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"You need sleep," Katherine says fretfully.
The shutters of the window are closed, and Sarah is hunched over her lacework. It's late, beyond late, and while Katherine would normally enjoy the chance to spend time in Sarah's room she doesn't enjoy seeing the stress lines pressed into her forehead, the heavy set to her shoulder, and the poorly muffled yawns splitting her features every few moments she pushes through. Katherine huffs as she sits down, pressing her knees to the other girl's in a slight nudge to her earlier query.
Sarah clenches her hand into a fist, fingers stilling over the lace. She's already half-shaking her head, mumbling slightly. She clears her throat, before wearily, "I can't, Kath, I have work tomorrow and I need to help Mama and Abba with the laundry and sorting the lines and David is still sick and I need to finish-"
"Sarah," Katherine gently brushes the other girl's hair out of her eyes, taking in the sinking circles below her eyes and the paler flush of her skin. She sighs, eyes going sad at the corners as she murmurs, "You're going to run yourself dead if you keep going like this, darling."
Sarah pauses long enough to wrinkle up her nose and half-glare at her. Katherine drapes an arm around her shoulder and presses a lingering kiss to Sarah's forehead. "Come back to sleep," she wheedles.
Sarah sighs, shooting a regretful glance at the fabric. "I can't just-"
"Sarah. Your parents are going to be fine," Katherine emphasizes. "You aren't going to be able to help anyone if you make yourself sick too. Your work doesn't start 'til late."
"I- I wanted... to get there early," Sarah protests weakly as she swings to face Katherine. "To try to make up the difference. From what Davey can't-"
She sways and Katherine pulls her into her arms. "Sarah. C'mon love. Come back to sleep," She laces their fingers together and squeezes gently. "I promise, you'll feel better when you wake up in the morning. Be able to work better too."
Sarah pauses for thought, and takes a breath. She looks at her sweetheart from beneath her lashes. "You promise you'll wake me up in the morning?" She asked.
"Yes," Katherine swears, brushing through Sarah's hair gently with her fingers. "Your parents are worried about you, sweetheart. They want you to take care of yourself."
That startles a surprised sound of laughter out of her. "So they sent you?"
"Well clearly I'm better about it than you," Katherine quips.
Sarah snorts. "Oh yes, Miss I'm going to drink twelve cups of coffee and everything is going to be..." Whatever she says next is muffled into Katherine's chest where she's laid her head.
"Fine," Kath finishes. Sarah hums sleepily. Katherine smiles, and slowly untangles herself long enough to draw Sarah back towards the bed. Pulling up the blankets around her, she fluffs the pillow up before nudging it under Sarah's head. Before she could move to go, or even spare a glance to the exit, Sarah's tugging at her sleeve and draws her closer, curling deeper into the crook of her neck.
Katherine startles, shooting a look over to the door before relaxing and gently beginning to play with Sarah's hair. She smiled softly as she watched her love slowly drift up, cuddling closer into warmth and clingy and affectionate in a way the two of them were usually more wary of. If Sarah didn't want her to leave, well, she didn't exactly have any complaints.