Darker London

Noise woke Rachel up, a slam of a door and heavy footsteps somewhere in the building. That wasn't weird, the walls were thin, pipes in the wall behind her head rattled whenever someone down-or-upstairs was having a shower, the whole complex was full of stompers and shouters and criers and people who dragged furniture across their floors at two in the morning, people who played distant thumbing music. If her life had a soundtrack it was this chaotic mess.

Rachel's head hurt, and her ankle complained sharply as she rolled over to grope for her drink bottle and her phone. The bottle only had a mouthful left in it and her phone was on fifteen percent. She rubbed a bit of the sandpapery feeling out of her eyes and plugged it back in, scrolling through messages and updates before her eyes had really cleared.

( ... )

Stephie woke up gently in the morning and gave herself a few minutes of lying there, watching Thomas sleep, before she thought about moving. She'd slept so deeply and so well - if not for all that long- and everything felt warm and soft and good.

Yesterday, she'd planned to set an alarm to wake herself up but Thomas had been far too distracting last night, so that went out the window, but luckily she'd woken up anyway. Thanks, universe she thought, genuinely meaning it. There had been rough patches lately but sometimes the world was really good to her. She gave the arm stretched across her a light kiss and carefully shifted out from underneath it so she could get up and gather some clothes, then a shower. The coffee was brewing in the kitchen when Marie poked her head around the door.

( ... )