Sol Badguy (immoral_flame) wrote in poseidonacademy, @ 2008-01-24 22:15:00 |
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Current mood: | calm |
Who: Sol and Xianghua
What: Sol's nightmare troubles, Xianghua singing. Flulff!
When: Sometime today?
Where: Sol's quad.
Warnings: None, really? Little language somewhere, a bit of fluff, maybe some nightmare violence.
Sol wanted to go into his bed. He wanted to crawl there and try and sleep, but he knew that the nightmare would simply devour him as soon as he did. So, instead, he opted to collapse on the couch, practically half dead with sleep. TyTy the ferret was trying to play with him, only to be met with weak arms, and even weaker throws of shiny things. He poked Sol’s nose in disappointment as a jingle ball fell to the floor pathetically. “…Sorry, TyTy....m’tired…” He hadn’t slept in four days straight, after all. He’d been asking Rinoa for a sleep spell every now and then, but ever since the nightmares pierced even them...what was the point?
Meanwhile, Xianghua had decided on a whim to pay Sol a surprise visit. Arriving at his quad, she was met with a semi-comatose Sol lying on the couch. She was pretty sure that he didn’t even register the sight of her leaning over to examine his current state of well-being. She responded to this sight in the only logical manner possible; vaulting over the back of the couch, she landed on top of her boyfriend without making any attempt to soften her landing. She then reached out and flicked his nose playfully, chiming, “Sol, it’s already past noon,” as she did so.
“Oof!” As she landed on him, he smiled a little while giving her a peck on the cheek. He smiled a little more as she teased him for being tired at the current hour, but he didn’t… expect her to know his situation, seeing how he wasn’t telling her he was having problems sleeping. “Haha…your point?” TyTy, simply elated to see Xianghua, bounded up from the nook he was shoved into upon Xianghua’s arrival and wrapped himself around her neck, nuzzling her cheek and demanding attention.
Giggling slightly as TyTy did his best to grab her attention, she reached up to pat his head affectionately even as she shook her head at Sol’s response. “You should be up by now! Bright-eyed and bushy-tailed and all that. When did you get so lazy, you bum?” she teased in reply, leaning forward enough to give him a soft, fleeting kiss as soon as the words were out of her mouth.
“M’not lazy…” Well, he was, but that was beside the point. He really didn’t want to admit that he was tired, though, as that would make her worry, and by Sol’s legally insane logic, that was Bad. He scratched TyTy’s head, before smiling at her and asking “So what’re you doing here? Bored?” Not that he minded at all. He might convince her to let him get a nap in later, or something. Maybe? He wasn’t sure, logic had left him about an hour ago. Yet didn’t he have Legal Insanity logic? Hm.
“Uh-huh. Of course not.” Figuring that Sol wasn’t going to be up for moving at all, she laid her head down onto his chest and cuddled against him as she listened to his next words. “Well… I wouldn’t really say I’m bored, but… What, can’t I just randomly feel like coming over to see you?” She lifted her head again to stick her tongue out at him childishly, before pillowing it back against his chest.
Smiling as she made herself comfortable, he wrapped his arms around her and pulled her close. “Hah…no. Was just wondering…maybe you wanted to go out or something?” He shrugged, before ruffling her hair a little. He lay there for a moment or two, smiling before mumbling a quiet “I love you…” TyTy, meanwhile, had decided to settle down between her head and Sol’s, giving Sol an incredulous look as he did so.
“Well, you’re tired, right? Even if I did, I wouldn’t mind sitting around here if you needed time to rest or whatever. We don’t want you almost falling to your death again, right?” She smiled at him, but there was a touch of concern to her expression. She wasn’t sure if he was still having trouble sleeping or not—Sol was good at keeping things to himself when he wanted. She leaned up to offer him another peck on the lips, before whispering back, “I love you too, shazhu.”
“Thanks…” Smiling as she pecked him again, he nodded apologetically. “M’sorry. Been having a lot of trouble sleeping…” The nightmares were picking up in intensity and frequency, and it hurt him so much to endure them. He couldn’t just forget them when he woke up like some people. It was too vivid, too…horrible. “Guess it’s taking a toll, huh?”
