Topaz woke up sometime during the witching hours between midnight and four in the morning. She had no clock in her bedroom, hating to watch the hours tick away when she couldn't sleep at night or to know how many times she woke from nightmares.

Something was touching her leg, twisting around the inside of her thigh. For a moment, she thought she was once against lying beside Bellamy for he often woke her in the night for sex by trailing his hot tongue across the her skin.

Then, she felt the dull ache in her crippled drilled leg and knew this could not be the case.

Her first thought was of Law, though it was highly unlikely that he was touching her at all. She turned and the touch followed her, moving steadily up her leg.

The moonlight was spilling across her bed, illuminating the pale porcelain curve of Law's sleeping face. His midnight colored hair hung in feathers across his face, shadowing his translucent skin. His brows were drawn together and he appeared troubled. There was blood on his mouth where he was biting his lip and his fingers had fisted a white-knuckled grip on the covers. His eyes roved beneath his lids.

Topaz gently reached for him and wiped the blood on his lip away with her thumb.

He shivered, whimpered, and murmured incoherently.

She decided she must be dreaming.

Law was a slave, a sex slave. He was probably lying beside her, rigid as a board, staring blankly at the ceiling and thinking of all the terrible violations she could subject him to on her slightest whim. The chances of him sleeping beside her, even plagued with nightmares, were slim to none.

She lay back against her pillows and tried to ignore the trailing tongue on her leg. Even if she was having nightmares, she needed to sleep. She had to be well-rested and have her wits about her for tomorrow. Her life, and Law's life, she reminded herself, depended on it.

So, she lay in her bed and tried to ignore the touch on her leg as it crept up the inside of her thigh.

She had had this dream before. She would yank back the covers and there would be Bellamy's face leering up at her. His tongue, long and black with the film of nightmare-reality, would be lolling from his mouth across her thigh and his cold fingers would be digging into her flesh, holding her down. She would scream and immediately wake herself up. Then, she would lie, panting and gasping, in her sweaty sheets until nightmares came for her again.

Maybe she could just get through this one and sleep all through the night.

Topaz sighed deeply and fisted her hands in the sheets.

Law shifted beside her. His warm back grazed her elbow and he whimpered in pain. Then, he twisted away from her so they were no longer touching.

The slimy warm tongue was creeping up the inside of Topaz's thigh, lavishing attention on the top of her knee and then trailing up the taut flesh. It slithered around the inside and pressed in at the apex of her leg. The cool fabric of her nightgown was being pushed up over her belly and she felt her flesh break of in goose bumps. Then, the tongue met her core, just a faint light almost inquisitive brush against her panties.

She drew her lip between her teeth and bit down hard to prevent herself from tearing back the covers to see Bellamy's leering face, prevent waking up. She needed to sleep, needed to protect herself and Law.

Topaz choked back her whimper and squeezed her eyes shut. "Just a dream," she whispered. "Just sleep."

Suddenly, it pushed into her, hard, probing, filling, pressing against her tight walls, tearing her apart. Topaz's back arched against the mattress in pain and she let out a small whisper of agony. It crammed deeper inside of her most intimate spot, squirming and wriggling. It felt so big, so huge, and slick and smooth. It was nothing like Bellamy's tongue in her nightmares.

Her eyes shot open.

Something was wrong!

She wrenched up in bed and tore back the covers. Her legs were spread, the crippled one hanging over the edge as it often did at night while the other was stretched out straight and twisted slightly in the sheets. Her nightgown had been pushed up over her belly, baring her panties which were twisted to the side.

Then, she saw it.

It was a fat greenish tentacle-like appendage squirming about between her thigh and the crotch of her panties. The thought of that being inside her made her sick and her stomach heaved. Immediately, she dug her ragged nails into the part of it that was peeking out of her body and jerked it out. She glanced quickly at it to be sure it had no teeth, grinning mouth, eyes, or other disgusting attributes and then flung it across the room.

It hit the broken window with a muted splat and then tinkled through the shattered glass.

It had broken a window. It had broken a window to get into her room and violate her.

Suddenly, she thought of the expression of Law's face and wondered it of one them was inside him too, making his nightmares real. She grabbed his shoulder and shook him almost roughly. He came awake immediately, bolting upright in the bed with his hands tightening around the blankets.

"Miss Topaz?" he whispered and there was fear in his voice.

"Were you dreaming?"

He shook his head, gray eyes wide and fearful.

"Were you?!" Her voice rose an octave, a mix of fear and diluted anger.

"N-no, Miss Topaz."

The tentacle was slowly making its way back across the floor, slithering and inching with grim purpose. Topaz opened her nightstand drawer and pulled out a letter opener. Law's eyes widened even further and his face went chalk-white. Topaz gripped the opener tightly in her fist and lifted it, green eyes narrowing.

Law's ice-cold hands wrapped around her wrist and he whimpered, "Promised…"

Topaz tore her eyes from the thing to look at him. "What?"

