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Waking up and finding Liv not there wasn't entirely unusual. She usually had to get up to go to the bathroom during the night because she drank so much water, which made Rhea tease her about being an old lady. Having her pillow also be missing was definitely different, though, and somewhat concerning. "What the fuck?" Rhea muttered, propping herself up on an elbow. There was no reason for Liv to take the pillow with her to the bathroom and Rhea couldn't see any lights on in the en suite anyway. She reached over to Liv's side of the bed and found it cool. So she's been gone for a while too.
Rhea slid out of bed and pulled on a t-shirt just in case Liv was out in the sitting room on a video call. They had both learned their lesson about a month ago when Rhea answered a call from Damian and forgot to take it off video—and then Liv bounced out of the bathroom wearing only her strap-on harness. Damian had taken it in stride and not mentioned anything backstage, though he had discreetly—and generously—sent a cute custom harness to Liv as a belated birthday gift.
As far as Rhea could tell, there were no lights on in their hotel suite, so she didn't want to turn one on and give herself away. At first, she couldn't hear anything either, but as she got closer to the sitting room area, she heard the soft hitch of Liv's breathing. The balcony window was shut, but the curtains didn't block out all the light from the street so Rhea was able to make out a large heap on the floor in front of the couch. "What the fuck?" she repeated softly. She crept closer, ducking down when she noticed one spot that was darker than the others. The heap reminded her of the igloo in the movie Liv had been watching with Roux backstage, so she reached for the darker spot and touched nothing but air.
"Did she build a fucking pillowfort?" Rhea murmured. Her eyes were adjusting to the darkness and she could see some details now: the couch cushions stacked like the defensive walls of a fortress, braced with smaller accent pillows. The top was a patchwork of jackets and hoodies; apparently Liv hadn't wanted to chance taking a blanket from the bed and waking Rhea in the process.
Rhea knelt down by the opening and peered inside. It was much darker in there, but not perfectly sealed off against the light. She caught a glimpse of Liv's knees, curled up tight, and half of the bed's missing pillow. "Liv?" Rhea called gently. The last thing she wanted to do was startle her girlfriend so she lashed out and made her pillowfort collapse on herself. "Liv?" When Liv didn't stir, Rhea stretched out on her stomach and tried wriggling through the entrance.
"Mmmf?" Liv stirred a bit, turning towards the entrance. Rhea could just barely make her eyes out in the dim light. "Rhea?" she croaked. "What are you doing out here?"
"I should be asking you that, koala." Rhea wormed her way in further, trying not to hit the sides of the pillowfort. "Why are you sleeping out here? Was I snoring or something?"
Liv shook her head. "No. I kept having... not nightmares, really, but bad dreams, and I didn't want to wake you," she said softly, "so I came out here. It used to happen a lot when I was little, and my mom would let me sleep out in the living room and make a pillow fortress for protection from the bad dreams. Not a lot of pillows here, though, so...."
"Babe." Rhea reached forward and stroked Liv's cheek. "Why didn't you wake me? I would have come out with you. I know a thing or two about nightmares, you know."
"You've got that big media thing in the morning," Liv reminded her. "You need your rest."
Rhea did. She knew she did. WWE had just announced that Elimination Chamber, one of her favourite events, was going to be in Perth next year, so they wanted all their Australian wrestlers to be at the press conference. But she hated the thought of Liv being out here alone, trying to be both sword and shield against the darkness. "So do you. Come back to bed. Please."
"The floor's helping my back," Liv insisted.
Sighing, Rhea shimmied as far as she could into the pillowfort and kissed Liv. "Then I'll just have to come out here then. I'll be back with my pillow and the blankets." It took some work to back out of the pillowfort and she knew some renovations would be necessary if she wanted to join Liv inside, but she hoped it wouldn't be that hard.
"Rhea!" Liv hissed, stretching out a bit. "Rhea, what are you doing?"
Rhea stood and stretched, glancing over at the security panel by the door. She technically had to be up in about four hours, so it wasn't like she would be spending that much time on the floor. "Getting my pillow and some blankets, like I said," she replied. "And my phone, so I can hear the alarm."
"Rhea, wait." Liv scrambled to exit her pillowfort, knocking down some of the cushions in the process. "You don't have to...."
"I know I don't have to," Rhea said softly, cupping Liv's face and kissing her. "I want to. It's weird to wake up and not have you there. That's my bad dream."
"I'm sorry." Liv cuddled up as close as she could. "I didn't mean to make you worry. I didn't think—"
Rhea kissed her again, stroking Liv's hair until she relaxed against her. "It's okay. Next time, wake me, okay? We'll get through it together." She stood slowly, helping Liv stretch out her legs and get to her feet. "It's been a while since I made a pillowfort," she admitted, wrapping an arm around Liv's waist as they walked back to the bedroom. "You may have to give me some lessons."
Resting her head on Rhea's shoulder, Liv laughed. "Mine wasn't that good. I did my best in the dark. I didn't want to turn on a light and wake you."
"Don't worry about that. Ever. Okay?" Rhea tightened her arm around Liv's waist until Liv squeaked. "Okay?" she repeated. "I mean it. I'm serious."
"I know." Once they reached the bedroom, Liv shuffled to a stop. "We can sleep in the bed. I should be okay now, I think."
Rhea brushed hair out of Liv's face and looked at her for a long moment. She looked tired, obviously, but there was still a strain in her eyes, a tension in her jaw. "But I had my heart set on pillowfort building lessons," she teased gently, stroking Liv's cheek. "You sure?"
Liv glanced back towards the door. "If you don't mind...."
"It's cool." Rhea kissed Liv again, letting her lips linger against her forehead before stepping back. "So what do we need from here? The blankets, obviously, and my pillow...."
