A/N: thanks for following along! I can now inform you that the two prompts I used for this piece were "Henry and Elizabeth are best friends before they're anything else." and "a there's only one bed fic with Henry and Elizabeth."
"There's only one bed."
This time, it was Henry saying the words, an echo of Elizabeth's.
They stood there for a moment, looking into the bedroom. The one bedroom, with the one bed. The only bed in the place. The implications of that were slowly sinking in, of what this could mean for them, for their weekend. Elizabeth was already calculating- could they make this work? Would it be okay to share? Was there a couch?
And then Henry spoke.
"I guess I'll just...go check with the office?" he suggested uncertainly.
Why hadn't she thought of that? Why had her first thought been whether they could share a bed?
"Right," she said. "Of course, that makes sense."
Henry looked at her, hesitating.
"Do you...want to come too?" he asked. His hesitancy was not lost on Elizabeth, and it pained her. She and Henry were close; they were best friends. They didn't do hesitancy. Henry was the only person that Elizabeth was not hesitant with.
She smiled warmly at him, and he felt reassured.
"Well, it is our weekend together," she answered with a little shrug. "Might as well go on a cabin hunt together."
"Henry smiled back at her and nodded. Already it felt more like them again- this was just a little hiccup that he was sure they would ave sorted out in no time. So maybe they;d have to move al their groceries to a new cabin- but that was a small price to pay, surely, for peace of mind and comfort in the next two days.
He and Elizabeth opted to walk rather than drive back to the front desk cabin, located less than half a mile from where they were. So they set off together across the gravel, boots crunching as they fell into step side by side.
"So what's our agenda after this?" Henry asked.
"Lunch," Elizabeth replied immediately, and Henry grinned.
"Ice cream dreams?" he teased, and Elizabeth rolled her eyes.
"Come on, Henry," she intoned. "Everyone knows ice cream is best for dinner, not lunch."
"Oh, of course," Henry answered. "How could I forget?"
"So what about after?" she asked. Henry tilted his head back to look at the sky, clear robin's-egg blue visible between a canopy of colored leaves and half-bare branches.
"Maybe we could go on a hike," he suggested. He was itching to be outdoors and knew that Elizabeth would be, too. As expected, she nodded enthusiastically.
"Good plan," she said. She took a deep breath much the same way Henry had just a few minutes earlier, taking the cold, clean air into her lungs. Henry noticed the way the sunshine made her skin glow a warmer shade and brought out the lightest honey strands in her blonde hair.
"I saw a map of the trails when I picked up the keys," Henry said. "We can grab one when we're sorting this out and take a look over lunch."
"Perfect," Elizabeth agreed, but she was thinking about what he's just said, about sorting it out. What if they couldn't? What would they do? Her mind had been spinning with possibilities since they had discovered this little situation, in spite of her calm front. Henry seemed calm as well, and she couldn't help but wonder whether he was fronting, too, or if he was actually as confident as he seemed. She was still wondering when they stepped into the office cabin, the sound of cheerful jingling bells announcing their arrival. There were trout here, too, Elizabeth noticed as Henry held the door open for her. And, it appeared, a singing bass hung on the wall. Henry had seen it as well; they exchanged a wireless amused glance as they approached the wood-paneled desk.
"Hello,'' Henry said with a charming smile that seemed to have no effect on the woman behind the desk.
"I was just here to pick up the keys for cabin three," he continued. "Henry McCord and Elizabeth Adams," he clarified with a gesture between the two of them.
"Yes?" answered the woman behind the desk, looking like here listening to Henry was the last place she could imagine wanting to be.
"Well, we only have one bed," Henry explained. The woman at the desk said nothing for a moment, her heavily lined eyes darting between them standing there before her.
"So?"
Elizabeth had to stifle a laugh at Henry's lost expression.
"There are- you know, two of us," he said awkwardly.
"Well, we only have one-bedroom places," the woman spoke slowly, as if Henry were hard of hearing. Elizabeth bit her lip, glancing over at Henry, who was looking genuinely confused.
