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The nightmare woke her up, which wasn’t anything new, not really. Still…she had been sleeping so damn well she could still feel it, oh the comfort and the warmth and the luxury rest slipping through her fingers like water.
“Ugh,” with a groan, Jahoda turned on her back, the unfamiliar ceiling making the sweat drenching her back seem even colder.
At least, until she recognised it. Just like she could recognise the flowery and fresh smell of the bed sheets and the sugary warmth of the air, the soft blanket, the presence at her side. She wasn’t at home, nor caught up in the starving darkness chasing her like a hound out for her blood.
Jahoda was well, and she was safe, and she was sleeping next to Ineffa! In the same bed!
That did not happen!!!
Alright it did happen, but not that often, and she couldn’t remember Ineffa actually falling asleep next to her but…scratch that, Jahoda couldn’t remember when she fell asleep. After all, it was pretty hard to keep track of what and where and when after…ahem, anyway. She was exhausted! Due to very exhausting reasons! So she fell asleep in Ineffa’s bed!
Not for the first and probably, most probably, not for the last time.
Slowly, as not to awaken the other occupant of the bed, Jahoda turned on her side to just…look. She always looked because she could never get enough of it, as in, well, you see, it’s not every day that a robot just falls asleep in a bed! She knows it’s not the norm because Aino explained it to her and Ineffa explained it to her so she cherished, ahem, made sure to analyse every instance of it. You never know when you need certain pieces of knowledge in your life, trust her, Jahoda learned that lesson the hard way.
So, she always took the time to watch.
It was for sure something weird, but also quite normal.
Ineffa’s hair was unbound, spilling down her back and Jahoda could remember all too well why those blue waves were so tangled; she had tangled them with her very own fingers after all. For a robot, Ineffa had surprisingly soft hair, only Archons know where Aino got that from.
Another thing of note was just how…at peace Ineffa looked, or better said, just how normal.
Jahoda had seen her at that thing, the whatever, where she recharged, which was practically her equivalent of sleeping and she always stood there prim and proper, unmoving, a machine more than anything else. Yet, right there and then, Ineffa was just as human as anyone else.
It did not matter that the raw sunlight of early morning was glimmering off the exposed parts of her metal arms — the most of them was hidden by the pillow Ineffa was all but shoving her face into — nor that Jahoda could see the line where metal and synthetic flesh met at Ineffa’s lower back. The blanket sat too low on her body, and Ineffa was very much too naked but that too didn’t really seem to make any difference.
Jahoda herself was almost naked!
Well…anyway.
She simply couldn’t take her eyes off because despite the clear metal and the faint sound of machines humming instead of an actual breath, Ineffa really looked so human. Her cheek was mushed against the pillow and there was the tiniest bit of droll at the edge of her bottom lip and her breast was squished between her chest and the mattress and her bent knee was placed so far up the bed that Jahoda had to move just so to place her hand on the mechanical joint.
One would expect for a metal limb to feel cool to the touch, even if its owner had spent the better part of the night in a bed, under a blanket, next to a human body, but Ineffa was always warm, enough to feel natural, whether she chose to remain in bed during the night or not. Jahoda knew that the other one had reached that temperature through trial and error and many, many days spent agonising over calibrating this and that on Aino’s part, yet her knowledge on the fact couldn’t stop her face from heating up and her throat from tightening around unspoken words.
Only a fool would refuse to see that whatever Ineffa did was first and foremost directed to Aino, and Jahoda did not mind, if anything she understood the weight family had on one’s soul, but the fact that Ineffa had, at some point, started sharing her functions and assets dedicated to Aino at first with her too, that made something deep within Jahoda’s chest twitch. Twist and turn. It ached, in a pleasant but not quite so way.
“You silly clanker.”
As if hearing her, yet unwilling to actually wake up, Ineffa hitched her knee just a little bit higher on the bed, her arm sliding out from under the pillow to pat lazily at the empty space between them.
Later, in the quietness of her own mind, Jahoda would blame the dregs of the nightmare still running through her veins, icy cold and venomous, for how she scooted over until Ineffa’s hand found her body; first her arm, then it went up her shoulder and around for her fingers to sprawl on the middle of Jahoda’s back to pull her against her body.
Warm, so pleasantly warm and the perfect balance between soft and plush skin and hard, ridiculously powerful metal. Ineffa was a sensory overload monster walking on two legs, but Jahoda quite liked it, or well at least when she was the only one awake to experience it because no nope noooo way would she run her fingers through Ineffa’s soft hair to detangle it if Ineffa was awake. Or go back to hold her knee like that, the tips of her fingers mapping each and every dip and bend in the metal, that little cross etched into the kneecap so distracting. She sometimes wondered if Ineffa slept on the left side of the bed so when…when Jahoda wanted to reach out, she’d have to do so with her flesh hand.
Hah, ridiculous right? Who would go so far out of their way for such a little thing? Pull yourself together Jahoda, honestly!
Lost in her own head, Jahoda barely had the time to react when Ineffa moved once more, the hand on her back pulling her even closer if possible while Ineffa’s leg just…slid up Jahoda’s hip. Okay, sure, yeah, fine…everything was fine!
