The Choices We Make

Comfort

Dahlia was quite sure normal people did not find themselves in situations like this quite as frequently as she did. Well, not exactly like this, perhaps, the whole "waking up in bed with" part was a new twist to it. She had made an habit of managing to totally skip the introduction part of any kind of relationship. And now it was awkward. It had gone way too long, and any way of asking him what his name was just felt flat out wrong in her head.

Sure, so they hadn't done anything. She was pleased with that fact at least, because that meant she had still a chance of the normalcy of remembering her first time some time in the future. Even if it might be just a little bit late in her life to really put on the tiny "normal things about my life" list she was keeping.

Still, she was certain that drooling all over someone's pillow was more of a "first name basis" than a "complete stranger" kind of thing. And the cloth beneath her cheek was, without a shadow of a doubt, drooled on! It wasn't damp, or moist. Even "wet" did not seem to cut it, so drenched was probably the word for it.

She was looking for the perfect, and not at all pathetic way of phrasing an combined excuse for the soaking pillow and a request for his name but coming up short. If "short" was another word for "negative length", that is. But with her mouth refusing to cooperate about half of the time normally, and she finding this man rather attractive, she figured she would have to make it an combination of the two. The only alternative from where she was laying, was just to ignore the wet pillow situation, and that would be quite rude! If some stranger had started slobbering all over her pillows, she was certain she would have liked to be informed of it.

There was a quiet whimper at her side, and now that she thought about it, she was pretty sure that was the same sound that had woken her up. She looked to her side, and although clearly sleeping, The Voice seemed to be having a nightmares.

Great! Situation had clearly not been awkward enough then... Now she was fighting the urge to invade his personal space and try to comfort the guy. She did rarely touch people at all, really, but on the few occasions that she did they were usually awake for it. She was rather sure that "don't touch sleeping people you don't know" was one of the unwritten rules of the world. Even if they seemed to have a nightmare and looked quite terrified. And were cute. Maybe especially the cute part, really. Touching someone you found cute without their consent was probably breaking one of the "anti-creepy" rules as well.

Then again. He had clearly broken some of those last night himself. Not on purpose, perhaps, but still. So maybe she could let a couple of them slip.

He whimpered again, and she tried to collect the snippets of facts she new about him.

She knew he was shorter than her, and was prone to go off on nonsensical monologues. He probably disliked clowns to some degree, and had really nice fingers that could wash away stress and vomit at the same time. He had nice cotton sheets that smelled pleasantly, and he was perhaps a little naive.

She looked around the room to see if maybe she could find more pieces of him to add to everything. There were two book cases, floor to ceiling. They were both packed to the point where book were resting on book were resting on book. Narnia next to Poe, Hitchhiker's guide to the galaxy, Frankenstein, Cthulhu Mythos, Robinson Crusoe, Shakespeare. The shelves clearly belonged to someone that were reading for pleasure, not studies or some line of work. There were worn paperbacks next to clearly expensive volumes, and here and there a comic book had been slid on top of everything. Far from pristine, visibly loved.

On the wall, there were movie posters. Hellraiser, Nightmare on Elm Street, Wishmaster. Well, the guy was clearly not a movie snob at least, and with his reading and viewing habits there was really no wonder at all that he right at that moment was calling out for somebody in his dream to stop doing whatever they were doing.