Work Text:
STAY
You are watching me.
I can see you watching me.
You think I am asleep, but I am not.
I peer at you from behind mostly-closed eyelids.
I see the way you look at me.
You do this every night.
Every night we spend on this road together.
Every night I wrap up in my blankets to fend off the cold.
Every night, whether or not it is your watch, still you watch *me*.
Why do you look at me like that?
Why do you keep watch over me so?
Is it for the same reason that I continue to fight off sleep myself?
Are you afraid that I will disappear?
I am afraid that you might.
I am afraid that if I close my eyes, even for a second, that you will be gone
when at last I open them again.
There is a glint in your eyes now.
I have seen it before.
It makes my breath catch in my chest, when you look at me like that.
Did you hear my breathing hitch?
Is that why you look at me with your brow creased now?
You look sad.
Why are you sad?
There it is again, the glint in your eyes.
I shiver.
You creep closer to me.
I close my eyes for fear of giving myself away.
You are next to me now.
I can hear your breath so close.
You are warm next to me.
I feel you lay another blanket across me.
Your blanket.
But that you would lie beneath it with me.
I feel your finger trace my jaw-line.
I cannot help it; I turn my face until my lips touch your outstretched palm.
Now I hear *your* breath catch.
I do not open my eyes.
I feel your lips on my temple.
So soft and warm, yet I shiver.
"Stay," I whisper.
You make no reply, but you do not move away.
You wrap an arm around me, rubbing my back in slow circles.
I feel sleep calling me.
I cannot fight any longer.
I think I will sleep now, if you will stay.
Fini