Leila shuffled through the castle, exhaustion biting at her heels from yet another sleepless night. Despite Vlad being back at her side, she was still waking up with nightmares. More than once she'd been tempted to roll over and wake him, he'd always told her that she was welcome to in those cases, but remembering the nights that she'd burned while staring at the empty bed had held her back.

Vlad wasn't going to always be available for her to cling to when her nightmares hit, or some days he'd have work the next morning and she shouldn't wake him lest he only be operating on a few hours himself. Whatever the reason, she came to the same conclusion. It was easier to adapt to dealing with the things herself, that way it didn't matter if Vlad was available or not.

At some point in their marriage, she'd become too reliant on him and she knew that. Those horrible seven months had proved that without a shadow of a doubt, and now she was going to take it as a learning experience and change herself so that the next time he got that busy she wouldn't emotionally burn out by the end of it.

Though that'd be a lot easier if sleep would just come to her without the many fear soaked dreams. Before she'd met and fallen for Vlad she'd handled her own nightmares, and yet now after having his comfort for so long she had to readapt to not leaning on him.

It was hard and she was more than ready to just curl up in his lap and call it a day, but she'd held tight so far and she was determined to make herself shift to the new normal. Of course, that'd be a lot easier without her worried husband constantly prodding at her odd behavior.

Speaking of said worried husband, Vlad came around the corner and immediately locked eyes on her. Biting back a grimace, she tried to smile even as she knew where this was going. "Hi honey."

He gave her a mild look of annoyance before stopping in front of her. "The staff said you didn't feed today and hardly took two swallows yesterday."

Right to the point, that was her husband…

On top of her energy levels being down, and her sex drive, her appetite had also been affected by her lack of sleep and unfortunately for her, Vlad knew everything that happened in this castle. Trying to wave his worries away, she answered. "I know, I just haven't been as hungry lately. It's not a big deal-."

He cut her off with a hard bite, "If you're not eating then it is in fact a big deal. And I won't be dropping this until you tell me what's causing you to lose your appetite. And don't try to tell me that nothing is wrong. Even writing off your complete lack of sexual desires over the past few months, your lack of an appetite and all around sluggishness points to something severe and I refuse to leave this alone until you tell me what's going on."

Damn it, Vlad was going full intervention on her.

"I'm just not sleeping well, I'm fine-."

His eyes narrowed, making her stop as he questioned. "It hasn't escaped my notice that your changes happened after my work became insistent. Does that have anything to do with this?"

She stiffened before she could stop herself. To a certain extent it did, since it'd pointed out how much she'd been leaning on him, but she knew that it wasn't healthy to be so reliant on him. This was just the aftermath of her adjusting to being self reliant again.

When she came up with nothing to say against that, his mouth curled down harshly. "So it does. Leila, I already told you I didn't enjoy leaving you to your own devices for that time but I had to. You can't become churlish anytime I'm not available, it's not reasonable!"

Oh hell no, she wasn't going to go through this bull again. She was well aware it wasn't reasonable, emotions seldom were, but she damn sure was not going to hear him tear her further down when she already felt like shit. "I'm well aware that it isn't reasonable and if you'll notice for the last two months of that hell I did leave you to it. I stopped bothering you during your work, I didn't cling to you in the mornings no matter how much I wanted to and believe me that was a daily struggle especially when the nightmares-!"

She could have bit her own tongue off for that slip. Vlad stopped her from changing the subject, his brow now furrowed in concern. "You were having nightmares?"

Knowing there was no way out of this now, she decided the direct route was the best to get it over with quicker. "Yes and thanks to not being able to wake up from them they're worse than when I was human. I still can't pull myself from them yet, but lately I've almost managed it."

Though waking up still wasn't much of a comfort since she still had to deal with the panic, but at least she didn't have to suffer the fear ridden images all the way through. Baby steps.

Vlad's frown twisted into a scowl as he huffed, "So that's why you haven't been sleeping well lately and I assume it's safe to say you've been having them for a fair while. You should have informed me you were having such problems, I would have-."

A bitter bark of laughter stopped him in his tracks, the sound sending a foreign chill up his spine as his wife leveled a sharp smile on him that looked entirely out of place on her. "First of all, I tried to tell you multiple times during that cluster fuck, why do you think I was so insistent about trying to get you to go to bed with me. Because you being there stopped them, but you weren't in bed most of the time I was conscious and by the time the nightmares started you were already gone for the day. Talking to you did nothing but get me emotionally barbequed so I stopped trying and dealt with it myself."

Stopping to take an unnecessary breath, a force of habit, she continued on her tirade as every ounce of the poisonous hurt from those seven months came pouring out. "Second of all, what the hell would you have done about it even if I had managed to get through to you? Fifteen minutes was too much to ask for of your day, you couldn't babysit me to make sure I got to sleep without nightmares. It wasn't worth the hurt I was going to feel when you snarled at me for interrupting your work and it really wasn't worth the pain that would have come when you chose to focus on that same work instead of helping me when I all but begged for it. It. Wasn't. Worth it."

