She had been doing it for a while now...
That is to say, something that she shouldn't be doing when he was awake. Amidst their kingdom of pines and aged willows, when their quality time together was reduced to sleeping after a hard day's work at their educational institution, dealing with demeaning schoolyard bullies, smug valedictorians, bringing forth comfort to what is considered the most horrifying person on campus in a bathroom stall, a too-beautiful-to-be-true music teacher, and monster mouth tyrant-like mentors, the two wayward children felt that Terabithia was not just a place to let your imagination run wild, it was also a place to kick back and just shut your brain off for the meantime.
The brunette especially, took the full force of said "hard work", having to deal with that and going home to have only more of it piled on him wore out the child. Being the only son in his family probably meant that he was to be pushed harder than his other sisterly siblings. He began to silently doze off and eventually let the pull of sleep completely take him, leaving him rather vulnerable to the blonde whom sat innocently across from him.
The blonde.
Now the blonde was deeply immersed in her reading materials when she noticed her companion drift off to sleep. She too, had felt the effects of the school's "hard work" on her as well, minus the troubles at home. Her household was, nevertheless, full of love, but due to the current demands of her parents' vocations, she felt, dare she say... neglected? Do not be mistaken, the Burkes loved their only daughter from the bottom of their hearts, it was just that the girl found that the continued absence of her parents to be quite burdensome on her part. It was almost like living on her own without having to work. So to occupy herself, she decided to remove the books off their shelves and began to devour each story, each one leaving her with a unsatiable, almost gluttonous hunger for them. There was nothing wrong with the hunger itself, it just caught the attention of her parents that her books literally became her only friends.
So here they were at Lark Creek. At ten years old, the blonde had finally found her first friend in the boy who lay sleeping across from her. It had been a few weeks since she met him and she grew naturally close to the proclaimed "farmer boy", despite her urban background in Arlington.
Coming back to the present, the girl had, by now, shut her book and placed it on a crate beside her. To her, there were two kinds of days so far in Terabithia. One kind was filled with adventure and an awful amount of running. The others were days like this; to her, it seemed like just being in each other's company was enough for an eternity. But that was just some of her most innate desires speaking for her. Sitting in their little so called castle among the trees, the blonde felt compelled to do something she obviously knew would make him go on in a blind fury fueled by sheer embarrassment of the act, if he were to ever find out.
However, she had been doing it for a while now.
Slowly but surely, she could feel her joints tremble and her entire structure heat up as she prudently crawled from her previous position. She had to admit, doing this always made her feel this uneasy. however the promise of impending comfort would await her if the deed was done. So she continued, avoiding any loose planks that might screech their moaned strain under her weight, carefully observing her surroundings, listening for any outside disturbance that dare interrupt their time together. A light breeze wafted through the wood, making her stop momentarily and shiver.
She was now at the halfway point, the point of no return. If he were to awaken, the distance between herself and him would be the rather questionable. But alas, he didn't and she continued her trek toward him. Now he was in her grasp, her reach, her radius of interaction. She felt the tension increase like an anvil strapped to her back. Despite that, the girl stood firm, or in this case, made herself comfortable by sitting directly in front of him.
Her eyes trailed up his sleeping figure in an observant and slow manner. Taking in each part of him into her memory so that she would play it over and over when she got home. She lifted her arm and placed it gently and with utmost caution on his cheek. The feeling of his skin making contact with hers relieved her of the heavy tension gathered from earlier. Brushing his cheek with her thumb, savoring the sensation of it. A smile crept upon her face. Not a grin, not a wide one either, but a smile of genuine happiness and perhaps ecstasy of being with him at this proximity. Moving on to his locks of earthy hair, with no peculiar plan in mind, played with them ever so slightly. She then dared herself to go even further; she tilted her head toward the bow of his neck and silently inhaled his scent which replaced her uneasiness with relaxation. Her eyes fluttered closed, all she wanted was to be like this for now. And now seemed like an eternity to her.
This continued for hours on end, until she too had fallen asleep. Nevermind the consequences of his initial reaction to her sleeping on him, this moment, now, was dearly important to her, almost as dear the boy was to the girl. Almost.
So this occurrence had happened numerous times before. From the first day of days like the one now, to the days she began to silently wish he would awaken while she fondled him in his sleep.