"But- when I called, I said there would be two people," he said. The desk worker shrugged her shoulders, entirely unhelpful.
"I'm sorry," she said, a declaration that both Elizabeth and Henry had some serious doubts about.
"Well," Henry said. "Are you sure there's nothing?"
"Yep, I'm sure," she answered.
"Tough crowd," Elizabeth muttered under her breath. Henry chanced a glance at her, relieved to find that she didn't seem to be too on edge about their situation. Looking up at him, she saw the concern on his features and shrugged her shoulders.
"I guess we'll just have to make do," she said nonchalantly. Henry studied her, wishing he were able to read her right now as well as he could usually. How did she feel about this? What did she want him to do? What could he do?
"Are you sure?" he asked. Elizabeth nodded with a little half shrug of her shoulders.
"Well, we're not leaving the ice cream to go back now," she joked, and that was that, decided. Henry felt a little rush of relief; he had worried, somewhere in the back of his mind, about having to cut short his much-anticipated weekend with Elizabeth.
With a sigh, Henry picked up one of the brochures he'd seen earlier, featuring a map of hiking trails that spanned from the cabin grounds. The bells jangled again as he and Elizabeth took their leave.
Back outside, they looked at each other in the now-midday sunlight.
"So." Henry didn't really know where to go from there.
"So," Elizabeth echoed.
There were a few beats of silence.
"I guess we should get on with that lunch," Elizabeth suggested. Henry just looked at her for a moment, and her resolve was mere seconds from faltering when he nodded.
"Lunch it is," he agreed, and with that, the two of them reached a mutual understanding- this would be a problem to deal with later. For now, Elizabeth's message was clear; she just wanted to enjoy the time with Henry, and he was very much on board with that plan. So, they began with small talk, and found that it wasn't too hard to put the bed out of their minds and slip back into their usual routine of engaged, playful, easy conversation and enjoying one another's company. Back at the cabin, Elizabeth scanned the little living room, noticing for the first time that there was no couch there, only two chairs, which looked plenty comfortable enough for sitting, but were certainly not sleeping material. She put it out of her mind though, telling herself firmly that it was an issue that they'd deal with when they had to and not before.
Yet, as she and Henry moved around each other in the kitchen preparing lunch, she had trouble not thinking about what they would do when night rolled around and they were forced to face the situation. Would they sleep together? Could they? Would Henry mind- and maybe the most pressing question- would she?
By the time they finished the grilled cheese and small salad that Henry had prepared with little help from Elizabeth, she had nearly managed to compartmentalize it. They pored over the map together, weighed the pros and cons, and ultimately decided on a moderately long hike, then set off with their water bottles. The afternoon, cold and clear as the morning had been, was beautiful. Henry and Elizabeth spent most of it hiking to a stunning overlook. Henry'd had the foresight to bring a disposable camera and they took pictures of each other against the picturesque backdrop of the autumn mountains. They tried to take a photo together too, but Elizabeth was sure that it would turn out blurry when the film was developed; they had been laughing and crowded into the frame. As they hiked back to the cabin for the early-arriving evening, Henry was trying not to think about the bed, but he kept dwelling on how unconcerned Elizabeth seemed. What did that mean? Did she have a plan for their sleeping arrangements? Did she intend for them to share the bed, and if so what did that mean?
They avoided it all through dinner, through a lively conversation over the dishes, through a heated game of Scrabble on a board they had found tucked into a cabinet, and right up to the long-awaited ice cream. They were each sitting in a living room chair, showered and in pajamas in front of the fire that Henry had started in the hearth. It felt cozy and normal for them to be there like that together, Elizabeth with rocky road in her bowl and Henry with chocolate in his. It felt like so many evenings that they'd spent together at UVA. Except…
"So what are we going to do?" Elizabeth asked finally, knowing they'd put it off as much as they could. Henry hesitated; he didn't know what the right answer was here.
"What do you want to do?" he asked evasively. Elizabeth sighed, looking down at her ice cream.
"I don't know," she said, her voice taking on a quiet tone. "I mean- what can we do?"
