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Muttered words broke through the haze of Reyna’s dreamless sleep. She immediately turned to the source of the noise, the woman lying next to her, mumbling incoherent words in a restless sleep.
“ Mi amor ,” Reyna called softly, shaking Viper’s shoulder ever so slightly. Viper startled awake, grabbing Reyna’s wrist tightly before realizing there was no danger, and falling back on the bed with a tired sigh. Her heart was beating terribly fast.
“It’s just a nightmare, corazón . You’re safe,” Reyna said. Reyna wasn’t used to being soft with anyone, but with Viper she knew it was safe to show some vulnerability. God knew they both could use some gentleness.
“I know,” Viper said, taking a long deep breath in an attempt to calm down. Reyna gave her a moment, feeling her heartbeat slowly starting to calm itself. “I didn’t mean to wake you.”
“You were talking in your sleep,” Reyna said -- not with pity or annoyance, just a statement of a fact. Viper didn’t answer, looking up at the ceiling with those unreadable eyes that never let slip a hint of what she was thinking. Her heart told tales of regret and fear, but Reyna never knew where they came from.
“You don’t have to tell me anything you don't want to. God knows I have too many skeletons in my closet too,” Reyna said, twirling a strand of dark hair on her finger. “And I know you hate talking about the past and your feelings.”
“What’s your point, Reyna?” Viper asked, with just a tinge of bitterness in her voice, and Reyna could feel the way her heart rate spiked just slightly -- in regret? Reyna was getting quite good at understanding her feelings, but sometimes she was still unsure -- before settling down again.
“I’m not the best person to talk about feelings, and you’re not the best at opening up, but if you ever need to, I’ll get it,” she said. “I can promise I won’t judge.”
“Don’t make promises you can’t keep.” Viper turned in the bed to look her in the eyes. Viper’s eyes always had a way of making her breathless -- which was fitting for a woman who made a living of choking the life out of her enemies. “You don’t know what I did.”
“As if I haven’t done just as much.”
“You don’t understand--,” Viper started.
“You think I care about that?” Reyna asked, more blunt than she wanted. She didn’t have much softness to spare. “Whatever it was, it’s in the past. Neither of us can change it, and I’m not going to ruin a good thing over something that happened before we even met.”
The sharpness of Viper’s glare was gone in a second, leaving only a certain sadness in her eyes. Reyna didn’t make a habit of saying things she didn’t mean, and Viper knew it.
“When I was dreaming, what was I saying?” Viper asked.
“Nothing that made sense.”
Viper sighed, and Reyna could sense her relief even if she was trying to hide it. Viper hated feeling vulnerable, and secrets were her armor.
Reyna was terrible at talking about feelings, and it should be easy to let it go, let her keep her secrets. And yet, she wanted to ask, to make her feel better. Viper kept everything bottled up, always working like she wanted to keep her mind from thinking about anything else. But could she ask Viper to be anything different than herself? It was something intrinsically hers to keep things secret, even if it hurt her.
Maybe one day, when Viper found some peace. Not that it would happen anytime soon, of course. It would take the end of this war for them to stop rubbing salt in their wounds and heal, and who would they be without a war? What would happen to Reyna and Viper, two monsters forged in a fight, when fighting wasn’t needed?
Peace was for people who didn’t thirst for souls, for blood, for revenge. Not for people like Reyna and the tired woman lying next to her.
“Just go back to sleep, mi vida ,” Reyna said. “You need the rest.”
Viper turned around in bed without another word, trying to go back to sleep. Reyna put an arm around Viper. At least, she could offer some comfort while Viper’s nightmares tried to keep her awake.