title: sweet dreams
summary: kaldur comforts artemis during a storm. —seaarrow, drabble.
word count: 620

a/n:
this was a drabble i posted on my previous account (under the title a pocketful of sweet dreams) which i liked so i'm tweaking it a little and moving it here.
there's not enough seaarrow and this hurts me.

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The hour was late and the day had been tiring. Kaldur was on the fringes of sleep, lazily tracing circles on the small of Artemis' back as the soothing patter of rain on glass lulled him into a doze, so he almost missed how Artemis' arms tightened around his midriff at the first clap of thunder.

He blinked, frowning slightly as he glanced down at her; most of what he saw was the crown of her head and a birds-eye view of her straight nose, her face turned into the hollow of his neck. Dazedly he wondered if he'd imagined it, until another thunderous noise erupted from the sky — accompanied by a flash of lightning that momentarily lit up the room — and she squeezed him again, her breath hitching slightly. He definitely had not imagined that. He ceased tracing and pressed that free hand (his other arm busy pillowing Artemis' head) between her shoulder blades. "Artemis, are you well?"

A moment's silence, then: "Fine. Sorry. Go back to sleep."

"I was not sleeping." He placed his fingers under her chin and tilted her head up, brushing his thumb over her cheek and pulling away slightly to get a good look at her face. Even in the murky darkness, he could discern (or perhaps sense) the tiny furrow between her eyebrows. "What is wrong?"

"I told you, I'm fine," she insisted, but her claim was undermined when another fork of lightning briefly illuminated the flash of panic across her face. Finally, through the drowsy haze, Kaldur put two and two together.

"You are scared of lightning storms?"

Her face warmed in his hand. She turned it away with a sigh. "Okay, fine. Yeah, I am. Stupid, right?"

"Of course not," Kaldur replied bemusedly. "Everyone has fears. Why would it be stupid?"

"You're kidding, right? I manage to survive Jade and Dad and almost drowning and the League of Shadows, and it's a little thunder and lightning that frightens me." She glanced furtively at him from beneath her lashes, smiling slightly. "Besides, I thought you had no fears, O Fearless Leader."

"Perhaps that is an exaggeration. I admit that I am still traumatised by the first time I saw a Furby."

This elicited a throaty chuckle, yet more thunder caused Artemis to wince, her laughter failing. Kaldur removed his arm from beneath her head and wound both tightly around her torso, pulling her securely against his chest as he rubbed soothing circles into her back. He kissed her crown. She trembled almost imperceptibly against him, muttering a tiny, "Thanks."

"Hm." Kaldur's eyes slipped closed again, lips twitching into an indulgent smile. Even as he soothed Artemis, even as he understood her anxiety, he could not help but savour the storm outside, an orchestra of nature. "Admittedly, I find storms such as these to be...relaxing. The powerful combination of electricity and water..."

Artemis' hand followed the path of his eel tattoo from his back, over his shoulder and down his arm. "I guess I can see how that'd resonate."

"I suppose it makes me feel at one with nature. As much as that sounds like a cliché. She is magnificent in her power."

Artemis snorted. "Should I be jealous?"

"Hardly." This time when he lifted her face, he greeted it with a languid kiss — slow and warm as molten lava. He derived some pleasure from how she melted against him, and when she finally broke away to breathe he knew without looking that the furrow was gone. It wasn't long before her breathing evened out, drifting into an untroubled sleep in the safety of Kaldur's arms as the storm raged on outside.

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