As Xianghua heard this piece of information, her troubled expression intensified into a full out frown. She bit her lip slightly, reaching up to brush a few strands of hair from his face and gently cup his cheek as she did so. “I’m really sorry. I wish I could do something to help you sleep better…”
“I know…” He held her hand for a moment and pressed his lips softly to her palm before leaning his cheek into it. “You got me that CD, though…that helped for a little bit.” Until the nightmares pierced its soothing noise, and he lay awake afterwards, usually singing either to Xianghua while she slept, or to himself when he wasn’t with her. It helped pass the time till the dawn…
She responded to his leaning against her palm by softly tracing her thumb across his cheek. “Mm… really?” For a moment, a puzzled look flashed across her face, and she asked, “Why’d it stop working, then?” Maybe if she knew that, she could come up with some way to help him again. After all, she didn’t feel like she had done everything she could to help him with his sleeping problem, and that bothered her.
“Mhm…” How…to answer that next question… “I....it got harder for me to go to sleep…” He still didn’t want her to know about the nightmares. She was worried, that would only cause her to panic…and he didn’t want her to worry that much over it. He could handle it! It only kept him up for a few days at a time, he always bounced back! Right, Mr. Owl?
.....Oh. Shit. No, there wasn’t an owl there. Uh oh.
“…Well, obviously.” Her tone was dry, and her facial expression appeared to be trying to express both worry and slight amusement simultaneously. “That doesn’t make it easier for me to figure out some way to help you sleep, though! I mean… this really worries me, you know?” Chewing her lip again, she gave him a look that was a little bit lost and a little bit desperate.
“Yeah…sorry. I didn’t want to worry you…” The look she gave him hurt to look at, pained him to the point of wanting to just do something to make her smile. He hated to see her frown…maybe he could distract her? What was that on the TV, some sort of singing show? He couldn’t tell, what with Mr. Owl in the way--damn it, he was hallucinating. The owl wasn’t real, and that weird, shell…thing. Isopod? Whatever, that was stalking around wasn’t either! "...What's this?" he asked her, motioning to the TV.
She pouted at him for a moment as he directed her attention to the television, apparently realizing that he was attempting to distract her from the topic at hand. However, she indulged him, turning to look at the screen in spite of her misgivings about letting their previous conversation drop. Somewhat teasingly, she responded, “Well, I wouldn’t know, would I? You’re the one that put that channel on, right?” Well, presumably, anyway. They were in his quad, on his couch, after all.
She observed the show for a few moments, before almost blurting out that Sol was a better singer. As she turned back to him, a small smile had worked its way up onto her face. “Why don’t you sing more often?” she asked, flicking his nose as an admonishment. “You’re good at it.”
“I stopped watching it. Background noise.” He watched it with her for a moment, his ears almost splitting and bleeding in the process as people who thought they could sing howled like a chorus of tone-deaf cats. He hoped some white noise would help him crash, to be honest, but this would’ve probably made the nightmares worse.
Her finger hit him unexpectedly, and he grinned back at her for a bit, before replying, almost without thinking in his defense. “I do, though…”
“When? You never do when I’m around!” At this point, she started pouting at him in earnest. “That’s not fair! I like hearing you sing…” She hadn’t really mentioned it much him before, as he had told her before that he disliked singing, but if he was doing it more often she wanted to hear!
“What…?” What was she talking about? He always sang around her. She was just asleep when he did it! “Yeah I do…s’one of the only times I do, hun....” He wasn’t even thinking that it might clue her into the fact that he wasn’t sleeping at all every now and then.
“H-huh? But… I never really hear you…” Sometimes his voice would work its way into her dreams, but she always assumed it was just that—part of her dreams, an illusionary manifestation of one of her wishes. “Unless I’m, I don’t know… not awake while you do it or something…” As she trailed off, she actually began to blush very faintly as she automatically began gnawing on her lower lip again.
“Mmm…you’re usually asleep, I think…” Why was he telling her this? It’d make her worry, when she found out why he sang at night. Maybe the lack of sleep, and the encouragement from Mr. Owl and the Freaky Thing was having an effect on his normal inhibitions. “You seem to sleep better when I do, too…” He didn’t know why he added that. Maybe it was just a point he felt like stating? "Mmmm…"
The implications of his words hadn’t quite sunk in yet, what with the volume of other surprising information she was receiving at the same time. “You… you think so? Because, sometimes, I think I can sort of hear you while I’m dreaming…” At least, she had woken up a few times remembering such, even though she typically couldn’t recall her dreams with much clarity. “It’s… I think I have better dreams or something when you do it, so I guess that makes sense.”
