Maxi wakes up to the rain pounding against the windows.
She sits up a little, rubs the crust out of her eyes. Looks around, head turning left to right. Dark, cold, and for a moment she's hit with fear as she forgets where she is. A distant part within her still expected to wake up in her gloomy room at the Croix estate, but the forearm around her waist proves otherwise.
Riftan is passed out next to her, stomach down and face buried in the covers. His muscled, broad back shone against the moonlight like light against a steady lake. His raven hair is a wild mess against the white sheets and pillows, Maxi smiles a sleepy smile. He could replace every bird's nest in the nearby vicinity.
He looked every way perfect she knew him to be, and she almost wanted to punch the wall with how hard her heart yearned for him. Maxi wanted to remember that she was no longer broken, that she was no longer empty, so Riftan shouldn't make her feel so complete... Yet he does, God, he does. Sometimes she wonders if he feels the same gut punching feeling of emotions for her, but you can never really measure Riftan Calypse's love, the same way you can't measure hers.
The arm around her jolts a little, and Maximillian blinks in surprise when she sees his fist gripping the sheets so so tightly his knuckles are almost white. Her hands gently wrap around his fist, wondering why he seemed like he was choking a troll in his sleep, yet his grip doesn't even loosen for a bit.
She nudges Riftan's head so she could properly see him, and her heart stutters at the sight of his handsome face.
There were traces of a forming stubble on his cheeks, Maxi wanted to rub her skin against it as usual, and his skin gleamed perfectly against the moonlight. He was so so beautiful, but Maxi feels dread loom over her at the sight of his creased forehead and furrowed eyebrows. Riftan's teeth were gritted so hard Maxi could almost hear the enamel scraping against each other and he was twitching, ever so slightly, like a wounded puppy.
Maxi has had too many nightmares and she had prayed for someone to wake her up, only to go through the same darkness she fell into for hours on end. Nobody was there to jolt her awake or to cradle her safely back to sleep. Without even thinking, she shakes Riftan's shoulder with all her might, but his giant body barely even moves under her hand.
"Riftan..." She says, her voice echoing across the room as the fire crackled in the corner. She purses her lips as his expression only hardens further, like her voice echoed inside of his dream and triggered something.
It pains her to see him in turmoil, makes her stomach flip like crepes.
"Riftan!" Maxi all but whines, taking his head with both hands and shaking it like a bottle. Maxi almost laughs at the absurdity of it all, but she feels relief when his eyes snap open like the firing of a crossbow.
He sits up so quickly Maximillian almost falls out of the bed in surprise, yet she regains her balance. Riftan's eyes are flickering here and there across her face and figure, checking her the way a doctor would assess a patient.
"What's wrong? Is there a problem?" He says, his voice is hardened and alert like he wasn't previously from a deep slumber.
Maxi simply shakes her head, a little distracted with how breathtakingly handsome he looked. "No, there is no problem."
"What?" Riftan just exclaims, looking at her closely. The firelight bounced off his broad, bare shoulders, making him look like he was a blazing angel from the heavens. "Then why did you wake me?"
Maximillian opens her mouth, wanting to ask him if he had a nightmare. She wanted to tell him that he looked like he was dreaming of something incredibly horrible, she wanted to know for sure, but all she needed to do was look at him. Riftan's pupils trembled, his hand was almost shaking as the color barely had the time to return under his flesh, and her husband looked like he was hanging on a thread with a deep void beneath him. She didn't need to ask.
