#sahulia

Sahed was up late, as usual. Rainah was used to this and was always ignoring it at this point. 

Sahed was used to the peace and quiet of it all.

…

At least, until Julia came into his life. 

Too often she comes to his room late at night. Not every night, but enough for him to be expecting it. 

“I can’t sleep,” she would say. 

“What do you want me to do about it?” Sahed would respond with. 

And, angry and embarrassed, she would leave. 

Tonight was no different.. well.. it was a little different. 

Sahed had began to realize that he.. felt things for Julia. Things be really does not want to be feeling, especially for a girl like her. 

He heard the knock at his door. He sighed. “Come in, Lazarrett.”

Julia opened the door and stood there, gripping the hem of her skirt in hesitance, but also frustration. 

“I know what you’re going to say,” she said, quickly. “But you have to have something. Everyone is being so loud outside. I can’t sleep! Do you have any earplugs, at least?”

Sahed chuckled. That’s one thing him and Julia had in common. Their distaste for being around big groups of people. Especially people like the ones in this hellscape of a circus. 

“Cmere, Lazarrett,” he said, turning to his desk. 

Julia was surprised. Usually he’s just shut her down by this point. She went over to him and noticed all the clutter.  “Still working on seal magic?” Julia asked. 

“Ya. No luck, though.”

“Hm..” she picked one up to look at it. 

“I need a break, anyways. Lemme see if I have anything for you..”

“Wait.. you’ve had stuff to help me sleep this whole time?! Why did you say no all those other nights?!”

“Because I didn’t feel like helping,” he said bluntly. 

“Jerk.”

He shrugged and pulled out a small vial full a blue-silver liquid. 

“Made this the other night. So, ya, no, I didn’t have anything to help you the other nights.”

“Oh..” she awkwardly took the vial. “So I just.. drink it?”

“Yep. It’ll make you pass out like that.” He snapped his fingers to make his point. 

“Oh.” Julia opened the vial and gulped it down. 

“Wait, Julia!”

She stumbled and fell down. Luckily, Sahed managed to catch her. “I said you’d fall asleep immediately!”

“I thought.. you were.. over exaggerating..” she said in a soporific voice. 

“Julia, it’s magic. Why would I over exaggerate it?”

“Mmm..”

He sighed and picked her up and cleared the sigils off of his bed and rested her on it. 

“Lazarrett, you are a pain in my ass..” he murmured, staring at her. She didn’t hear him, as she had already fallen completely asleep. 

He tucked a strand of her brown hair behind her ear and got up. Well.. let’s get back to work..

He was caught off guard when Julia grabbed his hand, with a surprising amount of grip. 

“Stay..” she murmured. 

He stared at her for a moment before laughing awkwardly. “Julia. I need to keep working..”

Her eyes opened slightly. The fact she managed to power through the sleep magic and only to glare at him was.. well, Sahed didn’t know how he felt about that. 

“You need to rest too..” she managed to lift up her arm to point an accusing finger at him, despite the fact that her limbs felt like lead. 

He chuckled and squatted next to her. “You’ve really got some spunk..”

He sat down and held Julia’s hand, since she wouldn’t let him go. 

“Just… stay..” she said again breathily, already asleep. 

He smiled at her and tilted his head to rest his head on the pillow next to Julia. 

“You’re ridiculous, Lazarrett…”

But despite how strange and maybe uncomfortable this position he was in right now, holding Julia’s hand managed to make his eyelids heavy, and he fell asleep too…

+bonus:

“AHH! Sahed! Why are you holding my hand?!”