Work Text:
Half-asleep, Claudia shuffled into the living-room.
She was wearing her favourite dinosaur pyjamas. What? Dinosaurs are awesome. And strands of her hair were sticking out in various directions.
She was blinking sleepily and rubbing her tired eyes, hoping to get them to focus.
She stumbled a little as she was trying to move a bit closer to the person curled up on the sofa in front of the still flickering television set. Another documentary? Really? At least it’s Africa this time and not the Titanic.
Leena’s eyes were closed and her slow, calm breaths told Claudia that she was truly asleep. Probably out like a light once she sat down, Claudia thought, a soft smile forming on her lips.
This week had, yet again, been a tough one. Claudia couldn’t remember her last simple "snag, bag and tag" mission. Focusing back on Leena she noticed that her feet were sticking out of the woollen sweater she seemed to have pulled over herself before drifting off to sleep.
Her dark locks hid her face, and swayed along with every breath she took. All in all she resembled the very picture of peace and calm, and Claudia longed, with all her heart, to feel that for herself.
She had woken up cold and restless in the middle of the night. Unable to go right back to sleep she got up to look for something that might help her find rest.
Tea, she had thought, maybe a hot milk with honey, some extra blankets. Seemed her feet had taken her exactly where she needed to go, though, she realised.
She didn’t need tea, or milk. No, what she needed was no thing, she realised. It was someone.
She stepped around the couch and reached for the blanket that someone, probably Leena herself, had put down on one of the chairs. She sat on the sofa and gently pulled Leena into her arms. Careful not to wake her she shifted until they were both stretched out on the soft cushions. She covered them with the blanket and turned off the television. Putting the remote down at a safe distance from them she cuddled up closer to Leena’s warm body, one arm wrapped around her waist, her head resting on the innkeeper’s shoulder.
Breathing in deeply once, she closed her eyes again and already felt herself drifting back to sleep.
She slipped into a dreamless state, where she knew nothing besides warmth and a comforting presence. (Little did she know that the moment she’d pulled Leena close the innkeeper’s dreamscapes had reshaped from gazelles and zebras to exactly the same.)