The moon was already high in the sky when Lucilla was awakened by the slight shift of weight upon her bed. The night so far had passed uneventfully in a blur of disturbing, if unimportant, half-remembered dreams, and Lucilla was already mostly conscious (if she was honest with herself) by the time her brother entered and sat upon the edge of the bed, kneading her sheets between dampened fingers.
"What is it, Commodus?" she murmured blearily, only a little annoyed at having her rest disturbed. Raising herself up on one elbow she regarded him through eyes still clouded with slumber.
The translucent gauze hangings surrounding her bed were illuminated by the moon's glow, offering a brilliant backdrop to Commodus' form, shadow-shrouded save for one hand which fell directly in the light. There, his skin tone matched the pristine whiteness of the silken sheets it clutched and the grim pallor of the moon itself. But despite the radiant backlighting, she could see his eyes remained pits of shadow, red-rimmed and shiny in a way that was almost feverish. His piercing gaze never wavered from her face as she appraised him.
"Brother, you look awful! Are you ill?"
Commodus finally looked away, forcing his hands to stop strangling his sister's sheet and folding them carefully in his lap. His voice was soft as ever and sounded as though he'd planned the words carefully, though they were spoken with a slight raise of his dark eyebrows that made it seem he surprised even himself by actually saying them.
"I... just haven't been sleeping well."
Lucilla crawled across the bed so she sat beside him and pushed a brown curl, damp with sweat, off his forehead. "You look like you haven't been sleeping at all," she said concernedly, holding his face between her hands and studying it. "What's the matter, Commodus?"
He inhaled deeply through his nose, eyes closed as he enjoyed her scent and the feeling of her cool hands on his skin, holding onto them lightly with his own. "You know I don't sleep well by myself, sister. I never have." His pale eyes, still glazed and ill-looking, opened. He stared right into her eyes. All at the same time, his eyes begged for help and condemned her cruelly, pale green illuminated eerily in the moon's glow. The light reflected off one cheekbone and threw the rest of his face into deep shadow; all except his eyes. Those mesmerizing, liquid eyes glimmering with fever yet somehow dark.
Lucilla looked down, pulling gently at her hands to remove them from her brother's face and grasp. He let her go only reluctantly and let out a soft sigh as he shifted on the silk sheets.
"Let me sleep with you?"
His voice was innocent, hope tinting the smooth, normally unreadable tone.
"Let me sleep here, with you, Lucilla?" he repeated more quietly as he moved closer, two long fingers caressing his sister's cheek as he lay his head on her shoulder.
"Commodus... you should go to your room..."
Tilting his face to press his lips to Lucilla's neck, Commodus felt her pulse fluttering, far faster than usual. A tiny bittersweet smile spreading over his features, he murmured, "Please, sister? It's so very dark and lonely in there..."
Lucilla swallowed and closed her eyes, trying to ignore Commodus' hot breath on her throat, the hand now entwined in her hair. She swung her legs back up onto the bed and crawled under the blankets, making room for him beside her. Wordlessly he joined her, pushing the moonlit gauze out of his way.
Commodus wrapped his arms around her back and pulled her tightly to him, breathing her scent. "I love you, Lucilla. I always have." He tilted his face and brushed a kiss low on her cheek, right beside her lips.
"And I love you, my brother."
Commodus nestled closer, mouth slightly open against her skin, breath coming slow and heavy.
And only after she was certain he was asleep did Lucilla let herself cry.