Nightingale
My friend, Statiic97, and I have been challenging each other to writing one-shots inspired by music for our many fandoms. We decided to share them with you guys, so enjoy! J
I roll onto my left side, now onto my right, then I try my stomach. It doesn't matter how I lay down, there's no getting comfortable. I can't sleep. I know that if I sleep, I'll see things in my dreams that I don't want to see.
There's only one person who can help me when this happens, but I'm sure she's sleeping by now. Still I say her name.
"Gwen…"
Nothing. A little louder, I try again.
"Guinevere?"
Still nothing. I turn back to my pillow. 'She wouldn't want to take care of me in the middle of the night anyway, she does enough of that in the day.' Even as I think that, a slight creak of the door opening makes me jump.
"Did you call for me, my lady?" Gwen stood in the door, whispering her question.
"No, it was nothing…" I pause when she turns back to the door, before calling out to her, "Well, actually, there is something."
She turns back around a small smile on her face. "I thought so."
"Don't get too smug, it just... I can't sleep again. Do you remember that night when you sang to me? I'd like you to do that again. Please." I add as an afterthought.
She chuckles, walking over to the bed. She gently pushes my shoulders back down to the bed and tucks me in as she begins humming.
I breathe a little slower and begin to relax. Her company is soothing enough as it is, but her melody brings me a sense of peace that only she can give me.
She kneels beside the bed and begins singing the words as she strokes my hair. I don't recognize the language, but the first time she'd sang it aloud, I'd learned that she'd learned it from her own mother, long ago, when she was just a small child.
My eyes are closing and I'm being lulled into a deep sleep. I know that tonight, I am safe. My beautiful nightingale will sing to me and I will dream only of her and her precious melody.