Sprousehart Oneshots

Nightmare

Cole woke with a wince when he felt a slap across his chest. Confused he sat up and looked around the hotel room. It was the middle of the night and judging by his phone's clock, he'd been sleeping for about two hours. Which was not remotely enough, considering the enormous jetlag he and the rest of the cast were nursing.

Another slap hit him, this time on his lower arm and he turned to look at Lili. She was still asleep but tossing and turning. And now that he was slowly but surely waking up he also realized that she was mumbling in her sleep. Low, fast mumbles, almost breathless.

"Shit." he murmered.

This wasn't the first time something like this was happening. The first time it had happened, he'd almost fallen out of bed because she'd scared the shit out of him, tossing and turning heavily and waking up with a scream. That night he had found out that she had pretty intense nightmares.

Over the course of the last year he'd found that it happened especially after emotionally stressful events. A complicated scene. A dreading day of press. Or... like today, a convention. It had been great to meet all these people, but also extremely exhausting.

Cole reached over to her, placed his palm softly on her cheek and stroked over it gently.

"Hey Lils" he mumbled. "Wake up."

She turned again, another mumble falling from her lips.

He grabbed her shoulder, shook her carefully and said a little louder: "Babe. Wake up!"

Lili set up so quickly, he had to pull back rapidly to not get knocked over.

"What happened? Is everything all right? Why are you awake?" she was whispering the words rapidly and he wasn't entirely sure if she even knew she was saying them.

"You had nightmare." he mumbled. "You were tossing, turning and slapping."

"Oh." her voice was barely audible. "I'm sorry."

Cole smiled gently and took her hand: "Its okay, babe. Shit, you are shaking."

"I'm good, don't worry." she responded, her voice still shaking. "Go back to sleep. It's going to be a long day tomorrow."

"Lils" he mumbled and brought his hand up to stroke his thumb over her cheek again. "Don't do that. My sleep schedule is fucked up anyway. But we both know that you need your sleep. So maybe let's find a way to calm you down first and get you back to sleep?"

"You got an idea?" she asked. "Because I feel hyper awake now and I don't have to slightest clue how to go back to sleep."

Cole thought for a minute, then a smirk appeared on his face. She knew that smirk. It was his "I-just-had-a-fucking-amazing-idea-and-no-I'm-not-going-to-shut-about-it-until-you-tag-along"-smirk.

"I actually do."

He got up from the bed, grabbed the first two sweaters he could reach from his suitcase (they hadn't bothered unpacking when they arrived. Not enough time and they were way to lazy to be honest) and handed it to her.

"Put that on" he said while pulling on a pair of sweatpants and his own hoody.

Lili looked at him questioningly for a second, then shrugged. If she'd learned one thing during the last two years it was that when Cole had an idea the best thing was to just tag along with it. She never ended up disappointed.

Cole reached out his hand to her, pulled her out of bed and toward the balcony door.

"You've never seen Paris by night, have you?" he asked.

"Well, I've seen pictures." Lili mumbled, deciding to overlook the fact that this was her first time here. It was to late for sarcasm.

"Then you'll love this." Cole said, pulled the door open and lead her outside.

The first thing Lili felt was the chilly air on her skin, cutting even through her sweater, but then she lifted her head and her breath caught in the back of her throat.

"This is amazing." she whispered.

The lights of Paris were spreading out as far as she could see and right in front of them, the Eifel tower was sparkling through the cold night. The city seemed to be bustling and calm at the same time and although she was still shivering, she was not sure that it originated only from the chilly night air.

Cole arms wrapped around her from behind and she leaned back to him, taking deep breaths one at a time, keeping her eyes locked at the lights in front of her. She didn't know how long they stood there, just watching the lights but at some point, she leaned her head fully back on his shoulder and closed her eyes.

"Tired?" he whispered, the soft smile on his face audible.

"Yeah" she mumbled, opened her eyes again and tilted her head up a little, just enough to kiss him gently. "Lets go back to bed."