Thank you for sending the prompt! And for being so patient waiting for me to answer it! I swear, you ask for one set of prompts then end up busy forever after. I hope you like what I came up with - I decided to go with Cullen x Maighread for this one, because theyâve been kind of on the shelf recently.
âAccidentally falling asleep togetherâ
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When Maighread drifted from the Fade, she noticed first that herhead rested on something warm that was not as soft as she was expecting. It didnât really matter, however. She hadnâtbeen woken by dreams or assassins, and without fully beingconscious of the action she burrowed deeper against her pillow, resentfulof even this level of consciousness.Â
But itstole in nonetheless, to the awkward tangle of her legs, the chillcreeping acrossher shoulders, the hand resting on her hair. Beneath her cheek, her pillowheaved in a slow, shallow rise-and-fall, a rhythm in cadence to thesteady pulse under her ear. She smiled. For a moment she kept her eyesclosed, revelling not only in the comfort of Cullenâs presence, but the safety she neverthought she'd feel in the arms of another â let alonea man who had once stood among the ranks of the templars.Â
His fingerstwitched in her hair. Carefully, she tilted her head, peeking up at him in thedim sunset light of the embers in the grate, mouth slightly open, hair starting to curl,eyes fluttering beneath the lids. She lay stretched out across him on thechaise, tucked against his side with an arm thrown across his waist. Even ashort time ago, thought of their current position would have made her cheeksflame with embarrassment, but after all they had been through, her greatestworry now was that she had drooled on him. Â
She liftedher head just enough to take in her surroundings, and sighed at thehaphazard scatter of papers across the floor â the last thing she remembered was Cullen readingScout Harding's report on the Hissing Wastes to her, with what she called his âofficer voice' slippinginto gentler tones to make his own comments, and with hisbare fingers playing patterns across the back of her neck. How long, shewondered, had it taken him to notice she had nodded off? How long after thathad he succumbed himself?Â
She sighed.He should have woken her. The faint light of the moons creeping in through thebalcony doors betrayed the lateness of the hour, and they both hadduties to see to in the morning. She really shouldnât want to lay her head backdown and pretend she never woke at all.Â
Cullenâsbreath was even, his head draped against the back of the chaise, his body slumpedat an awkward angle and his legs sprawled off the side where she had trappedthem with her body. He still wore his boots. If he stayed where he was, hewould have a sore neck come morning, and then he would get a crumpled frownbetween his brows, and he would pout, and he would refuse any remedy for fearof letting his carefully groomed façade slip in front of the soldiers. The imagerang so clear in her mind it decided her, pushed her to untangle herself onelimb at a time and hold back a smile when he murmured a protest but didnâtwake.
Without thenightmares, sleep softened him; his curls unbound across his forehead and fellacross his eyes, utterly tempting for a gentle touch to sweep across, push thesilky strands back, follow a trail across his temple and down to the scruffthat shadowed his jaw... but she shook herself out of the urge. He had told hera little of what haunted him in the Fade, and she didnât want his sleeping mindto mistake her affection for that of the demon that haunted him.Â
Still, hewas too heavy to carry to bed. She knelt beside him once she had tugged off hisboots, his name a low murmur on her lips as she squeezed his hand. He stirredon the second call, bleary, squinting in even the low light.Â
âWe need togo to bed,â she answered.Â
He mumbledsomething. âAre we not already...?âÂ
âCome on,âshe chuckled, and helped him up. Â
He leanedon her as she drew his arm over her shoulder to lead him across the cavernousexpanse of her floor, then looked for her when she deposited him on the bed andducked out of reach. By the time she stripped to her smalls and dumped therumpled dayclothes in the laundry basket, he hadalready dozed off again, his untucked shirt testament to his intention tofollow her example. Still, he reached for her when she wriggled down next tohim under the covers, and this time, as he blindly kissed her face and yieldinghis weight so she could settle against his side, there was nothing accidental in how she fell asleep.Â
Non-sexual acts of intimacy prompts