Shadow Breeds

Chapter 3

Ashe

The sun peaked through the bedroom windows as I stretched out, jerking my arm back as it touched something in the bed that wasn't usually there. After last night I was still uneasy, but only moments later I realized it was just August.

The fact that my best friends were still my friends even after my weird breakdowns the last couple of days made a small smile tug at my lips. I really was lucky to have the friends that I had, although August has definitely seen some of the worst of it in the past.

However I didn't expect him to spend the whole night with me like this, I figured that as soon as I was out, he would've left. He hadn't seemed to wake up yet and I was still sleepy so I rolled to face away from him and sunk back under the blankets. Not long after, I felt movement from his side of the bed, just as I was about to turn back towards him I felt his arm come around my waist and heat flooded to my face.

This was interesting. August and I had a pretty close friendship, but we never cuddled or anything like that. Long hugs at most. Normally I wasn't comfortable with physical touch like this either, but for some reason he had the opposite effect, I felt safe. Plus I was sure he had no clue what he was doing to begin with, if his snoring told me anything.

He pulled himself a little closer so that now he was basically warming me better than the blanket. I could feel the redness of my face deepening, I was enjoying this too much, but I was also unwilling to wake him yet, so I tried to go back to sleep instead. I could poke fun at him for it later.

Other people who've seen us together have claimed that it's been obvious that he's had a thing for me since we first appeared in Wolf Creek but that's impossible, especially after last night, right? That was embarrassing, I made myself look crazy. I mean August has gotten me through some crazy times but, I'm pretty sure after last night I made myself seem delusional. I was probably just hallucinating from my lack of sleep though.

We'd never been more than friends and likely wouldn't ever be. I was satisfied with our friendship, we had an odd, unspoken understanding of each other. Most of the time we can communicate with body language alone and that was something I really appreciated. There was no pressure between us regarding anything.

***

August

I noticed something warm in my arms as I began to wake up. As I was trying to remember what exactly happened last night and where I even was, I realized it was Ashe in my arms. I froze, it felt like even my blood had stopped pumping for a second. My eyes widened and I felt my face heat up as I tried to think of how to move without waking and freaking her out. I knew she wasn't fond of people touching her, I was lucky just to get the hugs I got, she never explained why in depth but, I had some pretty good guesses considering what I knew of her background. The ideas crushed and angered me to even think about so I avoided them the best I could.

'She's so peaceful in her sleep, beautiful,' I caught myself thinking before finally making a move to get away before I could torture myself further. That was clearly not what she had in mind in her half-asleep state as she turned towards me and held onto the front of my shirt. "Just a little longer," I heard her mumble. At this point I wasn't sure what to do, being half asleep she might not realize who she just said that too or that she was saying that at all, so I sat for a moment and then cleared my throat.

"Are you sure?" I asked softly. With her eyes still closed, she smiled and nodded. In a sleepy voice she said "you did that a few hours ago, I just let it be so I wouldn't wake you and turns out, that was the most comfortable extra bit of sleep I've had in a while." This caught me off guard and my brain went blank for a moment as my face heated up again.