Title: "Now I Lay Me"

Author: Wish Wielder

Fandom: Puchi Puri Yucie

Claim / Pairing / Character Focus: Arc/Yucie

Challenge: 101 Kisses

Theme / Prompt: #93 (Vanilla)

Word Count: 841

Rating: K / G

Summary: It's different for every person, but there are certain things that have to be just so in order for one to fall asleep. King Aero was no different from his vast citizenry in this effect.

Notes: Post-series, set after Yucie and Arc have been married for a bit. Just something fun I thought up while brooding over how I couldn't fall asleep without my fan on (I need the noise). xD

Disclaimer: "Puchi Puri Yucie" and all respective properties are © Takami Akai. Megan D. (Wish Wielder) does not, has never, nor will ever own "Puchi Puri Yucie".

"Now I Lay Me"

It doesn't matter who you are: there is a common factor among all people when it comes to sleep. No, it's not that we all need it (thought that is true), and you can't even say that the factor relates to what time we sleep. The factor is in how we sleep.

It's different for every person, but there are certain things that have to be just so in order for one to fall asleep. Some people need to hear a certain noise, and others need absolute silence. Some like to be bundled under stifling amounts of blankets, and still others need no covers at all. Some need total darkness, while others need a small light. One man always needs to lay on his side, while his son cannot sleep on his stomach. Most married people have found that they cannot sleep without their spouse by their side, and some children have found that they cannot sleep without a favorite stuffed toy.

King Aero was no different from his vast citizenry in this effect.

For the most part, he could nap anywhere, but when it came to actual sleep there were certain things that needed to be constant. The lighting didn't matter - he could sleep with the sun right in his room or with the bedcurtains drawn to provide total darkness - and his need for blankets depended mostly on the weather. And before, he had been fine with nothing else in his bed but the pillow behind his head.

Then she came along, and she changed everything.

Yucie hadn't even graced him with the gift of a gradual change. It started on their wedding night, and he had found the very next night - when their seafood dinner had made him ill and he had retired early - that he was unable to rest with just himself and his pillow.

He had brooded, annoyed at the discovery, until she had returned to him some time later. Of course, he had pretended to be asleep, but the moment she had settled next to him he had draped an arm around her stomach and pulled her close.

He didn't know what it was, but he needed her. If she wasn't beside him, tucked securely against him with his arm holding her protectively, he couldn't sleep. Maybe it was the little bit of extra warmth she provided, or maybe it was just the comfort of knowing she was safe and there, with him. Maybe it was just because it was her.

Whatever it was, he knew from that moment on that he would never be able to sleep without her again. There was something comforting about falling asleep to the sound of her gentle breathing and the smell of vanilla that seemed to always be present in her hair.

That was another thing that, on nights when diplomatic duties forced them apart, he found annoyed him. Even when he held onto a pillow, trying desperately to imagine it was her, he found he needed that scent there, as well. She had given him the strangest look the day he asked what she washed her hair with, and he had been absolutely mortified when Frederik had told her why he was asking. ("Frederik! She doesn't need to know that!") But she had just smiled at him, a quaint little blush painting her cheeks as her eyes grew warm, and left the room. When she returned, she tucked a small bottle of blue glass into his hand. No more was said as she went about her duties, and she hadn't mentioned it since then, but he knew she knew he took it with him every time they were apart.

When it came down to it, maybe it was just comforting to know she was there, or to at least have something that reminded him of her. In a way, it made him realize how lucky he was that she had chosen him (sure, she would say it was the other way around, but he knew better). He smiled as he raised the bottle to his nose, breathing in the familiar scent of vanilla that he had come to associate with his queen, before putting it back in the drawer by his bedside.

"What are you doing, Arc?"

He looked up as Yucie came into the room, a fuzzy pink towel held close to her frame. He grinned and walked over to her, stopping before her and pulling her into his arms. He leaned down, kissing her long and slow and deep.

"W-wow…" she whispered, once he had pulled away. She raised a brow at him. "What was that for?"

"Do I need a reason?" he asked, kissing her again. He smiled as the vanilla from her freshly-washed hair attacked him, and he pulled her closer.

Everyone needed something to sleep, and Aero wasn't sure whether his "something" came down to that smell of flower beans or the comfort of holding her, but he did know that, whatever it was, his something was undeniably Yucie.

A.n.: I love Ryan Cabrera. Ryan Cabrera made this plunny so much easier.

(Er…no, I don't need to look at a picture of Ryan Cabrera to sleep. I mean listening to "It's You" and "Lost Again" made this easier to write. Man you people are freaky.)