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… Well. What a day.
Barely apparent breaths brushed your face every few seconds, juggling your thoughts between whether you should get up or stay here for just a moment longer.
Again, and again and again… you never got up. Whenever you opened your eyes, they were still there — fingers clamped together, the strands of hair across their face waving with every breath they took, you didn’t understand how they could sleep on their side without moving an inch for the entire night, but in the end, you were glad they were so content with you by their side.
Or front — you suppose. Your gaze wandered lower — they only wore a plain, black singlet and same-coloured panties, though their hips and further down were covered by the blanket the two of you shared.
You squirmed around, rolling onto your back to stare up to the ceiling, humming quietly whenever you thought to have caught their eyes opening — but every time you dared to look, they kept them shut.
Maybe they were acting. Maybe you simply wanted them to wake up. You turned to face them again, if only to admire their sleeping face.
None of the eyeliner — obviously. Though, since they washed off their face some freckles on their nose and the skin around were apparent.
With their pale skin, they stood out, even though they weren’t all that dark. You followed the trail all the way from their nose’s bridge towards the pink cheeks where the freckles stopped abruptly… right, those weren’t makeup — not that this was the only explanation, but you never asked them about them, did you?
Probably not. Or maybe they simply didn’t answer you, maybe that’s something that you could —
Ah.
Their eyes poked open, soon their groggy voice followed. “…Morning.”
“Morning,” you answered in a quiet tone, not daring to disrupt the quiet.
Chara grumbled — probably annoyed about being awake — and their eyes shut again as they rolled away from you to lay on their back, before stretching their right arm to the side — hitting the wall, which caused them to groan and drop the limb immediately.
You had a hard time stopping that giggle and even then parts of it managed to escape.
“Don’t laa.mm…” Chara yawned mid-sentence and didn’t bother to pick up their sentence again after, leaving you with a smile.
“Slept well?” But you were too curious not to ask.
“…Mhm.” Now their eyes opened again, and they were even so kind to brush the hair from their face after turning to look at you.
“Surprisingly…”
Surprisingly? Hopefully you didn’t move around all too much. “Oh, was I loud…?”
Chara shook their head — as much as they could without lifting their head, which in turn meant they mostly rubbed their head into the pile of pillows.
With another grumble they spoke up again, even if not answering your question. “Gimme…”
“Hmm…?
Before you had to ask what they were talking about, you felt their right hand against your stomach, then against your arm, fingers nudging you in a failed attempt to take a hold of you.
You shifted onto your side, right arm awkwardly squished beneath mattress and yourself as you pretty much pushed your left arm into their hand — which they immediately pulled closer as they wrapped both their arms around.
Chara inched much closer to do so.
“Ah—” you hushed yourself immediately, but their cold hands took you by surprise.
And arms. Honestly, most of their body felt cold — only where their chest and cheek pushed against your arm now could you feel warmth from their body.
Point it out?... Sure. “You’re kinda cold, everything okay?”
“Mmmhm. No. You’re just warm.” And they clung your arm tighter in response — not that you cared, even if their elbows pushing onto your forearm was a little rough.
You let out a soft laugh, before letting the quiet nestle in again. With every second passing, their breathing slowed again and whatever ominous pulsing from their holed chest replaced their heartbeat, picked up in pacing instead.
But Chara wouldn’t move as long as you did — and when you dared to even think about moving yourself into a different position, Chara would grumble against your shoulder and tightened their grip for a few seconds.
So, you stopped trying. Victory for the slumber. You barely managed to move your right hand from below your own weight, but when you moved it past their hair, Chara raised their head for a second, allowing you to rest it over their back.
It would probably take some time to get used to holding them like this, when there was a more-than-fist-sized part in their chest where your fingers accidentally pushed their top in, before you found a better spot.
Chara giggled when that happened — surprisingly, they were awake. You could barely even tell by how little they moved and how silent they were.
“…Can I ask something?”
“…Mhm?” They shifted their head just enough to look up at you past their hair, not bothering to fix it another time.
How unfair they were, that groggy tone to their voice, the warmth from their chest fighting the cold from the rest of their body like a storm twirling around your arm — distracting. Don’t get distracted, ask already, Chara already raised an eyebrow at your delay.
“Your…cheeks, can I ask…what’s with them?”
For a moment their eyes opened further, before the lids fell to that barely-open state again as they looked away to the side.
Their breathing picked up again — bad sign?
“…They’re soooo pretty…” you kept your voice low as you spoke, “just thought, they’d be makeup?” Or something else. There was no one definitive theory.
Chara pressed their lips to a thin line, but a light flush over their face told you all you had to know when their gaze returned to yours.
“Mm no. Just. Birthmarks. Something mm”—they yawned—“like that.”
You smiled in turn, before moving a little — of course they immediately tightened their arms around yours again, but you didn’t want to move away, and after you managed to inch your head closer despite their defensive grip, they relaxed as your lips brushed their cheek…and strands of hair.
A soft kiss shut their eyes again, while you laid back into the pile of pillows.
You could stay like this for a good while.