A/N: A piece of fluff I've been working on a bit at a time for acouple months now. It's named after the Skillet songs, because they're one of my favorite bands and the chorus kinda-sorta fits.

Also, after delays from other fics and life, I'm finally working on the next chapter of FTSOF. Hopefully it'll be done in a week or two.

Comatose/Don't Wake Me

Ellyn had fallen asleep again.

Rumplestiltskin's lips quirked upward. It always amused him. She had been trained by a Dark One, had burned a castle down in rage, had several times made grown men feet taller than her tremble; and a few minutes ago, she had fallen asleep with her cheek leaning on her hand, only for it to slowly slide off her knuckles to let her head bang against the wooden tabletop. She'd jolted up, forehead red from impact, and continued reading as though nothing had happened. If she'd heard his cackle of laughter, she hadn't shown it.

And now, not even five minutes later, she assumed the same position.

He rose and circled around to her side of the table, sliding the book out from under her free hand and closing it with a flick of his wrist. Ellyn stirred slightly; she was usually a light sleeper, when she slept at all. It'd been nearly five days since he'd repeated what had quickly become somewhat of a nightly ritual, and he doubted she'd done so much as napped in that time.

He shook his head, amusement fading. It wasn't healthy, even for her. She was going to drive herself into the ground, get herself killed. Again.

Rumple still wasn't happy about that particular incident. The first time, months ago, he hadn't had the time to process it; he'd been passed out himself, and hadn't woken up until his magic had healed him of the damaged acquired in Avonlea. She had followed suit mere minutes later, and, other than some curiosity and the research that followed, that had been the end of it. The second time, though…

He could remember the explosion with stark detail. How it had thrown her into the wall like a ragdoll, how pain clouded her eyes in the moments after. How those same dark eyes had looked when her heart stopped beating.

It had taken her two days to wake up. Two days in which he waited, looking for signs of improvement, finding discomfort in how she looked when she was like that. Ellyn was not a person to look peaceful; even in her sleep, she fidgeted or made faces. She was restless in everything. The closest she came to peace was the moments when she would gaze into her hearth and watch the flames, and even then something about her eyes gave away constant thought, constant searching. But for two days, she had been utterly still.

It made Rumplestiltskin decidedly uncomfortable. If there was anything that was not natural, it was the little wolf being so unmoving.

The longer she slept, the more her stillness had bothered him, and the more his annoyance at the situation grew. It was a juvenile mistake, one that should have never happened in the first place. Ellyn was reckless; she thought herself invincible, and her utter stupidity stemming from that notion had had him pacing his halls or waiting at her bedside for two days.

Rumple had been the Dark One for nearly three decades. He did what he wanted; he got what he wanted. Pacing his castle while another mage occupied his bedroom was nowhere near the list of things he desired in his life. He had been sorely tempted, when at his most frustrated, to wash his hands of the situation, deposit her back in her own home and save himself the trouble. They had an… alliance, of sorts, but those were things that were discarded and reformed hundreds of times every day across the realms. An alliance now guaranteed nothing about the future. If things of power weren't such a fascinating distraction, he would have taken his leave of the arrangement, he told himself.

But he didn't- though he'd been sure to give a voice to his growing agitation when Ellyn finally woke.

He pushed his thoughts away as he bent and scooped her up, one hand under her back and another under her knees. This was where, despite the outcome of every other night such as this, he took the most care; she was a light sleeper, and easily woken. But, as every time before, she didn't wake, even as she was picked up. If anything, she relaxed, unconsciously shifting inward to rest her head on his upper arm.

Over the years, the contemplation of many phenomena had had the time to come and go through his mind, but this one lingered. In her waking hours, he had seen many different expressions on her face, watching him as he sometimes watched her; in her waking hours, especially during their first month in close proximity, his presence seemed to put her ill at ease. But when she slept, that disposition seemed to be reversed. The first time he'd picked her up to carry her to her bed, he'd nearly been startled into dropping her when she'd curled into his chest.

