Disclaimer: See first chapter.
A/N: Holy reviews Batman! Well, it's official, you guys like this shit, so…..tada! I'm continuing. There's no set number of chapters, and I am all for suggestions. If you want to see something, lay down a review and if it sparks something, I'll write it. Please don't just review to suggest something though it kinda bums me out, and that's what PMs are for.
Enjoy!
P.S. I'll be giving you a timeline for each chapter as they come, they will most likely come out of order as I write them.
This one comes on the evening following Chapter 1 (The Difference Between Black and White).
~O~
Julie had been adamant he rest, so had Nora, it was a foreign thought. Rest, when he'd never dreamed. Odd. Julie had taken him home, the General was off somewhere else doing god knew what so he couldn't protest his daughter taking home the former zombie, and Nora was the other one forcing him to rest so she didn't mind the additional roommate and R, well, he didn't really care because now he was tired, bone weary…dead on his feet.
He shivered, night had fallen once again and the moon was out, swollen and white and overreaching. A god in a silent sky that never listened, ignorant to pleas and prayers whispered into bloody palms and empty rooms, when dust settled and blood coagulated and there was nothing left. He'd had a lot of time to think and, frozen as he had been, he'd been unable to converse so he'd had silent conversations with the sky. They didn't really go anywhere, but still R looked to the moon like an old not-friend, but not an enemy.
Julie had tried to get him to sleep in her bed, but he had instead been adamant that it wasn't necessary, he'd gone who knew how long without sleeping, so where he finally lay to rest wasn't a huge concern for him. Still, she'd forced a pillow on him and a blanket before crawling under the covers of her bed. The moonlight snuck in through the balcony doors and from where he lay on the floor, R watched it trace shadows along the floor. He knew he could sleep, but he was scared, scared because now he was alive…could he die again? What if he died while he was asleep? It wasn't a good thought and it made every muscle he now had proper use of tense under clean jeans and soft t-shirt and warm blanket. Everything smelt like Julie, but the clothes, which were apparently 'new', or as new as you could get. They weren't covered in blood and brains at the very least, and they were comfortable. Still, R wondered for a moment if he could find a replacement for his hoodie. Maybe blue…blue was a nice color.
"R? You still awake?"
He turns his head to see Julie blinking at him owlishly, rubbing at her eyes with one hand, hair mussed and tangled and a little frizzy. He thought she looked adorable.
"Yeah." He replies softly.
He hears her sigh before her long legs appear from under her blanket, followed by the rest of her as she slides from her bed to the floor and half rolls, half crawls over to him to share the pillow. She sighs softly, eyes closing for a second before opening again and locking with his.
"You know you can sleep now."
"I know." He replies, quick, soft, gentle.
She smiles, quick, soft, gentle, and rubs her nose against his. It's strange, the sensation; kind of a tickle, kind of a kiss. His lips quirk up into a smile that feels easy and natural, muscles getting back into practice, using memory his brain no longer had.
She sighs, breath ghosting over his face and his smile widens ever so slightly, for just a moment that she couldn't see, eyes closed once again, fighting what feels like a lifetime buildup of exhaustion.
"You can't sleep for forever, and now you can, but you won't." she yawns, "Will you always be this confusing?"
For a moment he can only watch her, blinking slowly and watching her start to slip back into the folds of sleep and he feels…happy, so happy. He didn't know what it was at first, back in that pool when he could feel the warmth of the sun, and the chill of the water and he was…they were kissing and he had felt happy. Now…now is a different kind of happy. It's warm, like a blanket, wrapping around his heart snuggly and he doesn't feel in control so much as he is being instinctively driven to wrap his arms around her and pull her close. She curves into his embrace with barely a murmur, nose brushing the hollow of his throat and he finally closes his eyes.
He'll wake up in the morning, he'll wake up and then he'll fall asleep again the next night and he'll figure out this sleep thing. He might even give the bed a try, but for now he has the floor and a pillow and Julie, which is so much better than anything else and he's happy…content, actually.
And he can finally sleep with the moon hovering outside, swollen with those many prayers and whispers that are slowly, but surely, being answered.
~O~
A/N: Chapters will vary in length and fluffiness/angst/whatever other crap I come up with.
Thanks to everyone who reviewed the first chapter, and alerted and favorited this story you are all amazing and I love you to pieces!
I'll post for every 15+ reviews if I have something written and ready to post, btw (this one came late because I was unsure on whether to pelt you with fluff or angst) I promise, future author notes won't be as craptastically long as these ones.