Alice is a bit of a brat and stays up after her bed time. She falls asleep in Warner's sofa. He moves her to his own bed.
I wanted this so that Warner could notice that Alice's lungs whistles when she sleeps. And that would later led to her getting an inhalator, cuz asthma. And also to explain why Warner spends some nights in his office. I find that so weird btw, like Warner: your bed is in the next room over, just take of your shoes and you're good to go. No need to sleep on a sofa.
For once he was in the office when she came in. It was late in the evening and he was writing a report. He heard the door open and he looked up, since they were supposed to knock, and had to raise his eyebrows at the girl in the doorway. She was wearing the same dress as she had had during dinner.
"You're supposed to knock", he had greeted.
"I don't wanna knock", she huffed.
Warner was surprised at her attitude. But decided not to comment on it.
What wasn't a surprise was that she headed straight for his bookcase.
She pulled out a book she had been reading earlier and climbed up in his sofa. She opened her book, found her page, folded her legs underneath her and started reading.
He just shrugged on the inside and went back to his work. Fingers idly typing.
About quarter of an hour passed. And every time he glanced over, which he did every few minutes, he saw that Alice was slowly grinding down her posture to be half laying half sitting in his sofa. Eyelids starting to drop. Chin nodding every few second.
She looked drugged.
Warner looked in between the girl and the watch. It was past ten. Nowhere near the time he was going to go to bed; but he had never seen Alice run around at this hour.
"Isn't it past your bedtime?", he asked, very slowly. Eyeing her from over his laptop.
"Everyone's too busy, so no one has told me to go to sleep", she replied.
She was clearly stiffening a yawn.
"Then I tell you to go to bed", he said.
"Your orders don't work on me", she replied. Then her chin nodded again.
He frowned at her. Was she planning to spend the night in his sofa?
She must have been able to read his mind, because she scooted up so that she was sitting straight again. Exhaling a huff.
"I'm awake…!", she declared. Then she continued reading.
Since it wasn't his job to make sure this one child went to bed on time he left her at it. And it wasn't like she was bothering him.
By quarter past eleven he looked over and saw that she had fallen asleep. On his sofa. Her cheek resting on the cushion. Book still in her lap. Eyelashes gently landed on her cheeks.
She looked peaceful.
He looked at the time. Felt his brow furrow a little. Was anyone even looking for her? Could everyone really be that busy?
He looked at her again. She wouldn't be spending the night on his sofa, that was for sure. Though he didn't want to summon her wrath by waking her up. Everything would go much smoother if she just stayed asleep.
Summoning a common soldier to carry her to her room was out of the question. So was interrupting his own work. And Delalieu had better things to do. He wasn't even sure the older man would be able to carry her.
He sat there with his chin on his knuckle, tapping the table with his finger for a few moments before sighing. Then he finished the paragraph he was working on.
When he was done, ten minutes later, he rose from the desk and walked over to her. He gently removed the book from her hands and placed it on the cushion next to her leg. She didn't wake up.
He gave the door a quick look to make sure it was open. Then he kneeled down and brought his hands under her knees and behind her back. He moved her neat weight to be supported against his chest. Then he picked her up.
He noticed she had gained some weight since last time.
She didn't wake up.
He carried her through the door to his bedroom and put her down on his bed on top of the duvet. She still didn't wake up. She didn't look extremely comfortable; laying flat on her back with no pillow.
But if she decided to fall asleep anywhere but her own bed she could take the consequences.
Or just move around in her sleep, since people tended to do that.
As he was about to leave he heard something. He stood still and tried identifying it, figuring it came from the room. Tilting his head a little. But after a few moments he realized it came from Alice, who was still asleep.
He moved his head closer to her.
Was she snoring?
But it was much airier than that. Almost like a whistle. It sounded when her chest rose.
He cocked his head just above her. Listened. She hadn't sounded like this before, had she?
He shook his head. Sighed.
"What am I doing?", he whispered to himself.
He straightened and quickly pulled the other end of the cover over her. His bed was large and she was small; she easily fitted to only have half of the cover folded over her.
Then he left, turning off the lights as he returned to his office.
He spent the night in his office, since he didn't want to wake up with Alice staring at him or him finding Alice next to him just in case he forgot about her presence. All he needed was a pillow and a blanket, and his sofa turned out to be quite comfortable.
However, he had to pass through the bedroom to access the bathroom and his closet in the morning. So unless Alice slept very deeply it was inevitable that she would at least stir some at his movement in the rooms.
It was when he stepped out of the bathroom, after he had taken his shower that he heard some movement from the bed. A sleepy head rested her chin on the pillows, frowning at him through half shut eyes that really wanted to drop back to sleep.
"Warner…", she mumbled.
"What are you... doing in my room...?", she asked.
"Am not in your room, Alice. This is my room", he replied.
He watched as she sleepily looked around the room, blinking over and over again as she took in this new information. She didn't seem to mind it very much as she simply mumbled:
"Huh…"
She aimed her sleepy eyes at him again.
"Is it time to get up?", she asked.
He shook his head.
"You go back to sleep, I'm always up this early", he assured.
"Okay…", she hummed and disappeared behind the duvet again. And within seconds the quiet whistle from yesterday started again.
The commander went on with his morning routine.