Title : Secret Snuggles

Author: Emma (kharma)

Rating : PG13 to be on the safe side

Part: 1/?

Summary: When two people share a bed on a regular basis, sometimes things happen.

Disclaimer: Nigel still doesn't belong to me (but it doesn't stop me wishing that he did). Nobody else in this belongs to me either.

Archive: , yes. Anyone else, ask and ye shall receive.

A/N: My first RH fic in quite a while so if it's no good I apologise in advance. This hasn't been betaed so any and all mistakes are mine and mine alone. Reviews are actively encouraged but flames will only be used to feed the dragon that keeps a fire alight under my muse. You have been warned.

Sydney Fox woke up, shifted slightly and sighed when she felt the owner of the arm currently wrapped lightly around her waist move in his sleep.

'This is getting ridiculous!' she thought. 'We end up like this every time we sleep in the same bed.'

'Not that you particularly mind,' a little voice that sounded suspiciously like Claudia said in her head and Sydney sighed again.

She didn't mind and that was part of the problem. Normally, when she shared a bed with a man and she woke up with him wrapped around her she hated it. It made her feel trapped for some reason. With Nigel, all she felt was safe and protected and it was starting to seriously worry her.

They had shared a bed plenty of times while on a hunt, sometimes it was unavoidable, but the last few months it seemed that every time she woke up first he was either wrapped around her or she was sprawled half on top of him. She just thanked God that she always woke up first, poor Nigel would be mortified if he found out about some of the positions they had slept in.

Take now, for instance. When they had gone to bed, Nigel had very carefully made sure that he was as far away from Sydney as it was possible to get while still sharing the same mattress. Now, it was as though he was trying to crawl inside her skin. They were laying on their right sides, Sydney's head resting on his right arm with his left arm wrapped around her waist and their legs tangled together.

Sydney let the fingers of her right hand trail lightly down the arm that rested over her waist and gave in to the temptation to snuggle back further into his body. 'And what a body it is,' the Claudia voice said. 'Looks like Nigel's been holding out on us, Syd.'

Sydney hated to admit it, but the little voice in her head was right. While nowhere near in the league of some of the men she had known, Nigel's body was filling out nicely and he was no longer the scrawny kid who looked like a strong gust of wind could blow him over. He now had muscles in all the right places and she had caught more than one woman checking him out as they walked past.

The arm around her waist tightened and Sydney froze. "Please don't wake up, please don't wake up," she silently prayed and breathed a sigh of relief when Nigel relaxed again. The relief didn't last long because the next thing she felt was his warm breath on the back of her neck just before his lips brushed the skin just below her hair-line.

"So soft," he murmured in his sleep. "Smell so good, Syd."

Sydney's brain was screaming at her to move but was swiftly over-ruled by the rest of her, which told her to stay right where she was. She honestly didn't know if she was in heaven or hell. The feel of his lips on her skin was creating sensations she hadn't felt in far too long but she knew he would be unbelievably embarrassed if he woke up right at that moment, not to mention terrified at the thought of what she would do to him.

Still asleep, Nigel kissed the spot right behind her ear that was guaranteed to turn her to mush and she gasped. 'That's it,' she thought. 'If I don't stop this now, it'll be too late.' She glanced at the clock on the bedside cabinet and smiled slightly in relief when she realised that dawn was only about an hour away.

Taking a deep breath, she very slowly and carefully lifted the arm that was wrapped around her waist and slid out of the bed. She turned around to face the bed and smiled. Nigel looked so young while he was asleep, nobody would ever think he was probably the most intelligent person she had ever met.

She reached down and brushed the hair away from his face before gently kissing his forehead. "Sweet Nigel," she whispered, finally admitting something to herself that she had always refused to accept. "Why did the one man in the world that could make me want to give up hunting for relics have to be the one man in the world that would never ask me to?"

With a sigh, Sydney went to take a shower and prepared to start her day.

TBC.