Flames of Cobalt and Crimson

The Day Court

Azriel

I came awake all at once and was briefly disoriented. I was in my bed, but the angle of the light was all wrong for it to be morning. I was still in the same position, relative to the bed, as I had been when we'd fallen asleep. At some point as we slept, however, Cassian had crossed that space between us as though magnetized and had wrapped himself around me. I had to concentrate to keep my breathing slow and even, not wanting to awaken him yet as the jumbled pieces from the previous day reassembled themselves in my mind.

I had rolled part way onto my back and wings in my sleep, and Cassian was pressed against my chest, his head tucked under my chin and his arm around me. Our nightwear was light enough that it might as well not have been there, in terms of physical barriers. I could feel the heat of his sleep-flushed skin through the thin material, and I could feel every inch of his body that pressed against mine.

He was going to lose his shit if he woke up like this, and there was no conceivable way to extricate myself without awakening him. I lay perfectly still, counting my breaths, and prayed to the Mother that he would roll over on his own before waking up - though I was also in no hurry to lose the feeling of his arm around me and his head on my chest.

My heart sank as he stirred, and I could just barely see the fringe of his lashes as he blinked. Fuck. For one wildly irrational moment I considered pretending I was asleep, but my heart was now thundering against my sternum and with his ear pressed to my chest, there was no way he couldn't hear it. I braced myself, preparing for another potential brawl, but he surprised me.

Cass raised his head, looked around, and then shifted his weight off me just enough to prop himself on an elbow. I met his eyes warily, but he looked surprisingly well-rested and had a lazy smile on his face. The dark smudges beneath his eyes had faded considerably, and his eyes themselves seemed clearer. He pointedly surveyed our position, sweeping those striking eyes dramatically down our bodies before settling them back on my face and chuckling. It was a relaxed sound and I felt my breathing ease, my heart beginning to slow, just a little; my racing heart had been caused by more than the prospect of his anger.

"Coming to climb into bed with you wasn't enough for my subconscious, it had to glue me to your side in my sleep, too."

"So it would seem," I replied, opting for, and hopefully achieving, humorous neutrality.

"Well then. As surprisingly nice of a wakeup as this is, I'm going to pop across the hall and use the bathing chamber. Any chance you can do your shadow-winnowing thing to go get me some real clothes from my room?" I considered a smart-ass reply, but the round trip to his room and back would take nearly half an hour if he walked.

"Better idea. How about I winnow you to your suite so you can get dressed and use your own bathing chamber, I'll use mine, and then I'll come back to get you."

He finally lifted his arm from where it lay across my side to scrub at his face, and I missed its presence immediately. "That's a much better idea. Your brain has always been smarter than mine in the morning."

"It's not morning anymore," I said wryly, looking out the window again. We hadn't fallen asleep until almost dawn, and it appeared that we had somehow slept until the late afternoon. "Come on, we had things we needed to do today." As much as I didn't want to, I slid out of bed and pulled him with me, grumbling. As soon as his feet hit the floor I winnowed us into his antechamber, released him, and winnowed away, appearing in my own bathing chamber a moment later.

I chuckled as I imagined him stumbling, and I felt a little pulse of amused annoyance from him. Smiling despite myself, I poured water from the ewer into the awaiting basin and began my morning routine in the middle of the afternoon.