“Probably. Unless you wake up a lot at night.” He smiled at her a little, his hand automatically stroking her cheek as he spoke. “I guess…” It always felt good to him to have her breathing steadily, calmly, and when her dreams seemed to cause her to stir, for a grasp and a verse to ease her back into a smooth slumber. He supposed it should work the other way as well. “I do it mostly to pass the time, so…” He noticed, somewhere in his head, that he’d forsaken the flow of conversation in favor of just saying what he felt like saying.
By this point, Xianghua wasn’t paying much attention to the words coming out of his mouth. What he was saying he did was… really sweet. Romantic, even. She reached up to touch his face and tangle her fingers into his hair, about to lean up to give him a rather… appreciative kiss, when something he had said a few moments earlier registered in her mind. Face falling back into a concerned frown, she prodded, “What do you mean, pass the time? You should really be asleep when I am, you know…”
“Hmm?” His eyes, heavy as they were, still managed to look at her questioningly as her fingers laced into his hair. Even as out of it as he was, he still knew she was going to kiss him, and when she didn’t, he only looked a little more confused. “Huh…? Oh…” He bit his lip a little and looked away from her, before replying tentatively. “I…sing because I can’t sleep…” He didn’t mention why he couldn’t sleep, however. Admitting fear was always difficult for him.
“Sol…” She tightened her hold where her hands were, making sure he couldn’t turn his head away and trying to hold his gaze. “We’ve really got to do something about this, you know. You can’t keep going for days without sleeping at all.” Part of her couldn’t help but to think he had a better idea of the problem than he was letting on. The last time he had had problems along these lines, it had been nightmares… but back then he told her they stopped when he slept near her, which apparently wasn’t the case now.
“I know…I’ve been trying. Just…everything I do stops working.” The look he gave her as she kept him geared towards her was one of desperation, pain, and hopelessness. He had tried, he’d tried everything he could think of. Over the counter stuff, Rinoa’s spell, whatever he could to stay asleep, eventually it all just stopped working. “I…I try, but I can’t…I won’t.” The last shred of coherency in him told him he should probably tell her why he couldn’t and wouldn’t, but the rest was too busy reminding her that he would, in fact, not sleep. So much so, that all he wound up doing was mumbling it over and over, not really aware that he was doing it.
Her eyebrows rose slightly as he stated that he refused to sleep, as though it was at least on some level a conscious decision. His muttering wasn’t helping her feel less concerned about the situation, either. Very gently, she began to run her hands through his hair in a comforting gesture, before leaning up to kiss him tenderly. However, this kiss was fleeting, and she quickly pulled back to speak again. “Sol… sweetie… what’s wrong? Why aren’t you sleeping? I really don’t like the idea that you’re keeping something important from me, you know.” Despite her words, her tone of voice wasn’t at all admonishing; instead, it was gentle, coaxing, and—above all—worried.
“I…I…ah…” He fell a little bit back in touch with reality as her hands moved gently and her lips glanced his, his mind orienting itself in a single direction rather than fifty. “I won’t look any more…I won’t lose you again…not again…” Her gaze held his while his voice trembled with what seemed to be honest, utter fear. “I can’t watch you die night after night…I just can’t. I’ve seen things that would break people, but I can’t see that every night.” All of the sudden, Sol looked very, very tired. Not just sleepy, but exhausted, as if the emotional wear and tear of his age was catching up to him all at once. “I love you too much, Xianghua. I never want to lose you, and feeling like I am every night…it kills me. I’d rather lay awake just…knowing you’re still there than go back to sleep. I’m sorry…” As he said all this, his hand caressed her cheek, while the other rested gently on the back of her neck.
She just stared back at him, eyes wide, as she desperately tried to figure out what to do. It pained her to hear his voice waver, to see the shadow of his true age suddenly fall across his face, and yet, at the same time there was nothing she could do to alleviate the underlying cause of his pain. Nor did she possess the slightest idea of what the right course of action to take was; on the one hand, it pained him to sleep and be forced to view whatever nightmarish visions of her death plagued him. On the other, his current sleeping patterns were damaging him as well as being incredibly painful for her to observe. It seemed that, either way, there was no way to “win” the current scenario.
So she pressed her lips to his another time, this time more forcefully—more sensually—while still retaining the tender quality her earlier kisses had possessed. She couldn’t do much for him in the long run, and as much as that hurt her, she was determined to at least find a little comfort for the two of them in that one moment in time.
