Ten: Jolt

She jolted awake, a gasp escaping her lips.

Her chest was heaving, her body demanding more oxygen as if she'd been deprived the last few precious minutes. It was hard to explain, even harder to experience. Her body was covered in a thin sheen of sweat, her lips parted in what had been a silent scream. Her lungs slightly burned, her body shivering every few seconds or so in erratic intervals. Something had been in her mind, something that invaded her dreams and turned it into a sudden nightmare she managed to only just escape.

There was movement beside her and suddenly, her heart picked up again and she gasped, stifling it in time as the mass next to her moved and sat up, slowly.

"Diane?" his voice was fuzzy with sleep and she felt him shift into a more comfortable position, feeling him rolling over to look at her in the darkness.

"I'm fine," she said quietly, glad she could manipulate her voice enough to sound normal, "Go back to sleep."

"Bad dream?" he didn't listen to her and instead did the opposite, sitting up fully and turned on the lamp on the table on his side of the bed.

"It happens," she said, running a hand through her sleep-tousled hair. "I'm fine, really."

"Two 'fines' in less than five minutes," he tilted his head sideways, giving her a look before he began to rub the sleep from his eyes. "You wanna try and go back to sleep or…?"

She glanced at the alarm clock on her side, "It's almost five…I've slept enough."

"Alright," he nodded, leaning towards her and planted a dry kiss on her cheek, "Come on."

"What? You don't have to—"

"I'm awake," he said over his shoulder before proceeding to stretch his arms upwards, "I'll start the coffee and you can decide if you wanna talk about it or not."

She watched him round the bed, grabbing his robe for and unfairly looking truly awake in his plain white shirt and navy blue pajama bottoms. The man was a goddamned morning person. Even his hair looked better than hers and all he ever did to it was shampoo then nothing.

"Cold out today, take mine," she took his robe, pulling it on gratefully and only then realized how cold a morning it was. Her cooling moist skin didn't help either and using his was definitely better than using her silk one. She drowned in the soft thick fabric and his scent, mingling pleasantly with his soap and the combination of those was enough to warm her up quickly.

"Thank you," she said quietly, throwing her legs onto the side of the bed and stood up.

She didn't even wait for anything else before pressing up against him, huddling against his chest while she folded her arms in front of her. He didn't need to be told what to do with his arms, pulling her close in a morning hug. She wasn't sure if she was looking for more warmth or solace from whatever she had been dreaming about but she was going to take the comfort he was so readily willing to provide.

He kissed the top of her head, through the tousled mass of blonde hair, "Good morning."