The Dawn of Tomorrow - A Henry Cavill Fanfic

Chapter 11

Delilah woke up the next morning, too hot and too uncomfortable.

Henry had the unfortunate habit of glomping onto whatever was in his nearer vicinity whenever he was sleeping, like a skin hungry octopus that wanted nothing more than to keep Delilah hostage.

And while that normally only managed to make her blush, this morning the heavy weight of his arm around her stomach, just aggrieved the bruises that covered most of her ribcage.

She shifted with a grimace, not wanting to wake him, especially not when he still looked utterly exhausted. His face was somehow smushed against her shoulder, mumbling something in his sleep, but he let her move him off her without much of a protest, flopping down onto his side and pulling her against him tightly.

Delilah could live with that. He was warm with sleep and he smelled like sandalwood and musk that seemed to cling to him wherever he went and...she didn't freak out. She had thought she would.

She probably should have.

Her brain should have made the connection between the fact that a man had hurt her and that Henry was also a man.

But it hadn't done that. Not yet. She was waiting for it.

For the morning though...She just leaned back against Henry's massive chest, feeling it move steadily with his breathing and let warm arms cuddle her aggressively against his broad chest and bask in the feeling of...

What was this? Contentment?

Maybe it was.

Delilah couldn't remember the last time there had been that bone-deep feeling of contentment in her body. It had been years. But for the moment...she was just that.

She relaxed back into the mattress, letting the tension bleed out of her limbs and just enjoyed the warmth that Henry always seemed to bring wherever he went, closing her eyes and just resting for a little while.

It took Kal softly whining to get her attention and she very slowly and carefully wriggled her way out of Henry's grasp not wanting to wake him.

He still looked exhausted, dark hair a mess of curls on his head and Delilah managed to disappear in the bathroom to quickly brush her teeth and change her clothing. Not that she managed to put on something else than another pair of leggings and another one of Henry's button-down shirts, that was laughably oversized on her frame.

She didn't even want to imagine trying to put on any of the dresses that she usually wore, complete with the underpinning that cinched in her waist so that she would have that retro silhouette that she loved so much. Yeah, if she wanted to scream in pain, then maybe that would be a great option for her. Otherwise, probably not so much.

It only took a few minutes before she herded Kal down the stairs, snagging Henry's laptop on the way down because she had no idea where he had put hers. They both had access to the email inbox that she needed to have if she wanted to get some work done, so his would be a pretty good substitute in the meantime. He wouldn't care, either way, Delilah knew that.

"Come on, Piglet, we'll go down on the beach," she whispered to Kal, careful to be quiet enough that she wouldn't wake up the whole house.

It only took a few minutes, until she had grabbed his leash, opened the big glass doors that led out the back and Kal chased down to the beach just like he so very often chased after his arch-enemy: Squirrels.

Delilah couldn't help but laugh as she followed at a much more sedate pace.

She breathed in the salty ocean air, taking in the sun that was just starting to come up and looked out over the ocean that always managed to make all of her problems seem small in consideration.