Wrapped Around You

Thank you again for Watazuki who has let me build a story around her sketch.

  Cassandra sighed as she looked at her husband, his head down on the desk.  

  “Varian.” She ran her fingers through his hair, noting that it was unwashed, and that his chin was showing several days of stubble. She looked at the dark circles beneath his eyes, the chapped lips, she even thought his face seemed thinner than usual. How long had this been going on for? How long had it gone by without her noticing? Too caught up in the movements and changes of her own pregnant body.

  “Varian.” She said again, this time louder, and this time he blinked wearily in the dull light.  “Come to bed Varian.”

  “Cassandra? Where am I?” He said looking around dazed.

  “You’re in the Demanitus chamber.”

  “Is it morning?”

  “No. It’s about midnight.”

  “Then why aren’t you at home?” He said coming to a bit more and taking her hand. “You need your rest Cass.”

  “So do you.” She said tugging on his arm, beseeching him to stand. He got unsteadily to his feet. “Did you think I wouldn’t notice that you’re not sleeping?”

  “I am sleeping, just… at odd hours.” The last part of the sentence sounded strange and hesitant, and Cassandra had to wonder if he was lying to her. “Look.” He said nodding his head. Cassandra followed his gaze and saw a small bundle of blankets and pillows raised up off the stone floor on old apple crates.

  “You’ve been sleeping here?” She asked startled. “Why?”

  “Oh, I just uh… I didn’t want to disturb you with my coming and going at all hours of the night. I thought I’d just stay here, just for the time being.”

  “You could have asked for a room in the castle.”

  “Oh, I have one.” Varian said nervously, looking down. “Just, I prefer it here.”

  “Here, where it’s cold? And full of broken equipment and bats.”

  “The bats are quite nice to watch actually, peaceful. The droppings can be a problem though.”

  Cassandra put her hands on her hips and stared at him. It was time to put her foot down. It had been years since Varian had acted with such disregard for his own health, this was more like teenage Varian, not the man in his mid-twenties that she’d married.

  “You!” She said poking him in the chest. “Are coming to sleep in a proper bed, for a proper amount of time, and you are not coming back down here until you have eaten a proper meal, showered and shaved.”

  Varian hung his head down in a weary doleful manner, letting out a deep sigh.

  “Okay, sorry.”

  She reached for his hand and led him up out of the chamber. It wasn’t until they reached the corridors of the staff chambers that she noticed him slowing and acting strange again. He turned to her as he reached the door of his room.

  “You know, the air down here is a bit damp, and the beds are a little ungiving. Perhaps you would be more comfortable upstairs in one of the guest bedrooms? I’m sure nobody would mind, and I’m likely to toss and turn all night and keep you up.”

  It was then that Cassandra realised what was going on, and she felt a lump in her throat rising. She looked away and blinked a few times. Stupid pregnancy, it was making her so… well, weak, so emotional. She wrapped her arms around her middle, she wasn’t heavily pregnant, only around four months, but in the last few weeks she had noticed so many changes in her body - the body she had spent years shaping into an athletic machine, primed for duty. She couldn’t explain how something so natural could feel so unsettling, and the thought that Varian didn’t want to sleep next to her anymore, well that was even more so.