s the principle of the thing,” Alister said, snatching the bag of cheese puffs from Valon and scootching down to the far end of the seat. “These are my cheese puffs.”
“You ain’t even goin’ to eat ‘em,” Valon said sourly, glowering at him. “I’ve been starving, you can hear my stomach rumblin’.”
“You should have packed your own snacks.”
“Will you two —”
Raphael’s words caught in his throat at the feeling of some soft, fuzzy weight drooping against his shoulder, and his eyes flickered down. Ellie’s head sagged against his shoulder, her eyes closed but still vaguely fluttering. As her head touched his arm, she stirred again.
“Sorry,” she mumbled, trying to sit back up. “Didn’t realize I was so...tired...”
She sagged again. Almost without thinking about it, Raphael reached toward her, carefully wrapping an arm around her and pulling her to lean against him.
“You can sleep,” he said.
“Mm...I don’t want to...miss the stop...”
“I’ll wake you when we get there,” Raphael said. “Or I can carry you home.”
Her cheeks went bright red, even through the grogginess — and as soon as it registered what he had said, he blushed too.
“Go to sleep,” he said again, squeezing her shoulder lightly.
Her head lolled against his arm, and she mumbled something he couldn’t hear. He didn’t ask her to repeat it, and in a moment, all he heard were her soft breaths. She was warm, nestled up against him. He could pretend for a moment that that was the heat that had sprung to his cheeks.
He couldn’t pretend as well, however, when he glanced up again at Alister and Valon staring at him from across the train aisle. Valon had that shit-eating grin of his on his face, and Alister nodded while he rested his chin in his hand, as though he’d just observed some new scientific discovery.
“You two will be quiet,” Raphael said, much more quietly. “Or you’ll wake her.”
Valon snickered, but he kept it quiet.
“Sure, sure,” he said. “Though, you can’t come strangle us or you’ll wake ‘er.”
Raphael rolled his eyes as Valons snickered again and shared a meaningful glance with Alister. Well...he wasn’t going to hear the end of this again.
Ellie shifted in her sleep, her breath soft against him, and he looked down at her instead. Her hair was so soft, and he could smell her shampoo this close up. He shifted his arm around her a little more gently, nestling her more securely against him.
Well...maybe that was all right.
