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Gideon lay in the dark, wide awake and shivering in the damp night air. Ever since they’d left the pool, she hadn’t been able to get warm. The saltwater had seemed to permeate every bit of her body, down to the marrow in her bones. From the bed above her, she could hear Harrow’s soft, shallow breathing. Gideon wondered if there was another blanket nearby, one she could cocoon herself in to ward off the chill until morning. She lifted herself up and looked at the bed. Her trundle creaked miserably and Harrow stirred, raising her head from the nest of blankets she’d tucked herself into.
“Griddle?” Harrow asked, her voice small and scratchy. Her hair stuck up like little feathers, the lines of her face like smudged ink in the darkness.
Gideon stood and walked as quietly as possible to the large bureau. “Go back to sleep. I’m just lookin’ for another blanket.”
She opened one side and dug around a bit, trying not to mess up Harrow’s neatly stacked clothes. No such luck. Then she tried the other side. As she opened the door, Harrow touched her elbow and Gideon jumped. She hadn’t realized Harrow had climbed from her bed and followed her, a dark shadow. She wore none of her bone accessories, save a couple in her ears, so was as silent as a mouse.
“I don’t think there are any more.”
Gideon was disappointed but stuck her lower lip out in a teasing pout. “Guess that answers that question then.”
She began to walk back to her trundle but Harrow reached out and touched her arm again, her fingers lingering on the back of her bicep. Gideon stopped as she felt her muscles tense up and silently flushed, a curse or two echoing in her mind from embarrassment. Harrow was silent for a long while, long enough that Gideon turned back to look at her questioningly in the darkness.
“I’m cold, too,” Harrow finally said, looking down at the ground curiously.
The statement hung between them expectantly. Gideon felt like it was a test of some sort and worried she’d say the wrong answer and then where would she be? Back to where she started, just a useless Cav with nothing to offer her necromancer.
“I-,” Gideon started, then stopped, working the words around in her mind to make sure they were the right ones. She settled on: “I could warm you up.” It seemed harmless, but Harrow’s head jerked up and she looked at Gideon with the heat of a thousand dying stars. Gideon swore out loud then and rubbed her neck, realizing her mistake. “No-not like that,” she stammered. “I just mean share body warmth or whatever.”
Harrow stared at Gideon, longer than necessary, then nodded once, quickly. Without saying anything else, she walked towards the bed and climbed onto the enormous mattress. Gideon started to follow, then had a thought. Quickly, she gathered up the pillows and blankets from her trundle and tossed them onto the bed next to Harrow. The frame groaned as she climbed on and she grimaced as though she’d done something wrong. She started arranging the blankets around them. Harrow pulled one over her shoulders and head, like a cloak of sorts, and for some reason Gideon’s heart sputtered a bit at the sight.
Satisfied that they’d made a sufficient pile of warmth to settle in under, Gideon gingerly lay back onto her pillow, leaving ample space between herself and Harrow’s tiny body. Harrow reclined, the blanket still pulled up around her head. They tried to sleep. At least Gideon did.
Harrow, though, shivered uncontrollably. It was as though the small journey from her bed to the bureau had sapped all the heat from her body. Gideon listened to her teeth chattering for no more than two minutes before lifting her arm and waving it, gesturing to Harrow. Harrow tilted her face up at Gideon with narrowed eyes.
“Just come in,” Gideon said with a small smile. “I won’t smother you or anything.”
Harrow snorted, an oddly undignified sound and Gideon had the sudden urge to reach over and ruffle her hair which she was sure would get her kicked from the warmth of the huge bed, so she decided against it. Gideon gestured again and scooted a tiny bit closer.
Finally, Harrow slid her body close and curled in towards Gideon’s side. “Don’t say anything,” she grumbled even as she pressed her face to the soft part of Gideon’s chest near her armpit.
Gideon wrapped her arm around Harrow’s narrow shoulders and pulled her even closer. Her skin was chilled but after a few minutes, her shivers began to subside and Gideon heard the softest sigh spill from her mouth. She fought the urge to tease Harrow about it. By now, Gideon was also warm and comfortable and she didn’t want to ruin the little bubble of peace they’d managed to find over the last few hours. Her muscles unwound and she stretched her legs out, enjoying the excess of space on the bed. The wind rattling the ancient window panes became white noise, lulling Gideon to a deep and well needed sleep.
Just on the edge of drifting off, however, she heard Harrow sniffle and press her face closer to Gideon’s chest. “You’re so warm,” she mumbled quietly. “Thank you, Gideon.”
Gideon didn’t dare answer, just smiled wordlessly and let the pleasant sensation Harrow’s words invoked sweep through her chest like a wave, and prayed that the feeling would leak into her dreams.