Title: Nap Time
Song: "White Lie" by Mr Hudson and "I Could Get Use To This" by The Veronicas
Rating: K+
Genre: romance/humor
Fandom: Blue Exorcist
Couple: Amaimon/Shiemi
Inspiration: Well, summer . . . waited too long I was going to post this then, but well, it's here now.
N/A: I gave Shiemi some sarcasm because if she could use it, it would be abused.
N/A2: Originally titled 'Guilt' but once I had Amaimon talking/thinking it became more Romance/Humor than Romance/Hurt/Comfort. So, minor guilt, lots of nap.
She had done it again.
She'd fallen asleep in class.
The simple act of letting her tired blonde head rest on the books had resulted in her falling asleep in class for the second time this week.
Guilt. It came with the secret.
Clinging and clutching onto her self-conscious and raking its ugly nails down her tongue and strangling the truth from her throat. She wanted to tell them—her friends, her mother—so badly of what was going on in her life. She wanted to tell them of the sweet, green-haired demon that slept in her garden and brought her rare gifts, and the relationship growing like a fragile seedling between them.
Many a time before she'd opened her mouth to speak, but common sense caught up with her.
If she told: she'd never see Amaimon again.
They'd think she was crazy. Yukio would examine her for signs of possession. Rin wouldn't let her go anywhere alone. Someone was bound to tell her mother. She'd be forced to put up wards around the house; even worse, her mother would possibly force her back into the house and abandon the garden all together.
No, talking to any of them was not an option.
"I'm alright," she murmured softly. "The seedlings for that new anti-venom have just begun to sprout. Nii–chan I need to pay them special attention." She stretched a little, feeling the pleasant cracking of joints falling back into place and the pure feeling of a post nap. Yukio looked down at her.
"Nevertheless, Miss Moriyama, you shouldn't neglect your sleep. It's not healthy."
"Hai."
Yukio frowned in a way that stole the light from his eyes. "I know I asked you to take care of this for me, but if it's getting in the way of your studies I'll have to inform your mother and assign someone else to guard the plants for me."
"Hai, it won't happen again." She said, suddenly more alert and Yukio nodded. "I'm sorry," She leaned back and rested her head on a stack of books once Yukio turned away. Rin did a double take and knelt beside her.
"Shiemi, if you need help watching the seedlings I could swing my later—"
She jumped a little too quickly to decline. "N—no! Nii–chan and I have it covered!"
Rin jumped back, looking hurt. Shiemi opened her mouth to explain: "No! It has nothing to do with you being a demon or anything like that! But . . . my time in the garden it's . . . my only time with Amaimon and we look after the plants together."
Yeah . . . she could say that in front of the entire class.
The ending bell chimed just then to signal the end of the day and Shiemi bolted, gathering her books and running out the door. She fumbled with her Infinity Key and before she knew it she was in her house. Her mother was helping a customer in the shop. She shouted a hello and ran into the backyard and down the down steps into her own paradise.
She didn't have to speak, the greenman in the bushes jumped up to greet her and danced around. The flowers stood at attention and gave off the lovely fragrance of spring and the warmth of the sun melted away all thoughts of her troubles. All thoughts of school were gone with the rush of the breeze.
Content, Shiemi dropped her backpack on the ground and dropped beside it. Kicking off her mary-janes and then peeling off the knee-high stockings she let her toes feel the sweet, cool grass of the pads of her feet. The wind blew threw her hair and carried the scents of summer: of jasmine and burning wood and lavender trees and cherry blossoms.
Could anyone blame her for falling asleep?
Amaimon stared a moment, twisting a red candy around and around in his mouth. The demon prince knelt back on his haunches, his head rested in one long fingered hand and his elbows on his knees. His other hand extended downward, gently pinched between two fingers was a creamy white flower with full lively petals proudly presenting itself to the Earth King's beloved. The fragrance it gave off was foreign and the petals were waxy as they slid across Shiemi's pale smooth cheek.
The act was not enough to wake her from her slumber.
The Earth King sighed and moved down to sit criss-cross in the grass beside her. She wasn't usually such a deep sleeper, usually just him touching toe down to the grass from the wall separating Shiemi's garden from the world was enough to rouse her from sleep—or him simply poking at her until she woke, which resulted in her being 'cranky' with him until she further awakened and greeted him with open arms.
Humans were so complex sometimes. Or maybe it was just Shiemi . . .
Amaimon's tongue probed out and gave a thoughtful lick to the lollipop in his hand.
Why wasn't she waking? Had a disobedient little bugger cast another spell on his fiancée? He thought he'd told all the low level demons who resided in the garden to not, under any circumstances, harm its keeper. Generally, greenmen understood a warning when given. Hobgoblins pledged their allegiance to him once he'd taken Behemoth as a pet. Perhaps it was a flower again? They were known to be quite promiscuous. The violets were looking much more vibrant than usual lately. Maybe they were the ones to blame.
