Disclaimer - I own nothing you recognise.
Challenges listed at the bottom.
Word count - 556
To Be Useful
"Are you okay?"
"Of course I am."
"I know you're lying."
"Of course you do."
"Poppy."
Minerva interrupted Poppy's busy hands by wrapping her own around them gently.
"Minerva," Poppy sighed. "The wing isn't going to clean itself."
"The wing can wait for a moment. You've been working non stop for far too many hours."
"Things need to be done," Poppy replied, trying to tug her hands away. She'd been cleaning the tables on which she'd built up the empty potion vials and discarded wrappings. Minerva kept her hold. "And those things will not do themselves. You look tired, you should sleep."
"So should you," Minerva replied sternly.
"Go forth and prosper, Minerva. I'll be fine."
Minerva rolled her eyes. "Your patients are all sleeping, come with me. We can set an alarm over the room in case anybody has need of you, and I'll even call up one of the other professors to keep watch if it would make you feel better. Just… come and lay down with me for a while."
Poppy knew she was right, but the thought of leaving, of losing another patient, was enough to send her into cold sweats. "I—"
"Please," Minerva added, her voice soft enough that it could have been a beg. "Even if you don't sleep, I need too. I'm not foolish enough to believe I will escape the nightmares, but it'd be better if I could wake up to you instead of alone."
"I can give you some dreamless sleep," Poppy replied, almost automatically, but she softened at the pinch in Minerva's brow. "Okay. If Filius wouldn't mind coming to sit in, I'll come with you for a few hours."
…
Poppy lay stiffly on the bed, flat on her back, staring up at the ceiling. She could be being useful, instead of laying her doing nothing, but Minerva was hard to say no to. She always had been, for Poppy at least.
The woman in question stepped out of the bathroom, her hair tumbling around her shoulders, her nightgown hanging from thinned shoulders. She'd lost weight over the past year; then again, they all had.
Stress was a universally terrible diet plan.
Minerva climbed into the bed, and settled on her side, facing Poppy. For a long moment, there was silence.
"I love you," Minerva whispered into the darkness.
"I love you too."
…
She woke to whimpers. Poppy hadn't even realised she'd fallen asleep until Minerva's nightmare interrupted her, but she turned on her side and gently shook Minerva until brown eyes opened.
The terror in them broke Poppy's heart, and she tugged Minerva closer, into her arms, until Minerva's head was pillowed against her shoulder. The strongest woman Poppy had ever met sobbed into Poppy's nightshirt.
"I couldn't find you," Minerva managed to choke out eventually. "I searched the whole castle and you were—"
"I'm right here," Poppy interrupted, soft but firm. "Right here, Min. It'll take more than a Death Eater invasion to force me from Hogwarts."
Minerva tucked herself closer. "Thank you."
"For what?"
"For coming here with me. To wake up alone after that… it would have made it much worse."
Poppy's heart swelled with love, and she rubbed a hand up and down Minerva's back. Perhaps being useful didn't only have to happen in the hospital wing after all.
Written for;
Liza's Lodes - 6. A femmeslash pairing
Auction - Poppy Pomfrey
Gym - Back Extension Machine - Dreamless Sleep
Face Painting - Superhero Set - 3. Wonder Woman: "I know you're lying." / Symbol Set - 2. Moon: Sleeping Potion
365 - 73. Prosper
1000 - 362. Cleaning