Big Book of Rythna One Shots

How Do You Sleep (S)

TW: Fluff with a pinch of angst, Yogscast Complete World, Cuddles and Snuggles, Spooning

You've rebuilt after more worlds than you can remember. You've repatched yourself, stitched yourself up after wounds both physical and emotional. You're strong, you know what you're doing. You can take care of yourself.

But when you wake up once again, aching on damp grass, feeling like you've been thoroughly scrubbed clean in the way death always does, you know you need someone else. Zoey's not around to help you any more, and the night is danger when you're practically naked. You force yourself up, and try to get a sense of your surroundings. You're in the middle of a dark forest, and you pick a direction and walk. You'll find shelter somewhere.

On the horizon are two smoke signals, marking civilization. Stumbling towards it, you can see that the building they originate from is made of red-and-white angles, surrounded by nature and flanked by forests. You make your way up the front steps, shivering, and knock. You take care to adjust your scarf and smooth down your hair, in hopes that you would look more respectable. There's a few shouts from inside the house, and a moment later, the door opens. Standing in the doorway is one of the last people you'd like to see right now.

His blond hair is even shaggier than the last time you saw him- apparently no one has opened a barbershop yet- and his weary face scrunches as he attempts to figure out why the hell you're standing at his door, of all people. You're trying to figure that out yourself.

"Rythian?" The sleepiness in his voice cracks on the syllables.

"It's cold," you remark, as if you're only here to talk about the weather. It's true enough, your clothes and hair are dripping from the rain.

"Who is it?" a high-pitched voice calls from a higher floor. "Is it an emergency?"

"I don't know yet, Kim," he replies."Just go back to sleep."

"Don't die," she tells him, and he reassures her that he won't and turns back to you. His nose is too big, you think, and there are dark circles around his eyes. Apparently he still doesn't sleep much. But the most noticeable thing about him is the purple slowly creeping up his face and hands, claiming his skin for its own. It reminds you of your own scars, and yet he feels confident enough to display it.

"I just need a place to stay for the night." He could kill you, again, and you wouldn't be able to do anything about it.

He looks at you for a moment, and you can almost hear the intricate mechanisms of his mind whirling. Around the both of you, it's like a chess game, where every move must be planned five moves before. And you've just thrown a spanner in the cogs.

You're not good at metaphors when you're tired.

"I suppose so." He steps aside, reluctantly, and you slip your boots off before walking into the tiny entrance room. Lalna always loved big, fancy castles, filled with noisy, intrusive machinery, but here it is fairly quiet. He looks at you oddly, which isn't surprising considering you haven't seen each other for some years, and this is how you reintroduce yourself.

"I don't know where you're planning on sleeping," he admits. "We haven't any spare beds."

"Even just the floor will be fine, I just needed someplace to get out of the rain until morning." You resign yourself to your fate, but he still looks uncomfortable with that. Instead of arguing, he bustles over to the kitchen, pulling open the fridge with a pop.

"Can I get you anything? Tea, fish, um... herbal root? Is that Kim's?" He muses to himself. You slide up behind him and examine the ingredient he holds.