Awake

Chapter Thirty-Three - A Night-Time Visit

Carmen woke up decidedly uncomfortable with a crick in her neck and her hair sticking to her face.

"Ugh," she groaned, sitting up. "What is this life?"

"Thank god," Nigs rolled himself up onto an elbow, shaking his arm. "There's been no blood in my hand for the last eight hours."

Carmen scowled. "You looked like you were sleeping fine."

"Woke up long before you," he shrugged. "You sleep with your mouth open, you know. And you drool. It's kind of fascinating. You do it with such shameless abandon."

"Oh, shut up," Carmen rubbed her neck, twisting her head to make the bones click. "At least I don't snore."

"No, you dribble on my shirt," Nigs agreed. "It's a minor improvement but at least it is one."

"What time is it?" Carmen asked, deciding to ignore him. "Has everyone left yet?"

"Not yet," Nigs yawned. "They're all getting up about now. I think Mama's sorting breakfast."

Carmen patted the mangled remains of her once-neatly braided hair and gave a rueful sigh, tugging the bands out and shaking it loose. Clearly, sleeping with it destroyed whatever magic art had kept it so tidily restrained in the first place.

"I feel awful," Nigs complained. "I hate sleeping in my clothes."

"I do it all the time," Carmen said, distractedly. "On the pirate ship. There aren't many changes of outfit."

"Well, I'm not a pirate," Nigs swung himself upright, his legs dangling over the edge of the bunk. "I didn't brush my teeth either. My mouth feels fuzzy."

"Do you do anything except whine and moan and sulk?" Carmen questioned. "Because if you like, I could join in with some miseries of my own."

"No, you stick to being bad-tempered and sarcastic," Nigs dropped the few feet to the floor. "It suits you better. Argh! That hurts!"

He hopped on one foot, holding his injured ankle of the floor.

"You idiot," Carmen dropped down beside him. "Damn, that looks swollen."

"Shouldn't have taken my shoe off," Nigs sighed. "It's one of the first things they teach you. If you take your shoe off, it all swells up and you can never put it back on again."

"Nobody wearing shoes was going to be sharing a bed with me," Carmen said, firmly. "Come on, you can hop to the end of the room, at least."

Nigs could, with one arm draped around her shoulders to keep his balance. Carmen thought, with a rueful smile, that it was no wonder people had thought nothing of the two of them sharing a bed: they seemed to spend most of their time with their arms around one another anyway.