If anything, it made Jahoda feel even warmer, her face pressed into Ineffa’s neck, her hand sliding from her knee up her thigh, feeling up the stiff yet warm metal until it too settled on Ineffa’s hip where her fingers found even more edges and dips to trace and memorise. As if she didn’t know every nook and cranny of Ineffa’s body already.
Anyway, Jahoda should, she really really should, like…she really should get up. And go to work. And just, go home. Yeah, it was already morning, that she could tell by the rays of sunlight spilling into the room through the crack in the curtains but…
With her fingers tracing mindless shapes on Ineffa’s hip and her face nuzzling against soft skin, with a body almost glued to hers, with that hand holding her close and that leg cutting off her retreat, who would ever want to get up from the bed and away from all that? Jahoda didn’t…but she had to.
Life was truly unfair.
Yet, so generous at times for no matter how much it took, it also gave. Maybe it wasn’t that bad after all, but it would be soon enough if she ran late! Nefer would really not like that!
So, when she finally built up the energy to leave such a safe haven, she couldn’t help herself from pressing her lips against the spot where Ineffa’s neck and shoulder met. She was out cold anyway and wouldn’t know about it.
“Don’t,” the voice cut through the morning silence like lightning and Jahoda’s entire body locked up in place, her face barely a few inches away from Ineffa’s neck. “It’s still early, and you did not get the minimum hours of sleep, so rest a little bit more.”
A hot wave of embarrassment washed over her as Ineffa’s hand slid up her back, her fingers sliding into Jahoda’s own tangled hair to push her face back against her neck. “W–were you awake this whole time?!”
Ineffa hummed, her leg flexing around Jahoda’s hip before it slid lower, enough for her foot to hook around Jahoda’s calf, locking her in place even more so.
“No, I just woke up so to say,” Ineffa whispered against the top of Jahoda’s head. “But due to our activities last night, which amassed a total of seventy eight minutes with breaks included, you fell asleep later than your average by approximately sixty minutes.”
“S–stop! Stop talking!”
Ineffa did not stop talking.
“And you just admitted to waking up earlier than me, which means that you really slept for way less than ideally needed.” With her body twisting and her other arm coming out from under the pillow, Ineffa pulled Jahoda into a true embrace, their bodies flushed together from head to toes. “Stay, just a little bit more. From my calculations, I have enough energy left to make you breakfast before you go.”
Jahoda wished to complain, of course, but the moment she opened her mouth, nothing came out of it.
So she just…hugged Ineffa back and pretended that she was still asleep.
“Why did you wake up?” Ineffa asked after some time, her fingers twirling strands of Jahoda’s hair and that felt so damn nice Jahoda’s mouth opened before her brain could fully process the question.
“Nightmare.”
Ineffa’s fingers stopped, and Jahoda herself went stiff as a board as she started berating herself. Why oh by the Moon why ugh that’s so embarrassing why did she say that out loud someone take her out right now!
Still, without saying anything, Ineffa started running her fingers through Jahoda’s hair once more. She did not speak, and each and every touch felt light yet filled with meaning and Jahoda was already back to dozing off when Ineffa’s fingers found the edge of her jaw to tilt her head up.
Warm, silk soft and iron sure and Jahoda’s eyelids felt as heavy as lead as Ineffa’s nose dragged over the edge of her cheek, her lips brushing her skin just a little bit lower, a tender touch that sought the corner of her mouth.
Oh, oh wait! Pause!
“H–hey! Back off, um…morning breath! You know?!”
Ineffa pulled back enough to look at her for a long moment before a sound that could be described as nothing else but a snort left her.
"I have initiated the mouth refreshing protocol as soon as I realised you were awake," she said, matter of fact as he leaned forward once again, uncaring that Jahoda was backing away slightly. Or trying to, as much as one could back away when enclosed in another’s embrace. “If anything, it's your breath that would smell."
“Hey no—"
Despite saying that, Ineffa pressed Jahoda all the way on her back, their mouths coming together into a deep, hot kiss. What would you know, the inside of Ineffa’s mouth really tasted clean and fresh.
“But I really don't care," Ineffa whispered straight into her mouth, her tongue tracing Jahoda’s bottom lip before it plunged back inside.
It felt as if Ineffa was trying to chase away any possible remnants of the nightmare with her mouth alone, and honestly the details of the dream were already lost to Jahoda. There was no way for her to remember anything at all when those firm but warm fingers found the curve of her waist, following it to her hip, dipping slighting under the hem of her underwear. Her mind was blissfully blank as Ineffa’s mouth left kisses down her neck, her wet tongue lapping at the skin as the tips of her fingers dragged along the crease between the top of Jahoda’s thigh and her pelvis, pushing down her underwear while doing so.
Really, it was so damn hard to think when teeth grazed her nipple and those fingers found their mark and you know what, she had a stack of rest vouchers back at home, and Nefer should accept one of them as compensation for Jahoda turning in late right? Right?
In the end, she had to use the voucher to take the entire day off much to Nefer’s…amusement.
Hey! Not her fault that Ineffa’s energy reserve ended up to a glorious 1% after they were done, and Jahoda had to wake up Aino and make breakfast for her while Ineffa was actually sleeping. And then, when Ineffa woke up, the first thing she did was wrap her arms around Jahoda’s waist from behind and place a kiss on the back of her neck…
So yeah, she got a day off.