A Holiday by Decree
~~Day 10~~
The rainy hours in the dark passed, marked only by the melted wax of their candle pooled in the bronze platter. The food that Sansa and Tyrion had brought from the larder was long reduced to crumbs, but still they sat up, slowly nursing their wine.
Tyrion told more stories of his childhood with Jaime on "the Rock". Except for moments that he could not help gesticulating animatedly, he kept his hand in Sansa's on the tabletop between their wine cups. They laughed together, and at other points fell quiet discussing the acute ups and downs of the life of Jaime Lannister. More importantly, through it, Sansa began to see how Tyrion could still miss his ancestral home and family as well all the reasons he had to actually feel relieved to lose it all on the way to Daenerys and Jon's rise to power.
Despite their conversation, they slowly grew tired, but not wanting to leave, they guessed about the hour of sunrise. Figuratively wrapped up in each other, as they had been since well before sundown, they could not be sure.
In the end, neither of them wanted to separate nor apparently knew how the other would accept an invitation to share chambers since the prior day's events. Instead, they pushed their chairs together on the side of the table closest to and facing the window, and sat down to await the first rays of light together.
When they awoke, it was to the call of a housemaid. She apparently chanced upon them passing through the breakfast room door to the flagstone path Tyrion had used before.
Sansa had fallen asleep mostly upright, with her head nodded down but her left side pressed against Tyrion's right. Tyrion unfolded himself stiffly, having curled up against the arm of Sansa's hand he had still held. His legs were bent up to his chest on the chair, bracing him in place.
The rain had ended, and they both blinked against the morning sun already risen, though not yet far above the calm seagreen horizon. The distant squalls of seagulls drifted in from the open door on the fresh salt air.
"Thank you," Sansa mumbled, which sent the embarrassed little maid back away on her chores. The din of voices and intermittent clunking from down the manor's internal hall suggested that the kitchen staff were also already at work for the day.
Sansa pawed a hand through her gorgeous coppery locks that had rumpled in the course of their long night. Despite the severe crick in his neck, Tyrion could not help but bask happily at being allowed this intimate sight of her first thing in the morning. She noticed him looking, and shook her head cutely. "I must be a sight," she sighed, but Tyrion shook his head.
"The kind of sight that I am only too honored to see in the morning," Tyrion's voice rumbled with morning roughness that paired with his roguish half-smile sent instant shivers down Sansa's spine.
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Hello dear readers, I want to take a moment to thank you all for your support and following of this story! It means so much, especially as the installments are only drabbles as they are. I have comparatively few extended periods of time to write these days as compared with other times in my life. I have learned so much in creating these little chapters for you over the past several months, and I really hope that they have helped bring a bright spot to your week, as they have mine. However, I would like to ask, if you are enjoying this story and are able to leave a review, it would be greatly appreciated. :) Have a wonderful day/night ~ Cheers, Origamikungfu.