Henry thought about that. The options were certainly slim, and Henry was backed into a corner. As much as he was comfortable with Elizabeth, he was not in the position to suggest that they share the bed. But aside from that, there seemed to be dead ends all around.
"I could just sleep out here on the floor," he suggested. Elizabeth's eyes drifted uncertainly to the place in question. It was bare, uneven wood planks with dust cemented into the cracks between them, and it looked remarkably uncomfortable even for a floor.
"Henry, that's not really a good option," she said.
"Well," Henry sighed, dragging his spoon through the ice cream in his bowl. "Honestly I don't really know what else we can do."
Elizabeth watched him for a moment. Her heart was racing in her chest and she tried very hard to ignore the whirring of her thoughts at top speed inside her mind. Henry was right; there weren't any other options.
Except for one.
"We can share the bed," Elizabeth said, regretting and not regretting the words in equal measure as they came out of her mouth. Henry looked back at her, hazel eyes meeting blue across the space between their chairs. The fire crackled merrily and the room was as cozy as it had been moments ago, yet something seemed to have shifted. They held one another's gaze for a moment, silent communication passing between them in the way that it always had.
"Are you sure?" Henry asked finally. But he knew the answer, because he knew Elizabeth; had she not been sure, she would never have said it.
"If it's okay with you," Elizabeth replied, but she knew the answer too; if Henry had objected, he would have spoken it right away. But he hadn't.
"Okay," Henry agreed.
"Okay," Elizabeth echoed.
As they finished their ice cream and slowly wound down for the day, Elizabeth was thinking about her relationship with Henry and what this could mean for them; at the same time she was actively convincing herself that it didn't mean anything. She and Henry were best friends; she trusted him with her life. Surely they could sleep in the same bed and nothing would have to change if they didn't want it to.
But- did they want it to?
Elizabeth looked over at Henry, standing at the sink washing their ice cream bowls, his familiar silhouette dark in the dim kitchen, and for the very first time she wondered what it would be like to see him washing dishes at the sink every day.
The bedroom was free of trout, thankfully, and Elizabeth loved the blue quilt, but she barely noticed it as she and Henry moved around one another quietly in the warm lights of the bedside table lamps. He looked over at Elizabeth as he slowly settled into bed, feeling awkward and very aware of how much space he was taking up. A full bed suddenly seemed very small- but this was Elizabeth, his best friend in the world, and he was reassured by the familiar way she moved as she pulled her little stud earrings out of her ear piercings and set them on the bare top of the dresser. She looked over her shoulder at him, offering him a little smile as she tucked her hair behind her ear.
"ARe you okay?" she asked.
"Yes, why?" Henry replied a little too quickly. Elizabeth chuckled softly.
"Henry, if you were any farther on that side of the bed, you'd be on the floor," she remarked. Henry could feel the heat creeping up his cheeks.
"You can move over," she said, voice uncharacteristically gentle, as she settled herself into the bed too. He was at once comforted and alarmed by her weight on the mattress next to him.
He was about to sleep in the same bed as Elizabeth Adams. He didn't want to think too hard about it, and yet he couldn't stop thinking about it. He inched over and she tried to hide her smile. Something about Henry's nerves steadied her, like a balance existed between them.
"Big day tomorrow, McCord," she reminded him. "Better get some sleep."
He recalled their plans to hike to a nearby battleground site. They had both been very excited about it prior to the bed incident. He smiled slightly at her.
"Turn off the lights then," he said, and she obliged. The room was plunged into darkness, but as their eyes adjusted they could each make out the other in the dark room. Elizabeth settled herself against the pillow and then she lay there, very still, as Henry did the same.
They found themselves facing each other, and Henry could barely see the smile that flickered over her features.
"Goodnight, Henry," she said, and he thought that maybe he could get used to that soft voice she was using.
"Goodnight, Elizabeth," he answered. Unbeknownst to him, she was thinking the same thing.
And that was how, on that November night, two best friends fell asleep in the same bed, neither of them knowing what new dawn they would face in the morning.