Aspel Cassul: When in doubt, Aspel! (weaponry) wrote in emillion,
The feeling of the other woman's weight against her body, as Ari laid on top of her, was oddly comforting in its own right. Of course, from the couple times when the smith had, literally, carried the bard from one point to another she was well aware of how light Ari was, but having someone else's almost entire body weight against you proved a bit different, though far from unpleasant in this case, experience. "Hm?" Came an immediate response, as Aspel's own groggy brain took a moment to process the thanks and try to grasp the reason behind it before an exhale bordering between a sigh and huff escaped, and was followed by a more understanding "Mm."
Eventually the hand not attending to the book would shift, coming up to rest leisurely on Ari's back without thought, only removing briefly from time to time if the book she was attempting to balance between hand, forearm and crook of her elbow needed shifting before resting against the bards back once more. It was merely comfortable, and why should she not be allowed such a simple comfort as a mild position change? Regardless of this, Aspel's own reading was painfully slow this evening, trying to take in and memorize most words before moving from the page, re-reading whatever sentences didn't make sense as they cropped up instead of trying to push forward into the rest of the text.
The sudden drop of the green covered text from Ari's hand caused the slightest startle in Aspel, which mostly manifested in a light grunt and eyes would pull away from her own book to look down at the other woman. The closed eyes, the slowed breathing... Blinking a few times it would take a moment to settle into Aspel's tired brain precisely what had happened. With that, a low amused huff of air slipped out and the smith's hand would rub at Ari's back for a moment. After a moment of watching the other sleep and turning over in her brain if she should indeed wake the bard up, Aspel decided that she would allow the other to slumber, at least, until her chapter was finished.
Turning her hand, fingers rubbed lightly at Ari's back, the action absent of any mindful purpose. It was only ten more pages until the end, page 94, which considering how far she had gotten seemed like hardly anything at this point. Fingers shifted, turning the page. At this rate, she'd be able to finish the chapter in about five minutes.
Three minutes in, Aspel's struggle with keeping her eyes open finally ended as the text she was focusing on blurred completely, darkness falling with the close of her eyes, and the book on smithing slipped from her grasp to land on the floor.