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Scott wakes up slowly. Conditioned as he is by his alarm clock to get up at 5AM, he feels surprisingly groggy as he emerges from sleep. But the alarm isn’t what wakes him.
Fingers comb through his hair gently so as to not wake him. He enjoys the softness of the touch, basking in it. From behind his eyelids he can perceive light.
Scott’s eyes slowly open, taking in the beams of light illuminating the room, the sun evidently just rising. He jerks away from the hand in his hair, making to pull the sheets off and get started with the day. But Emma stops him.
“Darling, you’re allowed to sleep in,” she says.
He turns to her, that initial jolt of panic leaving him jittery. There’s a reason he gets up as early as he does. There’s so much to do to get ready for even a normal day and today is no exception. There are class schedules to finalize–
Emma cradles his face in her hand. “Everything has been accounted for, you’re fine.” Her lips twist into a smirk. “You sometimes forget you’re not the only one who knows how to implement a plan. We’ve, I’ve, been planning this for a few days.”
“Emma–” Scott chokes on the name, some emotion blocking his airway. He can’t tell if he’s upset, or touched, or something else all together.
“Let’s settle on touched,” she says breezily. She runs her thumb over his cheekbone, skimming the skin just underneath the goggles’ edge, sending a pleasant shiver down his spine.
The beginnings of exasperation tinged with frustration are brewing inside him but he takes a deep breath in and lets it go slowly. Emma watches him closely as he repeats the action a few more times, trying to settle himself.
Emma sighs, a soft thing, before her fingers retreat from his cheek to touch his temple. A vision of himself from moments before, in a different, more forgiving lens than he usually sees when he looks in the mirror. The hard lines of his face are softened by sleep, his goggles are just left of center on his face. There’s a warm thread of affection that runs through him as he looks down from Emma’s perspective. Something tight pulls in his chest. He’s not sure he warrants this kind of affection. He turns away, closes his eyes.
Emma brushes her fingers through the short hairs on the back of his neck. “You give a lot to this school; it’s okay to rest once and a while.” She gently turns his face towards her, her smirk softened by the expression in her eyes. “The world can wait another hour. Come back to bed.”
Scott lets himself be maneuvered back into laying down, lets Emma pull the covers up and over their shoulders. The sheets are still sleep warm and inviting and it’s easy to exist in this moment even with the looming unknowns of the day ahead creeping on the periphery.
She settles her head on his chest, pulling his arm around her shoulders. “Rest is good for the soul, you know. The idle hands saying is bullshit.”
Scott huffs out a laugh. “There’s nothing wrong with keeping busy.”
“You’d work yourself to death if it would save someone the burden of a bad day,” Emma says without heat. They’ve had similar threads of conversations turn into arguments before. So Scott just gives her shoulders a squeeze before shifting them around so he's spooning her.
They lay there for a time, Scott holding Emma tight to him, before his grip softens as his body is lulled into relaxing. Emma squeezes the hand that rests on her stomach. “I know it’s a lot to ask of you, but just stay, for a little while longer.”
Scott keeps himself relaxed, listens to the longing that’s etched into her request. He can do this, for her, for them. Does he need this, too?
He doesn’t respond out loud, but he buries his face in her already mussed hair, sighing. Yeah, I can do that. A pause. Thank you.
Of course, darling. Now go back to sleep. I’ll wake you in a bit.
And, faster than he expected, Scott finds himself slipping into a dreamless sleep, Emma a comforting weight in his arms.