“I--” He found himself cut off as their lips reconnected, and it felt like somebody pulled the lights on. After a moment he began to return the kiss as best as he could, the hand that rested against her neck running gently through her hair. He was sluggish and slightly dazed in his actions due to lack of sleep, and as his anxieties melted away he found himself relaxing, more and more, to the point where his attempts to return her affections became almost lazy, as if he’d wind up drifting off right there. Even as he found himself drifting off and his lips not even trying anymore, where he should have felt anxiety and terror, he only felt calm, relief of some kind. “I…ah…” Gah? Wasn’t it rude to fall asleep like that…? Even if his head was trying to lean against hers! Nodding off while making out was simply inconsiderate, from what he was told!
Part of Xianghua wanted to be irritated with him for beginning to nod off right there, but she recognized that it was probably for the best. He needed to get to sleep somehow, after all. She let her lips linger for one last moment before leaning back and shifting up to press an affectionate kiss against his forehead. Snaking back down so she could lie comfortable against his body, she titled her head up just enough to whisper into his ear, “It’s alright. Get some rest, okay?” Her voice was almost doting in tone as she spoke, and after a moment she added the additional reassurance of, “I’ll stay right here if you want. In… in case you wake up.”
Sol didn’t want to fall asleep. He knew that as soon as it claimed him, he’d be in his own personal hell with no escape. However, as hard as part of him tried to keep the body awake, sleep had run over him like an out of control train, slipping into the unconscious moments before she spoke into his ear.
Falling asleep was a very, very large mistake, as only a minute after he drifted under sleep’s sweet embrace did he find himself along the same horrible road, and part of him knew exactly what was going to happen next. His hand on the doorknob, the piercing, horrible, painful scream, the one that tore at his very being and filled it with dread. The blood splattering against the window, his shoulder forcing the door open, and that thing leaping after him. The nightmare seemed to have progressed to the point where he had spotted Xianghua’s mutilated, bloody body, grabbed the demon harpy child by the neck, and breaking it so hard that its head almost came off.
What he didn’t count on was that Xianghua seemed to be alive, barely. She called out his name, garbled and gasping, and as he turned, he saw something that simply made his heart sink into what could be called a bottomless pit. There, rising behind her, was another Gear-child, claws rising to strike.
Twins.
Before anything else happened, he jolted awake violently with a yell, his heart pounding, breathing heavy, and his hands rising to hot. It took him a moment to realize, like every other time, that Xianghua was against him, whom he immediately pulled closer, almost clinging to her, as if his attention was drawn elsewhere she’d be swept away by some stray wind. His hand almost instinctively ran through her hair in panic, while his voice trembled in short, unsure bursts “Not again…not again…never again.”
Once Sol had fallen asleep, Xianghua merely laid curled up against him. Initially, she kept herself preoccupied with giving attention to TyTy, but when the ferret wandered off to hid his shinies someplace out of her sight, Xianghua left Sol’s side just long enough to retrieve the remote for the television. Eventually, she found a channel she could watch fairly mindlessly; while she disliked staying still for long periods of time, she wasn’t at all tired, so this was merely a necessary sacrifice. After all, she wasn’t about to leave Sol’s side if she knew he might need her there when he woke up.
She jolted as well when he yelled, automatically pushing herself up off of him. As he pulled her against him once again, she reached up to cup his face in one hand and gently run her thumb across his cheek. Her other arm twined itself around the back of his neck and over his shoulders. For a minute or two, she just whispered quiet, comforting sounds, occasionally giving him a quick peck on his cheek, mouth, or forehead just to emphasize the fact that she was still right there. She had enough sense not to point out the fact that he was going to have to sleep again sometime at just that moment, so when she finally began to return to the use of words she merely uttered a soft repetition of “It’s alright,” over and over again.
His hands clung at her shirt, his other making sure that she still existed, caressing her hair, her cheek, tracing the curves and arcs of her features carefully. His mind was still racing with thoughts of horror, the images still horribly fresh and vivid. The sight of her blood soaked, maimed body sent a chill down his back, although the feel of her body so close kept him from completely losing it. "I'm sorry....sorry...God..." He couldn't figure out if he was calming down or getting worse, as the mental images were almost burned into the back of his eyes, clear enough to be mistaken for reality. Desperate for a respite, he cupped her cheek and leaned in, pressing his lips against hers in a tender, longing kiss, one that somehow managed to convey his sheer need of her. And he held it, too, let it linger long enough to make the point known, accented with hasty "I love you"s during breaths.
