Twelfthtide

1

The bedroom was dark and quiet, and Leni had waited long enough. It had been about thirty minutes since she last heard footsteps and the squeak of doors opening and closing outside the room. The last of the people downstairs had already locked up. Slowly and gingerly, she got up from the bed, careful not to pull the blanket too hard. Her feet blindly looked for her slippers in the dark, and just as she was about to stand up, the bed creaked. She winced.

And looked behind her. The woman on the bed didn't move at all. She continued to sleep peacefully, turned towards Leni's side of the bed.

Leni had suggested to Risa many times in the past that something needed to be done about her squeaky, creaky bed. Risa agreed with her every time, but it always became a Something for Later, as every time the bed even became relevant enough for Leni to bring it up to Risa, a proper conversation was the last thing on their minds.

She would have to tell Risa about it later. Again. Preferably without the bed in question around.

Breathing a small sigh of relief, and with her eyes now accustomed to the dark, Leni picked up her clothes strewn on the floor one by one — and Risa's, too, deftly folding Risa's clothes against herself as she tiptoed her way around the room and then placing them neatly on top of the dresser where the rest of her things were. Leni hastily put on her underwear and pants and shirt back on. She didn't know in what direction Risa threw her bra...

Leni decided against looking for it for now. It wouldn't be the first time she was leaving an article of clothing in Risa's home. And in her next time here, maybe then she would find it in Risa's closet, amongst all the other things she'd left here before.

Now somewhat dressed, she gave her ruffled hair a quick comb with her fingers before picking up her handbag and slinging it over her shoulder. When she turned around, Leni jumped in surprise as she was met with a pale, ghostly figure that Leni would have mistaken for a White Lady if it weren't for the familiar, "Leni...?" that came out of her lips.

Leni pressed a hand against her chest to calm herself. "Jusko, Ris, para ka namang multo manggulat!"

Risa asked in a voice hoarse from all the videoke singing she'd done at the Christmas party they both attended the previous night, "Where are you going?"

Leni put down the bag to the dresser again. "Nag... CR lang ako."

Risa, who was completely bare from head to foot, stepped closer to Leni. Her eyes fell on the bag. "Kasama iyang bag mo?" she asked with a wry smile.

Leni shifted uneasily. "I... Hindi ako makatulog."

Risa paused to raise an eyebrow at Leni and looked at her with all-too-knowing eyes that Leni wondered if Risa had been awake all this time. Then, to Leni's relief, Risa laughed, and continued to step closer to Leni, and Leni couldn't resist.

"Is it the creaking ba?" Risa whispered near Leni's ear, her cheek pressed against Leni's shoulder. Her voice was sweet and unaccusing, and Leni guiltily suppressed a sigh.

Leni's arms were around Risa's waist now, and she cradled Risa against her, as they lazily swayed together in the darkness of Risa's bedroom, as if Leni didn't just try to sneak out a few minutes ago. The furtiveness with which Leni carried herself since Risa had fallen asleep on the bed with her was now replaced by a calmness that only Risa's proximity could bring. And the question was a generosity, Leni knew, an olive branch that Risa was giving her, a testament to Risa's patience with her despite all the other times this had happened: Risa's bedroom, Leni leaving, and Risa waking up all alone in all those other mornings.

"Risa..." Leni lazily ran her hands up Risa's naked back.

"Hmm?" When Leni didn't answer, Risa continued, "Promise. Ipapaayos ko na iyan bukas."