"Do they have extra blankets?" Liv started tugging the cover off the bed. "I guess towels would work."
"And the bathrobes." Rhea went into the en suite and grabbed the two robes and all the dry towels they had left, handing the pile to Liv. "You take those out. I'll wrestle with the bed."
Liv almost looked like she was going to cry for a moment, but she went on tiptoe and kissed Rhea instead. "Thank you."
"You're welcome. I'll be right out, okay?" Rhea watched Liv shuffle back to the living room before stripping the covers and loose sheet off the bed, stacking her pillow on top. Then she grabbed her phone and took that load out to the living room, leaving the bedding on the floor and her phone on the coffee table. Then she found the small linen closet. As expected, there wasn't much there—two extra pillows, one extra sheet, one extra blanket—since they wanted clients to call for more supplies, but Rhea took what was there and added it to the pile.
When she returned to the living room, it was brighter and at first she wondered if her eyes had adjusted that much. Then she saw the blur of headlights and realized Liv had opened the curtains. "Hope you don't mind," Liv said sheepishly. "It's easier than building in the dark, but I thought it wouldn't be as hard on our eyes as the overhead light."
"Nah, makes sense." Rhea joined her in sorting out their building materials: couch cushions, accent pillows, bed pillows, blankets, sheets, towels. Liv had already put their coats and hoodies to the side. "So where do we start? The walls?"
Liv nodded. "I used the couch as a wall because there aren't many cushions."
As she looked at how few cushions and accent pillows there were, Rhea marvelled that Liv had been able to build anything at all, let alone something big enough for an adult to curl up in. Making something big enough for two was probably going to be impossible and, for a moment, she considered suggesting going back to the bedroom. But even in the face of limited options, Liv seemed happier in the larger space, so Rhea started rearranging the couch cushions, positioning them as far apart as she could and filling the gaps on the balcony side with accent pillows. "How's that so far?"
"That's perfect!" Liv took the biggest blanket and spread it out on the floor as a base. "You're really sure?" she asked again as she started working on the other side.
"Absolutely. It's been a while. It'll be fun." Rhea surveyed the room and brought over the two wrought-iron chairs that were meant to be used on the balcony. "We can use these to prop up something too. Unless that violates some pillowfort-building code...."
Liv grinned, coming up to Rhea and hugging her tightly. "I think we can make an exception." Gazing up at her girlfriend, she added, "Maybe the next time you're at my place, we could make a proper pillowfort in my living room?"
Rhea chuckled. "You definitely have enough accent pillows for it, that's for sure. And blankets. Why does someone who lives in Florida have so many bloody blankets? I swear you have more than Becky does, and she's living in Iowa half the time. You know, a place that actually gets winter?"
"It's one of those things, you know? People see you have a fancy pillow or whatever and they think that's your 'thing' and then when they can't figure out what to get you for a gift," Liv explained, "they think back and go Oh, Liv had those cool pillows. I'll get her another one! And then it just keeps going. At least they're useful. I got so much incense from friends in high school that my mom put a limit on how much I was allowed to burn."
"Well, no incense allowed in the pillowfort," Rhea declared, getting back to building. The other side was held up mostly by the chairs and probably wouldn't hold up for all that long, but since Rhea had to be up in four hours—probably more like three and a half, now—she wasn't too worried. Being woken up by an avalanche of pillows, blankets, and towels ranked pretty low on her nightmare list. Once they finished placing the sheets and towels, she stepped back. "You realize you might have to tear a lot of this down yourself, right? I've got those interviews in the morning," Rhea reminded her, "and I don't know if I'll be back by the check-out time."
Liv nodded. "I'll get up when you do," she replied, "and I can work on putting things back." She gave the sheets and towels a wistful look. "I feel bad for making so much extra laundry, though...."
"We can leave a really big tip," Rhea promised. When Liv started fussing over details, Rhea went over to the window and shut the curtains. "Time for sleep, koala. Come on. Ladies first."
"You just want to ogle my ass," Liv replied, doing a little shimmy when she knelt in front of the renovated pillowfort and crawled inside.
"Who wouldn't?" Rhea let Liv get settled before she crawled in. It was definitely going to be a tight fit, but they usually slept pretty close anyway. "Well, it's... cozy."
Liv gave her a nudge. "You're taller. You should stretch out first. You probably should have come in before I did." She gave Rhea as much room as she could to get comfortable before handing her the pillows. "Ready?"
Rhea stacked the pillows and nodded. It was going to be impossible to get out of the pillowfort to shut off her alarm without disturbing Liv, but she supposed that was for the best. She could have brought her phone into their little sanctuary, but having to get up and move to turn off the alarm would ensure she didn't just fall back to sleep. "Yeah. Should I sleep closer to the entrance since I need to be up first?"
"No. I told you I'll get up when you do. I can always nap on the plane," Liv added as she crawled over and curled up with Rhea. The dim light and different fabrics gave the pillowfort a strangely mottled effect and Liv gazed around as if watching the aurora borealis. "Thank you, Rhea," she murmured, kissing Rhea's cheek. "This means a lot."
"You're welcome." Then Rhea grinned. "Of course, if you end up wanting to fuck, this fort is crashing down really fast."
Liv smiled too as she pulled the blanket over them. "Well, since we're going to have to take it down anyway...."
"And it might help you sleep...."
Rhea was only wearing a shirt and so was Liv, so it didn't take them long to get undressed, leaving the shirts near the entrance just in case. Neither wanted to cause the pillowfort to collapse just yet, so they moved together slowly, Rhea pulling Liv on top of her since she had already spent much of the night on the floor. She wasn't quite sure who came first, but Liv turned out to be right about one thing: they were going to be making a lot of laundry before her alarm went off.