"You promised… not to hurt… me…" His gunmetal eyes glowed with terror and strayed to the sharp point of the letter opener. Then, they flicked worriedly back to her face. "Please," he whispered. "Don't…cut me. I haven't…done anything wrong."

Immediately, Topaz understood. He thought this weapon was for his flesh. Maybe he thought his dreams had woken her or she thought he was lying to her. Both of those were easily punishable by whip and knife and pain. Hell, he was a slave; she could beat him for breathing if she felt so inclined.

But Topaz's heart leaped a little regardless of the dire situation and grievous misunderstanding between her and Law. He trusted her promise, brought it up again even in his fear. He trusted her, if only a fragile tremulous little bit.

"No, no, Law! It's that thing," and she pointed.

His eyes nervously flit from the letter opener to her face. He must have seen something in her expression, honesty maybe, because he cut his gaze to the floor and inhaled sharply. "A sex-slither," he whispered.

"You know what that is?" Topaz whispered incredulously.

Law nodded. "Should I stop it?"

Topaz nodded and handed him the letter opener.

He got out of bed, crossed the floor to the tentacle, put his foot on it, and then slit its back open with the sharp point. The slick skin split to reveal intricate gears and controls. Law selected one wire and pulled it free. Immediately, the thing sputtered and went still. Law went to the window, mindful of the glass in his bare feet, and looked out.

"Whoever was running it is gone now," he murmured.

Topaz shivered. To think Bellamy or one of his sick friends had been outside her window, watching that thing slither inside her made her sick. She wrenched herself from the bed and stumbled into the bathroom, her leg dragging uselessly behind her.

Law could surely hear her retching, but she didn't care.

There was a hesitant knock on the bathroom doorframe and she turned her head to see Law's silhouette in the moonlight. "I'm sorry, Miss Topaz," he whispered.

She wiped her mouth and splashed some cool water on her face and neck. Her eyes were red-rimmed and hunted in the mirror and her hair was pasted to her cheeks and neck with sweat. "For what, Law-kun?" she asked.

"For… I thought, back there, that you were going to hurt me…" His eyes were closed, long lashes casting dark bruise-like shadows on his face. His shoulders were trembling and he had his hands clenched into fists at his sides. "I'm so sorry…"

Topaz let her breath out. "No, I'm sorry. I panicked. I was just… worried. That thing in me… I thought it was part of my nightmares and you looked troubled in your sleep, I thought maybe one was on you, too. I wanted to help you, but I just wigged out and reacted badly," she explained and shifted herself toward Law.

He took a few steps back to allow her out of the bathroom. "You were… concerned?"

She slid her eyes around the room. The sex-slither as Law had called it was gone and the big pieces of glass were glimmering in her waste basket. Law's handiwork, she was sure. "Yes," Topaz said as she hefted herself back into bed. "I'm a bit of a mother hen or at least that's what Marina-chan says."

Law lifted his gaze to her face and started at her for a very long moment. Then, he whispered, "For me…?"

Topaz's brows drew together. "Concerned for you?"

He flinched, expecting a cold brutal "No, of course not. Who would ever care about a used sex slave like you?" but instead Topaz's mouth curved down in a troubled frown.

"Of course," she said. "Law, you're my friend. You mean a lot to me!"

His head jerked up with surprise and their eyes locked.

Topaz smiled at him sadly. "No one's ever been concerned for you before, have they?" she whispered.

Law shook his head, lowering his eyes again. "My last mistress was always concerned for my body, for my… performance, but…"

"Never for you?" Topaz murmured.

He nodded and his throat was working furiously.

"Law-kun?"

There was something in her voice that made him look up to find her holing out her hand. Timidly, he slid his cool fingers across her warm palm. She gripped his hand and he found himself holding on equally tightly. She patted the bed and he sat down beside her. They didn't say anything, just sat shoulder to shoulder, holding hands tightly.

Eventually, Topaz's breathing became deep and even and she grew very heavy against Law's side. He peered down into her face and found her deeply asleep against him. He carefully wrapped his arm around her and lowered her back against the pillows. He pulled the covers up over her with his free hand and then nestled down beside her. He managed to keep some space between their bodies and tried vainly to free his fingers from her grip. She murmured and gripped his hand tighter. He sighed and pulled the blankets up tightly beneath his chin and gazed at her beautiful face for a moment. Finally, his exhausted dry eyes slid closed.

For the very first time, Law slept with a gentle warm touch on his body and he slept without nightmares.

The wind howled through the broken window and a chilly breeze stirred the curtains. A night bird cried in the distance and something rattled through the woods outside. That night, they slept with the light on.

XXX

Author's Note:

So I'm still on the fence on whether I want to have Law and Topaz be platonic or romantic. I'm still taking suggestions, so if you've got an idea, leave a review or PM me. :)