Counting Stars

by Dessert Maniac

Sometimes she sneaks out after everyone's asleep. She finds her way to her favorite tree easily enough, and from there it's just a matter of counting. Sometimes she goes on 'til she goes so high she loses track of her place. [How Elfnein got adopted by Tsubasa and Maria; a story told in bits and pieces and from three points of view.]

45. 1 44: Elfnein

FORTY-FOUR

When she wakes up, the flashlight is still on and the hardcover of her book is digging into her side. The heavy snoring from her roommates tells her that it's probably still night.

She carefully pokes her head out of her cocoon of blankets, grimacing at the wave of cold air that hits her face, to check the time.

It's just a little past midnight. Tomorrow's Sunday, which means she has to get up early for morning mass, but she doesn't pay much attention anyway, so she might as well finish the forty-four pages she has left, right? It won't take long, probably, and she can doze a little during mass to make up for it.

And so she settles back into her nest, propping up the book sideways and positioning the flashlight beneath it. It's at times like these that she's thankful she doesn't need glasses like Carol and Papa; she'd end up breaking them for sure.

Just a few minutes later, though, she finds herself yawning again.

Part of her wants to power through to finish the book, because then she'll be one step closer to finding out whether or not the Baudelaires get a happy ending (though she has a sinking suspicion that they won't), but another part of her wants to really savor the story, and yet another part reminds her that she hasn't had a full night's worth of sleep since Wednesday.

When she puts it that way… well, she is rather sleepy.

So she turns of the flashlight, puts it and the book beneath her pillow, and resettles herself, this time with the intent of sleeping. Tonight she's definitely tired enough to sleep through the rest of the night.

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a/n: Hello! I'm alive!

So sorry for disappearing unannounced. I meant to update after #43, I honestly did, but school snuck up on me. I've had a rough month of it, but happily the quarter's over and I've the next three weeks to recuperate ^^ If you follow any of my other works or on tumblr, you might've noticed that I actually did write, just not for this story - that's because my muse tends to go off on a darker tone when I'm stressed and anxious, which wasn't at all conducive for this particular story. So, I refrained from writing "Counting Stars" until I returned to a saner headspace.

Anyway, I fully intend to return to daily updates from now until at least the beginning of January, and hopefully continue throughout winter quarter.

Thank you to guest for the concern!