Author's Note: I believe this to be of better quality than the first chapter. XD I was actually conscious while I wrote this. Luke and Aria are rather cute, in my opinion.

Nightmares

Aria was a light sleeper. Luke on the other hand, was not. That usually meant Aria woke up first, and on the off chance that Luke started snoring, she'd kick him out of bed, considering he insisted upon sharing one. Of course, it wasn't too odd for boyfriend and girlfriend to share a bed, was it? Aria was reluctant to take Luke up on his offer, but she hadn't seen him on so long. She'd been asleep within the World Tree for six months. It felt like forever, but Aria fell in love with Luke all over again upon finding out that he'd waited for her.

Sometimes she woke spontaneously in the middle of the night. She'd use the time to become reacquainted with Luke's mannerisms. She hadn't seen his sleeping face all that often. He looked so relaxed. Sometimes when he was dreaming, she could see his mouth twitch into a smile. She could also tell whenever he was having a nightmare. Like now, for instance.

It was another of those spontaneous waking situations. Aria rubbed at her eyes and moved some stray blond locks behind her ear. Coming back into consciousness, she was half-frustrated, half-content. She didn't like her tendency of waking up in the middle of the night, but she liked being able to wake up to the person who she held closest to her. She started to study her sleeping lover as she usually did when she woke.

He had his back turned to her, sleeping on his side. His fiery red hair was scattered in a mess around him. She saw little spasms and movements that keyed her in to the fact that Luke was dreaming. However, upon closer inspection, she noticed that he was shivering. She propped herself up on her arms to look at his expression. His eyes were shut tightly, his brows furrowed, and his lips pursed in a frown that held displeasure and frustration upon other things, but most prominently worry and grief. It was the telltale feature that often let her know if he was just dreaming of battle (after fighting so often, it's bound to happen eventually) or if it was something more serious.

Luke told her once that he had a nightmare of the World Tree taking her away against her will. He'd tried to reach her before she disappeared, but couldn't. He also sometimes dreamt of what happened in Hallow Bastion, when Aria took a blow that would've killed Luke, with a much grimmer outcome. He also said that he had a dream about their reuniting, but then the life was sapped out of the blond. Whenever he had nightmares, it seemed that Aria was either dying or dead. Aria herself wasn't sure what to think about that.

Aria sighed, moving some of the young man's long hair behind him, and gently kissed the spot where his neck and shoulder met. After some trial-and-error over the past few months, Aria determined to be the safest way to wake the redhead. If there was a way to whirl around while lying on one's side, Luke had managed to do it. Upon seeing Aria smiling at him, he relaxed, letting out a sigh of relief.

"Hey." Luke said, leaning over and nuzzling Aria's neck.

"Hello." Aria responded, putting her arm around him. "I take it you still prefer this to sleep when sleep means nightmares."

"So that's why you woke me up." Luke said, moving closer in order to cuddle with the blond descender.

"Really? Why else would I have woken you up? You said that you don't like it when I wake you up early." Aria rolled her eyes.

"Ehhh…." Luke paused, trying to think of a come back to that, which led to Aria's amusement when he couldn't. "Aw, shut it." Luke protested when Aria let out a giggle.

"Sorry."

His arms snaked around Aria's waist, pulling her closer to him. "It wasn't a good dream. Thanks for waking me."

"It's what I'm here for." Aria smiled, kissing his forehead.

Author's Note: Considerably shorter, but I think it's pretty good. Any suggestions/prompts for later chapters are welcome. :)