Disclaimer: If I owned Chrno Crusade do you think I would be writing fanfiction about it?

Comfort

"Rosette. Rosette wake up."

With a strangled cry, Rosette was jerked from the depths of her nightmare. She sat bolt upright, or tried to anyway. With a loud thud her head collided with that of the small demon that was standing over her bed.

Wincing and rubbing his head, Chrno leaned a bit away from the bed.

"Rosette, are you okay?" he asked, looking up at the girl. He was surprised to see her blue eyes filled with tears. She angrily rubbed at them with the sleeve of her nightdress, but the tears seemed to be falling of their own accord and she soon gave up on trying to stop them. Moving closer, Chrno hesitantly reached out to brush a tear-stained cheek with his fingers.

"Rosette... "

With a choked sob, Rosette leaned against Chrno, burying her face in his shirt. Chrno jumped and turned red, surprised by the sudden contact, and patted her head awkwardly.

"I... I... couldn't... " Her sobs were muffled into his chest and he could barely understand what she was trying to say.

"Shh. It's okay," he said in what he hoped was a soothing voice. He moved his arms so one was behind her back, holding her against him, and the other was caressing her hair.

Before long Rosette had cried herself out, falling asleep still leaning against Chrno, who had patiently stood by her bed and held her the whole time, muttering words of comfort and stroking her hair.

After he felt her breathing become deep and even, Chrno tried to lay her back onto her pillows, but she had fisted her hand into his shirt and he couldn't pull it out of her grasp without fear of waking her up.

It looked like this might be her silent way of telling him that she didn't want to be alone. Or at least that's how he chose to interpret it, and that was his excuse for when she woke up in the morning too. He blushed at the thought, but in truth he didn't really want to leave. He wanted to stay and make sure she would be okay for the rest of the night.

Moving slowly and carefully, Chrno climbed onto the bed, positioning himself so that he was leaning against the headboard and Rosette was securely in his arms with her head tucked under his chin. Chrno was a good bit smaller that Rosette in this form, making it slightly awkward, but as long as she wasn't thrashing around from nightmares about people she couldn't save it was okay.

Chrno sat awake for a while, absentmindedly running his fingers through Rosette's hair and thinking about the mixed up feelings he had, which always seems to be a dangerous thing for males to do.

With a small noise, Rosette curled up, catlike, against Chrno, and he had to smile. He wasn't sure exactly how he felt about Rosette, but he carded very much about her, and not necessarily in the brotherly way he had four years ago.

Smiling softly and brushing his lips against the top of her head, he allowed himself to drift off to sleep, knowing very well that he would probably end up getting thrown out of the window in the morning.

-End-

Author's Note: Wow. I don't know where that came from. Okay, raise your hand if you're about to be sick now, whether from my writing being awful or too much sap and fluff. Er, I'd love to know what you guys think about this so please leave a review. And I hope I didn't get them waaay too out of character. I seem to have issues with that sometimes.