Her eyes flittered closed as his fingers traced over her features, Xianghua apparently content to just let him do whatever he needed to get himself back into a calmer state of mind without more interruption than the feeling of her thumb tracing his own cheek and jawline. She didn’t speak again until he began to apologize, since his words utterly baffled her. “Shh… no. Don’t be sorry. No reason…” She returned the kiss when it came, sliding her hand from his face and lacing her fingers into his hair while the other remained looped around his shoulders. She replied with a soft, breathy, “Love you too,” whenever she had the opportunity to gasp one out in the time between his words and their lips’ reconnection.
Sol seemed to lose himself as he held the lip lock, hand running along her back. After a few moments, he pulled away, his breathing slowing down, his heartbeat finally to a level where it wasn't trying to break his ribs with every beat. His headband seemed to have loosened over the past few days, and with a small flick of the belt loops he let it slide down to his neck to rest next to the green jewel she had given him so long ago. He wasn't worried about the lack of headband anymore, as the jewel seemed to almost have the same effect, for what reason he never figured out. The clunky headpiece gone, he let his forehead lean against hers, his breath slowing down to resting levels. Completely ignoring her previous statement, he apologized again. "Sorry. I should've told you earlier..."
Mouth quirking up into a small smile, Xianghua placed a finger against his lips and gave a very small shake of her head—she didn’t want to dislodge Sol from his current position, after all. “I said not to be sorry, okay?” Her hand shifted, moving to run through his hair soothingly, trying to make sure he was fully calmed down and stayed that way. “I would have liked for you to have told me sooner, but… I just want to be able to do something when something’s the matter, you know? It’s not like I’m mad at you.”
He lay is head peacefully against hers, his breathing slowing to an even, calm pace as her hands ran through his hair. "Mmm...I know. I wanted to tell you, but I didn't want you to worry..." He wasn't sure what to say to her other concern, however. She wanted to help, but how could she? If he was powerless against this mess, what could she possibly do? Maybe he was thinking too logically. Or something..."I...I know. I wish there was something I could do...it's not like I enjoy having to stay up every other night..."
“Silly. You know I worry anyway.” She would have stuck out her tongue if it hadn’t been for their close proximity. Biting her lip slightly, she added, “It’s almost good to know there’s a reason for your staying up. Not like I have any idea about what to about what’s causing it, but it’s someplace to start, I guess.” That said, she just continued running her hand through his hair in silence for a few moments. Suddenly, she pulled away from him and sat up, beaming at him as she did so. “I know! If you wake me up, I can sing to you too. I mean, I’m not really that great at it, and I don’t know if it’ll help you sleep at all, but… I can at least try to do something!”
He smiled ruefully at her, before replying "I know...I still try to keep you from worrying, though." When she pulled back and perked up, he grinned adoringly at her suggestion. "Hah...I've never heard you sing. Who's told you that you're not that great?" He sat up a little more, before adding "For all you know, you're just doing it wrong." Maybe? He didn't want to sound harsh or anything! He wanted to help her help him. If she was so determined, at least.
Her smile turned slightly sheepish at his reply, and she shrugged. “I don’t know. I’ve never really asked anyone else, so I guess you’ll just have to trust me on that! I mean, I like to think I’m not really bad at it either, but,” her smile strengthened somewhat, and she stuck her tongue out at him jokingly, “it’s not like I could sing in musical theater, like certain other people here.”
"Well then, you can't judge yourself, babe." He thought he had a horrible voice, and the teacher just wanted to gobble him up every time he opened his mouth. It was kind of annoying, really. He stuck his tongue out back at her in response. "You say that like I wanted to be in that class." Which he didn't, and he didn't really enjoy it all that much. It was just something you had to do sometimes. Life gave you lemons, make lemonade, or something.
“If you say so, I guess.” She shrugged again as she did so, expression shifting to something a bit… skeptical, as though she didn’t quite believe his statement on self-assessment. She usually knew her limitations pretty well, right? “Hey, even if you didn’t want to, you still did a really good job with the singing. That’s what’s important to my point.” She nodded authoritatively, trying to keep a straight face as she did so. However, she couldn’t help but to giggle slightly in spite of her attempts to look serious.
"I do say so." He gave her a quick kiss on the lips to accent his point. "Well, you ever sing in front of someone before? How do you know?" When she reminded him that he did a good job, he stuck his tongue out again in retaliation. "Just because I did good doesn't mean I liked it." He paused for a moment as he digested her point, before flicking her nose. "Silly. You don't know till you try. For all you know you could sing in that class."