Vlad stared, not saying a word as he digested the new information. He'd known that Leila hadn't been handling their separation well, he certainly hadn't either. He'd continuously told her that he'd have to be blind to miss the pain she'd obviously been in, but perhaps he had been blinded to at least part of it.

For him to not realize that his wife had been racked by nightmares constantly enough for it to bring her to this point sat wrong with him. She had experience hiding them from him now, it was the only reason he wasn't waking when she was caught in their grasp and the thought that she'd chosen to handle it without him because it was easier hit something he hadn't thought to guard in him.

If he thought about it, switched their positions and truly put himself in her shoes, he could understand her anger and hurt. Had he truly needed her and she'd continuously chosen something else over him for seven months he would have been infuriated to the point of not seeing straight. He couldn't begrudge her the right to feel the same.

Seeing his quiet acceptance, she finished, her voice a whisper in comparison to the pained barked it'd been before. "So I'll handle it without you because it's easier, that way on the off chance you aren't available I don't have to feel any of that again."

Vlad grimaced, and didn't that burn him? His wife had chosen to handle her emotional pain without alerting him because he hadn't been their to lean on, but now that he was available she had every intention of staying her current course because then she never had to worry whether or not he was there. She'd stopped leaning on him like he was used to and now that he was seeing that for himself, he detested it.

Reaching forward, he dragged her into a hug as he felt her shake apart in his arms. Months of pain and loneliness draining out like puss from a wound as he stroked her back in silence. Had he known that this was the problem, he would have dealt with it sooner but what ifs were useless. He couldn't change the past by merely wishing it to be different, so he'd do what he could to ensure the situation never repeated itself.

Once she's mostly calm again, he offers. "What happened then won't happen any time else, after finishing the insane amounts of work thrown at me I established a limit to all of my countrymen. Office hours, if you will. Should disaster strike again I will be only working eight to twelve hours a day instead of the twenty I was doing regularly before. This will give me ample time to rest, work and care for other important things."

Pausing to drop a tender kiss to her head at the last bit, he watched as she leaned into the touch before continuing. "Truthfully I intended to implement it after the fifth month of our separation, I was handling it as poorly as you were with how I was snapping at anyone who so much as spoke to me with a tone. However when I went to do just that, you began acting differently. When I woke in the mornings you separated from me without hesitation, you no longer stopped by my office to attempt to coerce me into taking breaks, and the only time I saw you was when you slept and even then your back was to me. I assumed that you gave in to my wishes of being left to work and it had felt wrong to only then announce that you had time with me. So I threw myself into my work, finished it as quickly as I could and then implemented my new policy. I hadn't thought to bring it up to you yet thanks to my worry over how oddly you were acting lately. Had I known nightmares were the cause I would have set the entire situation to rest."

And now that he did know he could only curse himself for not implementing his new policy earlier. How much of this could he have prevented? Forcing the useless question back, he watched as the pain that hadn't left Leila's eyes for months finally started to dim even as she argued lightly. "Relying on you to the point of being emotionally crippled with you is dangerous, I shouldn't need to lean on you that much."

Yes, well love tended to complicate things as he well knew. Pulling her into another kiss, he shook his head. "A relationship requires some give and take, for the better part of seven months you weren't receiving anything and that unbalanced our relationship in a way we haven't seen in years. But Leila? While I understand your wariness, at least when it comes to nightmares you can lean on me. You won't have to deal with those alone anymore, with my new hours I will be in bed at the same time as you. No more hiding this from me my darling, we do this together."

Despite the reluctance he could see in her eyes, she nodded. "Alright, fine but I'm still looking for ways to distract myself for the next time you get busy like that."

Not arguing despite the fact he intended to never be that busy ever again, he hummed. "So be it. There are plenty of things you could take as a hobby, we can explore your options later. For now though, we have something to attend to."

Before she had a chance to ask what he meant, he'd swept her legs out from under her and marched them both back to their room. Staring at his ass, getting the feeling of déjà vu, she mumbled. "Don't you still have work?"

His snort came to her clearly despite the position they were in. "I just learned that you most likely haven't slept a full night's sleep without a nightmare in over nine months. Work can wait. You need rest and the only way to ensure you get it is to be there. I'll have all paperwork brought to our room and meetings moved to tomorrow. You're my first priority and while I haven't shown that recently, that fact has never changed. And it never will."

The last of her pain soothed as he lowered her to the bed, kicking off his shoes just as he did before as he wrapped himself around her. One of his arms reached for his phone, shooting off a text for one of his staff to bring him his paperwork, before pointedly turning it off.

Curling her against his chest, he hummed. "Rest, my darling. We can worry about all else after you've regained your energy and eaten."

Hearing the hard edge to the last bit, she gave her agreement as darkness started curling around the edges of her vision. Only this time, as her nose inched up to find its home in his throat, she didn't dread the feeling of sleep claiming her.

While she still didn't like that she had to rely on him for this, she knew without a doubt that with him here she was safe to sleep. He'd chase off the nightmares for her and that assurance sent her off, a small smile curling her lips as warmth burned from all around her.

The past year had been a rough one for her emotionally, but at least it was finally starting to look up.