As soon as she'd relaxed, Rumplestiltskin eased out of the room, making sure to sidestep through the doorway so as not to bang Ellyn's head on the doorframe; he'd come close to that once, and it had nearly given him a heart attack. He wasn't doing anything wrong, per say, in carrying her to bed, but he was fairly sure there would be no way to adequately explain to her and her pride why he was carrying her around damsel-in-distress style- and there would certainly be no living it down.

No, the resulting conversation if she found out about this would be tedious at best. It better for everyone if she never knew. And by everyone, he meant himself.

He proceeded down the hallways, only stopping to freeze on the spot when Ellyn mumbled something in her sleep. When he was sure she wasn't waking, he continued to her room. Magic opened the door and pulled the covers back, and he sat on the edge of the bed and eased her onto it. He lingered for a second, making sure she was still asleep.

He was just about to stand when she said his name; he jumped almost out of his skin.

"Rum."

But, he quickly realized, she wasn't awake. The word was mumbled and slurred, and not uttered consciously. Almost as soon as he realized that, a grin spread over his face. She was dreaming about him? Oh, she was never going to live that down.

Rumple was so caught up in his amusement that he didn't comprehend what was happening until it had. Ellyn turned onto her side and curled in, hand stretching out slightly to latch onto his shirt, head snuggling into his side.

The Dark One froze, staring down at her in muted horror. He was sure that she'd wake any moment, and then she'd- well, he had no idea what she'd do, but it wouldn't be good for him. Carrying her to her bed was something he could play off as chivalry or practicality; appearing to lounge next to her while she slept was, well, creepy, and if she woke up now.. Rumplestiltskin held his breath, waiting for her to relax again so he could slip away.

"Rum." Ellyn said again, and her body tensed against his. "Rum… no…" He brow furrowed, hand tightening on his shirt in a death-grip. "Rum." she said for the fourth time, a desperate, pleading quality to the mumbled name. There was fear in that word.

The Dark One frowned. She wasn't dreaming; she was having a nightmare. A nightmare that obviously involved him.

So, was he the thing she was afraid of, or someone she was afraid for?

It was a small thing, but it made a large difference, and to him especially- even if he ignored the tugging in his chest that told him that.

Carefully, he stretched his arm out and laid it across her shoulder, letting magic trickle from the touch, and after a second some of the tension left her body. Her grip on his shirt eased, only to tighten again when he tried to ease away. Rumplestiltskin was momentarily annoyed at his inability to escape, but it vanished the moment he saw Ellyn's face contort into a grimace again.

Still slightly annoyed, though now in a more subdued way, he relaxed back into the bed, focusing on his magic and resigning himself to a long wait. Ellyn hadn't slept properly in five days; he could keep the nightmare at bay until it passed, and give her some rest. And, once it had passed, he had a much better chance of slipping away undetected.

He stretched out, settling in for the wait, and Ellyn shifted closer, body pressing into his side as her arm let go of his shirt to drape across his stomach. Rumplestiltskin smiled thinly, bemused; she was certainly making herself comfortable.

Not that he was complaining. The bed was comfortable, and Ellyn radiated body heat. Before he knew it, his own eyelids were sliding closed.

He didn't remember falling asleep, but the next thing he knew, a bird was singing somewhere outside the window, and greyish pre-dawn light was creeping into the room. For a second, he didn't realize where he was, or with whom; he simply lingered in the peaceful place the moment created, where he was aware of someone laying partially on top of him, but uncaring of it.

As he woke up more, his alarm rose. Ellyn, her head resting on his chest and most of her torso draped across his, began to wake as well. Rumple held his breath, putting a bit of magic into lulling her back to sleep. The moment she settled back down, he teleported away.

It was a move he'd been trying to avoid the night before, because it was almost sure to wake her; simply disappearing out from under someone who'd been comfortably asleep on top of him wasn't going to go unnoticed. Sure enough, not long after he'd resumed his place at the table in Ellyn's study, she strolled in.

"Sleep well, dearie?" Rumplestiltskin asked as she plopped into her chair and opened the book still resting on the table. She glanced up, evaluating whether or not the question was sarcastic.

"Yeah, actually. Better than I have in years."