“Not… recently?” She paused as she thought, nose crinkling up slightly as she did so. “I mean, not really… singing singing. I’m sure a few people have caught me doing it.” She sometimes realized she was doing it mindlessly when she was cleaning or attempting any sort of chore that didn’t require a lot of thought, so she was sure a few people had heard her at least once or twice. She shook her head at his concluding point, though she couldn’t help but to smile anyway. “I doubt it, but… that’s sweet of you to say.”
"Well then. Under whose authority do you claim you're not good?" He was somewhat teasing her, although he was still serious as he chuckled a little. As she kept doubting herself, he frowned at her, before an idea struck him. It was a little wild and she'd never go for it, but it was worth a shot. "Well, if you don't believe me, why don't you sing for me right now? You never know, Xianghua." This would probably go as well as the time she tried to get him to dance...either disastrously, or hilariously. He was open to pleasant surprises, though!
Never go for it? Hah! Sol clearly underestimated Xianghua’s spontaneity. Shaking her head, but grinning and giggling nonetheless, she replied, “Yeah, well, just remember that you’re the one who told me to!” This was accented by her sticking out her tongue once again, as well as her leaning in to give him a brief peck on the forehead.
However, as she took a breath to sing, she hit a small problem; namely, not knowing what she should try singing for him. Most of the other times she did it, it was something that happened spontaneously without her giving it any thought. Now that someone was paying actual attention to her, she wasn’t really sure what to do. After a moment of deliberation, she did what she still found herself doing in difficult situations—thinking back to her mother, and what she would do in the situation. A lullaby her mother used to sing floated into her mind, and she decided to run with it without giving her decision a lot of thought. She merely hummed the first couple of lines, testing her memory of the tune, before she let her voice pick up. She sang softly, though not shyly, and whenever she hit a spot where she couldn’t remember the words she improvised the missing lyrics almost seamlessly.
"Of course." He smiled at her as she seemed to pause a little, tilting his head curiously as she started humming. "Hmm?" When she added her voice, however, he was a little stunned. He shouldn't have been surprised by the Chinese, considering it was Xianghua, but the sound of it was surprising. Her voice wasn't trained like the girls in the theater class he had to deal with, but it was still...beautiful, in its own right. It was also oddly soothing, although the fact he only managed to clock in an hour or two nap that was disrupted violently might have had a hand in that. "Hah...pretty good, babe..." He said it softly, partly not to interrupt her, and partly because his eyes had oddly started to grow heavy, almost as if falling asleep again was a good idea...she had to pick a lullaby, didn't she...? "Pretty good..."
She smiled at his praise, not ceasing in her singing but hoping he understood the implied ‘thank you.’ Snuggling up against him as she continued, she began to run her hand softly through his hair again. She seemed to have some sense that her lullaby was having its intended effect on him, as her motions were very gentle and soothing, as though she was trying to encourage him to steal a few more hours of rest at the least.
"Ah...ah..." His head nodded a little, bobbing as he caught himself and tried to stay awake, despite her movements and her song. "Mmm..." Maybe he could...? He found he couldn't help but slouch a little from the sitting position he recently took, his head lolling back so he could stare at the ceiling while his eyes tried to close. From the tempo and tone, he thought she was singing a lullaby or something...oddly appropriate it'd soothe him off, huh? His eyes practically only slits as he lolled to look towards her and smile, he mumbled a quiet "Thank you..." before letting his eyes fall completely shut, letting himself be lost in the flow of her actions.
She shook her head at him once again, feeling as though she should recognize his words in some way, despite the fact that his eyes had already fallen shut. She certainly couldn’t pause to tell him that thanks wasn’t necessary now. Propping herself up so she could look down at his currently peaceful features, she gently traced them with the fingers of one hand as he had done earlier. Her song eventually drew to a close, though, and as it did she only hesitated a moment before leaning down to press another soft kiss to his forehead and begin again, hoping that her voice could drive the demons from his dreams.
He couldn't help but fall asleep as her song carried him away. As his breathing became even and steady with sleep, he found himself slipping into the expected nightmare...only to have it almost slip by unnoticed, as if it didn't quite matter. The image was starting, and then it simply faded and melded into something different. Something peaceful...empty. Almost as if he was simply floating along some dark ocean, while Xianghua's voice filtered in to fill the ambient. Unaware that he did it, he let out a sigh of relief as he slipped into quiet, peaceful slumber for the first time in weeks.