Lemon Grass and Sleep

FIRST STEPS

Any enthusiasm I had for life had been entirely sapped out of my body by exams. It would've been easy to mistake me for a corpse sitting at a table in the great hall, or slumped over a book somewhere random. Glinda didn't look too much better than me, just the usual amount, but I suspected she'd been slipping up and sleeping a lot more than I had.

If my eye bags were dark before, they were a deep, murky purple now. I probably looked like I hadn't slept properly in days, because I hadn't. In these two weeks of testing I hadn't gotten more than 13 hours of sleep total, and as a result I felt and looked like a shell of my former self.

The very last O.W.L., History of Magic, made my brain feel like mush as I silently emptied my brain of stored knowledge. Honestly, the entire second week just felt like my brain slowly leaked its contents out my ears and onto the paper, leaving nothing behind.

Luckily, Fred had been in my testing group, and I all but collapsed into him after the exam. He'd been in much better shape than I was.

"Soot," I remember him saying with a bit of pity in his voice before he led me off somewhere.

Fred. I couldn't even remember the last time I had enough energy to get flustered by him, we certainly hadn't kissed in at least a week. You'd think with all the stress I'd be desperate for a distraction, but instead my body simply shut down and went on autopilot.

I could tell he was getting a bit restless these past few days especially, when we had sat studying in the tea parlor he would always be brushing against me or touching me in some way. But I guess he could tell that that was the last thing on my mind when I felt swamped with O.W.L.s and rigorous study routines.

"Hey," I heard him say, pulling me up and dragging me quicker. "We're almost there."

"Almost where?" I barely got out, the words stumbling over themselves to fall out of my mouth.

"Pardon us," Fred gritted out as he pulled me through the door, dropping our satchels onto the plush throw rug. "Oh."

I drowsily glanced up but couldn't find anything out of the ordinary, other than the table being replaced with the desk. The room had seemingly shrunk into its smaller version, and then I looked to the left as Fred turned that way.

There was a large bed fitted with a red duvet to match the room, it was up on a little platform that separated it from the rest of the area, with sheer curtains shrouding it a bit on either side.

A small smile slipped onto my face when I realized the room was probably innocently trying to provide for our needs, but was completely unaware of what a horrible situation this would be.

"Hey, what do you think you're smiling about?" Fred sputtered out, "Stop that."

"Well," I said, sluggishly standing up as we neared the edge of the bed.

Fred sat me down on the bed, and as I looked up at him I could already see his ears turning red as the warmth spread across his face slowly.

"Could I have a kiss?" I asked quietly, reaching for Fred's hands and taking them in my own.

"Really?" He asked, a bit too eager. As if realizing how desperate he sounded, Fred didn't wait for me to answer his question and leaned down to place a soft kiss on my lips.

Trying to be as smooth as possible, I reached around the back of his neck and tried to gently pull him down with me as I leaned back onto the bed. His hands slipped out of mine and planted themselves on either side of my head to brace himself as his lips followed mine.

"Soot," he called my name lowly, "I don't think we should do this right now. You really need to sleep."

"What's another half hour," I muttered, reached up to slowly loosen his tie. Neither of us were even the least bit undressed, our robes fanning out and draping themselves over everything.

"That's a dangerous line of thinking," he purred, sliding his robe off as if reading my thoughts.

"Hm," I hummed through a smile as he also pulled off his sweater vest as I loosened my own tie and pulled myself out of my robe.

Nerves bubbled up inside of me but were stifled by own own sleep deprivation, leaving me laying there in a haze of sleepiness.

"Are you sure about this?" Fred mumbled as he leant back down and brushing his palm against my cheek, rubbing his thumb slowly across my bottom lip before stealing another kiss.

"Yes," I whispered as he backed away, "Please."

"Ah, now you can't go talking like that," he said, closing his eyes and pursing his lips, "That's also a bit too dangerous."

"If you say so," I smiled teasingly, sitting up to pull my robe out from under me and slide my own sweater off.

Fred did the honors of getting our shoes off and I heard them fall to the floor without a sound, landing on the carpet probably next to his clothes.

"I've been waiting so long for this," Fred mumbled, most likely to himself, as he shakily undid the buttons of my shirt.

"I know, sorry," I quietly replied, giving him a half smile as he glanced up at me.

"Well, you were all busy with exams, I can't blame you..." He bit his lip as his eyes met my skin, my shirt falling to my sides as he reached the higher up buttons.

"Stop looking at me like that, it's making me feel weird," I mumbled and began to unbutton his shirt as well.

"Sorry," he muttered, still stealing glances.

We sat in comfortable silence as we both stewed in our anxiety. With our shirts undone and off, I relished in the softness of the mattress as I laid back down. It was a little embarrassing, but nothing to be too humiliated about I guess. Fred and I had probably seen way more in our dormitories where boys got dressed and undressed at random.

"I swear I didn't plan this, by the way," Fred broke the silence as his fingers delicately undid my belt buckle and pulled my belt from around my waist. "Even though it seems like I did."

"Of course," I teased, laughing a bit when he reached over to smack me on the head.

I let out a breath as I felt his fingers find their way to the waistband of my briefs, running themselves against the skin just behind the fabric.

Fred leaned down by my ear and placed a hesitant kiss on my neck, letting his hand trail lower. My insides seized up at the feeling of his skin on mine, and I felt like he'd say something odd as he pulled back to look at me through half lidded eyes.

"Ah," I flinched as Fred pressed a comforting kiss just above my collar bone. Perhaps it was because I was so tired, but the pleasure that washed over me felt nearly overwhelming. "Ngh, hahh..."

"You're killing me over here," Fred muttered to himself.

"Please," I begged, tightening my arms around his neck and trying to pull him closer.

"Hell," he grunted out, making me flinch against the wave of pleasure that sent me toward the edge.