Blizzard

chapter 21

"Do you mind?" Shelby asked, looking up at Toni. The playful twinkle in her eyes had turned shy.

"I–Um...no. I don't mind. " She didn't mind at all. She just wasn't going to be able to concentrate on the show they were watching anymore, but that was fine. Everything was fine.

Shelby turned on her side towards the TV and closed her eyes.

"You sure?" Shelby asked after a few minutes. She didn't move from her position, she didn't even open her eyes.

"About what?"

"That you don't mind me lying here."

"Oh. Yeah." Toni didn't know why Shelby was asking her this again, she'd already said she didn't mind.

"It's just...your heart is beating really fast."

Toni felt her face heat up. She didn't need a mirror to know how fucking red her cheeks were becoming. She was just glad Shelby hadn't bothered to open her eyes because Toni wasn't sure she could handle any more embarrassment right now. "Um, you can hear that?"

"Mhm." Shelby hummed sleepily.

"I–" Toni's worst fear had just come through. Well, maybe not her worst fear, but it came very close. "Well...you're hearing it wrong. I'm fine." It was a petty lie but she didn't know how else to counter the accusation (which was very much true, but Toni wasn't just about to admit that Shelby just lying with her head on her lap was enough to make her heart race).

"Mhm. Sure. Whatever you say." Shelby said. Her eyes were still closed but she was wearing a faint amused smile.

Toni didn't know what else she could say to lessen the embarrassment she was feeling right now, but it didn't matter because Shelby already seemed to be drifting off.

By late afternoon they'd watched the whole first season. In the middle of the season, Toni had asked her if there was something else she wanted to do or watch, but Shelby had insisted she was content with just watching She-Ra in the moments she was awake. Shelby had barely gotten up from the couch–just once to go to the bathroom. Aside from that, she'd just mostly lain there, drifting in and out of sleep with her head on Toni's lap. The bags under her eyes had become more apparent and she was starting to look more pale again. Toni figured it was because Shelby hadn't eaten anything since breakfast, and even then she'd barely touched her food. At least she was drinking a lot of water. That had to be good, right? Staying hydrated had to be important, especially with the amount of blood she'd lost.

If Shelby's head hadn't been lying on her lap, Toni would have gone up to get her backpack from her room so she could do something useful with her time and get some homework done, but she hadn't wanted to risk waking Shelby up when she was asleep, and for some reason Toni had been unable to ask her to move off her in the few moments she had been awake.

At some point, Toni had started to mindlessly rake her fingers through Shelby's hair. Toni hadn't realised she was doing it until Shelby hummed contentedly. It had been a habit when she'd hung out with the wolf, whenever the wolf had laid her head on her lap, she'd raked her fingers through her fur. In a way, it wasn't a new thing for them (even though it felt very new for Toni to be raking her fingers through the blonde's still slightly humid hair), to Shelby it probably felt like a normal thing for them to do, so Toni figured she might as well keep doing it seeing as it also seemed to be bringing Shelby comfort.

During the credits of the first episode of the second season, Shelby suddenly turned on her back, looking up at Toni. "Can I ask you something?"

"Sure. Shoot."