Nothing beats the comfort of sleeping in your own bed. After spending so long on Shinra's apartment, Namie was now really aware of that. She had missed her white, delicately decorated room, the softness of her pillow, the wideness of the mattress… Although, as of now, it didn't feel as wide as before.
Pretty much as he had done with his friend's sofa, a certain someone had seized half of her bed and didn't seem to be going to let go of it any time soon. Not that she would complain, though.
Tonight was just another of many nights spent like this, with Namie and Izaya sleeping soundly.
Until something started to disturb her sleep: she was feeling a strange pressure on her left side, like something was grabbing her. She tried to ignore it, but the pressure was increasing its strength and it was getting annoying, bordering on painful. She was about to wake up completely when she noticed that whatever it was that was grabbing her, it was trembling.
And then came the scream.
'NAMIE!'
She startled and looked around her anxiously. Izaya was sitting up on the bed, breathing heavily, and his limbs were trembling. Cold sweat shone on his forehead.
She then realized that what she had felt had been his hand.
'Hey.' she called softly, putting her hand on his shoulder. He jumped a bit at her touch and looked at her with scared eyes, until he realised who it was, and relief bathed his face.
'Did you have a nightmare again?', asked Namie.
'Yes.' he rubbed his eyes and run his hand through his hair. 'It's so annoying.'
'You hadn't had any in a long time.', Namie pointed out with a certain worry.
'I know, I thought it was over already.'
'Was it the same one as the other times?'
'The very one.'
When they started sleeping together regularly, Namie found out that Izaya had been having a recurrent nightmare since the day she got stabbed; a nightmare that recreated that very moment and the feeling of her dying on his arms over and over.
Namie noticed then that Izaya was squeezing her hand. That made her smile.
She cupped his jaw with the other hand, very much like she had done the first time she had kissed him, and looking him in the eyes, she said:
'I'm fine, I'm here with you and I'm not going anywhere. You won't get rid of me that easily.'
'Same goes for you.', he answered smiling, and kissed her softly.
'Let's go back to sleep.', she said lying down.
'That's easy for you to say.', he sighed, letting his head fall tiredly on the pillow.
'How can you complain that much when you get to sleep with me?', she teased.
'Oh? And when did you get that full of yourself?', he smiled.
'Must've rubbed off a certain someone.'
'Hmmm, I see.', he said, hugging her tightly and burying his face on the base of her neck.
Even though he had complained, it didn't take him long to feel drowsy again. Namie laid her cheek on the top of his head as she felt him falling asleep. She ran her fingers through his hair as she usually did; it was a habit by now. Izaya reacted to her caress, holding her more tightly.
'Hmmloveyou...', he mumbled on his sleep.
Namie's heart skipped a beat. She was paralyzed for a second. It was the first time that anybody had said that to her, but she was more shocked at how happy she was that it had been him the one to say it. He seemed to have a talent to say nice things that she had never been told before, taking her off guard everytime. She wanted to hate him for the effect his words always had on her, but she felt quite the opposite.
What mattered was that she was happy, and she had been so ever since they got together. Thus, she pulled him closer to her, and smiling she whispered:
'I love you too.'
Despite being almost completely asleep already, Izaya heard her clearly, and smiled too as he planned to tease her about it in the morning.
