Disclaimer- I own nothing.
Drabble-esque, short.
For my sister, my best friend, my lovebug, my B.
Pairing : Steerpike/Fuchsia
Once, she had asked him to spend the night with her.
His heart had leapt, his skin had prickled with a new energy. He had said 'yes' before she had even finished asking.
But she had meant nothing of the sort. Only, she said, she had wicked dreams sometimes. She liked to know that someone was there to look after her if she woke frightened. Once, she said, Dr.Prunesquallor had stayed with her, all night.
Steerpike's skin had crawled nastily.
All the same, he had done as she asked and stayed with her. He lay with one arm around her waist, daring any nightmare to come near, leaning up on his elbow amongst various pillows in the finest bed he had ever laid eyes upon.
He had not slept, not for a minute. He watched her delicate eyelids flutter in sleep, brushed kisses along the line of her jaw, etched her face into his memory, resolved never to forget it. Smiling like a fool, he whispered secrets to her in the dark, knowing she would never hear them again. Secrets from childhood, from the kitchens. And that most intimate secret of all, those words he would never speak in daylight.
He watched the moonlight draw patterns across her skin, that same wintry light shared by his arm around her, his naked chest, the contours of his face. Dawn came too soon. By the time the sun began to rise, he had composed hundreds of poems for her in his mind. By the time it was light, he had forgotten them all.
She had woken curled against him, feeling safe beneath his strong arm. She thought he smelled like lavender and spices.
Before conscious thought dawned upon her properly, she had never felt so loved.
He had not wanted to let her go. He had wanted to stay like that for all of his life. But she had been startled, perhaps even embarrassed. Or outraged.
He had been cursing himself for being too daring, for going too far, for frightening her away- and that was so easy to do. He despised himself for having a fool's hope that she would ever love him in return.
But then, she had turned those eyes upon him and smiled. Eyes which surpassed the beauty of any star in any galaxy, the smile that made him a different man, weak and powerless.
Then, she had asked him to spend the day with her.