notsincere (notsincere) wrote in valarlogs, @ 2015-01-21 12:28:00 |
|
|||
Entry tags: | !complete, cinderella's prince, rosemarie hathaway |
Who: Rose and Tom
What: Rose comes over to his place in the middle of the night
Where: Tom’s place
When: Last Night
Rating/Warnings: Low/None (mentions of death in unpleasant dreams)
Status: Complete
The dreams were driving her absolutely insane and she couldn’t take anymore. With a shaky hand she threw back her covers and with a raspy breath she sat up in her bed. Watching Mason die in front of her eyes was not something she would ever wish on anyone. Her hand immediately moved to the back of her neck as she felt the tattoo that she hadn’t had before and sighed. Killing a Strigoi was a lot tougher than she ever imagined and the fact that she managed to keep herself in once piece afterwards was the most important part.
But she wasn’t used to this set of emotions and she had no one to talk to. She didn’t want to burden Lissa with the contents of a dream world that she hadn’t experienced yet. So, with a random thought she decided to go over to Tom’s place and hope to god he didn’t have another girl there and would be willing to see her. With that thought she got out of bed and changed out of her pajamas into yoga pants, a tank top, and a light hoodie over top of that.
After tiptoeing out of the apartment she went to her car and made her way to Tom’s place. She hadn’t bothered to text him or anything, so she hoped he was actually home. Once there she parked and went up to his front door. She stood there for a moment contemplating what she was doing before she finally forced herself to push the doorbell and wait.
There weren’t any lights on when she arrived. Once the doorbell rang, though, it only took a second for a couple of lights to go on. Then a few more passed. And a couple more. Fifteen seconds, maybe? Perhaps thirty… and Tom was pulling open the door. He was scruffy, hair tousled, wearing flannel pajama pants and a t-shirt. And his glasses. Thick, black frames.
His brow furrowed, looking and feeling incredibly sleepy. “Rose?” He asked, his voice contained a level of gravel that only came when a person had been woken in the middle of the night. “What time is it?”
Seeming to find his manners, Tom stepped to the side to let her in. It was chilly out there.
She was completely surprised to see his appearance when he opened the door. This was the first time she had seen him in glasses and anytime they were in bed together there usually wasn’t pajamas involved. But she had been seriously thrown by the glasses and how attractive he looked in them with that tousled bedhead look. This was a terrible idea.
“I --” she let out a sigh and her shoulder slumped slightly, “I’m sorry. I had really terrible Dreams and I couldn’t think of anyone else to talk to them about. You were the first person that came to mind and I didn’t realize I would be waking you up.”
Maybe it was overstepping some imaginary line in their relationship, but she needed him. He was the only person she could talk to about this and she always felt better in his presence. She waited for him to reply, but instead he invited her in and she stepped into the building.
“Okay.” He ran his fingers over his nose and mouth, trying to wake up. “Okay. Let me put on some tea.” Tom said, lifting a hand to guide her inside, palm flat against the small of her back. He closed the door behind her, released his hand from her back, and ran all of his fingernails along his scalp. “...we can talk with some tea.”
Whatever she wanted. Whatever she needed. As he moved through the kitchen to fill the kettle, pull out mugs, et cetera, visions of the dream he’d been having before the doorbell woke him started filtering back in. It wasn’t one of the Dreams, and she’d played a main role. Now she was here in his kitchen.
“Thank you,” she answered softly as she let herself be guided into his kitchen and he started to make tea for the two of them. She felt completely silly being here right now, but he was being so kind about it. Thankfully he wasn’t kicking her out for showing up and she went to take a seat as she watched him. But that didn’t mean she still felt bad about it, “I’m so sorry for waking you up. It’s the middle of the night and I forgot to text you.”
Her hands reached up to brush her hair out of her face and back. The flashes of the dreams were still replaying when she closed her eyes for a brief moment. It was hard to get back to normal after watching that, but hopefully this would be a distraction for her mind.
“Hey, it’s okay.” Tom said. He was moving a bit sluggishly. “I know these Dreams can be a real pain in the ass.” He removed his glasses and used the hell of his palm to rub his eye. It was the sort of action a tired child might do. Then he put them back on, and folded his arms across his chest, leaned against the counter, and faced her. Waiting for the water to boil.
“Do you wanna talk about it?” He’d try to stay awake and listen.
“You sure? You could just tell me that I’m being silly and send me home,” She pointed out to him before grinning a little bit, “It would be worth it because I had no idea you wore glasses and how attractive you are in them.” Maybe paying him a compliment would be a good idea to help her not get kicked out of his place right away.
“But yeah, I should probably talk about it. Maybe that’ll help me get them out of my mind.”
Tom gave her a look. Even exhausted and startled from sleep, he was still Tom. “You don’t know me at all if you think I’d send a beautiful woman home in the middle of the night.” Then he laughed and pushed the glasses up the bridge of his nose. “I don’t sleep with my contacts in. Not all the time, anyway. But you really like them?” He asked, raising an eyebrow.
The kettle started to boil. Tom moved to pour some boiling water into each mug, with a packet of herbal tea inside. Then he brought them both to the table and sat down next to her. “Go ahead. I’m listening.”
She knew he was like that, but she was still giving him the opportunity to say she should just go home if he wanted her to. “And yes, I really like them. They look really good on you,” Rose wasn’t letting herself become distracted by things like that, but damn. He should wear them way more often. Glasses had a great ability to make yourself look smarter and more desirable at the same time.