Amaimon walked the grounds of the garden, interrogating the otherwise peaceful plants on the health of their caretaker. None of them had done anything, he'd even spoke to the greenmen family who'd shut themselves up in their little stone hut once Amaimon had started towards them. The one Shiemi called 'Nii–chan' had proved to be helpful, he came to a little window of the hut to explain his tamer had been unusually tired lately and had fallen asleep in class, then had drew the thin muslin curtain over the square and returned to his friends.
So she was just tired? Amaimon pondered the number of human diseases he could recall. Chicken pocks . . . measles . . . mums . . . (all he only knew because they sounded funny) . . . the plague . . . the plague?!
He almost dropped his lollipop.
People slept a lot when they caught the plague didn't they?! Sometimes they got so much sleep they never woke up!
Immediately, the frantic prince lunged on top of his bride and proceeded to shake her awake. Startled green eyes snapped open and his love's hands thrusted upward, one of them connecting to his nose painfully. He cried out and tumbled backward.
"Ah! Amaimon!" Shiemi had sat up to access what was going around her to find the Earth King on his back clutching his nose. She crawled over to him, dragging her knees through the greenery and dirt, staining them vividly emerald. Her hands rested on Amaimon's wrists. "I'm sorry; I didn't mean to, you just surprised me . . . !" Amaimon didn't yield his wrists to her touch and Shiemi's head reeled. "Are you bleeding? Letmesee!"
"I'm fine," He threw his body forward and he sat up, rubbing his tender nose. "You just surprised me . . ."
"You surprised me. What were you doing, trying to give me a heart attack?" She gasped for air and leaned back herself.
"Well, you were sleeping . . ." He started, unpinching his nose and checking for blood once, twice. "I thought maybe a demon had done something to you. I talked to the flowers—" He interrogated the flowers. Shiemi noted the garden shears located near the lily bed, they seemed to be bending at an odd angle. "—and when they knew nothing, I asked your greenman and he told me you've been falling asleep a lot in class—" Nii–chan and his friends poked their heads out the door of their house and waved to Shiemi. She wiggled her fingers back at them. "—then I thought to myself, 'Shiemi must have caught a human sickness'! I only know very few you see, but I've only seen one where humans sleep as much as you do . . ." Amaimon trailed off silently.
And that's when he woke her up. She nodded.
"What did you think I had?" She questioned the unease on the demon's face.
". . .the plague. . ."
The two stared at each other for a moment, and Shiemi put a hand over her mouth. Her shoulders shook and Amaimon panicked again, his hands found her shoulders and Shiemi let out a loud laugh. Amaimon was so silly! Always worrying over the smallest things.
"Oh, no Amaimon, I'm not sick. Just tired."
Amaimon stared at her, buggish eyes and slightly agape mouth. "Oh . . . why?"
"I don't know . . ." she lied and ran her fingers through her short blonde hair and looked back at the demon prince guiltily. "Well, I guess it's because we've been spending so much time together? I mean, we talk really late through the night and by the time you leave I have homework and then I need to take a bath and then I have to wake up early for cram school. I think it's been taking a lot out of me."
"Ah, I see." The prince pondered this and gnawed lightly at his thumbnail. "Would you wish that I leave?"
"No! No, no. That's not it, it's just, well yeah that's it, but I—honestly—I don't want you to leave."
"So, you'd rather I stay here then?" he asked softly.
"Well—"
"I could watch over you while you sleep."
"Eh? You won't mind?" Shiemi gasped.
"No, not at all." Amaimon grinned. "You're actually quite interesting when you sleep."
She blushed bright red and is about to protest when Amaimon stands and shrugged off his trench coat and flopped back to the Earth again and patted his thigh. "Here, you can use me as a pillow if you wish."
"Um . . . the grass is fine." He stared at her. "Really."
"Alright." He waited for a moment and, tired, she sunk back into the grass that was still pressed down from the weight of her body and Amaimon laid his coat over her. "Shall I sing to you? I heard it was custom to do so here."
"Uh, no. I'm fine." She whispered and winced at the high pitch of her voice but Amaimon doesn't appear to notice or really care.
She laid there wide awake for another moment wondering if she really should go back to sleep. Wasn't it rude to sleep when you had guests over? Did Amaimon count as a guest? He was always here anyway and—.
Amaimon's sharp nails rack themselves through her hair like a comb; the sensation was comforting, but her shoulders tensed all the same. "Rest, Shiemi."
A slow steady hum vibrates from the ground—the greenman are dancing through the flowers making their very roots sing. She laid snuggled into her bed of earth; Amaimon's jacket thrown over her to keep her warm and the peaceful hymn lull her to sleep.
I did this once when I fell asleep in class, not my fault. It was a movie day and not the Science Guy's best. (We're treated like toddlers at my high school, sigh)
The Plague! Take away the 'the', lowercase it and forget what it means and I think it's funny XD
Review me, I love this couple~!
~QueenVamp