“Okay, well in my dreams there’s good vampires and bad vampires. I’m only slight vampire and more ass kick guardian type in my dreams. But the short version is basically that I watched one good vampire turn bad vampire, try to kill me, and I watched her die. Then I watched myself and a group of my friends get kidnapped by bad vampires, kill one of my friends, and I had to kill the bad vampire myself,” Her hands were tight around the mug as she spoke and stared down into it like it held all of life’s answers.
Holy crap. Well, Tom wasn’t about to compare his Dreams to hers. Watching friends die? Nothing like that happened in his dreams. (Yet.) He frowned a bit, sitting up in his chair. Okay, so he had about eight hundred questions now. Mostly about how she was “slight” vampire? Whatever that meant. Was she going to start drinking blood in this world?
“I’m so sorry,” He said, softly. “It must have been really--” stressful? horrible? terrifying? trying? He had no idea how to finish that sentence. Finally, he came up with “--hard.”
She would have all kinds of answers for him if he asked her but for now she was concentrated on these horrible dreams. She nodded when he finally picked the word hard and let out a sigh, "it was. It was terrifying to watch us be tortured and see someone die that I wasn't able to save. I didn't sign up for this. I don't want these dreams anymore, ya know?"
“I know.” Though he felt like an ass for hating his when she was going through such torture. He lifted an arm to drape around her shoulders and pulled her body against his. The chairs were close enough that it hopefully wouldn’t be too awkward. And hey, if it was, they could go cuddle on the couch instead. Or go to bed.
“...so. This vampire thing… sounds kinda hot.” Was he trying to make her laugh? Maybe.
The arm around her shoulder was extremely welcomed because it made her feel more secure. She was with someone who cared and wanted her to be safe. She took a sip from her mug as they sat in comfortable silence for a brief moment before he made that joke.
An elbow playfully nudged his side and there was a roll of her eyes, "oh my god. You would. I am not a vampire. My dad was one and my mom was, what we call, a dhampir. Dhampir genes cancel out the vampire ones for the most part. We get their strength and speed, but can go out in light and basically be human. We watch over them."
“So, you’re half vampire and half anti-vampire.” Tom said, trying to understand. He was actually listening, not just pretending to listen. “You think you’re one of these dhampirs in this world, too? Or just in the Dreams?”
“Ha, I guess you could say that. We’re just the non-magical version of the vampires in my world. And I don’t think there’d really be much of a difference in me if I did turn into a dhampir in this world. I mean, I think some of the training and skills I gain in the dreams have been bleeding over, but I don’t think I’ve changed,” Rose explained to him. She honestly didn’t think she would feel any different if she became a dhampir in this world.
“I see. Well, there’s nothing like that in my Dreams. Just fairytale characters and festivals.” He ran his hand up and down her back in a comforting way. A hopefully comforting way. Tom was still feeling very sleepy, though he wasn’t in danger of nodding off. He reached forward and lifted his tea with his free hand. It was still hot, but drinkable. “I wouldn’t know if you’d changed, would I?” He asked. “But I like you now. Whatever that means.”
“That sounds lovely. You should tell me more about them as I try to fall asleep later,” She had to admit it sounded like a bedtime type of story and she was enjoying the idea of him soothing her to sleep with the story of his dreams. They weren’t the stuff of nightmares like hers were. A small sleepy smile appeared on her face at his comment and she rested her head on his shoulder, “I don’t think you’d know. It may take me a while to notice as well. But I’m glad you like me now, I happen to like you how you are as well. So you’re not allowed to change into something strange.”
“Nope. Dream-Me is about as close to Real-Life-Me as it gets. Only he rides more horses and fences. I don’t really do either of those things.” Tom cuddled her a little closer. “...do you want to go to bed?” It was, after all, the middle of the night. “I can think of much more entertaining things to do to you than tell you stories before you fall asleep.”
"That is quite interesting. At least you don't have to worry too much about your dreams being so completely different from your real life. And sleep does sound like it may actually be possible right now," she answered him with a small chuckle at his next comment, "And I am sure you do have other ideas, but I would like to hear about your dreams since you know too much about mine"
Tom nodded. He took one last sip of his tea, then stood and offered her a hand to help her up. “All right. I suppose my Dream stories are far more boring than yours. Maybe that’ll put you to sleep.” He shifted his glasses up his nose, then took hold of her hand to lead her back to the bedroom. His covers were shifted and unmade--it was obvious he’d been in them before answering the door. He led the way over, then climbed into bed and held up the covers for her to climb in and settle against him. It was a huge bed, and with any other girl he might have slept on the far side. But with Rose he cuddled close. “I live in a kingdom with no electricity. Our castle stands surrounded by thick woods.”
She easily joined him in the bed and cuddled against him. This was quite nice and she knew that she would feel more secure with him next to her and maybe the dreams would stay away. When he began to tell his story she chuckled and playfully tapped his chest, "No, no. If you are telling me a fairytale you definitely need to start with Once Upon a Time." The comment came with a grin and she kissed his chin.
Tom peeled off his glasses and reached behind him to set them on the bedside table. He gave a little chuckle, then re-wrapped his arms around her, settling down against the pillow. “All right. Once Upon a time…”